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?

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.

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?

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.

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

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 .

Fly 8 R/T transcon

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!

lol! I guess that would be possible as well. Even the cheapest AS transcon fares in the lowest booking class will do the trick?

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.

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.

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.

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?

I am at PHX flying PHX-SEA-YLW this evening. I don't have all my tools handy but happy to look later and can show you some spreadsheets on the CPT/JNB routing with BA. You can use ita Matrix and set the currency to CAD for searching round trip, one-way and multi-city itineraries. The Matrix will show you the fare classes that you can reference on AS Partner Charts.

Once you attain Elite Starus you will have it for the rest of the year in which you earn it plus the entire next calendar year through December 31st.

James at PHX.

AY's website shows the booking class of the fare

Oops, you're right. I have to click at the bottom of the screen in order to see it. It's I and D class fares.

Thanks for taking the time to help me understand this. I know Google owns ITA Matrix, but will ITA Matrix show the lowest price like Google Flights? What's the advantage of ITA Matrix over Google Flights considering they're both owned by Google?

If the fare contains both BA and AY operated flights, how will AS determine how much miles I'll accrue? Just take the fare class for the carrier's operating route and match that to AS' chart?

Let's say I earn AS status in August 2019, does that mean I'll enjoy having status for the rest of 2019 and for all of 2020? Then I'll need to reach the requirements again to retain status for 2021?

Matrix is a good power user's tool . It shows a lot more information and allows you to make advanced queries.

Google flights uses matrix as a backend but you can only make very simple queries and it hides a lot of critical information (eg, it doesn't show booking codes). The UI is also significantly better than matrix.

Personally, I find GF great for the map search but it's too simple of a tool to be really useful for a lot of things. Hiding the booking codes was an absolutely terrible decision that cripples the tool. In matrix, you can not only see codes, but filter by them. In cases where GF does show useful information that is not present in matrix (eg, seat details) it doesn't let you filter by that, again, crippling its usefulness. Being able to display only lie-flat flights, for example, would be VERY useful for certain routes. They have the information but don't expose it as a search feature.

I know there are a number of Canadian AS elites, but just how much are you expecting to fly on AS that you want the benefits of MVP Gold? Is it really enough for a $6.5k trip to South Africa to be worth it?

Getting all the miles in a single trip is only really useful if you won't be flying much or at all otherwise, making it... not that useful.

I do think that maintaining status is useful even if not flying AS though, for the elite bonus on partner flights. I've moved most of my domestic travel away from AS but I still want to maintain at least MVPG.

I want to do this strictly for the elite bonus on partner flights. I'm more interested travelling abroad than within North America.

Just keep in mind that, while the "list price" on the AS partner redemption chart tends to be good, if you're looking for premium long-haul awards, overall availability is worse than most other airlines, as AS is not part *A, ST, or OW (and thus has a smaller set of partners). Compounding the issue is the fact that AS has no long-haul flights itself, so unlike with most programs you don't have the back-up option of paying a higher price in miles to access better award availability. Bottom line is that AS miles are most useful if you have a lot of flexibility in destination and schedule, or can redeem directly on AS metal.

It's worth noting that, from a thread on the premium fare deals forum, JL is now offering JFK-NRT-BKK for under $3000 (business class; books into X). One of those will leave you within 1k miles of MVP. Two will leave you within 2k miles of Gold.

It's business, not first, but IMO the JL J product is incredible. I just flew that NRT-BKK flight in J and the new skysuites are very good.

Personally I think that $3k is a bit much to upgrade from MVP to MVPG, but, if it's somewhere that you're interested in visiting, it's a very good deal. If you were to book this with miles it would be 130k in J or 150k in F (F only for TPAC). If you value miles at 2c each, this cash fare is about the same as the award price in miles (and actually, much much cheaper if you consider the "rebate" that you will get in the form of miles earned).

I think I might be talking myself into going back to BKK this year...

Even cheaper now with the double miles promo on QF between the USA and Australia
https://www.alaskaair.com/promo/qf19...prodID:MPDeals

Can you please explain how this promotion makes attaining AS Elite Status cheaper? The bonus miles "do not count towards Elite Status."

The bonus miles are RDM only!

James on AS30

How about $1,700 to upgrade to MVP Gold?

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/prem...el-4681-a.html

Sure! In my world, RDM is considered as part of my cost of purchasing tickets.I factor it in every time I buy a ticket. Hence a QF trans-Pacific ticket is now even cheaper to purchase in order to attain/retain Elite Status because my CPM is lower.

Really?? Interesting world you live in.

Did your out of pocket costs go down with the double mile promotion?

Absolutely, your RDM CPM is lower but that does not lower your cost of EQM for Elite requalification. If you are looking at the additional RDM as a rebate towards you out of pocket, again that does not lower your cost of EQM for Elite requalification.

In my world, attaining MVPG75K accumulates RDM faster than I can burn them. Balancing revenue and awards to maintain status isn't easy. I have already flown 3 JL F awards this year and have another next month, as well, I booked 12 CX, JL and QF J & F awards last year. I still have over 550K miles; adding another 30K EQM to requalify for MVPG75K (which I will have completed by mid-May) will yield a minimum of another 117,500 RDM with the 50K bonus. The double miles, if you are flying the route just for the bonus, is great if you need RDM but adds no additional benefit for Elite requalification so I don't follow how you ticket is cheaper.

James in Doha

If you get more miles than you can burn maybe you should drop down to Gold for a year :)

For the rest of us, miles have real value, so getting a mileage rebate is equivalent to lower cost. It doesn't lower the cost of that flight, but it pays for part of a different flight, so, yes, out of pocket costs are lowered.

Considering I fly Australia to USA Round trip every month, balancing between nine purchased O class tickets and three QF 110K business class tickets, double miles lowers my actual costs. The double miles promo effectively gives me an extra QF 110K business class redemption. So - yes - in my world - it is cheaper.

From the costs listed in this thread, it will take you anywhere from $4000-6000 to get elite mvp gold status (assuming you don't want to do cheap economy transcon runs). Why not just bank that money and use it to buy business class outright or bid for upgrades? Assuming a $500 each way bid on the longhaul or a typical $2000-3000 business class roundtrip flight with a good deal, you can easily get 4-6 oneway flatbeds across the pacific or atlantic.

Like, what's the value prop here if you're not interested in organic alaska flying giving you status organically to use/benefit on alaska itself. There might be some value on the margins, but overall its probably not worth it too much and just better to use the thousands of dollars to buy the flight you actually want.

If you're not interested in flying AS domestically, then buying the business class flights you want is how you qualify for MVPG. It's not a choice between the two.

Or use the money to buy the miles when they have a sale. $6k will get you 2 R/T tickets on partners in F/J.

Unless the cheapest J flights aren't on AS partners. You can usually find some very good fares on airlines like Xiamen or Air Canada for ~$2k to Asia. TAP/TK/AF/QR to Europe and the ME for $2.5k. These would all present better options, in my opinion, than paying for a flight to get MVPG+ status just to get 100% more miles, which wastes time and money which I value quite highly. Then you make yourself more captive to finding AS partners to get the 100% bonus you just spent money on to earn. But again to each their own, and I understand the thought, just one thing to go from 0-100% to get a small additional bonus, versus actually using the other benefits flying organically.

I'd argue that transferring through mainland china to get somewhere else in Asia because the tickets are cheaper is really what wastes time. If I'm going to Japan I'm flying JL, not Xiamen or China Southern. I find that AS's partners (at least, to Asia) are the airlines that I actually want to fly. I'm not saying that there aren't others, but I think that the partners are quite good.

My friend was bragging about the $700 (economy) round trip flight he bought to Bangladesh. Two transfers in China; 36 hours of travel time on China Southern. I just laughed at him. Have fun trying to deal with the delays/cancellation when you don't speak Mandarin...

You hardly have to be limited to buying AS miles either (and soon unless you have AS status you WILL be limited in how many AS miles you can buy at a go per year). AV is pretty easy to come by at ~1.5 cpm. Other programs are competitive with AS at around ~2 cpm.

AS MP has some neat features: one way stopovers that can be used creatively, sweet spots in the award chart, the only US based program left where a mile flown on the airline is a mile earned, nice earnings rates in some partner premium cabins. But it also has downsides; the smaller booking window means QF and CX can get sniped from you, you can't combine partners on a one-way routing, very weak options for bookings that don't touch the USA (basically CX + QF Australia + Europe connecting on AY), AS's web booking engine produces :rolleyes: on JL sometimes and lack of SQ redemptions is a running joke, Europe is very weak compared to *A/ST and even OW programs, just BA and a random assortment of LCCs, and other than Marriott and Diner's Club there's no real entry vehicle for flexible points currencies ala AMEX MR/Chase UR/Capital One/Citibank.

All told as a mileage piggy bank it's OK but how much a premium would I pay to get AS miles over (insert reasonable *A/ST/OW program option here)? That's a pretty dollars and cents equation.

And it's not like you get 0 miles in any program if you fly TP or TK to Europe, or AC to Asia.

Lifemiles are a great redemption option in terms of price and their partners. Plus with their usual bonuses, and the fact that their CC category is airfare, you can easily spend $1K+ on miles, and get and additional 5x bonus with the AMEX Platinum, to get an additional 5k miles, so all in all a good value. Only downside is, their engine is pretty clunky to find valid city pairings and their miles expire which is quite annoying, albeit not a showstopper.

I think that having miles in multiple programs is a good idea if you earn enough to have a meaningful number in my than one program.

Unfortunately my 2 largest balances are AS (from flying, including partners) and AA (from credit cards), and most of AS' best partners are OW so there's a lot of overlap there.

I'm (at least) hoping to turn my Chase pts into an SQ Suites redemption eventually. Also I hear that SQ redemtptions are coming to AS some time in early 2042 so my retirement plans are looking solid.