Star alliance frequent flyer miles . A swindle ?

[surreybloke]

I managed to gather a load of miles and have some status.    A load are expiring soon.   A redemption flight   hah    hah      hardly worth the fuss and bother.    I barely get more than a discount on TG.    Not only that  the luggage allowance  in miserable.   

I paid  a little more with   eva and got more than double luggage allowance.   

The extra luggage allowance I could get on TG  does not make up the difference.     The status  extra allowance  does not work on Eva.    

 

I am left with the impression that short haul redemption flights make better use of the miles.   It appears you have to use up all the miles to avoid loosing miles   

     

[pomchop]

why woud you let miles expire...almost all programs allow expiration to be extended and an easy way is to simply buy a few more miles for little $$ and extend.

[surreybloke]

Tried  that   

[treetops]

14 hours ago, surreybloke said:

I managed to gather a load of miles and have some status.

 

How many miles and which airline program?

 

I'm not familiar with Star Alliance in general, but have still have some Qatar (Oneworld) miles (Avios) and AFKL (Skyteam) miles as well as some in Emirates' Skywards.  I have always been able to use any before they expire, often by looking at using airline partners, eg Bangok Airways.

[retarius]

Air miles programs generally stink. I don't use them any more. I spend a little extra and fly everywhere business class. Plenty of luggage allowance, they give you the money back ion you don't take the flight and you can change dates with minimal or no charge. I use two airlines only, ANA and Emirates. 

[BusyB]

 

Get a credit card with a SA carrier. Miles don't expire. (EG LH Mastercard Blue/Gold).

 

You also collect miles simply by using it, and that can mount to useful mileage very quickly.

Edited August 25 by BusyB

[spidermike007]

41 minutes ago, retarius said:

Air miles programs generally stink. I don't use them any more. I spend a little extra and fly everywhere business class. Plenty of luggage allowance, they give you the money back ion you don't take the flight and you can change dates with minimal or no charge. I use two airlines only, ANA and Emirates. 

I don't know about spending a little extra, every time I look into business class it's three times the cost of economy, and at least double the cost of premium economy. 

[Keeps]

I am a Star Alliance Gold card member, originally from joining the EVA Air Evergreen Rewards program. 

 

I think the membership program is excellent. I fly EVA 3 or 4 times per year on the LHR-BKK-LHR route. I accumulate a lot of miles and also get them boosted by my membership tier level. I regularly use miles to upgrade cabin class. This is normally instant although there has been the odd occasion when I have been placed on a waiting list. However, I have never been refused the upgrade.

 

I have just redeemed 35,000 points to upgrade from Premium Economy to Royal Laurel class on the BKK-LHR leg of a return journey in March next year. When booking the original flight, I had to pay around £100 more for a booking class which allowed points redemption. The price difference between cabin classes would have been in excess of £1,000.

 

The one element I find pretty poor is when you redeem points against flight cost. For the 35,000 points I redeemed I would have only got maybe, £200 off the flight cost.

 

All in all I find it to be a worthwhile program. Points aside, the tier level provides priority check-in, priority boarding, priority baggage service and lounge access.