Thursday, January 8, 2009
Star Alliance Upgrade Awards
Now that many Star carriers are planning to introduce cross airline upgrade redemption. I am wondering if NZ are currently under way of developing similar scheme. By looking at the program it's like NZ hope Airpoints members to redeem NZ operated flights rather than Star flights when introducing Star booking service fees and Star rewards are generally more expensive. Would NZ even bother to work on upgrade on other airlines?Although I havent heard anything, I presume its not far away. Usually these things are reciprocal - ie other FFPs can use miles to upgrade on NZ at the same time that airbucks can be used on those airlines.
I'm very interested in what the costs to upgrade might be as I suspect each program will be quite different (as with award costs) and so will probably be a major factor in my consideration of which FFP to concentrate on in future.Although I havent heard anything, I presume its not far away. Usually these things are reciprocal - ie other FFPs can use miles to upgrade on NZ at the same time that airbucks can be used on those airlines.
I'm very interested in what the costs to upgrade might be as I suspect each program will be quite different (as with award costs) and so will probably be a major factor in my consideration of which FFP to concentrate on in future.
I believe that LH has already posted the mileage requirements for the * upgrades. I remember that they wanted 50k for trans-atlantic which seems very high.Here's LH's announcement
http://portal.miles-and-more.com/online/portal/mam/de/spendmiles/miles_and_fly?l=en&nodeid=1209676&ctest=150K each way seems excessive, considering its 90K for a free flight in business. I guess you still get the base miles, so its really 45K each way to/from the West Coast, but you still have to pay for the ticket.
Availability of award flights is generally limited, however, especially in business class. It sounds like these are confirmed upgrades, and presumably without blackout dates etc, so they might still be worthwhile if you want to travel business during peak times.50K each way seems excessive, considering its 90K for a free flight in business. I guess you still get the base miles, so its really 45K each way to/from the West Coast, but you still have to pay for the ticket.Miles & More used the same number of miles to upgrade on *A as on LH/LO/OS/JP/OU/UA (and soon LX). Since the changes to M&M in Aug 2004 the mileage upgrade cost is ridiculous.
Airpoints, on the other hand, will need to issue a new table for cost of upgrading.#If you have any other info about this subject , Please add it free.# |
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