Originally Posted by
tom911
Alaska would seem like a good fit. Just like AA, you accrue miles on Alaska based on the distance flown, so having 2/3 of your travel being leisure travel I don't see how you could go wrong there. The upside is that they have a host of partners (AA, DL, BA, Qantas, Cathay) and Alaska's relationship with AA has actually improved some the last few years with limited lounge access and reciprocal elite benefits (early boarding, seat selection) should you fly beyond 25K.
Before moving to Alaska, though, I'd work on getting those 17K with AA up to 25K so you can at least use them for a domestic round trip (or 20K if you want to use them within Europe or within/between Australia/New Zealand for a round trip). AA does offer off-peak travel for 40K round trip and if you wanted to go to Europe or South America you could credit Alaska miles there until you hit your goal. You don't want to write off the 17K you spent some time building up.
I noticed that you didn't mention AA Gold/OW Ruby at 25k - is the (unwritten) implication that the status is fairly useless?
25% bonus on EQM is okay, as well as 50% off MCE+. But I feel like the latter is simply an ability to pay less money to make an AA seat as good as a B6 standard coach seat. I tend to carry on, so none of the other benefits really convince me:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html
Possibly the nicest part of AA they will credit 100% of Asian trips on AA marketed CX metal, even at discount fare codes like Q. Under the rules as I understand them, I'd be missing out on 14,000 miles a year if I were MVP.
If/when switching to AS, when is the best time to status match AA Gold to AS MVP?
Thank you--I tried to read the forums thoroughly to answer any questions but I'm still learning!