vegelion

A bit of a novice when it comes to all things BAEC and tiers. Out of traveling for work, I've managed to gain Bronze, and new tier points year just reset so I'm back at zero.

I was wondering what would be the best way to maximise tier point earning, and at an OK price for a trip over July / August this year. I need to do a visa run - so would need to go London - New Zealand, stay for 3-4 weeks, then tack on a trip to Taipei for a week, then back to London. Realize that Taipei is a bit out of the way and not a standard stopover like Singapore or Hong Kong - but hoping I could swing it? I wouldn't mind stopping by Singapore for a couple of days if that helps?
Is it worth getting a One World RTW ticket for this type of trip? I think I would need to fly in the same direction so might need to go something like London - USA (NY / Chicago / LA) - NZ - Taipei - London?

[Secondary question] Also I think it is more worth flying with One World, but a little part of me wants to try and hit KrisFlyer Gold as I signed up to Infinite Journeys and if I complete 3 trips via Singapore Airlines I could get Star Alliance Gold. But, seeing as I'm based out of London, I'm thinking One World status might be better. Does anyone have any experience with this accelerated earn, and how quickly it gets awarded (ideally I could use it for the Koru lounges in New Zealand?).

Cymro

Do you have a class of travel and/or a budget in mind?

vegelion

I've had a look at a RTW ticket and it's about £3000 in economy. I'm not sure if that's a good deal or not? I really have no idea what would be a good deal. I've done various searches online and they come back with varying prices in all sorts of airline combinations. So the range I've seen is anywhere from £2000+.
If I can get to silver from this trip that would be great, in economy. Business would be great for returning to London, but I don't think I could really afford anything more than £3500 for the whole thing.

Ldnn1

It's a terrible deal. What you want to do can be done for well under £1000 in economy.

vegelion

Great! care to share how?

DocS

vegelion

Yeah - I probably wasn't clear in my initial post but was hoping to maximise tier points earning on One World, and try get up to silver status somehow? Is it one or the other really - either low price but no points, or higher price and points?

Ldnn1

ITA Matrix seems broken right now (anyone else getting an error?) but a very quick Google Flights search shows fares for example on MH to NZ allowing stopovers at around £840 in July, from which your side trip to TPE could be constructed. There are lots of possibilities.

However if you're entertaining spend up to £3,500, you really should be able to get the whole thing or at least most of it in business, including lots of TPs... as long as you're a bit flexible as to dates etc. Especially if willing to start in Europe.

I'll try and have a play around on Matrix on the train in the morning.

sammyg901

Takes around a week . You could plan Taipei as a side trip on SQ for the three flights- SA gold could be useful out of the UK depending on your travel plans

Cymro

You can do Cathay Pacific business to Auckland, returning from Taipei, for £2,300, if you don't mind starting in Warsaw and tacking on a leg from Madrid or Amsterdam to get back to London.



This would earn you 500 TPs.

Add in a 25 TP AKL-SYD-TPE flight in Qantas economy for £450 and you're at 525 TPs. If you were to fly to WAW before your trip and also back to London in Club Europe, that would take you to 605 TPs - but you still wouldn't be silver as you would only have three of your four eligible BA flights.

Cymro

Even better:



As above, just add a £100 Malaysia Airlines economy fare and a night in KL beforehand. With this option, your positioning flights don't need to be in business, either.

Ldnn1

Again just as an example from a very quick search ex LON, you can get:

02/07 LHR-KUL-AKL
29/07 AKL-SYD-KUL
05/08 KUL-LHR
on MH and QF in Business for £2,292
plus non-stop KUL-TPE return in Business within that for £353

Plenty to play with... [ETA: and I see others have done so above already. I still can't get Matrix to work at all for some reason on either browser.]

Cymro

I have to say that would be a clear winner for me, even if you could shave off a few pounds here and there - extremely good price to AKL, exceptionally good to TPE as well, and a really nice business class product too.

You just have to get your four status qualifying flights (BA operated/marketed) elsewhere.

Too much travel

It's also a handy 880 tier points (I've done that KUL-TPE run before - it's a useful one as it's just over the 2,000-mile threshold)

corporate-wage-slave

Just a belated welcome to you vegelion for joining us here in the BA forum on Flyertalk, it's good to see you here and I hope that we will see more from you in the future.

The bit of your question not so far considered is whether Star is better than oneworld. It would have to be Star Gold to be worth anything, Star silver is pretty underpowered. But the core to this is what you future travel plans are, not just after getting status but also the year after since there are implications over a 2 year period on both schemes. And can you maintain the 4 eligible flights on BA / IB over the longer term?