Relatives flew YB; Have no account; who should they accrue with? THANKS!
 

Etihad team,

Thanks for your patience. I am an experienced flyer on Star Alliance but need to get some advice for my 2 relatives who have no FF accounts and recently flew RDU-JFK (AA metal), JFK-AUH-BKK return on Etihad metal. They flew in YB (looks like T or E fare class)

They have no FF accounts so can start up and claim this to any account.

They are US based and will likely want to spend these domestically (on AA I presume given Etihad's alliances?)

Looks to me like there is no difference in mileage earned (25%) for international flights whether they claim this on AA or Etihad but that the AA flights might get 100% if earned on AA?

And looks like a locally managed AA account might be best for their redemption needs.

But maybe family merging of accounts offered by Etihad is worth considering?? Since they will not accrue many miles each again.


But that's all conjecture based on my research to date. I would REALLY value the wisdom of the crowd here.

Kind regards and Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Lurker :)

Good luck getting AAvailability on AA metal using AAdvantage, so no, credit to Etihad guest.
Unrelated: NEVER BUY SAVER Y TIX 25% peanuts ;).

what does "YB" mean?

http://www.etihad.com/en-us/plan-and...ices-overview/

Lurker :)

I wouldn't say it is worth buying more expensive tickets just for the air miles. Worth it if you might change, or want to upgrade with miles - otherwise, it is pretty expensive for not much gain, I think.

Good luck ever earning enough for a redemption or status buying saver Y tix. And in my experience sometimes the cost difference aint high.

Guys, they have already flown. I was looking for advice as to where to retrospectively credit the miles. Like many of us here not flying on someone else's money, I am sure they wish they had the money to buy more expensive tickets but as a recently graduated firefighter on her honeymoon let's say buying up for the miles was not on her radar.
thanks

Lurker

I thank you kind sir for not being an american LeAAch and staying where you belong ;)

That is not always the case. I recently bought the cheapest Eco tickets MAN-BKK. The difference between that and the next Eco fare was 160 pounds per person. Multiply that by 3 for my wife and son and that is 480 pounds more. We will get the same seat with the same service on board. We are all gold, so can use lounges. The 480 pounds saving would pay for us a week in a 5* hotel in Bangkok. And the miles we would have earned for that 480 pounds would not be worth much towards an EY redemption.

I highly doubt that 480 Quid will pay for a 5* hotel in BKK for a week. 2 or possibly 3 days at most and definitely not a four seasons, peninsula etc. And btw how did your family get to gold using saver Y tix?

Tier miles don't change - only guest miles to spend. I get 10k tier miles when I do a return to India, no matter if I am Economy Classic or Economy Deal (at least, that is all it always appears to be in my account?).

So, your logic is pay for a higher fare to get more miles. In his case, the difference was £480 extra for three people, let's say he paid for that.

His fare: 9918 miles earned for all three passengers
Next fare up: 19818 miles earned for all three passengers

Perfect, so he would have got 10000 more miles for £480. He could just buy 38,400 miles on Etihad's website for US$640 (£480) - meaning he would get 19000 extra miles for the same amount, PLUS his flights to Bangkok (where he didn't need the flexibility), and still get his tier miles (remembering he only gets his own tier miles, and not his wife's or child's).

Paying more for an economy level ticket *only* to get more air miles is a stupid idea.

cheaper to upgrade and higher op-up probability as well.

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Literally my first sentence; "I wouldn't say it is worth buying more expensive tickets just for the air miles"

£500 for his whole family on the off-chance of an op-up (which for three people... almost impossible), and cheaper upgrades that he seemingly doesn't plan to do for this flight is terrible value. Once again, refer to my first sentence - it's not worth upgrading fare type purely for air miles, only if you need one of the other benefits for *that* flight.

Do a search on AGODA for 5* hotels in Bangkok and you will see numerous around the 50 pounds a night. I booked the Hilton in Klong san for 2750 bht a night. The conrad came in at 3450 a night. At 43 bht to the pound that makes klong san 64 pounds a night. You can argue whether that hotel is 5* or not, but its official rating is 5*.

You are assuming that I always fly on saver tickets. How do you know we don't normally fly business class? On this occasion it was a good deal and as far as I know, tier miles are 100% no matter which fare class you fly in eco. So it makes no difference. I am sure lots of people made gold or above by flying mainly economy class.