I have just moved to Zurich from Canada on a permanent basis. I have points by Aeroplan and don't want to lose them. My question is, should I stay on with aeroplan (will i get the same amount of points on LX, LH.......), or should I start fresh with Miles & More?
Which is the better program?
(I should mention that at present, AC is the only carrier between ZRH and YYZ)

 

Welcome to Flyertalk!

I�m pretty familiar with both FFPs and would be happy to give you some addvice, but I need some more info:

- how much do you fly every year?
- do you fly anywhere else than ZRH-YYZ?
- which airlines do you fly?
- Do you fly Economy/Business/First class?
- Do you currently have any status?
- What is most important to you? mileage redemptions? (where, class of service?), upgrades?, status benefits? etc.

 

I fly to Canada twice to three times a year.
I do the same amount of medium haul flights.
I tend to stick with LX or AC, but I will go with what is cheaper.
I fly economy and have no special status but upgrades are important for me.
Thanx.




Sorry for being monotonous....

 

Ok, in this case I would probably choose Aeroplan:

- you should try to make Elite status (35k miles in one calendar year) which will get you *A Gold status (lounge access at all airport when flying *A, priority boarding etc.)
- Tango Plus (T+) fares on AC operated flights earn 100% status miles, so you�ll need about 3 round-trips ZRH-YYZ per year and a few medium-range flights or another TATL flight to make Elite
- once you have Elite status you can choose 2 SSWUs every year which you can use to upgrade a T+ fare (you can upgrade 4 days in advance depending on seat availability; if you have 6 TATL legs per year you should be able to upgrade on two segments) (you�ll also get SWUs, but these can only be used with Lat fares which are more expensive)
- as an Elite you can also choose to earn 50% bonus award miles, so you would earn 50k+ award miles/year

Just a few thoughts on M&M:
- you�d get FTL status if you earn 35k miles in a calendar year (only *A Silver status, 25% bonus status and award miles, only lounge access in ZRH, no upgrade certs)
- cheap economy fares on LH/LX only earn 50% status miles
- unlike AC you can upgrade using miles (but IMO it�s not cost-efficient: a one-way upgrade costs 50k miles whereas an waward ticket in business class costs 90k miles r/t, also you can�t upgrade from the cheapest fares on LH/LX)

 

Does anyone know if there is a credit card outside of Canada (.... Switzerland) that I can gather Aeroplan miles????

Or is this a crazy question???

 

Unfortunately there only is an Aeroplan affiliated CC card in Canada and the US.
You can also transfer AMEX MR points to Aeroplan but AFAIK this also only works in Canada and the US.

IMO the best airline CC in Switzerland is the LH M&M CC.

 

If you choose to go with Aeroplan, don't forget that they have what is most probably the worst expiration policy in the industry. So, if you take a break from flying at any point, make sure to keep some activity going on the account so that you don't lose the miles.

 

Ditto. Aeroplan also has terrible burn rates on some routes. If you have particular routes in mind that you would like to redeem miles on, do check the AP website before you commit.

 

Yes they are awful but since the poster is outside of North America, their miles will be given a 3 year non activity expiration date instead of the 1 year that we deal with.