Originally Posted by
kawaii
Thanks for the responses! This is helpful.
Do HKG-SHA or HKG-PEK count as domestic flights? I'm not sure how that would be considered?
For work, I'll likely be doing HKG-SHA often - at least once a month, if not more. I anticipate at least 8-10 HKG-TPE/KHH trips a year as well, and other vacation trips to Asia destinations. (Ideally, I get enough status/miles with the business trips to get upgrades or awards in J for the pleasure trips.)
For the status match, I am considering waiting until I've booked my J class ticket on CX before emailing them. I feel like with a booked itin in J, my ask for a status match may have greater effect than a hypothetical customer. Or should I just start the process now with CX, because it may take a while?
Will your work travel be paid J or Y?
By my math, assuming your 8-10 annual Taiwan trips are in addition to your monthly Shanghai trips, you should eventually get to GO on segments. A status match to SL would be a good start since it cuts out the need to rack up 20 segments before you reset and can make it to GO. I've never attempted a match, but there's a thread somewhere around here that should give you an idea of how best to try it.
The downside is that because AM tends to require a lot of miles for awards compared to other carriers, it'll be difficult for you to rack up enough miles solely from regional flying to do anything other than a short Y hop. I would also have a look at our credit card thread for easy ways to maximize your local CC earn to compensate. As someone who qualifies for GO on miles, I still find my CC earn is now in excess of my annual flight earn.