rbAA

Well, aa.com doesn't want to offer anything but an AA codeshare on JL or CX, other than the HKG-NRT segments. So, other than more EQD's and a possible NRT to JFK nonstop, no substantial benefit to using the JL flights. Using JL, the RDM's are probably 30% of BIS (5800 plus elite bonus vs 4884 for AA metal/codeshare,) but not more than 50% per the chart as this is probably the lowest fare category. But, EQM's are only 50% of BIS-9722 vs 19444. What you gain in EQD or RDM benefit is lost in lower EQM's and no UPG's.

I can more easily and comfortably generate EQD's by flying premium cabin OW partners, QR and MH primarily, or the occsional CX or BA PE deals. I don't want to have to fly an extra trans-pacific RT to make up for the lost EQM's. And, I don't want to fly in coach.

HLCinCOU

Completely reasonable thought process. You'll note that my first post in this thread basically said "the JL flights might be good if you're short EQD and long EQM" which is in full agreement with your analysis.

SpammersAreScum

I don't think you've told us exactly where you're trying to fly. It's hard to follow your math without that. And if it's a BKK to JFK, QR thru Doha would be an option, no?

rbAA

Thank you, but I was responding to a post about using JL on this fare. I already have a HKG-LAX-JFK ticketed for next Feb. QR business BKK-DOH-MIA would have been my first choice, but I have these SWU's to burn next year, so I need to do two trips on AA in 2018.

SpammersAreScum

Sorry, yes, I forgot the context of this discussion.

Flyerhandle

Thank you for the info. Another major disadvantage of JL seems to be the inability to use miles to upgrade to a higher cabin. That's pretty major, considering that you can at least get main cabin extra for nothing from JFK to NRT.

sawastea

So booked my AAVacations from next Friday to the following Friday from MIA-HKG, via JFK. Total trip cost was a bit over $1K with hotels. Granted the flight is economy, but all marketed as AA which is good for me. In the middle of this flight, booked HKG-MIA RT and was able to use my two SWU for the entire trip ($680). Total trip was slightly over $1,700 but it should give me the 'bonus' AA Vacation miles (20K) as well as 40K BITS miles, at 4.2 cents per mile including hotel embedded. Booked MIA-CGK in September all marketed as AA for an additional 23K BITS with SWU at 3.4 cents per mile. BUT, now the final issue is that I'm $4K short of the EQD for EXP

Flyerhandle

Pardon my ignorance, but what are BITS? I am also out of MIA, and this would be an ideal trip for me as well. Were you able to use SWUs on the MIA-HKG flight or only the interior RT?

SpammersAreScum

I'm guessing that's a typo for BIS (butts in seat) -- actual miles flown as opposed to award miles (RDM) or elite-qualifying miles (EQM).

Flyerhandle

Hmmm. Maybe "Butt in the seat," but wouldn't that effectively be EQMs?

SpammersAreScum

BITS could be that.

But, no, it's not same as EQM. All the earning tables show what multiplier to apply to BIS to compute EQM. The multiplier depends on airline (or AAVacations) and fare class. If you fly econ on AA, the multiplier is 1.0, so they come out the same.

HLCinCOU

You did take into account the special fare EQD for the AAVacations part, yes? Also, how did you book the non-AAV part? Might check and see if it's a bulk fare etc. You may be closer than you think. In any case, if you're still short the only remedy is to fly a bit more, preferably on a long-and-cheap business class ticket with a partner airline, or on a long-and-cheap economy AA flight bought as a bulk ticket.

Flyerhandle

Do you already have the Aviator MC? Otherwise, you can earn $3K using that for $25K in purchases, or even more if you spend way more.

Flyerhandle

A few follow-up questions. If you bought a business class ticket on a partner airline, it would have to be one that was not marketed as an AA flight at all in order to qualify for the percentage of distance rule, right? In that case, if it was in a fare class > I it would earn 25% of miles. Am I reading things correctly?

As for the second suggestion, I thought that bulk fares were ineligible for any mileage credit, or is there a difference between bulk and consolidators? How and where does one locate this type of fare? TIA

HLCinCOU

Yes, it needs to be a partner marketed flight, not an AA codeshare on a partner. As to the EQD earning rate, that varies by partner. For example British Airways will earn you 25% on a J fare (which is typical) but on Finnair you'll earn a whopping 40% instead. So, best to lookup the partner you're thinking of flying before you buy.

Bulk fares and Consolidator fares are the same thing. Not sure where you heard they don't earn credit; they earn according to the special fares table, and in fact are prominently listed in the examples at that page.

As for how you buy them, that can be a bit tricky. I have heard some of the travel sites (expedia etc.) sometimes sell them, but I'm not 100% on that. The best bet as far as I know is buying through a credit card reward portal; I have successfully used Chase Ultimate Rewards for this (though I've also purchased tickets there that were not bulk), and I understand Citi and AMEX work as well (in fact I think I read that those two are always or nearly always bulk). Notable that if you don't have enough points (or if you think the travel portal is inferior value for UR points vs. transfers) you can pay cash for all or nearly all of the ticket and it'll still be bulk (if it's bulk in the first place).

The clever bit obviously is figuring out whether a ticket is bulk before you buy it. Basically, you need to look at the fare rules and see if it says "wholesale" somewhere. If it does, it's bulk; if that word doesn't appear, it's not. Looking up the rules varies by the platform on which you're buying, but here's how it works at Chase:

1. Do the search, select your flights.
2. In the pop-over in the upper right that says "your trip to XXXXXX" click "continue" to go to the "review your trip" page.
3. Below your flights and below the "View Details" twisty there should be a twisty for "View Rules and Policies. " Click to expand that.
4. Inside the section that opens up there should be a few links that all say "Airline Fare Rules." Click any one of those.
5. That should load some twisties (one for each flight segment) that contain the actual fare rules. Click all of those twisties (I recommend starting with the last one so you don't have to scroll a bunch.)
6. Now that you have all the text of the fare rules exposed to your browser, hit Ctrl+F and search for "wholesale" ...if it comes up, then the segment it came up inside is a bulk fare. So far in my experience I've only seen all segments bulk or none, but I don't know if that's always true or not.

Hope that helps. If I have anything wrong here, I implore those more knowledgeable to correct me.