inthemix

Hey Guys

I am having problems finding answers to some basic questions around pts v miles accrual.

1) It seems class of service bonus is applied to pts, rather than miles. Is there any instance where pts would be less than miles for someones account? It could just be a transitionary issue, but I've noticed that my miles are higher than pts during the merger process the last few days.

2) Are EQM from Citi Executive counted for both pts and miles? If just miles, it seems this benefit is useless if someone flys C or F frequenty as the pts may be higher.

neo_781

Check out AA.COM. Unless you are buying full-fare or premium tickets your mileage (EQM) will almost always be greater than your Points (EQP).

As you will see by the chart in the link above you are probably earning 1.50 EQP per mile for some of your tickets.

inthemix

Thanks Neo_781

After reading the site, I'm still somewhat confused. Dub question- Whey even have a concept of EQP, if EQM also get a class of service bonus?

neo_781

EQM's are only 1 per mile (or 100%). It's with EQP's that you can get the class of service bonus points for status. The class of service bonus miles are only for redeemable miles and don't count towards EQM.


Basically what this means is that AA gives you 2 ways to qualify (well 3 if you include segments). So to get to ExPlat you need one of the following:

• 100,000 EQM
• 100,000 EQP
• 120 EQS

inthemix

Got it.

So in my example if I have the Citi Executive card just for the EQM bonus and also fly paid business class to get extra EQP those two EQM/EQP bonuses don't even add up together for qualification?

That's a huge negative considering all the class of service bonuses and CC bonuses played will to gether as EQM in Us Airways DM.

Am I missing something?

neo_781

I'm not an expert on the credit card you cite but if the card only offers EQM and if you are qualifying based on EQP then yes the bonus EQM's from the card won't help you out. (You can't add EQM and EQP together).

dw

Indeed, and that is a change US flyers will have to adapt to. But if you fly long distances in paid business, the EQPs really add up. For example, AA's DFW-HKG flight in business will get you over 24,000 EQPs.

ubernostrum

I don't know about the Citi card, but the pre-merger US Mastercard from Barclay had a nice perk of converting 10k RDM to PQM if you hit a $25k/year spend.

That's turning into two cards, the "Aviator Red" and "Aviator Silver"; only the "Silver" still has a PQM conversion for spend, and it now requires $40k to get the full 10k PQM.

pmUS also historically offered a 5k PQM bonus for buying/renewing a club membership. So if you had the card and hit the spend, and a club membership, you could get an easy extra 15k PQM/year.

Plus, paid J and F fares just earned 1.5 PQM on pmUS instead of using a separate points measure for fare class. I picked up nearly 12k PQM off a paid F run to Hawaii last year, for example.

So that's the perspective people coming from pmUS are going to have: fewer opportunities to pick up bonus EQM, and EQP are an alien concept (which I still think should just be axed in favor of bonus EQM on premium fares, for simplicity's sake).

JDiver

You fly. You fly Base Miles. These are also counted as EQM.

1) You fly deep discounted fares. You earn 100% Base / EQ Miles. But you earn 0.5 EQP per EQM.

2) You fly discount economy fares. You earn 100% EQM, and one EQP per mile.

3) You fly B, Y or higher (business, first) fares. You still earn 100% EQM plus maybe bonus miles (elite status, also earned on 1) ot 2), but you earn 1.5 EQP per mile.

This means you can earn say, AA Platinum, with 50,000 EQM if you fly deep discount or discounted Economy; fly higher fares, you can earn Platinum with 33,334 EQM and 50,000 EQP. And status and class of service bonus RDM.

It's a bit different than USDM, yet it's very much the same: premium flyers used to get 1.5 EQP with thevUSDM scheme and benefit from a "short cut" to status, now they'd do the same because they earn EQP.

EQP have no other value than as status generating milestones.

dw got it. ^

AAdvantage obviously isn't going to dump the EQP "alien concept" adopted by PAR/D and RUB/S, and used by 70m AA flyers, to make it easier for 30m USDM members. But understanding this "alien concept" is easy and it accomplishes the same thing for premium flyers.



Now that Barclaycard US is becoming Aviator, they were probably required to realign with Citi Executive - spend $40 k by the last calendar year invoice generation, earn 10k EQM (but without redeemable miles - these merely are used for status purposes).