Originally Posted by
drvannostren
As far as your flying goes, I believe the mileage requirement is 36,000 with A3 for that first qualification plus 6 A3 segments, as you have to complete both the silver and gold requirements. I know the 6 A3 segments would knock the miles down, but what kind of RT J are you talking about that would earn say, 25,000+ miles? I probably wouldn't be able to afford it either way, but even just getting my 25,000 miles I need for OZ has proven to be not as easy as I'd hoped. Even my J flight from IAD-GRU and back is only getting me like 12,500 in J. There's a lot of fare classes, at least I thought so when I looked, between OZ/A3/TK that don't earn much. I love CM because even their basic economy gets me 70% to OZ, so like LAX-PTY-GRU (as punishing as that might be in economy) nets like 4,300 each way. But the lowest business class fare only goes up to 100%, so not that much more. I'm HOPING my UA P maps to a better class on CM, at 100% I'm good, but hopefully it's 125%. Point being, like a nice UA P fare probably isn't getting it done, as even SFO-SYD RTN in P would only get like 15,000.
Ah yes you’re absolutely right
Hence I’m still mulling over whether to go TK or A3. That probably depends on where my top-priority leisure destinations in the next 2-3 years will be. It does seem trickier though if your *A flying is mostly in the Americas vs EU/Asia regions. There’re some good deals (sub 2K) e.g. TAP/TK where business class earnings can be 150-200% between either EU-US or EU-Asia, knowing to avoid the dreaded P class, and I’ve been using something like that + PE flights to do OZ status. I’m kind of leaning towards A3 though and probably will have to do it in 2 stages: silver then gold as the prospect of needing only 4 segments + 12K every 12-month period for maintenance after the initial qualification hump is enticing. (A *Gold from TK status match that lasts 2 years should make it more palatable during the status building years.)