Originally Posted by
guv1976
felix1224 indicated that his priority is award availability and reasonable redemption rates,
not attaining status. If attaining status were his priority, then I might have suggested crediting to Iberia Plus.
Yes, there is uncertainty as to whether the AA and BA segments on this round-the-world ticket would credit to AAdvantage based on cost or distance. But for Economy Class travel from YYZ on oneworld, redeeming Avios rather than AAdvantage miles could require more "miles," would likely have carrier surcharges for travel to Europe or Asia, and would not have the free cancellation offered by AAdvantage awards. All of these are factors to be considered.
As an example, here is what AA wants for YYZ-ORD-HKG (AA/CX) on a random date in April:
The same itinerary, if available with BA Avios, would cost 60,000 Avios, plus not only the taxes which AA collects, but also the CX carrier surcharges -- which, in turn, would trigger some additional taxes.
One cannot just consider the earn rate for various FFPs without also considering the burn rate, plus carrier surcharges, if any.
Actually their post originated in another forum where I directed them to here, and in the other forum they were interested in status. Since the itinerary crosses membership years in most programs, QR is one of the few that still have a floating qualification period, it's 12 months from first QPoints. So they need to decide what's priority, lower cost long haul redemption or elite status. But maybe it's possible to get enough LPs in AA's membership year (March to February) to get AA status another way (Canadian resident so Citi card isn't likely an option) but perhaps some other OW tickets.
They do indicate that most flying is YYZ to east Asia. Most CX economy fares don't credit anything to AA, but PE and Business are decent. JL can be quite excellent credited to AA if buying Business, but even discount economy will net something in AA. Unlikely that flying on AA codes is beneficial and going across the Atlantic on normal fares (not RTW), AY is the only one left that still credits on distance but not sure that'll last long. Not sure if AT offers connecting itineraries to Europe or not, but they fly to YUL.
Originally Posted by
felix1224
May 2024 CAI-(LHR) via BA
May 2024 (LHR)-HEL via AY
May 2024 HEL-(JFK) via AY
May 2024 (JFK)-EZE via AA
Jun 2024 EZE-(MIA) via AA
Jun 2024 (MIA)-YYZ via AA
Dec 2024 YYZ-(DFW) via AA
Dec 2024 (DFW)-AKL via AA
Dec 2024 AKL-SYD via AA
Jan 2025 SYD-(BNE) via QF
Jan 2025 (BNE)-NRT via QF
Mar 2025 HND-(DOH) via QR
Mar 2025 (DOH)-CAI via QR
I finally had a chance to check this against QR. It'd be 491 QPoints and about 82,090 Avios. That is QR Gold status (OW Sapphire), you need 600 for QR Platinum (OW Emerald), but the catch is you need 4 segments on QR or 20% of your QPoints earned on QR, you're only at ~13% on this itinerary, so basically you'd need to find a way to get 2 more QR segments and hopefully another 109 QPoints. Maybe if you fly to CAI on QR (revenue ticket)? The down side is that QR economy from YYZ-CAI will only net about 30 QPoints each way, but would get your segments. If you change HEL-JFK to an AA code it doubles your earnings, you go from 30 QPoints on the AY code to 63 QPoints on the AA code and also double the Avios on the segment. That combined with YYZ-CAI and back on QR should get you to within 1-2 flights of Platinum, something you could do on AA segments from home.
Also looks like you could get 3,975 IB tier points for their mid-tier (OW Sapphire), their qualification year is May to April so would work with your itinerary.
With AS your 2024 flights would net about 47,000 EQMs and the total itinerary about 81,000 AS RDMs (Plus Elite bonus once reaching MVP and MVP Gold which I didn't calculate), You'd need to find an additional ~3,000 EQMs for MVP Gold and OW Sapphire.in 2024 since your 2025 flights are after the reset. (January to December qualification period)