Originally Posted by
duncgor
I recently did a comparison between getting OW emerald with QR as considering switching from BAEC.
similar to you I fly largely Y in discounted seats. Currently Sapphire but will make Gold this year, couple of personal short haul J tickets to help get over the line with BAEC.
ive attached my spreadsheet for you for comparison between my flying pattern if was QR or BA. Lower tiers very similar but Emerald seems much easier on Qatar so you likely want to do a similar comparison on your own flying patterns if status your primary driver as you may find you miss it with other OW partners.
Thanks so much, this is super helpful! I never did anything near so systematic to optimize my flight activity (despite working as an academic in a quantitative field): Your data clearly highlight that QR is offering an easy path to OWE compared to BAEC (and QF as well based on an simpler order of magnitude estimate). Easy OWE with AA is gone as well given the spending requirements, which are hard to meet for primarily discounted-Y flyers.
Thus, reflecting on the excellent posts here and on my own experience, I think that overall QR PC still represents a good solution for my flight pattern. Redemptions might be poor value (not used QR miles for free flights yet as I still have UA miles that needs to be burned), but to compensate, I have never failed to clear a MEL-DOH-MEL upgrade (advance+at the airport), which is a huge plus for me as it makes going to Europe a much more pleasant experience than sitting in Y.