<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jrussell:
Since Q points are important to you, keep in mind that all AA flights to Canada and the Carribean are J class as are almost all CX flights intra-Asia as well as all QF flights in Australia and trans-Tasman. AA gives 1.25 Q's for J(D) vs. 1.5 for F(A). Hagbard Viking's excellent routing will actually net about 96,000 Q points.</font>
AKL-SYD is available in F (QF 116 for 2007 Q miles, I am booked on this flight even though it leaves at a 6am just to get the 744 trans-Tasman). ORD/STL/DFW-ANC is in F, and some of the SJU flights have F. So does HKG-NRT and a few other CX asian flights (DPS does not, it is operated 2-class even when with 3-class aircraft). I think it is possible to get 100K Qmiles with little difficulty or compromises in scheduling. I have an AONE6 booked which will get 120K Qmiles and I could route to get 146K Qmiles with only slight difficulty (I suspect maximum possible is about 160K Qmiles but it detracts from the enjoyment of the trip). Unfortunately several airlines are dropping first class (and sometimes even business class!) and this trend may accelerate in the next few months (e.g. LanChile which had first when I purchased my ticket, but now has dropped it from many routes).