Thai Air Orchid Member Program...

[JohnGotti]

1. Does anyone know if your member status of Silver/Gold is based on miles earned or miles saved?

To get Gold status you need 50,000 miles. Does that mean that if you have 45,000 miles and use those miles and then earn 10,000 more miles (55,000 earned) you will get Gold Status, or would you instead end up with 10,000 miles and Silver status because you spent your miles before reaching Gold Status?

2. How do you recommend spending the miles? We used to fly direct to JFK, but after that flight closed there is no reason for us to fly Thai Air. I see that I can trade 25,000 miles for a round trip ticket to KL, but I have to pay 3500 in taxes and fees... Air Asia direct costs 1,500 baht round trip... Hmmm.... Is it better to use for hotels?

Edited July 9, 2009 by JohnGotti

[elibangkok]

1. Does anyone know if your member status of Silver/Gold is based on miles earned or miles saved?

To get Gold status you need 50,000 miles. Does that mean that if you have 45,000 miles and use those miles and then earn 10,000 more miles (55,000 earned) you will get Gold Status, or would you instead end up with 10,000 miles and Silver status because you spent your miles before reaching Gold Status?

2. How do you recommend spending the miles? We used to fly direct to JFK, but after that flight closed there is no reason for us to fly Thai Air. I see that I can trade 25,000 miles for a round trip ticket to KL, but I have to pay 3500 in taxes and fees... Air Asia direct costs 1,500 baht round trip... Hmmm.... Is it better to use for hotels?

Status is based on miles earned.

Don't know your travel habits, but it is usually pretty easy to upgrade using miles. Depends how often you travel and to where.

I believe you might still have to pay taxes and fees if you use the miles for a hotel stay, but I am not sure.

[onethailand]

You need to earn 25K miles in a calendar year to earn Silver status, 50K to earn Gold. The earned status is good for two years.

Miles are always best used as upgrades.

Edited July 9, 2009 by onethailand

[GeorgeW]

Miles are always best used as upgrades.

Absolutely false! Please do not try to make such blanket statements and say they apply to everyone. They do not. Perhaps upgrades are always best for you, but they are not always best for me or for everyone. This is especially true if you're buying the ticket with your own money. For example, if I was flying roundtrip from BKK to London, and wanted to fly in First class.

Upgrade from Economy to Business is 38,000 miles each way, 76,000 miles round trip

Upgrade from Business to First is 58,000 miles each way, 116,000 miles round trip

Total to upgrade from Economy to First is 192,000 miles round trip.

A roundtrip award ticket in First class for the same route is only 185,000 miles, so a savings of 7,000 miles plus no need to purchase the economy class ticket, so saving plenty of money as well.

For the OP, if you have miles with Thai, they are a member of the Star Alliance and you can redeem your miles for flights on any Star Alliance members, so for example if you wanted to fly to JFK, you could do so with any or a combination of United, ANA, Singapore Air, Asiana, Air Canada, and several other airlines. The award rates though are different if you fly a Star Alliance airline compared to Thai.