TIMOS

Hey Guys

I'm Aussie and I live in the US and have recently switched from United to American. I used to fly United back to Sydney from LAX and book E and upgrade to Biz with miles and copay. Now I have switched to American and Oneworld I will be flying Qantas.

However I have no points with them to upgrade from PremEcon to Biz.

I will by flying back to SYD twice a year and I could add my QF Frequent Flyer # to bank the miles/points to Qantas. And earn ahout 22,000 Qantas points on each round trip.

However as I want to gain/keep my Platinum status with AA - I need to put my AAdvantage number on the reservation - to earn AA PQM and earn status.

So that means I;ll earn AA redeemable miles instead of QF redeemable points.

Is there a way I can earn the QF redeemable points but make the flights count towards my AA Premeire elite status qualifying?

What about another way to earn Qantas points living in the US. I am Aussie. Can I get an Aussie credit card living here in the US and point my parents Aussie address?

Or is there a program here in the US that has QF as a transfer partner?

Many thanks

Dave Noble

You either collect to AA or collect to QF ; you cannot do both

You will likely be much better off crediting to AA and ideally book on the AA codeshare

LAX-SYD r/t can earn 29.,952 miles to AA ( esp if on the codeshare) . Consider that 125,000 is enough for a business class return - so 4.2 r/ts will get a business class return

Crediting without status to Qantas would earn 14,796. The cost to upgrade r/t from economy to business would be 144,000 points return. 9.73 r/s will earn enough for an upgrade to business from economy


I would suggest forgetting about upgrades using Qantas points and just redeem for free business class travel ( plus taxes )

TIMOS

Thanks for the info!

How does a roundtrip booked through AA earn 29k miles on American?

It's about 7500 miles each way - so roundtrip would earn 15,000 miles.

I am Gold right now with AA so I'd get a 25% bonus but even so that's still only about 15,000 + 3750 = 18750 - not sure where you are getting 29,000?

I tried to book direct with AA codeshare but they couldn't book Prem Econ only E Biz and F. So I had to book direct with Qantas. Even so I think AA gives me a 10% bonus for being in Prem Econ - so it's actually 15,000 + 3750 + 1500 = 20,250 miles.

Still short of the 29k you say. But I hear you....

Dave Noble

In your post you said that you wanted to earn/maintain your platinum status - so based it on the Platinum 100% bonus ; ( 7488 miles each way with 100% bonus = 7488*4 = 29952 ) ; if in Premium economt add another 749 miles each way

If you are currently Gold, then would be 7488 + 749 for premium economy plus 1872 for Gold = 10109 each way for a total of 20218

If you are only gold at the moment , I would heartily recommend taking the AA platinum challenge if travelling Premium Economy. Costs USD250 to sign up but your single LAX-SYD flight would complete the challenge and give you Platinum status ; you would then have the benefits such as lounge access and 100% bonus miles for the flight home ( extra 5616 miles )


If booking Premium Economy or higher, then book directly on Qantas anyway

For discount economy the AA codeshare is beneficial since it earns a base of 100% miiles regardless of fare rather than being 25%/50% for discount economy fares booked on QF number

Once at K class or higher , then book QF itself

Mwenenzi

Is living in USA long term? Do you have QF points? Why would anyone bother with the QF ffp? Forget about the QF ffp. Its a very poor ffp, especially if living in the USA.

Just do enough to keep your QF points from expiring, before you burn them. Get your parents to use your Woolies "everyday rewards card" to spend $31 about once per year. Or yourself when back

You can use your QF points to upgrade a family member flying a QF flight crediting to AA. That family member can be yourself - select brother

There are many USA credit cards that credit to AA

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-platinum.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-rtw-trip.html AA or QF in some posts
http://www.australianfrequentflyer.c...-aa-61894.html Answer: twice
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17608634-post2.html Post 2

docbert

Renting a car with Avis (or sometimes Budget, but many rates don't earn) is great for this - 700 miles for what can on occasion be a $20-30 one-day rental.

s0ssos

fYI there is very poor availability from the US to Australia in premium class for awards. Go to AA's website and try to find them.

SeriouslyLost

I've never had much problem booking them myself, although it sometimes takes a while to find what you want.

That said, I'd just agree with the rest of what has been said: credit to AA, not QF, if living in the US. If a person has PLT status with AA then it just makes sense. If they don't have PLT/ExPLT then do a challenge on the first flight and go from there. I've still got some QF points lying about. I use a credit card to pay for a magazine sub each year in order to keep them active while I eventually remember to use them.

s0ssos

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....-class-awards/

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...tralia-a-myth/

http://travelsort.com/blog/qantas-fi...d-availability

It is commonly stated that there is poor availability using AA miles trans-Pacific to Australia. I have found the same in my experience.

garethlewis

switch to AA unless you're close to lifetime gold and want those benefits with affiliated airline partners

Dave Noble

The availability is poor due to the lack of award seats offered ; it is not that AA has worse availability

The only aspect where AA is at a disadvantage is that QF sells seats from 355 prior to departure whilst AA only permits flight bookings at 330 days prior to departure and so those that are redeeming from a scheme where award bookings are permitted at > 330 days have a head start

For anyone trying to make bookings at 330 days or closer to departure there is no disadvantage using AA miles

docbert

Doesn't Qantas still allocate some seats only to Gold (and silver?) QFF members? Are they available to status passengers on AA too?

Dave Noble

bIn the past, I have found that as long as there are seats available to Gold members, then there has been availability to AA members ( regardless of status )

Rather than there being additional availability to gold members, QF has just restricted availability to those without status within its own scheme

A non status member of AA has had better availability than a non status QF member

mia

Citi ThankYou Rewards points can now be transferred 1:1 to Qantas Frequent Flyer if you have a USA-issued Citi Prestige, Premier or (discontinued) Chairman credit card. Details here:

https://www.thankyou.com/pointsTrans...itemId=1867669

Flyertalk Citi | ThankYou Rewards forum HERE.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-...-partners.html

Auscal

Just a quick point to the OP - book a Qantas reward flight and you get hammered by various fees & taxes, AA does not have these level of charges.