Originally Posted by
ggonzaga
A friend of mine told me the same thing, that I should get status with British Airways and that way I'll have access to ACs even flying domestic. It feels like now would be the time to get started on that since it's just the beginning of the year and I only have around 6,000 EQMs in my AAdvantage account. However, I did a quick search and it looks like BA Executive Club Silver and Gold requires you to fly British Airways at least 4x per year. I could get away with flying with them 2x a year if I know I'm going to Europe, but I don't want to feel forced to fly to Europe just to maintain status each year. I travel often enough to Europe but it's never something that's programmed each year. Also, I am told that if you're oneworld emerald through AA you'd get better treatment/higher priority when flying AA in terms of upgrades and IRROPS than if you became oneworld emerald through BA and flew AA.
Remember that BA marketed flights (BA flight number, but other airline like AA operating), as well as BA operated flights themselves count toward the requirement. So if you buy a ticket with BA that has an AA codeshare flight (with a BA flight number, but on an AA plane), that counts toward the requirement, so you just need to make sure it's a multi-segment trip, with perhaps a couple of domestic segments on AA that have BA flight numbers.