Hi
I am keen to take advantage of a OW RTW fare, preferably an AONE3 or AONE4. I've read through countless threads and spent many hours deciphering all sorts of intricacies however I am still a little uncertain of a couple of matters; I'm hoping the FT community can help me before I have a mental breakdown!
Q1. When I visit the OW International website, in some sections it prices the fares based on miles (eg. up to 34K miles for F/J), whereas other sections refer to the typical xONEx style. Can anyone explain which one is applicable, where and when? I would much prefer to adopt the xONEx style to optimise status.
Q2. One of the main outcomes from the AONEx for me is to achieve OWE Emerald status so that I can 'flounge' around. While I am currently a SG QFF member and hold a reasonable number of points to my name, I'm well aware that AA Advantage is the best FF program for value (miles redemption, upgrades etc). I am more than willing to consider joining and credit the AONEx to AAA for these reasons, however I have the following concerns:
A) Although the whole OW premise is that you can fly any partner airline and receive all the benefits of your OW status, different airlines impose different earn rates when using other OW aircraft. For example, BA transatlantic gets you a massive zero AA EQP, while some Qantas flights will only attract 50% EQP. The latter is not such a problem since all J/F earns at the same rate among OW partners it seems, but does it mean that I have to either fly on AA metal or on an AA code share flight to attract full AAA earning? If so, clearly AA cannot meet everyone's travel requriements in all continents on AA metal at all times, nor can AA offer codeshares on all flights either. So how do you get around this problem of not being able to credit every flight to the one FFP? Similarly, would QFF have the same status/points earning on a AONEx with partner airlines?
B) Assuming I fly an AONEx that has 45000 miles and that I undertake the Platinum challenge with all flights credited to AAA, how will I manage to attain EXP/OWE Emerald?? Even with the bonus earn rate via the Platinum challenge (100%) it seems I will still fall short of the magic 100K miles required for EXP. On the other hand, if all of the flights were credited to QFF, I'd have QFF Platinum status about 2/3rds the way through the trip. I could then push out the final third of travel for 11-12 months later to coincide with my next assessment period and requalify for QFF Platinum for another year.
C) Lets assume I am now AAA EXP with 100K+ miles to my name and I want to redeem flights within Australia on QF. From what I've read, the QF flights I choose must have an AA codeshare, otherwise its not available. Well from my inital checks, it seems MEL-PER (as an example) offers a single daily AA codeshare however there is no return codeshare available!! What is the point of then holding AA status and redeeming points in Australia if you then can't use them at all, or only on very selected flights which may not match your timeframe requirements? Wouldn't I then be better off retaining QFF despite the reduced points value?
D) From what I can tell, the major drawcards of EXP status in the AAA program are:
1) Points redemption value
2) 8 x eVIP upgrades (AA metal, and subject to availability)
3) US domestic compimentary or cheap upgrades
From all the research I've done, I concur with the first point (although question C poses an issue for Oz based travel). The second point however, is probably an exceptional benefit. Would I be right in assuming that since the 8 eVIP upgrades can be used on AA metal both domestically and internationally, I could then choose to upgrade the longest possible international economy flights to maximise this value? That could account for up to $30-40K if you were to purchase these as outright upgrades alone . This sounds too good to be true... If so, what is the availability like to do so?
Q3. Everything I read not only suggests but factually proves that the AA RTW is the cheapest primarily due to the way they treat fuel fines (or lack thereof!). On a AONEx the difference in fuel fines is nothing to be sneezed at (~$2-3K?) so I'm pretty keen to book with the AA RTW desk in Brisbane. Asuming I wanted to credit everything to QFF though, surely you'd have to have a minimum number of miles/flights flown on AA metal/codeshares for it to be booked? Can anyone tell me what this minimum criteria is?
Q4. I am aware that LHR whacks a hefty kick in fines/extras, but are there any other airports I should steer clear of if I don't really need to be there?
Q5. Would MileageMonkey and SeatCounter.com suffice to determine First Class availability? Or would I need to purchase software like KVS or EF?
Thanks in advance, GM.