Reply To: Which Star Alliance programme to join?

[Charles Martel]

supermac wrote:

Boy is it complicated!

I’m flying first class Frankfurt to Singapore (for a few days) then onto Sydney and back the same routing with Lufthansa.

What I understand is that you get miles for status and miles for reward flights. The multiplier for first class is around 300%. Is this just reward miles and or status miles.

My current thoughts are that the Turkish program hits a sweet spot in that at elite status can last for two years.

Thanks in advance

Very quick result from my spread sheet would put this route (return) in F giving you these percentages required for Star Alliance Gold (excluding any home carrier requirements):

LifeMiles Avianca 344.7%
Miles&Smiles Turkish Airlines 106.7%
EuroBonus Scandinavian Airlines 94.9%
ConnectMiles Copa Airlines 91.5%
ShebaMiles Ethiopian Airlines 85.4%
KrisFlyer Singapore Airlines 85.4%
Asiana Club Asiana Airlines 80.0%
Airpoints Air New Zealand 80.0%
Voyager South African Airways 71.2%
PhoenixMiles Air China 64.4%
MileagePlus United Airlines 64.0%
Aeroplan Air Canada 64.0%
Flying Returns Air India 64.0%
ANA Mileage Club All Nippon Airways 64.0%
Infinity MileageLands EVA Air 64.0%
Royal Orchid Plus Thai Airways Int 64.0%
Miles & More Austrian Airlines 61.7%
Miles+Bonus Aegean Airlines 45.7%
TAP Miles&Go TAP Air Portugal 45.7%

EgyptAir doesn’t seem to offer points for fare code F (odd but I don’t have time to look into it), and Avianca requires 12,000 miles on their home airline so Turkish or SAS look like your best bets. The other side of these schemes is redemption so it might be worth seeing which of the higher ranked schemes offer the best value for the points you earn.