flyingeph12

By far the best $/EQM that I ever received was the Beijing mistake fare back in 2015. I also remember fondly the days of triple EQM (when AA was trying to compete with VX for business from CA residents). But I suspect none of that is particularly helpful for OP's purposes today.

Nowadays, I would consider anything below 6¢/EQM to be decent, with anything below 4¢/EQM to be very good. From ORD, usually the best deals are to SE Asia (e.g., BKK, CGK, HKG, SIN, etc.). Sometimes PE (on CX or JL) is a good deal, particularly when you're looking for EQD in addition to EQM.

evadsivad

If you are in the market for EQDs as well as EQMs, a friend and I just flew Cathay Pacific ORD-HKG-JNB-CPT-JNB-HKG-ORD in Premium Economy. For a $2400 fare, we got a little over 44000 EQMs, but the kicker was that we got almost 6100 EQDs on a $2400 fare. And a two day vacation in Cape Town and a lot of relaxation and good food and drink in the Pier lounge in HKG! Plus, the Premium Economy seats on Cathay, though not brand new, are really pretty comfortable.

HappyDoggo

Thanks for sharing! It seems like you both recommended EQD + EQM combo with Cathay. Just looked at the earning chart. Looks interesting.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...ay-pacific.jsp

When you flew ORD-HKG-JNB-CPT-JNB-HKG-ORD, did you book each segment separately? Or they are layovers? How do you go about booking and picking the stops?

flyingeph12

Not necessarily recommending a EQM + EQD combo—if all you need is EQM, then a cheap economy ticket to Asia will probably be your best bet. But if you do need both EQD and EQM, then CX PE is a very good way to get it; you get a relatively decent return on EQM and a very good return on EQD. Besides JNB/CPT, also be on the lookout for AKL. Booking a CX PE ticket to JNB/CPT/AKL is very easy; you just go to CX's website and use a standard search. All CX flights go through HKG, so you don't have to do anything special.

AY J from YYZ to SE Asia (BKK, HKG, SIN) is another good EQM + EQD combo (yes, you have to position to YYZ but that should be relatively easy from ORD; if you originate in ORD, the cost goes up by about $700-800). It's not as a good return as CX PE, but it's business class vs premium economy. Booking AY can be a bit of a pain, but it's doable using the multi-city search function on AY's site (you can build in a stopover in HEL or LON in both directions if you want).

evadsivad

I booked the Chicago to Cape Town flights directly on Cathay's website. I think I did it as one booking and not by segments, but I'm not 100% on that as the JNB-CPT leg is on BA , not Cathay. It could have been that I constructed it as segments. I do recall that ORD-JNB didn't require any finagling, but my friend and I were more interested in spending time in Cape Town. Like flyingeph12 said, there may be some cheaper ways to get EQMs if that is all you are after. But I am trying to maintain Executive Platinum and hitting 15000 EQDs is going to be the larger challenge this year. Being able to get 2.5 EQDs for every dollar spent was the primary benefit of this. As was flying a geographically silly super-long routing in PE, which means that you get 1.5 EQMs per mile flown. The PE seat also made the lengthy status run so much more tolerable than straight up economy. I think I slept for more than 15 hours on the way home. No one will confuse the seat with business class, but I got home actually fully rested, so....

HappyDoggo

Thanks! You guys are right. I just realized that EXP has a higher EQD requirement now and I am short.

About Cape town, the flights are 3-4k RT. Was that the price you paid in J?

flyingeph12

I believe the $2400 is for Premium Economy, not Business. The easiest way to check availability is to use Google Flights, and filter specifically for Cathay. Then using the calendar, you'll be able to see dates where the fare is $2400. If CPT doesn't work, try JNB.

HappyDoggo

Thank you! How do you check how much EQD/EQM you will earn on Cathay website?

SiempreBCNJFK

It'll be based on distance. 1.5 x distance is EQM. And I think 20% is eqd

SiempreBCNJFK

​​​​​​Also for eqm, you earn the same in business or premium economy on CX

flyingeph12

Yep. By my rough calculations, ORD-HKG-CPT r/t is about 45,000 EQMs and 6050 EQDs.

Yeah, that's correct. Business class on CX is not really a good deal in terms of either EQM or EQD.

wandering_fred

If you can arrange to travel in two different years (out in one back in the next) , departing from JNB is a few hundred US$ less expensive for the same ticket classes. And the premium to travel in R class exJNB (less expensive changes) is a lot less.

Or nest the CX ticket inside a BA PEY YYZ-JNB - just be careful about the dates as the prices vary widely.

Happy wandering
Fred

HappyDoggo

SiempreBCNJFK

I believe the each segment is credited to the year they began in. In other words, if you take off in 2019 and land in 2020, it's credited to 2019.

wandering_fred

Crediting varies by program. All that I know about credit by scheduled date of the segment, except CX which is the posting date.
Example (most tickets are one year validity):
2019 BA YYZ-LHR-JNB // CX JNB-HKG-YYZ
2020 CX YYZ-HKG-JNB // BA JNB-LHR-YYZ
So two round the world PEY tickets. CX tickets will normally allow a stopover in HKG at least one way.

Happy wandering
Fred