I'm an Australian-based BD*G; membership is reassessed on 23 November. I am about 20k status miles short of requalifying for BD*G.
As the title states, at the moment I have about 31k in destination miles, but I am planning to have a lot of *A travel to come up (between 33k-40k BIS miles all in late October/early November this year), hopefully most if not all in classes which earn 1x BIS miles for BD. (Some of these miles are part of non-charter flights related to SMD2
).
The question is: should I put these all to my BD balance, or should I jump ship now to another *A FFP? Likely candidates if I jump are AC or A3 on the basis of redemptions; TK and OZ don't seem hot on redemptions but are good for *G status longevity.
My only thought is that if I put all of my travel to BD, firstly I'll requalify for BD*G. When DC gets enveloped by M&M, not sure how long my status will last after that, but that's another issue. What I'm more seeing is that say I have a miles balance of 71k after November this year. I'm looking at the award chart and seeing some possible premium (J or F) awards using miles+cash (or F awards, I may need to consider one-way awards). I have no particular
location I am aiming for an award, but rather I would be aiming to try as many different premium products with an award (and longhaul would be nice). Of course, availability of premium award seats will be another issue....
note to self: sign up for ANA and get onto availability tool...
One idea I can see is a Z9-Z2 award one-way in F using cash+points... could reverse it if it means better lounges / ground service opportunities. Could even splash on an LH F award since adding 10k would still be affordable...
On the other hand, 30k miles is enough for a Y Z9-Z9 r/t award; possibly J if I use miles+cash, but taxes on a Z9-Z9 can be high relative to the cash-only cost, and I think NZ is removing J from a lot of its routes that would fall within Z9.
I haven't purchased any BD miles yet this year.
So, does anyone think my BD build & burn idea has merit, or should I definitely start turning to another FFP?
P.S. sorry for the long post.