Hi there,

I wonder how easy is to achieve IB Plus Oro (or OW Sapphire equivalent status) using long haul eco OW flights only. I have just completed my outbound out of Asia to LIS using Finnair in Classic Economy (L). Any feedback or experiences using this strategy?

also how long does IB takes to post the EPs after a partner flight ?

thanks

Credits usually take 3 or 4 days.

With IB the sweet spot is really premium economy for value of EP for money spent

Agreed.

HKG-HEL-LIS premium eco would definitely yield 500 points alone or 1000 points for return. Quite effective.

Would an AY PY booking book HEL-LIS into Y/B/H or K?

I�m checking one dummy booking right now and getting:

HKG�HEL Premium Economy E
HEL�LIS Economy Y

LIS�HEL Economy Y
HEL�HKG Premium Economy W

now it depends on how IB recognizes these AY classes.

Definitely recognizes E as PE so it would be 575 each way.

Thanks - should have booked this trip as PE. Maybe I ask to upgrade on my return flight.

I am CX gold but it�s not worth it. 600 points towards Gold requires 5 return PE flights HKG-MAD on CX metal or 10 PE on other metal. With IB, it would be only 2 return PE flights (assuming each way counts as 575 EPs). I think it�s a great hack.

What will your travel patterns be, are you moving to Europe?
What's CX customer service without CX status, assuming you'll be flying with them.
Is Sapphire sustainable? CX offers CX lounge access even to silvers, as well as the new OW AMS. CDG will be reopened one day. That's LHR AMS CDG just for Europe alone
Unless you live in Spain and can take advantage of Spain specific (or even Madrid specific) IB perks, BAEC is probably better.

Yes, I agree with the above. Check for TPs on BA. They have the same premium economy sweet spot and the benefits tend to be more global.

Honestly aside from lounge access, my favorite benefit is parking at Madrid airport, not very useful to you.

Worth adding, of course, that BAEC will include a requirement for 4 flights on BA or IB metal. No such requirement for IB+.

Consider also checking trips to the US. They are very cheap and they will yield 425 Elite Points per long haul segment.

This is the table for Finnair but to my knowledge applies to every OW partner airline

The travel pattern is always HKG-OPO, which I have been doing mostly with CX to MAD and onwards to OPO with IB. Last year August used QR, but connection to Portugal is always with IB or BA.

Understand CX provides lounge access to silver (Ruby) but only on CX flights. When I land at Madrid, and have to wait 4 hours for connection flight to OPO, I am
not admitted into the IB lounge with CX Silver. Regarding CDG or AMS, there�s no OW connection from these places to Portugal.

Why IB+ Oro:
- OW Sapphire
- Access to OW business lounges
- Priority boarding

Why IB+:
- less number of flights to reach sapphire level
- EP points from partner airlines are not massively devalued compared to CX
- accepts Avios transfers from BAEC (I have credit cards that transfer points to BA avios)

I think overall seems a better alternative to keep some status (Sapphire) at a much lower cost (less flights) and less cost per flight (Finnair vs BA vs CX). Hopefully, IB+ will value my �Classic Eco� L/K as Full economy so that long haul is worth 350 EPs on the HKG-HEL leg.

Operator/route wise, has to be OPO and not LIS? BA does LGW OPO no LHR OPO so not until CX resumes HKG-LGW, AY only LIS and QR has no PE, then through CX/MAD makes sense.
IMO flying CX as IB OWS, I get the personal greeting, first pick of meals as bulkhead window is free to choose for OWS, not that different from being CX OWS, even got op-ups, helps that MAD is a low status route. The problem is CX CS, calling them as a non CX elite is a pain (even if calling the HK Cantonese line), and when they pick up the agents are not the elite team and not empowered to do much, this is particularly problematic with CX's infamous schedule change and zero-ing out before cancellations. I'm sure you get much better CS as CX gold. Will you be spending more time in Asia flying CX or in Portugal flying intra europe with IB though. Ultimately most airlines treat their own better. If your set on leaving CX then it's between BA and IB, BA would be natural choice, would your 2x PE long hauls get you to BA silver/sapphire?

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I live one hour drive from OPO. Doing LIS is a pain. Bad airport, traffic exiting LIS. Just not convenient.

Regarding CX CS I think they are not that bad. If you purchase ticket with them they are fairly responsive and only had a bad moment with them when they refused to re-book me in another flight because I was already checked-in. Which is non-sense. BAEC is a good option ofc and I used to have BA Silver back when I did OPO-LGW-POS some 10 years ago. Great perks. The issue is that today I am based in HKG and only travel to Europe for holidays and see family. I�ll be doing at most 3/4 flights per year. Plus 3/4 more flights in Asia (Bali, BKK, KL,TPE) and possibly others for work, but within the region. Take a 5 hour flight to DPS for example - CX status points are only 20 Points. Flying CX as BAEC you get 70. This is a massive difference towards the same 600 points for OWS. Flying CX as IB+, will be 150 points towards 2275 for Iberia+. I am basically banking on the EP for full economy or PEY which should give me Oro pretty easily. Also, I expect TAP to join OW.

I only managed to achieve CX Gold this year because CX at the very last minute offered points relief from 600 to 400. The thing is I won�t be able to keep OWS with CX every year. I wrote several times to CX to adjust the status points earning to bring it closer to BAEC but they don�t listen. A lot of people will just leave CX program because it�s not worth it overall. BAEC will just take all their customers.

All in all it�s easier to achieve OWS with BAEC and a tad easier with IB+ IMO due to the distance based EP system for long haul PEY.

CX has a good PEY and Business product, but I noticed service quality on board is reducing. They have staff shortages, not as helpful or attentive as before since they are working overstretched. Support wise, I never had any issues. But I do feel quality level is dropping. CX does give you the greet and a bottled water but is not 100% of the times when you are CX Gold. CX Diamond do get preferred treatment.

I think if you are in HKG and travel to Europe on OW and within Asia sometimes, the best bet is not to be on CX because, BAEC or IB+ will reward you much better if you take any of the OW airlines. Whereas CX penalizes you a lot if you take carriers other than CX. Just not worth it tbh.

Finnair L/K count as discount economy for Avios and Elite Points. You can find this out by cross-checking the top and bottom tables below:



In many cases, an itinerary with a Premium Economy long-haul segment and an Economy short-haul segment will book the latter in full Y/B/H, meaning that you get a double EP reward.