Saturne-79

This sounds actually quite temptating, but should you need to fly these segments/points with AA?


She is travelling mainly with her work colleagues and then with me and family. Also we have PP for the lounges, so does not need the status for lounge access, but for the other perks (luggage, seat selection...)

Jaenks

To complete the challenge and get a Platinum status until Feb.2016,no.To re-qualify in 2015(4 segments during 2015) for 2016(Feb.2017),yes.She will receive also(as all Gold and Platinum members)4x500 miles upgrade vouchers after every 10000 miles(EQM,flown with any Oneworld carrier) to use intra US,Caribbean and Central America flights for upgrades(can use multiple vouchers per segment).I did call AA through Skype,it is free of charge but sometimes "hold on" is almost an hour.Note that you can fly those four segments also with US,but can use the 500 miles upgrade vouchers only with AA.

Saturne-79

Great, thank you for your kind help! Will definetely put her for this...

Jaenks

You´re welcome!
For clarification if needed: To re-qualify for 2016 still 50000EQM/EQP or 60 segments will needed in 2015 and you have to fly at least four segments with AA/US.Achieving the required amount of segments and/or EQP/EQM will not count as re-qualification if you do not fly those four segments.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/el...quirements.jsp

WilcoRoger

With BAEC

1/
19476 avios
440 TP

2/
590 avios
20 TP

3/
1410 avios
70 TP

Total: 530 TP (Bronze status, close to Silver at 600TP) & at least 21.476 avios (more, because at least the LHR-SFO leg will already get Bronze status bonus, ca 2k)

Avios enough for 2 European rewards (or 1,5 if ex-HEL)

With AY

1/ ca 26200 points
2/ 2000 points
3/ 2000 points

Total ca 30k points, no status, not enough for an European return flight.

Not a difficult choice, I think

remymartin

36650 AA miles are more valuable than 21476 Avios. Maintaining BA OWS is easier than AA OWS, though, and would likely be easier to renew next year, and would save OP from the 240USD "donation" towards the AA challenge.

WilcoRoger

+1 on all counts. OP should work out which combination works better. But it's not AY, I'd say

Jaenks

Not AY for sure.But after those three flights she will be OWR(with BA) not OWS,so at least one segment will be needed to qualify OWS, depends length and booking class.
And the questions will be:
OWR(BA) vs.OWS(AA) benefits in last two r/t flights,maybe in three r/t flights if in Y plus double miles with AA?Donation of USD240 to AA.
Re-qualification in 2015 with AA and BA or qualification with BA(if AA chosen)?
Westbound flights planned in 2015(AA)?
Redemption of miles.
Challenge can be done also HEL-SFO and LHR-HEL and collect SFO-LHR to BA.
Many options to consider.
It is very personal.

Saturne-79

Thank you all for your contribution for this!
At the moment I think the AA challenge looks best option for her, as I have AA card and it might be easier to get award flights together if we have same program. And we might have some travels to US/Caribbean during 2015.
Now I just have to convince her that it is a good idea to pay 240usd for this challenge.....

FFlash

Finally had time during holidays to go through the whole BA guide on FT and thinking now over my upcoming travel if I should stick to AY or not. My simple request for your feedback is as:

Baseline:
-discount Y travel policy (well sometimes I can trick outside this, but I have to plan everything according to Y)
-mainly shorthaul legs ex-HEL in EU and Finland (+/- 80 legs per year). Occasional longhauls. Some private trips where I try to burn LH vouchers.

I was pushing last year to attain AY plat (by segments), but it will be tough and I have learned it will be much easier to get Sapphire/Emerald on others, here for example BA:

ex-HEL (any OW carrier) 20TP for dis-Y 15 legs gives 300TP=bronze
20TP for 30 dis-Y legs = 600TP = silver
20TP for 75 legs = Gold / Emerald

-is the above correct regarindg TP's? Say, if I continue to run AY metal but crediting to BA, say discount Y tix HEL-TXL etc.
-the TP levels can be "speeded up" fast if sometimes can do HEL-LHR for 80TP?
-the downside is, for longhaul Y, only 35TP
-the nuisance of 4 required legs on BA shall be easy to snag at any point since it has not be BA metal
-EDIT: hmm, what about my Flybe flights in Finland which are quite some, I am not clear if they earn avios and TP?

FFlash

Uups. I forgot about LHR in previous post and the picture posted by intuition

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22093369-post12.html

remymartin

What's your primary intention? To do less than 80 segments per year and reach OWE? If so, BA Gold might be better for you. But reading between the lines, it sounds like most of your flights are AY operated. Deep discount flights only net 25% Avios without any sort of tier bonus on AY. Let's say you do HEL-ARN/TMP/TKU whatever - that'll net you 125 Avios per segment (thanks to the minimum miles before the 75% slash), but then again HEL-TXL will only net you 174 Avios!

75 * ((125+174)/2)) will get you 11212.5 Avios and OWE status. That's pathetic

In summary - unless you're prepared to shift atleast some business over to BA, it might not be that good an idea. You will lose your vouchers and not gain much as your home airport doesn't even have an F lounge.

FFlash

Flying mostly AY yes, alternatives are AB (who offer statusmatch BTW) and BA (what else from HEL?).

Pathetic yeah, I care less about miles than status for 2 simple reasons: redemptions are always bad (I prefer use them on upgrades) and I get more miles/points from credit cards every year than flying.

I am pretty sure I will not come up to AY Plat for the next period anyway, so I think OWS I have more easily secured at BA or AA, with option left open for OWE. Last I reached AY plat by booking some additional private trips on AY which I would have done on LCC otherwise.

Why I am intrigued to BA now is just opportunism: they have all year around great fare campaigns which can allow one to gain bunch of avios and TP which can easily bump me then to OWE. As comparison, I can at best look for AY J to BKK/etc with a nuisance positioning flight to ARN etc. And I think I've seen [B]remymartin[B] posting examples on this contra AY's favor?

Secondly it is all aboout fun optimizing even the smallest bits, right?

For AA I would easily match the challenge, but then I am not sure if I can keep the card. AA is very tempting though, I could earn 500 minimum miles even on the cheapo short legs, 100% cattle class longhaul, 100% Plat bonus and maybe more which I am not very well aware yet. People also tell it is better program for redeeming. But I have very little to fly to US and BA is therefore more natural.

PS: AY Sapphire is to me pretty much the same as any OW Sapphire = not worth the requirement to chase. AY Plat has very good perks though IF you can use them all, and if you can reach that level (more difficult than BA/AA).
PS2: Can anyone comment with experience about if Flybe flights in Finland qualify? If not, then I may end up keeping those AY and perhaps 24-leg AY ruby + BA(/AA) S combo if doable.

WilcoRoger

If you can somehow squeeze in 4 AA coded flights, than AA is your friend - 80 AY legs are ca. 80k miles (100%), but with status it is double, so OWE is easy-peasy.

With BA, you'll also get OWE status, but only 25% avios, which sucks, if you're after those. Still, it's easier to fly 4 legs on BA than on AA within Europe. All it takes is a HEL-LHR-xxx-LHR-HEL. You could even sell it to your travel dep't

Flying just one (leisure) J trip ex-HEL to e.g via LHR to Japan brings a bucketful of Avios AND 480 TPs (!)

Domestic Flybe are qualifying only if they are AY code "operated by BE". BE codes doesn't qualify.

nordic

Only those Flybe flights qualify which carry AY code and not BE code. So neither flights to MHQ, JYV,KEM, KAJ and KOK nor flights to NRK and TAY qualify. At present it it is unsure which company will operate these current BE flighrs in the future and what will be the deal with AY after the break-up with BE.