Originally Posted by alwaysinvogue
Hmmm, interesting advice BenSyd. I've made sure to get a "B" class ticket for one full leg, which having done all my research, I think will send me straight to Platinum (given I'm flying Milan-Heathrow-Singapore-Brisbane).
And the reason I was going to keep accruing credits to gain Silver was because there's a good chance I might also go on to qualify for Gold (if I only attribute one long haul flight to AA that is). Is there really no point even trying to get from Bronze to Silver? I've never tried to get an upgrade using points, but I thought I had absolutely no chance of getting an upgrade whilst Bronze? Any thoughts greatly appreciated!!
There is no benefit in getting QF Silver if you are AA Platinum that I can see and no point in wasting the miles to get to QF Gold. The only benefit that QF Gold has is that you would get lounge access when travelling domestically within the USA.
I would recommend taking the Platinum Challenge on the outbound and attain AA Platinum on the outbound sector LHR-SIN and then continue to accrue there and use the benefits. HAving 44073 miles in AA would be more useful than accruing 21475 miles in AA plus 11164 miles added to QF and 80SCs.
It is easier to upgrade as a QF Silver member, but consider that 120,000k AA miles will get you a free return flight in business from MXP-BNE whilst it would cost 192,000 QF miles just to upgrade the QF sectors from an economy fare to business class
If paying for a B fare, have you considered flying on BAs World Traveller Plus rather than spending that money for an economy seat. It is much more pleasant than economy plus also gets a 10% mileage bonus too. The B class BA/QF fare from MXP-BNE is AUD3133 plus tax and the BA T class WT+ fare from MXP-SYD is AUD3132 plus you would have to add AUD120-240ish for the SYD-BNE sector. A small increase in cost for a decent increase in comfort
Dave