AA new loyalty program - pls help with partner airline credit?
 

I have spent 90 minutes on the phone with AA and even they don't understand their new program!!!! Please help! Here are two examples, what do I get for miles for each?

Example 1: RT PHL to SEZ on Qatar, business class, codes R and C. Legs are PHL-DOH. DOH-SEZ. Between DOH & PHL is an AA flight #,operated by QR. Between DOH & SEZ is a QR flight #. Airfare $4k, mileage (guessed, doesn't really matter, it's just an example) 5k PHL-DOH and 2k DOH-SEZ. How many loyalty points? Do I get credit for my $4k spend,RT mileage of 14k, or ?.

Would I do better looking into BA flights? Although their taxes & fees are insane!

Example 2: RT PHL to NAN, combination AA and FJ, business class. Legs are PHL-SFO (AA flight) and SFO-NAN (FJ flight with FJ flight #). Ticket bought from AA website, $6k total fare. Mileage PHL-SFO 2.5k, SFO-NAN 5k. From my read on this one I get nothing for anything with the FJ flights, I would only get credit for the AA flights. is that right?

Bonus question - does it matter where I buy my ticket, between buying directly from AA or from Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel, as far as AA loyalty points go?

HELP! I don't want to do these bookings until I understand if I'm getting mileage from them, or if I should look at other options/airlines for these trips (not that I really have very many).

Thanks so much for any help you can provide. It's sad that AA can't answer even Example 1 - this was rep #3 in Aadvantage customer service who didn't even seem to understand my question, then said she had to check and put me on hold. 20 minutes later I gave up waiting!!

Have you tried https://www.lpcalculator.com/#/calculator ?

AA has pages describing the mileage and LP earnings -- if any -- for each of its partner carriers. Here's the page for QR:

https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...ines/qatar.jsp

thanks for the calculator. Yeah I read the pages but it's still confusing. According to the calculator, my loyalty points are ONLY 5x my spend on AA, regardless of how many miles my trip is, but on partners it's based ONLY on miles traveled, not on spend. So then to maximize my earn, seems like the ideal strategy for long trips is to fly as much as possible on an AA partner rather than AA.

And a nitpick question- if my flight is an AA flight #, but operated by another airline (e.g. AA8129 Operated by Qatar Airways) do I get credit for miles or for $, given that this is one leg of a two-leg trip, where leg 2 is a QR flight #? And how about this itinerary?

PHL - ORD AA 490 321-Airbus A321
ORD - DOH AA 8127 777-Boeing 777
Operated by Qatar Airways
DOH - SEZ QR 678 788-Boeing 787
Operated by Qatar Airways


If both are the same price, would the one routing through ORD give more points than a direct PHL-DOH_SEZ routing, where the PHL-DOH is "AA8129 operated by QR" and DOH-SEZ is QR678? Seems like they'd allocate the $$ for the PHL-ORD leg, then (hopefully) give me miles for ORD-DOH-SEZ? But does the AA flight # on ORD-DOH mean I get credit for $ but not miles?

Sorry to be a pain, just getting out for the first time since the pandemic began and trying to get the most for my $.

I think it's the operating carrier that matter; if the flight is operated by Qatar, the partner rules apply (i.e. you will earn miles based on the distance flown etc.).

According to https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...rdmilesandeqds

For tickets including both American-marketed and partner-marketed flights, AAdvantage® miles are calculated based on the policy for each flight. Flights that are marketed by American earn based on your prorated ticket price (base fare plus any carrier-imposed surcharges); flights marketed by partner airlines earn based on a percentage of the distance flown as determined by the fare class purchased.

No no, flight number is all that matters (marketing carrier).

On the above example PHL-ORD-DOH would earn based on the fare (AA flight numbers) while DOH-SEZ would earn based on distance (QR flight number).

Got it! Thanks!

JetBlue Airways B6 5564 Operated by QATAR AIRWAYS

i read the rules about JetBlue which I’m pasting below. The above flight is marketed by JetBlue and operated by QR and may be considered a transatlantic flight. My take is I get zero credit from it. Am I correct?You can earn AAdvantage® miles when you fly on JetBlue marketed and operated flights and JetBlue codeshare flights operated by American Airlines.

Here's how:
Buy an eligible published fare ticket in an eligible booking code. Fly an eligible route. Transatlantic flights operated by JetBlue are not eligible.

Yeah I believe that there is no credit there. You generally can't mix non alliance partners with alliance partners

I read the above example and seems clear as mud.....

So for me:

DCA-JFK-MAD-ATH-LHR-JFK-DCA

Total fare minus the taxes is about $1400

DCA-JFK is AA metal and AA marketed; JFK-MAD is AA metal and AA marketed; MAD-ATH is IB metal and IB marketed; ATH-LHR is BA metal and BA marketed; LHR-JFK is BA metal but AA marketed; JFK-DCA is AA metal and AA marketed. All segments are ticketed as economy (although I did a paid upgrade to PEY on JFK-MAD (I know this does not affect the LP calculus other than the additional spend via the credit card)).

How does AA or anybody else go about calculating the LPs on this. None of the calculators seem to envision mixed itineraries and how does AA apportion the fare amounts?

Did you use the calculator, breaking it down leg by leg? Then add up each leg, and that should give you your total.

But how do you apportion the portion of the revenue that is attributable to the non-AA carriers. $1400 of revenue is not 100% attributable to AA marketed/flown segments. Is it done based on the amount of miles flown? And how would you do it if different fare codes are involved?

1. Look at the chart for the marketing carrier.

2. Don't forget your elite bonus.

3. That's it.

Phew! That was easy.

No its not that easy.

If you fly JFK-LHR-SOF and the JFK-LHR segment was AA but the LHR-SOF segment was on BA, how do you assign the value of the airfare from LHR-SOF which is not based on dollars but on mileage.

Correct. If you could see the underlying details of your ticket, there should be a fare calculation line that breaks down the value for each leg. It's not simply based on distance as the fare itself matters.