Originally Posted by
Parallax
Long time since I logged in! I'm getting very disillusioned with QFF, I'm giving up on crawling towards lifetime gold, and now I am based in London I think it's time for a change. Essentially, AA or BAEC?
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Reply: Upgrades, lounge access, award redemption rates
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Not necessarily preferred, but BA most frequently, then CX and AA
Any advice would be much appreciated.
For upgrades the general rule is you can only upgrade a flight marketed (flight number) and operated (metal) by the airline of your freq flyer programme (no codeshares). All subject to the t&c's of your FFP and your paid ticket. Low cost tickets are often not eligable for upgrades. However as is the way with FFP's there are some (expensive) upgrade exceptions with AA/BA/IB with higher priced economy fares.
For long haul award redemption rates AA wins by a big margin. BA is OK for short haul, but beware the YQ
AA plat challege may interest you