<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Dave Noble:
I would suggest that perhaps it would be a good time to leach off of the AA scheme by taking the Platinum Challenge. Your flight , if booked as a single flight # through to London will complete the challenge giving you both platinum , plus the bonus as if you were platinum plus a 10% bonus for WT+...Total mile earning approx 24,000 ro London. Same again for the return plus bonuses for trading in earned upgrade credits will easily get you to around 55,000 miles. AA Platinum status will also give you OW Lounge access ( being OW Sapphire ).
35k is enough for a business class return from anywhere in AU/NZ to anywhere else in AU/NZ and 20k is enough for an economy.
If you like window seats and are travelling on a flight with the single seat in front row of WT+, then the row immediately behind is v good for window seats.
Dave</font>
Thanks for the advice Dave. Getting Platinum for one flight does sound very tempting. I've checked the timetable and the MEL-LHR sector is one flight number BA18.
To take the challenge do I have to have an AA account (likely) or can I do it on my QF account? Is booking early worthwhile, with regard to getting a good seat, or should I hold off and get an AA account to use with the booking?
Getting the additional points would be good. I'm already a QP member, so can access the lounges at the moment, although can I still do that with an AA number of my boarding pass?
Speaking of the QP, anyone travelling through SYD on Christmas Eve? I'm transferring from a Canberra flight to a Port Macquarie flight (arriving T3 at 1440 and departing T2 at 1540), so if anyone is at T2 that arvo, I'd like to say "G'day".
Cheers
Craig