If I were you, I'll probably do the same or I'll save my points as they no longer expire and cumulate enough to fly on Int'l F/J award sometimes.

I am uncertain of what you mean. You said your answer to my question: "Are you better off(under new QF FF program)?" is a No, then you talk about Ashley's situation and said he/she is quite O.K. but Silvers like you is so so and then normal F/J Pax are treated badly if not Platinum. So who are you speaking for? For yourself or for Platinum members in general? Is your answer No refering to Platinum members or yourself?

Well, for flying 2500 status credits to get only one RT upgrade from SYD/LHR is hardly a good deal from a North-American perspective. That's about 4 RT between SYD/LHR in First Class, which is about 150,000 Q miles. For me, this would have translated into 30 upgrade certificates good for 15 Round-trips between Sydney and London on Air Canada's Executive First Class (a hybrid of First Class and Business Class product) from most discounted economy fares. You have to connect via Canada which makes it longer, but product wise, because it's a hybrid of First and Business Class product, it is better than the standard Business class of Qantas in my opinion. But, I don't think it's fair to compare Australia to elsewhere because the programs there are made to fit the needs of people residing there. Thus the example I gave above for Air Canada is just for the sake of argument, it is not a fair comparison simply because I don't live in Australia. If I live in Australia, I probably would face different options, some new resources may be available but some old favorites may no longer be possible.

Nonetheless, you raise a very good point. What alternatives do I have if I were you living in Australia? One thing I notice that almost all frequent flyers tend to be worse off when comparing to FF living in North America just because we have much more exposure to all types of fancy stuff and competition is much fierce here. By contrast, Aussies have much, much cheaper airfares in comparison. A flight SYD-JFK-SYD can be as low as $A1300 whereas the same flights starting JFK-SYD-JFK would have been more than double of that amount. Please note that in no way am I encouraging anyone of you to leave Qantas. I want to make it clear that this is a great airline and it posseses qualities that cannot be replaced by foreign carriers for Australian residents. That being said, I think if I live in Australia and would have to travel often to overseas, then here is what I would do:

- I won't choose Qantas as my FF program. Rather, I would choose AAdvantage as my account of choice whenever possible.

- I will get access accross Qantas Clubs due to Oneworld status, Sapphire or Emerald - thus no need to struggle for Qantas Club membership.

- I will earn 200% of the actual distance flown + class of service bonus + any other bonuses guaranteed on all Oneworld flights or AA marketed flights.

- AAdvantage has an extensive reward network which includes award travel to virtually anywhere in the world on great airlines.

- Reward charts are much less expensive than Qantas by a lot, so no debate here. For example, from SYD-JFK-SYD in F, it would cost me more than double of the required mileage on QF points than AA miles under the new QF program <-This is crazy considering that QF operates those flights and it should have been cheaper for their own members.

- I would most probably keep the same choice of airlines for my travel plan as I stay in Oneworld, no hassle here.

- Alternatively, BA Executive Club is also good, if you intend to travel on lots of long-haul F rewards between the continents when you have free time. In that sense, BA beats out AA for its even cheaper mileage requirement, as low as 140,000 miles for between Australia/New Zealand and Europe and/or North America. A sample itineary: SYD-(LHR)-((JFK))-(HKG)-SYD combining both BA and CX with stops ( ) at London and Hong Kong and destination = JFK (( )). All this in F for only 140,000 BA Executive Club miles. This is not a OW RTW ticket! This is a regular BA joint award with CX which explains why the mileage requirement is so low. If you don't intend to do those long trips in your free time, then AA is a better deal for you for more flexibility and lots more partners such as Air Pacific, Air Tahiti Nui, Swissair and more.

- After 1 million miles with AA, you get lifetime Gold membership. After 2 million miles, you get lifetime Platinum membership. It doesn't have to be flying mileage, miles from credit cards hotels and others count toward the calculation of lifetime status.


[This message has been edited by Guava (edited 07-27-2001).]