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Attaining AS Elite Status with Hainan Airlines?

Attaining AS Elite Status with Hainan Airlines?

Old Mar 23, 2019, 1:56 pm
  #1  
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Attaining AS Elite Status with Hainan Airlines?

Is it just me or that flying with HU represents the fastest and probably the cheapest way to attain status with AS? There are lots of cheap economy and business class flights out of YVR to SZX, which is quite close to HKG. I'm not saying flying to SZX makes a lot of sense if timing is important and one needs to get to HKG. My question is flying with HU especially on business the cheapest and fastest way to attain MVP Gold? It requires 50,000 miles flown with an AS partner, which HU is. The cheapest business class fare is I, which gives 200%. According to GCMAP, YVR-SZX is about 12,754 miles round-trip, which with the bonus makes it 25,508 miles right? I see business class flights from about US$1900, which is pretty good. I'm mostly flying *A at the moment and I hope to attain *G with OZ very soon. I've also flown OW partners like CX recently, which I credited to BA, which I should never have and instead put it on AS. Anyways, I'm now leaning on focusing on both OZ and AS in the future. What do you guys think? CA have lots of cheap business class fares to Asia so I don't anticipate attaining *G. Assuming my understanding of AS is correct, I can attain MVP Gold with as little as 2 round-trips flying HU?

I'm not too familiar with HU. I spent a little bit of time and see where else HU flies to, but without much success finding cheap J fares that covers long distance. Any other suggestions for HU routes that are long and in the US$2k range?
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 2:53 pm
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Originally Posted by lsquare
Is it just me or that flying with HU represents the fastest and probably the cheapest way to attain status with AS? There are lots of cheap economy and business class flights out of YVR to SZX, which is quite close to HKG. I'm not saying flying to SZX makes a lot of sense if timing is important and one needs to get to HKG. My question is flying with HU especially on business the cheapest and fastest way to attain MVP Gold? It requires 50,000 miles flown with an AS partner, which HU is. The cheapest business class fare is I, which gives 200%. According to GCMAP, YVR-SZX is about 12,754 miles round-trip, which with the bonus makes it 25,508 miles right? I see business class flights from about US$1900, which is pretty good. I'm mostly flying *A at the moment and I hope to attain *G with OZ very soon. I've also flown OW partners like CX recently, which I credited to BA, which I should never have and instead put it on AS. Anyways, I'm now leaning on focusing on both OZ and AS in the future. What do you guys think? CA have lots of cheap business class fares to Asia so I don't anticipate attaining *G. Assuming my understanding of AS is correct, I can attain MVP Gold with as little as 2 round-trips flying HU?

I'm not too familiar with HU. I spent a little bit of time and see where else HU flies to, but without much success finding cheap J fares that covers long distance. Any other suggestions for HU routes that are long and in the US$2k range?
Only base mile and class of service bonus count towards EQM, so no, you could not attain MVPG with two RT flights in I. Sounds like youd need at least four, costing $8k-10k. There are certainly much cheaper ways to get to MVPG, so this doesnt make sense unless you were already planning to take those trips anyway.
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 3:04 pm
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Originally Posted by lsquare
Is it just me or that flying with HU represents the fastest and probably the cheapest way to attain status with AS? There are lots of cheap economy and business class flights out of YVR to SZX, which is quite close to HKG. I'm not saying flying to SZX makes a lot of sense if timing is important and one needs to get to HKG. My question is flying with HU especially on business the cheapest and fastest way to attain MVP Gold? It requires 50,000 miles flown with an AS partner, which HU is. The cheapest business class fare is I, which gives 200%. According to GCMAP, YVR-SZX is about 12,754 miles round-trip, which with the bonus makes it 25,508 miles right? I see business class flights from about US$1900, which is pretty good. I'm mostly flying *A at the moment and I hope to attain *G with OZ very soon. I've also flown OW partners like CX recently, which I credited to BA, which I should never have and instead put it on AS. Anyways, I'm now leaning on focusing on both OZ and AS in the future. What do you guys think? CA have lots of cheap business class fares to Asia so I don't anticipate attaining *G. Assuming my understanding of AS is correct, I can attain MVP Gold with as little as 2 round-trips flying HU?

I'm not too familiar with HU. I spent a little bit of time and see where else HU flies to, but without much success finding cheap J fares that covers long distance. Any other suggestions for HU routes that are long and in the US$2k range?
For AS MVPG Elite status you are correct that you need 50K AS+Partner Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM). HU only earns 100% of the distance flown in Business as EQM & RDM. The 100% additional bonus is Redeemable Miles (RDM) only! In your example you would earn 12,754 EQM & 25,508 RDM.

HU does not provide a Class of Service Bonus (COS) shown in the second column of the Partner charts. If there was a COS that too would be both EQM & RDM.

You would need to fly the route 4 times to attain MVPG in the AS Mileage Plan program.

James in Phoenix.
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 3:06 pm
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Originally Posted by milypan


Only base mile and class of service bonus count towards EQM, so no, you could not attain MVPG with two RT flights in I. Sounds like youd need at least four, costing $8k-10k. There are certainly much cheaper ways to get to MVPG, so this doesnt make sense unless you were already planning to take those trips anyway.
Of course I'm not going to fly to a destination for the sake of attaining status. What are the much cheaper ways to get to MVPG?
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 3:14 pm
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Originally Posted by Flying for Fun
For AS MVPG Elite status you are correct that you need 50K AS+Partner Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM). HU only earns 100% of the distance flown in Business as EQM & RDM. The 100% additional bonus is Redeemable Miles (RDM) only! In your example you would earn 12,754 EQM & 25,508 RDM.

HU does not provide a Class of Service Bonus (COS) shown in the second column of the Partner charts. If there was a COS that too would be both EQM & RDM.

You would need to fly the route 4 times to attain MVPG in the AS Mileage Plan program.

James in Phoenix.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...er-overview:HU

I looked at the link and it doesn't make it obvious what credits to EQM and RDM. Just to be clear, RDM are basically miles that I can use to redeem for flights on AS or its partners like CX?

Are you sure HU doesn't provide a class of bonus? Looking at the link, C, D, and Z fares have class of service bonus.
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 3:21 pm
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Without status you could attain MVPG and 88K redeemable miles in one Itinerary with BA First from the west coast to JNB/CPT. For the last two autumns, BA has offered an LAX-LHR-JNB/CPT return in F for $6.5K. If you did that in January 2020 you would attain and maintain MVPG through December 2021; almost two years. To boot, you would have enough RDM for a North America to Australia, Middle East, Africa F award on CX or a North America to India (DEL) F award on JL.

Spread over almost two years your average is ~$3.25K per year.

If you made a vacation out of it (highly recommended CPT, I will be there in 3 weeks) and your outbound posted before your return you would be MVP and receive an additional 50% of base miles as an Elite Bonus and upon return your RDM would be 112K; more than enough for a Return J on CX to Asia.

James in Phoenix
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 3:27 pm
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Originally Posted by lsquare
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...er-overview:HU

I looked at the link and it doesn't make it obvious what credits to EQM and RDM. Just to be clear, RDM are basically miles that I can use to redeem for flights on AS or its partners like CX?

Are you sure HU doesn't provide a class of bonus? Looking at the link, C, D, and Z fares have class of service bonus.
Yes, C, D & Z fares do have a COS but they will be considerably more money than the special business fares which will book into I or R class which do not. Think of the sales as being discounted Business fares. Just like discounted economy fares will book into lower fare classes that earn little or no miles like SQ. You need to check the fare class offered and check the AS Partner charts to see how that class earns miles in Mileage Plan.

James in Phoenix .
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 3:31 pm
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Originally Posted by lsquare
Of course I'm not going to fly to a destination for the sake of attaining status. What are the much cheaper ways to get to MVPG?
Fly 8 R/T transcon
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 3:34 pm
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Originally Posted by lsquare
Of course I'm not going to fly to a destination for the sake of attaining status. What are the much cheaper ways to get to MVPG?
Pretty much any way is cheaper. Youre paying the equivalent of around 25 cents per AS EQM (given the higher threshold for partner). AS PRASM is around 10 cents, so this is already more than double the cost of achieving it via flying AS at average fares. The fact that youre doing it on long-haul flights, which should have far better price:EQM ratios than the average AS flight of around 1,000 miles, makes it even crazier. Also, AS has no spend requirement, but the US3 set their spend requirements at 12 cents per EQM. This means youre spending double what they consider profitable for granting status, which tells you something!

Again, if these flights already looked attractive to you, and you feel MVPG would be useful, then go for it. But they certainly do not represent a cheap way to get statusquite the opposite.

Last edited by milypan; Mar 23, 2019 at 3:42 pm
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 3:55 pm
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Originally Posted by Flying for Fun
Without status you could attain MVPG and 88K redeemable miles in one Itinerary with BA First from the west coast to JNB/CPT. For the last two autumns, BA has offered an LAX-LHR-JNB/CPT return in F for $6.5K. If you did that in January 2020 you would attain and maintain MVPG through December 2021; almost two years. To boot, you would have enough RDM for a North America to Australia, Middle East, Africa F award on CX or a North America to India (DEL) F award on JL.

Spread over almost two years your average is ~$3.25K per year.

If you made a vacation out of it (highly recommended CPT, I will be there in 3 weeks) and your outbound posted before your return you would be MVP and receive an additional 50% of base miles as an Elite Bonus and upon return your RDM would be 112K; more than enough for a Return J on CX to Asia.

James in Phoenix
Thank you so much for the tip.

That's a bit too far in advance for me to plan at the moment, but I what happen if I only have time to do that LAX-CPT trip for one week in December 2019? How long will I have MVPG for?

I see the fares available as of now. It's roughly US$6.5k for LAX-CPT round-trip, but BA's website said the booking class is A. I'm assuming that's discounted first class fare. Will that still be enough to get me MVPG?

Are there any cheap business class fares that will do the trick too or your first class bare with BA represent the easiest and cheapest overall way to attain MVPG? I'm glad I created this thread now. I'll continue to credit my flights to OZ for the rest of this year and try to fly *A as much as possible. I haven't been to South Africa before and that's definitely on my list of places to go to!
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 3:56 pm
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Originally Posted by Repooc17
Fly 8 R/T transcon
lol! I guess that would be possible as well. Even the cheapest AS transcon fares in the lowest booking class will do the trick?
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 4:03 pm
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Originally Posted by lsquare
Are there any cheap business class fares that will do the trick too or your first class bare with BA represent the easiest and cheapest overall way to attain MVPG? I'm glad I created this thread now. I'll continue to credit my flights to OZ for the rest of this year and try to fly *A as much as possible. I haven't been to South Africa before and that's definitely on my list of places to go to!
If you're flying ex-Canada, there are cheaper ways. For example, if you position to YYC, for under $4k US you should be able to find a D fare ticket to SIN or BKK on a mixture of BA (to LHR, and ideally on to HEL too) and AY that earns around 50k EQM. It's still significantly more expensive than flying TCONs, but it's not bad.
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 4:07 pm
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Originally Posted by lsquare
lol! I guess that would be possible as well. Even the cheapest AS transcon fares in the lowest booking class will do the trick?
Yes on X fares

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/tr...perience/saver

Although I would spring for the extra $ to get out of X for flexibility.
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 4:44 pm
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Originally Posted by milypan
If you're flying ex-Canada, there are cheaper ways. For example, if you position to YYC, for under $4k US you should be able to find a D fare ticket to SIN or BKK on a mixture of BA (to LHR, and ideally on to HEL too) and AY that earns around 50k EQM. It's still significantly more expensive than flying TCONs, but it's not bad.
What do you mean by ex-Canada?

The problem with a lot of websites including AY's website is that it doesn't show the booking class of the fare. It won't be hard for me to find a cheap flight from YVR-YYC or I can always redeem miles/points to get to YYC. So I searched YYC-LHR-HEL-SIN. The cheapest business class fares that I got are C$4151.52. Now I have never booked airfare on AY's website before, but do they actually bill me in CAD or that figure is just for informational purposes? According to GCMAP, that route covers a total of 11,284 miles or 22,568 miles round-trip. I could make a vacation out of it. How many miles will I earn in total since the fare includes BA and AY? I'm assuming I should do this in January of 2020 to maximize the amount of status time with AS?

Edit: Nevermind, flying out of YVR makes more sense. It's only about $300 more and I don't have to deal with positional flights and hotels.

Last edited by lsquare; Mar 23, 2019 at 4:50 pm
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Old Mar 23, 2019, 5:09 pm
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I just spent some time looking over some fares and I would love to get some comments about it. I'm fairly new to this so please bear with me when I ask how much EQM and RDM I'll earn. FYI, I've never been to CPT/JNB before, but I've been to SIN a few times in my life. SIN is one of my favorite cities in Asia. I honestly can't wait to go back in the near future. There's lots to do there and I wouldn't mind going there as some sort of mileage run.

So the cheapest F fare books as A for YVR-LHR-CPT with BA. The lowest I can find at the moment is C$7,140.52. According to Gcmap, total round-trip distance is 21,436 miles. How much EQM and RDM will I earn?

The cheapest J fare books as I for YVR-LHR-CPT with BA. The lowest that I can find at the moment is C$4,804.52. According to Gcmap, total round-trip distance is 21,436 miles. How much EQM and RDM will I earn?

The next option will be to fly to SIN and AY doesn't have F fares. AY's website doesn't display the booking class for the flights. Not sure how AS will calculate the EQM and RDM. YVR-LHR-HEL-SIN with BA and AY is C$4441.02. According to Gcmap, total round-trip distance is 23,270 miles. How much EQM and RDM will I earn?
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