noahsilv

Hi everyone. I am usually a United / MileagePlus flyer but I think I have an interesting opportunity. As I've read, completing the AA Platinum Challenge after June 15 should yield me AA Plat status till 2021.

I actually am flying KTM-ORD on June 16, currently, my only paid OneWorld flight. I paid $1253 for the fare. However, my flights are three segments KTM-HKG (I on KA), HKG-DFW (R on AA), DFW-ORD (J on AA). It seems that I will accrue much more than 12.5k EQM. However, I am a bit confused about how much EQD I will get due to the Cathay segment. Would it be worth doing the challenge with this flight?

I won't be flying for another three weeks after that but just to New York. I could buy an expensive fare but I probably only would do this if I was very close to the challenge anyway.

Thanks,

platbrownguy

First of all thanks for the tip on the great fare! It even allows upgrade to F on HKG-DFW with only miles & no copay, which is a nice option to have.

Assuming you booked something like this one, it looks like it books directly onto a KA prime flight for KTM-HKG https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=...sp:.USD.125681

So you should get 1825*0.25 = 456 EQD for KTM-HKG
and you should get fare-based EQD for HKG-DFW-ORD. There's no telling what that will be, but I imagine you'll end up with something fairly close to $1000-1100 total.

I had a similar fare in September ($1600ish for CMB-HKG-LAX-JFK-DCA in I/R/J/J, with only CMB-HKG on CX). I got 25% ($624) EQD and distance-based EQM/RDM for CMB-HKG, but ($1128) fare-based credit for HKG onward. So I ended up a couple hundred EQD ahead of where I would have been on a straight AA-flight-numbers-only ticket.

JDiver

For oneworld credit, no problems. But CX and KA do not count towards Challenge credit (only JB airlines count for Challenge ctedit, unless you’re on an AA-marketed flight). See the Wikipost in the Challenge thread.

noahsilv

What I'm trying to understand is I will get enough qualifying miles on the AA flights alone by far. Does Challenge EQD matter?

noahsilv

I'm confused on how you get to the $1000-1100 total since I paid about $1200 so let's say $1100+456 I should be pretty close?
Also is it worth 25k miles to upgrade it to F? I know the Pier at HKG for 8 hours might be worth alone.

noahsilv

Changes are real cheap which is nice:

wireless_999

platbrownguy

The catch is that we have no way to know what percentage of what you paid will be allocated by AA to the HKG-DFW-ORD sectors. You don't "double dip" on the money you paid for the CMB-HKG sector, you just get the flat $456 for that. If AA is favorable to you and only allocates, say, $100 of your $1200 fare to the CMB-HKG sector, then you come out ahead. If they allocate significantly more than that to that sector, then not. Hard to say. Also keep in mind that you don't get EQD for taxes.

As for the upgrade, your call. The privacy is better in J on the 77W if you're flying solo. (I have flown both J and F this year on HKG-DFW/LAX.) I think the bedding in F is better (the lumbar pillow and extra blanket are nice) but the seat itself isn't as good as the J seat (sad but true, in my opinion). Food is better presented in F and service in my experiences has been better but that's probably highly variable. I definitely wouldn't do a miles + copay for this, but miles only makes it attractive for me. (Personally I prefer HKG-LAX-JFK, which this fare also allows, so that I can break up the flying and have Flagship First Dining in both LAX and JFK. The lounge options in DFW suck at the moment.)

Finally as for your challenge, no one knows what 2019 will bring, but if it's like it is now, you'll need 12500 EQM and 2000 EQD on AA flights.

noahsilv

Thanks for the advice. I figure I'll probably save the 25k miles even though I do want to check out The Pier F lounge. I have Amex Plat so my lounges are very good at DFW and The Pier Business at HKG is also good. Food looks pretty much the same J/F.

I'll obviously qualify to complete the gold challenge, though I assume you would figure it's not worth doing?

platbrownguy

Fair call re: J/F -- with EXP I have not been to the J lounges at HKG but I hear Pier J is very nice... and even the Centurion lounge at HKG is not a bad place to stop in (sometimes you just want some chips and guac!)

As for gold vs. plat, if you travel internationally, plat gives you the lounge access (for 19 months, as you note) which is well worth it IMO. If you've got another trip you can take on AA, then maybe it's worth it. The catch is you probably won't be able to find out about the EQD requirements until 2019 at all (I don't think they'd go up for Platinum, but who knows) and you might wait to see what exactly posts from the KTM-HKG-DFW-ORD trip. If it were me I would just wait until after that trip posts, see how many EQD you need to make the platinum challenge, and consider whether to buy a ticket that would meet those requirements for your next flight (to NY or wherever).

SJOGuy

Yes. That is a great fare.

noahsilv

So for the challenge, I figure I cannot retroactively apply it. In an essence, I have to decide before the flight if I want to do the challenge and see how many EQD it posts. Am I not eligible for another challenge in like 5 years if I fail to meet the requirements? I'd willingly pay $200 for the option just to have it happen.

platbrownguy

Have you tried calling AA to see if they'll tell you how many EQD you'll get, or how many EQD are attributable to the HKG-DFW-ORD segments?

As for redoing it, I don't think there's a limit or waiting period, other than that you're not eligible for a challenge if you're currently holding status acquired via a challenge. So if you do the challenge and get gold, then you couldn't do a plat challenge the next year while you had the challenge-earned gold.

honzeek_cz

Nevermind, my bad, it was PE.

platbrownguy

nice. I wish there were a cheap way to get HKG-KTM on December 21. I'm currently booked on a relatively expensive J ticket HKG-DFW-DCA on December 22 and I have plenty of time to fly HKG-KTM to catch KTM-HKG the night of December 21, but I don't want to do a 70-minute turnaround at KTM, which the CX/KA flight would require. I also don't have time to overnight in KTM. HKG-SIN on SQ followed by SIN-KTM on Silk could work but currently >$1000 in economy. Maybe I'll see if something pops up for redemption.