Originally Posted by
show_me_the_points
Oneworld ruby through American Airlines. Seems strange to offer different benefits to their own silver members vs. Ruby folks.. Must cause some confusion. In any case we might ask anyways and see what they say.
Not strange at all. Lots of airlines offer a special benefit to their own lowest tier members that they don't extend across the alliance. If lounge access is important on your trip, I'd strongly suggest getting one of the many credit cards with Priority Pass, It's useless in JFK because QR is in T8 with AA, and it's pretty crap in the US for the most part, but in DOH you'd definitely have options. In JFK itself I don't know you actually have any options except an Admirals Club day pass, which I think is very overpriced for the slim benefit. Unless your layover is extremely long, there's no way you'd get $79 (per person) in benefit from an Admirals Club vs. the terminal.
Originally Posted by
KingCanute
I'm not sure it's all that unusual for FF programmes to offer some different/additional benefits or priorities to their own members, over and above what any oneworld status might include. I can think of several straight away with different airlines. Perhaps AA offer their OWR level members some other benefits that members of other airline's programmes can't access?
AA treat their own OWR equally as poorly as other OWR, you get exactly the scarce OWR published benefits. The only real benefit for an AA Gold over another OWR is the ~1% chance of a domestic upgrade, assuming no CK, EXP, PPro, or PLT on the plane also eligible for the upgrade. Oh, and you can also select a (likely middle) MCE seat 24 hours before the flight.