Which Star Alliance, Airpoints, Royal Orchid or KrisFlyer?

9 replies

Stormtraveller

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 04 Dec 2017

Total posts 7

My Amex credit card allows me to transfer points to either Airpoints, Royal Orchid or KrisFlyer when it comes to Star Alliance members.

Of these three programs which would be the better one to join?
I will also be taking a Lufthansa and SAS flights later in the year, so I'd like to earn some points when Im on these flights.
Any advice from the well travelled and frequent flyers in the community would be appreciated.

freshthoughts

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 08 Aug 2016

Total posts 112

in my experience, kris flyer is the easiest to use, especially given their favourable availability for Singapore flights, I can find J space for where i want to go. However, royal orchid does have some more favourable rates. Theres a good post by pointshack outline royal orchid as well

xtfer

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 14 Mar 2017

Total posts 159

Just don't choose Airpoints. It's redemptions are, IIRC, the most expensive of the lot.

henrus

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 23 Oct 2013

Total posts 766

Just don't choose Airpoints. It's redemptions are, IIRC, the most expensive of the lot.

They only reason why you'd pick airpoints (and I have) is it's quite easy to earn status on NZ operated flights after you do a couple of long-haul flights. Otherwise I agree that it's poor value in every other way and Krisflyer would be the best with the most redemption partners (you can use the points on VA which is a major benefit).

Chris C.

Member since 24 Apr 2012

Total posts 1,116

KrisFlyer has excellent availability, very good reward rates (one-way to Europe is 105,000 miles in business class, for example), and minimal fees and charges on those bookings (I recently booked one-way business class to Europe and the co-pay amount was $110). You can of course use KrisFlyer miles to book other Star Alliance flights too, although the rates can sometimes be a little higher, and the co-pays on those often include fuel/carrier surcharges which makes them more expensive.

Advantage also of KrisFlyer is that you can transfer points across from Velocity, or over to Velocity, depending on how you want to spend them, so if you're earning Velocity points at places you can't earn other miles (such as at BP, if you still have a Lumo Energy Velocity plan, etc.), then you can maximise your miles and get your free flight faster by piling them all together.

Thai ROP does have some marginally lower rates than KrisFlyer on some routes and some even more favourable rates on other routes, but you can't book everything online, so expect that you may need to call Thai to book (you can definitely book Thai Airways reward flights online, however). Also note that transfers from AMEX to Thai ROP can take up to a week to process, whereas transfers to KrisFlyer are quite quick (they say 3 business days or so but they're often processed overnight or the next day), so if you're holding your points in AMEX until you find a specific reward flight that you want to book, but don't want to transfer your points across until you know there's availability, there's a higher chance of getting 'stuck' with Thai and that flight disappearing before your miles have arrived to book it: but there are some mileage savings to be had if you're savvy about it. :)

dimi

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 13 Jul 2012

Total posts 154

Slightly off-topic: are Singapore business class redemptions available either on Thai or on Airpoints?


Singapore appears to restrict business class award availability for its Star partner airlines (while business is available to KrisFlier and Velocity members).

Last editedby dimi at Mar 22, 2018, 05:29 PM.

Stormtraveller

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 04 Dec 2017

Total posts 7

Thank you for all the advice, it looks like KrisFlyer is the winner here and it would be a better use of my points if I transferred them to a KrisFlyer account.

philelltt

Member since 27 Oct 2017

Total posts 2

If you wanted a nice hotel room in Bangkok or elsewhere in Thailand, the Royal Orchid program has quite good rates for points bookings. Many of the hotels include breakfast . A night "costs"about 15,000 to 21,000 points with no extra charges. Their rates for hotels outside of Thailand aren't so good though.You download a voucher through the Royal Orchid website against you points. That voucher is used to make a booking with the hotel.


That worked perfectly for us as a couple. We could each use our points for vouchers and make bookings.

We didn't find their reward domestic flights to be good value, as the flights are short, cost 15,000 or so points each . They offer a deal of 6000 points or so for use of their lounge at the airport. Unfortunately, their Bangkok lounge isn't much chop.

World traveler

Star Alliance

Member since 26 Sep 2014

Total posts 2

My Amex credit card allows me to transfer points to either Airpoints, Royal Orchid or KrisFlyer when it comes to Star Alliance members.
Of these three programs which would be the better one to join?
I will also be taking a Lufthansa and SAS flights later in the year, so I'd like to earn some points when Im on these flights.
Any advice from the well travelled and frequent flyers in the community would be appreciated.

Hi,  I have been a Elite Airpoints traveler for a few years, as I fly J about 5 times a year to SFO. I felt the level of service product and price was excellent.  However, the amount of credit they give you for segments with other Star Alliance carriers is poor. For instance, they do not give any credit for "P" class fares.

I just flew SGN-BKK-SYD on Thai and their 777 J-class was excellent.  Cannot say the same for the 747 J segment to SYD...
As my travel plans are changing, I am thinking of dropping Airpoints for Miles and More. Twice a year we travel round the world with either a Lufthansa or Swiss ticket package.  What do people think of the Star Alliance's Miles and More program?  Thank you for your thoughts, Bill

Rav

Member since 18 Aug 2017

Total posts 22

Just don't choose Airpoints. It's redemptions are, IIRC, the most expensive of the lot.

They only reason why you'd pick airpoints (and I have) is it's quite easy to earn status on NZ operated flights after you do a couple of long-haul flights. Otherwise I agree that it's poor value in every other way and Krisflyer would be the best with the most redemption partners (you can use the points on VA which is a major benefit).

You can use Airpoints to book on VA as well but must book through AirNZ

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