Triangle Trip

As a Star Alliance Gold member with a US carrier (Continental, United, or USAir) in the US, you’re allowed to access Star Alliance member lounges (for any of the US or international carriers, like Singapore Airlines) when you fly on an international itinerary. FYI, here’s Statusmonger’s previous post on how to fast track to Star Alliance Gold.

I prefer to travel light and do not carry my United Premiere Executive card, as my Star Alliance Gold status is generally printed on boarding passes. I was recently on two international flights on two different Star Alliance carriers at two different airports:  Continental in Newark, and Air China in Hong Kong. Although my Star Alliance Gold status was recognized on the boarding pass printed at Newark, the Continental agent refused entry into the Presidents Club at Newark. The Continental agent said that I needed my United Premiere Executive card to gain entry. The Continental agent’s reasoning was this:

1. People have been using numbers from friends and family to get Star Alliance Gold status on their boarding passes, which I think is completely bogus. People can modify a boarding pass printed from their own printer; but how can someone modify a boarding pass printed at a Continental kiosk at the airport?

2. Partner airline carriers, like United, refuse to validate Premiere Executive and above status via phone when Continental agents call them. This one I can believe, especially when it comes to United.

Fortunately, I was able to prove my United Airline status using an old Red Carpet luggage tag – the United Mileage Plus number on the tag matched the boarding pass. This experience really made me wonder on how United and Continental is going to merged two inefficient operations (see previous post).

When I was flying Air China in Hong Kong trying to access the Air China lounge, the Air China agent also wanted me to present my United Premiere Executive card to gain entry. Instead of arguing with the Air China agent, I walked down the hall to United’s Red Carpet Club.

At the Red Carpet Club, the United agent also asked me for my Premiere Executive card. When I told the United agent that I didn’t have the card with me, she was able to validate my status on United’s system. In disbelief of the new process, I requested to speak with a manager to better understand the need to present airline status cards.

I was told by the manager that there are too many people with airline status accessing lounges; and since the lounges don’t have enough staff members to maintain them, the airlines are trying minimize the amount of visitors per day. I’m not sure if the manager’s story is true or not, but I have learned from this experience that I must carry my United Premiere Executive and Delta Gold cards with me from now on. I also spoke with Statusmonger (as he has it in his laptop bag) and the Coach about this issue and it seems like carrying status cards has always been a part of their packing routine.

For the record, I also checked on the Star Alliance website which states a valid Star Alliance Gold level card is required for entry to the Star Alliance lounges (Star Alliance Lounge Access Policy).

I already have the SPG AMEX, which I think is the best travel credit card out there.  You get 1 point/$1 for everyday purchases.  You get an additional 2 points/$1 for stays at SPG properties (W, Westin, Sheraton, Le Meridian, Four Points and more).  If you are Gold or Platinum SPG member, you get 3 points/$1 instead of 2 points for stays at SPG properties.  You can earn Gold status at SPG by spending $30,000 on the card in a calendar year.  A SPG night redemption runs around 10,000 points for a decent property.  So that’s about a $200 return for $10,000 spent on the card.  Not only that, the SPG AMEX allows you to transfer points to airlines miles at a 1:1 point to mile ratio, with a 5000 miles bonus for every 20,000 points transferred to miles.  So if you transfer 20,000 points to an airline mileage account, you would get 25,000 miles, usually good for a free domestic flight.  The card has an annual fee of $45 that is far less than the annual fees of airline cards, which run about $75-$100.  Lastly, I think SPG is the best hotel program out there and hotel points are far better than airline miles.

However, there have been 2 recent airline card offers that have been tempting, but not sure if its worth the hassle.

Firstly, the British Airways Visa Signature Card.  What’s so special about this card?  Well not much but the current promotion is probably the best signup promotion I’ve seen yet.  You get 50,000 miles for your first purchase on the card and then another 50,000 miles if you spend $2000 in first 3 months, which is easily doable.  That’s a total of 100,000 miles, which gets you 2 free transatlantic flights from the US to Western Europe in economy.  You also get a free companion voucher valid for 2 years for spending $30,000 on the card in a calendar year.  The downside of the card?  First, the annual fee is $75.  Also, personally I don’t ever fly British Airways and I don’t fly any of the airlines in One World, which includes American Airlines.  Star Alliance is probably the best airlines alliance out there especially now that Continental has defected over to them from Sky Team.

Speaking of Star Alliance, this brings me to the 2nd card on my mind: the Asiana AMEX from Bank of America.  You earn 2 miles per $1 spent on the card, which literally unheard of for airline credit cards.  Although the card has an annual fee of $99 this offset by the fact that the card offers an $100 annual rebate towards the purchase of Asiana Airlines ticket.  You also get a 10,000 Bonus miles Certificate every year in the month of your anniversary date of the card.  This is good towards a choice of an international or Korea domestic air ticket, a seat class upgrade or an excess bag allowance.  But its use it or lose it annually.  Also, there are a couple great things about Asiana Airlines.  First, as I alluded to before, Asiana is a part of Star Alliance, which consists of 25 member airlines such as United, Continental, US Airways, Lufthansa, BMI, Air China, ANA, and Singapore Airlines.  Below is the Asiana Star Alliance award ticket redemption chart:

This redemption policy also allows you to redeem a one-way ticket instead being forced to redeem a roundtrip.  Additionally, another great thing about Asiana is their favorable status qualification.  See my previous post about this.  Basically you just need 40,000 miles in 2 years to get Star Alliance Gold (Asiana Diamond).  This doesn’t have to be on Asiana but you can use any miles flown on Star Alliance partners for status qualification.  In contrast, you need to fly 50,000 miles with United in one calendar year to get Star Alliance Gold (United Premier Executive).  Recently, after hitting 1K with United, I’ve been banking all my United miles to my Asiana account.

So what’s the verdict?  If you are willing to deal with getting the BA Visa and then canceling after 3 months, the $75 annual fee is definitely worth the 2 round trip tickets to Western Europe.  If you fly Star Alliance frequently, especially to Asia, and don’t have any other credit cards with an annual fee, then I think making the Asiana AMEX your primary credit card is a great deal.  If none of these sound appealing enough, do look at the SPG AMEX.