Desipte the reduced minimum miles (125) in BA discount economy, there has been a 500 q-mile/q-point minimum for any miles earning segment. A recent report in the OW fourm indicates that this may no longer be the case. Does anyone here have recent expereince either way on BA short-hauls (or IB Canary island flights or others which earn less than 500 redeemable miles/segment)?
Desipte the reduced minimum miles (125) in BA discount economy, there has been a 500 q-mile/q-point minimum for any miles earning segment. A recent report in the OW fourm indicates that this may no longer be the case. Does anyone here have recent expereince either way on BA short-hauls (or IB Canary island flights or others which earn less than 500 redeemable miles/segment)?
I would bet the unofficial 500 EQM minimum is still in place simply because they don't appear to have the wherewithal to change it-- I wouldn't go by a single anecdotal report. That having been said, it's 100% unofficial so you certainly could never ask them to "fix" it if you didn't get 500. I also would not go by what an AA phone agent says on something as arcane as this-- they know far less about this than we do.
Moderator: Cathay Pacific Asia Miles and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Travelling Mystic - YVR & HAM. Today @ SIN
Programs: *A | 1W | QR-SL | SPG-PL | HY-DM
Posts: 14,119
I flew in discount economy (M class) on BA between LHR and CDG. I received the min base miles of 125. I get 100% bonus so that ups it to 250 miles total.
The breakdown however is very strange: Base miles 54 (25%) + 196 (bonus) = 250 miles.
I flew in discount economy (M class) on BA between LHR and CDG. I received the min base miles of 125. I get 100% bonus so that ups it to 250 miles total.
The breakdown however is very strange: Base miles 54 (25%) + 196 (bonus) = 250 miles.
What's being discussed here is the 500 EQP that always post even when the BA economy flights post at 125 (+ elite bonus if applicable) "spendable".
I believe that the AA.com site states that the 500 EQP minimum only applies to AA/AE flights.
That's true-- and "officially" there's not a reason in the world to expect same on a short BA flight in discount economy, but, as has been covered extensively in the past, those flights have historically added 500 EQP per flight regardless-- even when the spendable miles were less. Question is, if that has changed or not.
That's true-- and "officially" there's not a reason in the world to expect same on a short BA flight in discount economy, but, as has been covered extensively in the past, those flights have historically added 500 EQP per flight regardless-- even when the spendable miles were less. Question is, if that has changed or not.
I had an experience recently where this wasn't the case. Booked parent on LCY-FRA-SIN-MEL with LCY-FRA in discount economy and FRA-SIN in J
FRA-SIN is 6391 and earned 9587 qpoints
If the LCY-FRA had earned 500 , then Platinum would have been achieved, however it wasn't until the SIN-MEL flight that Platinum actually was achieved
When I contacted AA Customer Service to query the late earning of Platinum, they said that the 125 qpoints earned for LCY-FRA meant that it hadnt been achieved
Also, the AA website no longer seems to mention that there is a 500 min qpoint earning at all ( unless I have missed it)
Interesting... I looked at the AA site for the q-point minimum today. Could not find it either. Was hoping to challenge back to PLT in May with help from my 6 RT's from DWF. While the 60k bonus is nice, the additional 12k (with minimum) goes a nice way towards PLT. Any thoughts?
I had a similar experience about 9 months ago with q-points on a challenge which I posted about here: Accuracy of AA.com counters
I was actually flying on IB LHR-MAD. My AA.com counter was going up by 500 q-points per segment, but my Platinum challenge counter only went up by 300/segment. As I had not flown on AA last year prior to starting my challenge, my YTD q-points count was at 10,117 which an AAgent confirmed, but the same AAgent also confirmed that my challenge counter was only at 9717.
It does seem that AA uses a different arithmetic system on their challenge computers vs their regular AAdvantage computers.
Interesting... I looked at the AA site for the q-point minimum today. Could not find it either. Was hoping to challenge back to PLT in May with help from my 6 RT's from DWF. While the 60k bonus is nice, the additional 12k (with minimum) goes a nice way towards PLT. Any thoughts?
Q-points are discussed under elite qualification requirements at AA.com: http://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage...irements.jhtml
I don't believe it actually says anywhere that there is a 500 q-point/segment minimum, but that is the experience of people here.
I'm not sure how you're calculating 6 RTs = 12k min q-points. If you're doing DFW-AUS or something like that, you would get 1k q-points per RT or 6k total.
...My AA.com counter was going up by 500 q-points per segment, but my Platinum challenge counter only went up by 300/segment.
...it does seem that AA uses a different arithmetic system on their challenge computers vs their regular AAdvantage computers.
No, that's definitely not the case. We're talking about the Q-point-to-date counter-- and there's definitely not another one of those just for challenges.
No, that's definitely not the case. We're talking about the Q-point-to-date counter-- and there's definitely not another one of those just for challenges.
Are you sure about this?
There is certain information that must be stored in order to process it
What challenge
Start date or End date (since one can be derived from the other) or , simply, both
Either qpoints that the person was on at the start
or qpoints to complete
or a counter of qpoints earned during challenge period
The latter option would be the simpler of the methods since challenge qpoint earning can traverse year boundaries ; e.g. start on 1st Nov, complete on 31 Jan and so just comparing against the YTD qpoints table becomes more complicated
There is certain information that must be stored in order to process it
What challenge
Start date or End date (since one can be derived from the other) or , simply, both
Either qpoints that the person was on at the start
or qpoints to complete
or a counter of qpoints earned during challenge period
The latter option would be the simpler of the methods since challenge qpoint earning can traverse year boundaries ; e.g. start on 1st Nov, complete on 31 Jan and so just comparing against the YTD qpoints table becomes more complicated
Dave
Keep in mind that there is a "hidden" counter that helps AAdvantage keep track of overlap-new-year points/miles-- for the express purpose of flight posting that occur and/or retro credit requests that occur well into the new year. But to think that there is a separate counter-- that actually gets different points/miles just for challenges-- yes, I'm sure that definitely doesn't exist.
Q-points are discussed under elite qualification requirements at AA.com: http://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage...irements.jhtml
I don't believe it actually says anywhere that there is a 500 q-point/segment minimum, but that is the experience of people here.
I'm not sure how you're calculating 6 RTs = 12k min q-points. If you're doing DFW-AUS or something like that, you would get 1k q-points per RT or 6k total.
Q-points have been discussed in much detail, including "undocumented" topic of minimum 500 q-points, that I understand. Most of my knowledge of q-points and how they relate to status and challenges has come from FT. Thanks to all who contribute! That being said, things are subject to change, and seeing Dave's posting had me questioning myself.
Your right about my calculations. In my haste, I used my current status to figure extra miles, not points. I drop down to gold, March 1. So, even that mile calculation will be wrong. However, I plan to challenge back to PLT which is 10K q-points. 6RT from DFW-AUS should net me at least 6K of this, given minimum 500 q-points per segment.
That was my thinking.
Last edited by TelevisionTdTina; Feb 5, 06 at 4:30 pm.
Jon, what makes you so certain there isn't a separate counter for challenges with its own logic? Do you have inside knowledge of the programming? It would certainly be a reasonable explanation of the discrepancy between Dave's and acf's experiences and all the reports of 500 qmile/point minimum.
Thanks to all who contribute! That being said, things are subject to change, and seeing Dave's posting had me questioning myself. 
