Originally Posted by Jack Burton

Hello all. I am based in NYC, and generally fly domestic, but I also travel outside the US 1-2x every month.

For the past few years, AA has been my chosen oneworld program. In just the past few months, I have flown AA, Qantas, BA, Mexicana and JAL, with all points going to AA.

But, a few times this year, I had to use my Qantas FF# for BA flights where AA also ran the same route, which of course were not points eligible on AA,...ie, NYC to London.

So, since I'm sure there are others here who face the same issue from time to time, I was curious which program people use as a oneworld backup, and why...Qantas or BA?

I do not currently have a point balance in BA, whereas I have about 50K in my Qantas FF. Going forward though, I would consider making BA my backup instead and then using the Qantas points before they expire. For the sake of this argument, I don't consider the current Qantas points a deal breaker in moving over to BA.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by wijibintheair

Question on this after reading a few of the posts above:
Let's say AA is your primary card - you reach EXP and then decide to reach lets say silver status on BA as a back-up. Now reading the threads above a couple say that you do this to enable lounge access in the US. What is the situation though if I book a flight lets say JFK - MIA on AA metal with an AA number - do I need to have my BA card number entered for that booking to gain access to the AC, or do you still use your AA number - i.e. chance of upgrade, bonus miles etc and just present your BA card at AC for access - surely that would not be allowed? Just curious!