Swishflyer

Did not know that about Wiki. Thanks. I just may be old enough to crawl now!

Swishflyer

Many thanks Cymro. Somehow I never noticed that Nearby button populate after typing on matrix. May thanks. I used to scour the internet to find airports close to one another! How barbaric SMH

Swishflyer

Two new questions.

1) Are there any type of domestic First AA flights that give more than 60TPs?

2) Is there somewhere I can see which cities are good stopovers for others or is the wiki page it?

nux

1. Yes, those over 2,000 miles will give 210 TPs in First (140 in Business). See: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...os-2015-a.html

2. Not really sure what you mean. Most AA domestic flights will only go through AA (and the old US) hubs. If you mean what will be best for pricing there is no general rule.
You can see the hubs here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines

BA Humbug

1) yes. 2000+ mile routes earn you 210 TPs in first class. Some examples are (but not limited to): JFK/PHL/BOS/MIA-LAX/some PHX/SFO/SAN/etc. West Coast-Hawaii will also get you 210 TPs in first. Flights to Alaska are also usually good.

Be careful of the Transcontinental (t-con or transcon) routes JFK-LAX and JFK-SFO as they are 3-class. They earn 140 TPs in business and 210 in First.

2) i'm not aware of any, but AA (now including US Airways) has hubs in CLT, DFW, JFK/LGA, LAX, MIA, ORD, PHL, PHX, and (arguably) DCA. A lot of routes will allow you to bounce from hub to hub for little (if any) additional cost.

Cymro

As the OP is based in Houston, it's worth pointing out that there are no 2,000 mile non-stop routes, nor any from DFW or ORD within the lower 48. So it's either 60 TP or head to the east coast to get to the west (or vice versa).

Anyway, if you just specify X in the advanced routing codes on ITA, you can force a connecting flight and unless you're heading to the coast (CLT is an obvious choice here) it doesn't much matter where that change is.

Most practical routes that start in Houston, unless the OP is going for the 1,140 TP to gold, are going to involve changing at DFW with an offchance of changing at PHX or CLT.

Swishflyer

I may be getting greedy but I may just actually try this. Also, i'm not opposed to using some avios or lifemiles to position myself.

corporate-wage-slave

There is DFW to HNL and a seasonal service to ANC however. But yes, otherwise ORD and DFW are unhelpful places!

Cymro

Maybe next year but it sounds like your organic flying is something like 40k per year, which means it's a wash between AA and BA for you, at least in terms of achieving Sapphire status.

Those extra 900 TPs would get you another 40k avios or so (maybe 20k from the TP run and 20k of cabin tier bonus over the year), and you would get another year of silver (which you would be close to achieving organically) and access to the first class lounge anywhere that has one (not sure about IAH, LHR when passing through) but apart from the food and wine, it's not that much better than the club lounge.

With Sapphire you still get seat selection at booking, extra baggage, and lounge access (although Golds can choose economy long haul exit seats on BA and can choose seats for travellers on a different booking in the same cabin/flight) but the step up for you will be quite small.

If you did do it then you'd have to do a cost/benefit analysis but the main benefits are avoiding a TP run next year through the soft landing to silver, and the 40k extra avios earned over your time as gold.

Of course, getting gold earlier in your next membership year would give you a longer time with the status and put off the soft landing by another year too.

Swishflyer

@Cymro. I was actually thinking about that. so do my Silver run Dec/Jan, and then try for Gold immediately after TP year end?

gormless

I did an AA flight from DCA->PVD->DCA last weekend for family reasons. The outbound was booked in F so no availability there (10 TP and 179 Avios), but the return upgrade from Y to F was $49. Less than a dollar per tier point from the upgrade.

Swishflyer

Getting frustrated. Been running a ton of searches but not seeing anything between Dec 27-Jan 17 for a cpm below 3.9 that's not about $700 or more

nux

That would be rather pointless. Your TP's would reset to 0 so you would need 1500 to make Gold in your 2016 membership year. Unless you have a lot of travel in between what benefit would you get being Silver from Jan to Feb?

Swishflyer

I was thinking that silver stayed the year you earned it and the year after. Did not think about TP resetting. So it would only be worth it if I did a mega run to get the gold before February correct? I'm guessing that is highly improbable.

Swishflyer

oh, and I am for sure doing four HOU-LOS trips in 2016