Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
Originally Posted by ChenQS
Originally Posted by
Ro_Laren
If each member of Oneworld calculates there frequent flier miles differently, then how do they convert the miles from one airline's frequent flier mile program to another???? For example, if you're lucky and can get an American Airline Economy transatlantic flight from N. America to Europe it takes 30,000 miles. But, I thought on British Airways's web-site it says that a transatlantic flight from N. America to Europe costs 50,000 miles. Am I correct in assuming that BA wouldn't take 50,000 of your AA miles to fly with them on a transatlantic flight, but would take 30,000 or some other similar converted amount? Does anyone know the conversion between AA and the other Oneworld Partners?
I speculate that the difference is due to the different units in use. This is my pure speculation and it seems to be supported by the numbers you listed. I admit that I did not check records to verify it. Folks with more knowledge please correct me if I am wrong.
Here is a bit more detail of my speculation. Mile is a prevailing distance unit in the United States, but pretty much in all of the rest of the world, the prevailing distance unit is Kilometer. The mileage of most FF programs of many Asian or European airlines is actually based on Kilometer. But people tend to use Mile when they really mean Kilometer, probably because the Americans use Mile, and also because "Mile" is shorter and easier to say than "Kilometer". The relation between these two units are: 1 Mile = 1.6 Kilometer. So 30,000 AA Mile ~= 50,000 BA Mile, and hence the AA award and the BA award are roughly at the same level. Remember what I just said, BA Mile probably means Kilometer.
That's not it at all.
Each FFP sets its own requirements for reward redemptions (even on partner carriers), including number of miles/points/kilometers needed for a particular redemption, stopover rules, zone definitions, change fees, etc.
For a one-way award from North America to London -- on either AA or BA -- BA charges
25,000 miles year round in Coach, plus a fuel surcharge. (The BA award charts list the miles required for a
roundtrip award.) For the same one-way Coach award, AA will charge either 20,000 or 30,000 miles, depending on season, but will only assess a fuel surcharge if one flies on BA metal to London.
It's not unusual for two different airlines to charge different amounts of miles for the exact same redemption on the exact same airplane(s).
How much one airline actually pays another when a partner award is issued is something known only to the airlines.