lsquare

I'm new to this stuff so I'm hoping someone here can help me understand this. I know that BA have Avios and Tier Points. Currently I have 704,000 Avios, 65 Tier Points, and 105 lifetime Tier Points. My membership year ends on May 8th, 2019. My first question is how do I see the breakdown on how I earned tier points and lifetime tier points?

I do fly CX more than I do with BA, but I find earning Avios to be much easier since I'm based in North America. I started paying attention to OW status recently. I just came back from HK. I guess I never really thought about booking class, but just paid attention to the cheapest fare. Is my membership year somewhat problematic since it ends at roughly the middle of the year? Given that I'm kind of doing this a bit late since my membership year is ending, I'm guessing all of my tier points will reset on May 9th, 2019 right?

My impression based on my research so far is that it's not easy to earn status flying either CX or BA. If you guys were to pick and you're based in YVR, which carrier would you fly with especially if you want to fly to SYD? With CX, I can connect via HKG. With BA, I can connect via LHR. I'm assuming for either programs, status resets based on each membership year rather than calendar year right?

I also given some thoughts about crediting future CX/BA flights to AS' program. What do you guys think since AS miles are pretty valuable too. For my last CX flight, I just credited everything to my BAEC account. Going forward, is it possible to credit CX/BA flights to AS and earn AS miles, but earn tier points with BAEC or the equivalent in CX's Marco Polo program?

BA6501

You can credit to BA, CX, or AS. You can't credit towards status in one programme and towards miles in another.

Yes, your TPs will reset to 0 on 9 May.

I have no idea how CX Marco Polo works - but flying YVR-LHR-(SIN-)SYD on BA would earn you 380 TPs in J, or 440 if you swap flights in SIN (BA11 to BA15).

Mwenenzi

From YVR to SYD you could fly QF (seasonable) or on AA-QF via LAX/SFO. No need to go via HKG or LHR. But CX may be cheaper than QF, even for a longer route. AA BA, CX & QF are all oneworld airlines.

Why OW Emerald? OW Sapphire will give you benefits, including lounge access.
Earning top level status is hard with any airline. Often easier/better on the airline of your ffp. Each ffp has different rules for earning status.
BA have a requirement for 2/4 flights on BA/IB for status.

AS is a good ffp. Was better when AA was a full partner and DL, AF/KLM were partners. AS award chart is very prescriptive/limited.

etiene

Not to mention being effing nuts! Do BA even file fares for that?!

UKtravelbear

On your last question you cannot post miles to one programme and the tier points to another.

unkess you can get your 4 BA qualifying flights (see the tier points guide at the top of the board) then BAEC may not be the programme for you if you are after status. though if you do lots of internal North America flights with AA than BA status will get you lounge access that yyou wouldn’t get if you credited to AA for example.

lsquare

Thanks for the information.

So what you're saying is that I can't earn status on BA if I want to earn AS miles?

What's the best way to search YVR-LHR-SYD flights?

Also, when redeeming my Avios for award flights, do I earn tier points or anything else for status?

UKtravelbear

lsquare

My apologies, I got confused. I aspire to achieve at least OW Sapphire. Is AA-QF via LAX/SFO cheaper and easier for attaining status?

lsquare

So in order to attain OW Sapphire with BA, I'll also need to have 4 BA qualifying flights within the membership year? If I can't and since I'm based in YVR, which program do you think I should go with?

Mwenenzi

Why YVR-LHR-SYD?
Search for YVR-LHR & LHR-SYD. Will be priciey compared to the alternatives.

Cheaper & earning max status are not always compatible. Look the BAEC site for earning status on partners

What do you expect status to do for you?
Their is also OW ruby, which does not have many benefits
https://www.oneworld.com/travel-benefits

I assume you have got the 704,000 avios mainly from cc spend.

lsquare

Why YVR-LHR-SYD? Rack up as much tier points as possible?

Yes, but it doesn't look like spending those Avios will help me with attaining status with any OW carrier. I think OW Sapphire is the bare minimum to access the CX and BA business class lounges right? Given what you know, which carrier would you suggest I go with? I think the problem crediting to CX for status is that I'll be earning Asia Miles and I want to avoid it since points expire after a 3 year period after it's deposited into the account.

Mwenenzi

But YVR-LHR-SYD may not the best $ per tier point. You will earn TP on other flights. Do the math.

Spending avios (award ) will not earn TPs.

The CX expiry rule is a factor against Asia Miles.
The BA 2/4 flight rule is a factor against BAEC, if will not be flying BA/IB

Deciding on a Oneworld Frequent Flyer Program? Help is here.

UKtravelbear

Yes correct. But the flights don't always have to be on BA metal thats why you need to read the guide to spending and earning at the very top of the board.

Can't answer that as I don't know enough about the CX programme.

Go over to the CX board and look there for threads about the benefits and disbenefits of their programme.

But each programme has different benefits and costs and only you can decide what is right for your needs and circumstances.

The advantage of BA for you is with BA Silver = OW Sapphire is that you'd get access to AA lounges but the disadvantage for you is getting the 4 qualifying flights

eponymous_coward

It entirely depends on whichever airline you want status on. AA does not fly YVR-SFO nonstop, just YVR-LAX. AS doesn't fly it nonstop either (you would connect in SEA or PDX).

FWIW, if you're buying cheap fares:

All QF fares earn at 100% of mileage flown on AS.

MVP Gold status includes lounge access for QF and BA when flying their flights (a rough equivalent to OW Sapphire for lounge access, but only on these airlines in particular lounges).

AS might not be a great match if you are primarily flying CX on cheap economy fares given that inexpensive fares only earn 25% (and there are CX fares that earn 0 on AS) and AS status does not include CX lounge access at the moment. However, if you have lounge access via credit card you might find Priority Pass lounges in HKG are an OK substitute for grinding out OW Sapphire status by mileage running lots of cheap economy flights. I don't think mileage runs make a lot of sense any more except on the margins (where a fairly small investment in cash/time yields outsized results), now that carriers are primarily focused on awarding status and benefits based on "how much did you pay for this flight you are on, and how much money did you give us last year?" as opposed to "how much did you fly in our planes last year, even if it was 100,000 miles on $1500 in paid fares?"

You may also find that earning on CX/BA/AA for cheap economy fares doesn't give you a lot in their "native" programs either (generally cheap economy doesn't earn much and AS is an outlier in awarding 100% mileage flown on their cheapest fares). You might check out wheretocredit.com and see what some of your past/future flights would have credited in various programs.

AS also does not earn on AA fares for domestic flights, but as long as you fly ex-YVR and don't connect in the United States, you would earn at least some AS miles on those flights.

PS: at 700k+ Avios, I would be looking at burning those for some J/F flights. Lounge access comes along for the ride with that, and CX/JL now do nonstops out of SEA AND YVR.

Prospero

I have a colleague who is based in California who flies extensively to Europe and Asia in business class, mostly on BA and Cathay Pacific respectively. Having done his homework, he credits his flights to Alaska MP as the earn/spend ratio works out best for his needs. There is a downside to this though which is while he flies enough to earn oneworld emerald status, he obviously cannot reach this since he is crediting his flights to a non oneworld carrier. So what this means in practical terms is he cannot access the rather lovely First lounges at LHR, HKG, or SYD.