huge

I'm looking at flying Seattle-Barcelona R/T, booking in Premium Economy, trying to nail down Platinum Pro status for the year through the targeted status challenge promo (I need $1959 EQDs by May 15).

I can book SEA-LHR-BCN R/T on BA.com in PE (for the SEA-LHR segments) for $1155 (March 5-20 but dates are flexible). It's my understanding that this will get me approx $2000 EQDs (~10K miles flown * 20%), which should meet my goal. Is that right?

If I book those British flights, could I upgrade to Business using Avios? If I book AA-operated flights instead, could I upgrade with AAdvantage miles?

Assuming I can't upgrade with miles, is there a better routing or booking method that would either increase my EQDs earned, make for more comfortable flights in PE, or save money?

Sorry if some of this is hopelessly obvious - this is the first time I've ever tried to go for AA status (or any airline since everyone went revenue-based) so I'm pretty confused by all the different partner & special fares charts. Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

-huge

JJeffrey

Your understanding of EQD earning is correct.if booking a BA flight number. That should satisfy the EQD requirements, but I would double check your challenge to make sure that you don't need any flights on AA metal or AA flight numbers.

If you book SEA-LHR-BCN through BA (BA flight number on BA metal) then you can upgrade with Avios (double check BA.com and the BA forum for eligible booking classes, etc.).

If you book SEA-LHR-BCN through AA (AA flight numbers on BA metal) then you can upgrade with AA miles, however you must purchase a full fare premium economy fare to be eligible to upgrade. This can be very expensive, it is usually cheaper to just buy discount business.

huge

Thanks for your clear & helpful (ie simple enough for me to understand) reply!

Yeah, I'm definitely not going to pay for full-fare PE, but that might be great if I could pay $1100-1200 for PE on BA.com and then upgrade with Avios. To be clear, does it work to purchase on BA.com, designate AAdvantage as the miles I'm earning, and then upgrade with BA Avios? (I'll go to the BA forum now, but I'm guessing you or someone else here can confirm).

If anyone else has suggestions about how to optimize this trip in terms of EQD earning, comfort or price, please chime in.

huge

I just realized a possible problem with my plan ... The flights I would like to book on BA.com are showing up on a search for Premium Economy, but only the SEA-LHR segments actually have PE seats. The flight details on ba.com show:

I'm guessing that means I'll get for EQDs: 20% of the miles flown SEA-LHR plus 5% of the LHR-BCN leg, which would be 4780 * 20% + 712 * 5% == $956 + $35 == $991.

Is that right? Or will AA just see that the overall fare is booked as Premium Economy and give me 20% of the LHR-BCN leg?

If the $991 number is exactly right, then the round trip will yield $1982, which is $23 more than I need to make platinum pro - OK great, but (a) I'm paranoid that my numbers might be off by a few miles or bucks (I guess I can check the number of miles/EQMs AA.com will give me for the same flights to verify) and (b) this would leave me just $68 short of making it to Platinum on the outbound flight, so I won't get the added benefit of Platinum status - not sure if AA Platinum gives me better seat selection on BA metal, not that big of a deal to be sure, but I'd be happier if I could nail it just perfectly. Having typed all this I'm thinking it just isn't that much to worry about, and I'll go do the math on AA.com now, but if anyone has any ideas, let me know...

[edit: adding the numbers from AA.com here since no-one has replied yet]

OK, if I book the same BA metal flights on AA.com, it tells me I would receive 4801 EQMs for SEA-LHR & 713 EQMs for LHR-BCN, which I assume is definitive as the number of miles AA thinks those flights are. So I should get a tiny $4 more EQDs each way, affirming that I should make Platinum Pro after all the flights, and I won't make Platinum from the outbound flight, but that's probably going to cost me something like 1000 award miles in the end, so no big deal.

I'm still of course open to hearing ideas on improvements or warnings if I have some numbers wrong. I should be able to get the Chase CC discount, but maybe not the AARP discount since I'm booking in PE, and I haven't figured out if I should try for the Amex API discount, but those are for other threads...

JJeffrey

You are correct in that you only earn the Premium Econony 20% EQD on the specific flights you're booked in a PE booking code (i.e. SEA-LHR), not the whole itinerary.

However looking at the BA earning chart at aa.com it appears a K booking code earns 10% EQD, so you'd earn slightly more on the LHR-BCN segment, although still not enough to get the $68 to make PLT on the outbound.

The biggest thing PLT would give you is business class lounge access, so if you were to hit it on the way over you could use any of the BA and oneworld business lounges on the trip back.

huge

D'OH!!! I hate just BARELY missing it, even if it's not that big a benefit. I'll have to see where I went wrong with the 5% vs 10% just so I make sure I understand.

I have Amex Platinum (& Priority Pass) so I'll have access to some kind of lounges, but I'm guessing the 1World biz lounge is better (unless Amex gets the LHR Centurion lounge open next month ... yeah not holding my breath).

Thanks for your replies - you've been really helpful.

huge

Updating from Barcelona and thanking you again for your help...

I switched my plan from a straight roundtrip to an open-jaw flying into AGP (Malaga) and out of Barcelona. This got me a few extra miles and this morning I verified that I have made Platinum (and it's clear that I will make Platinum Pro on the return flight). Given the silly Aspire lounge at LHR that my Priority Pass got me into, I'll be happy to give the BA lounge a try on the way back.

When I checked in in SEA, they offered that I could upgrade to CW for $743 - I ended up deciding not to because I had a good seat in WT+ (and because I'm cheap) but I'm curious... If I had upgraded with cash at the airport, would I have earned more EQDs as if I had actually booked in CW? And am I right in guessing that I would NOT earn more EQDs if I upgrade my return flight using Avios plus some cash? (It probably doesn't matter, since I'm unlikely to rack up the extra $2600 EQDs necesary to make Exec Platinum by the time the challenge ends on May 31, but I might as well know my possible options)

Thanks again for all the help

aztimm

No, you earn EQD and EQM based on your original fare paid, unless you do an upfare (which will typically cost much more). An airport buy-up won't give you the EQD/EQM for business.

huge

For final closure ... I have returned home and as of about 72hrs after landing, I have received all flight credit. I did indeed make Platinum with $7EQD to spare on the outbound flight (thereby gaining access to the British Business lounge on the return stop in LHR, which was indeed nicer than the Aspire "Lounge & Spa" I visited outbound, plus I guess it earned me an extra ~1000 Award Miles on my return segments). And as of this morning I am Platinum Pro with $140EQD and 2213EQMs to spare. This was on the recent status challenge, so I'll only have Plat Pro through this year, but I'm now very close to the usual requirements for Gold, so at least I'll have some status next year. We'll see how much benefit I get out of it - it will probably involve manufacturing opportunities to fly on AA or OW partners, but hopefully I can manage something.

It's tempting to go for Executive Platinum, but I probably won't unless some great opportunity presents itself. If I took this exact routing & fare again I would not quite make it, but would be only a few hundred EQDs short.

Thanks for all the help