I’ve never really given much thought to Asiana’s frequent flyer program, even though I knew that they had an especially attractive to make and retain Star Alliance Gold status: you need to fly 100,000 miles with their program but you aren’t limited to a calendar year to do it — in fact, take as long as you need. What’s more, status lasts three years and you have those three years to rack up just another 40,000 miles to requalify. Easiest Star Alliance Gold there is.

(One caveat — although given the generosity of the criteria for earning status not really a huge one for most — is that not all coach fare classes earn 100% of miles flown.)

What makes the program even more interesting — and what I hadn’t realized — is (as outlined in this Flyertalk discussion) the flexibility of the program’s rules when redeeming awards.

Within the given mileages you can fly around as you wish. And 4 stopovers are allowed, but limited to just one stopover in a country.

…

There are only few limitations according to Asiana’s rules :


1. No stopover allowed in the country where you start your trip.

2. You must return to the country where you start your trip.

3. 1 stopover allowed per country.

4. 12 segments are allowed per award itinerary.



One open-jaw is allowed which makes the restriction of must-return simply a joke which again allows combining multiple reward itineraries resulting in something possibly better than the RTW!!!!. (Asiana Club doesn’t offer the RTW as a reward)

One example from the thread of using this to your advantage — 35,000 miles buying you a coach trip from Frankfurt to Paris (stopover) to Lisbon (stopover) to Madrid (destination) to Vienna (stopover) to Prague (stopover) to Munich.

Certainly some interesting applicability.