Which Program should I credit miles to?

[BA001]

I fly tomorrow LHR to BKK with Lufthansa via Munich and back with Austrian via Vienna. Flight are in Premium economy for the long haul legs, economy for the short haul European legs.

Any recommendation as to which airline I should credit the miles to? I am 99% One World flyer so this is a new experience for me. Are are of the FF programs in Star Alliance better than the others?

Any advice gratefully received.

[yonasl]

You may want to check this from TPG: https://thepointsguy.com/guide/quickest-way-to-obtain-star-alliance-status/

[Tobs]

If you are interested in only miles and not necessarily status, I’d go with United Mileage Plus. Miles don’t expire, and you can get good value out of them, especially for Japan domestic flights (much better than Avios). It might also be good for US transcon.
Short haul economy up to 600 nm (IIRC) are 6k flat rate (partnerawards).

Another UnitedMileagePlus thing are the excursion awards.

[meta]

The best site to check https://www.wheretocredit.com/

Even if there is a better Star programme, that doesn’t mean they’d earn you a lot and also you need to be able to top up as it’s unlikely you’ll earn for a redemption from one flight (bar maybe domestics in Japan, but you won’t be travelling there soon).

Also need to bear in mind hard expiry for example Miles and More and Krisflyer.

[Gavin454]

Tobs wrote:

If you are interested in only miles and not necessarily status, I’d go with United Mileage Plus. Miles don’t expire, and you can get good value out of them, especially for Japan domestic flights (much better than Avios). It might also be good for US transcon.
Short haul economy up to 600 nm (IIRC) are 6k flat rate (partnerawards).

Another UnitedMileagePlus thing are the excursion awards.

I’d second this – I flew business return from LHR to HKG via ZRH in 2019 on Swiss and credited the flights to United (I also did a status match with United just before this in order to earn more miles). I earned enough miles for 4 domestic economy legs on ANA in Japan, and still have some miles left over which don’t expire. I’ll probably credit occasional Star Alliance flights there in the future. Particularly if you might go to Japan in the next few years, it’s a good deal.