Originally Posted by jrobin
I recently used a BA/QANTAS RTW in K class, with routing LHR-SIN-MEL-BNE-SYD-CBR-MEL-SYD-NAN-LAX-YYZ-LHR
This produced 280 status credits, or about 50% of the status credits for QF Gold renewal.
Had it been credited to AA, my calculation is 23925 EQP, which is also about 50% of the EQP for Platinum renewal.
So in this example of flying K class, crediting to AA is not clearly better. Not clearly worse either, but one cannot say it is better from a status renewal perspective.
I disagree. Again it depends on your flying routes and airlines and classes.
Take the same route I just flew in K class. Had it been more discounted (L class or M class, (or V or R)), the AA EQP by my calculation would be about 13,470 or a bit over 1/4 of the amount needed for renewal of AA Platinum, yet if crediting to QF, it still earns 280 SC, or about half the number needed for renewal.
So in this case for a person flying "average discount economy" QF is far superior: only ~2 RTW needed crediting to QF in discount economy vs ~4RTW crediting to AA to retain Sapphire status.
And even if I retained Platinum status I would not get into AC lounges on NA flights. And even if I happened to do 3 RTW one year, QF status would be assured, but I know the chances of AA deciding to renew me anyway.
If retaining status over the longer haul is desirable, and annual flying averages a bit over 600SC on QF, but does not reach 600 every year, QF may be a better program to retain status, again depending on your flying pattern.
So despite much wistful reading of the glories of crediting with AA (and the short-term points I agree would be worth more) I have not yet been able to convince myself that it makes sense for me to change; i.e. QF Gold seems easier for me to renew than AA Platinum.
I am very open to learning about errors in my assessment.
Not sure how you are doing your calculations, but the routing you mentioned should produce 235 status credits, not 280.
Code:
LHR (51°28'39"N 00°27'41"W) SIN (01°21'01"N 103°59'40"E) 6765 mi
SIN (01°21'01"N 103°59'40"E) MEL (37°40'24"S 144°50'36"E) 3743 mi
MEL (37°40'24"S 144°50'36"E) BNE (27°23'03"S 153°07'03"E) 857 mi
BNE (27°23'03"S 153°07'03"E) SYD (33°56'46"S 151°10'38"E) 467 mi
SYD (33°56'46"S 151°10'38"E) CBR (35°18'25"S 149°11'42"E) 147 mi
CBR (35°18'25"S 149°11'42"E) MEL (37°40'24"S 144°50'36"E) 292 mi
MEL (37°40'24"S 144°50'36"E) SYD (33°56'46"S 151°10'38"E) 439 mi
SYD (33°56'46"S 151°10'38"E) NAN (17°45'19"S 177°26'36"E) 1970 mi
NAN (17°45'19"S 177°26'36"E) LAX (33°56'33"N 118°24'29"W) 5519 mi
LAX (33°56'33"N 118°24'29"W) YYZ (43°40'38"N 79°37'50"W) 2175 mi
YYZ (43°40'38"N 79°37'50"W) LHR (51°28'39"N 00°27'41"W) 3556 mi
Also you need to take into account the 500 minimums for the AA programme which again will push the earning up to around 26500 EQPs for the above routing. This therefore means you are 53% of the way to requalifying or earning AA Plat, and on QF you would be 39% of the way to requalifying QF Gold (33% to earning QF Gold).
This therefore means that even your above example would have been much better off crediting to AA.
FWIW, the QF status credit earning table can be found here:
http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/...ivileges#jump1
Finally, (using your extreme example) if you were to move everything down to L class you would drop to just over 14000 EQPs which is still 28% of way to AA Plat which is much closer to the 33% of obtaining QF Gold. I should however point out that the most likely RTW fare would be a LONEx fare which allows the use of codeshares. A clued up flyer would use AA codeshares wherever possible thus again pushing the earning potential of AA past that of the QF programme.