Not sure if this has been discussed earlier. As a US-based traveler, I think I can take advantage of the credit card offering in the US and the following plan should get me Platinum (OWE) with Qatar Airways Privilege Club.
- Sign up for the premium QR credit card: 150 Qpoints, $499 annual fee
- Fly AA marketed, QR operated flights (CGK - DOH - JFK - DOH - CGK): 176 + 100 = 276 Qpoints, $3,000 in AA's R fare class, wide-open availability
- Fly CX flights to position myself to and from CGK (ICN/TPE/FOC/XMN - CGK - ICN/TPE/FOC/XMN): 60 to 68 Qpoints, $700 to $900, most likely in CX's P fare class, wide-open availability
- Fly 4 sectors of QR marketed and QR operated flights to meet the minimum QR flights requirement (OSL - DOH - HKG - DOH - OSL): 120 Qpoints, $2,300 to $2,500 in QR's R fare class, limited availability
Total cost should be around $6,600, including the credit card annual fee. I also put together a plan to qualify for Platinum (OWE) with Qantas Frequent Flyer (QFF) yesterday, with a similar cost. I had to ditch that plan because, thanks to an earlier comment in this thread, I realized that OWE/OWS from QFF doesn't get complimentary Main Cabin Extra on AA.
Re-qualification in subsequent years
only requires 540 Qpoints within the last12 months or 1080 Qpoints within the last 24 months. I'll worry about re-qualification later.
Did I miss anything? Can I do better with the 4 QR sectors?