EGW

Hello,

I'm new here, I hope this is the right place to ask this:

I am buying two Oneworld Explorer RTW tickets, economy, L, 4 continents, departing July 2010 from London.

I called the AA RTW desk in the US to set it up and want to arrange payment with the AA UK office, because I understood from this forum that's the cheapest way. Side note: Or would paying AA in the Netherlands (where we live) be better with current EUR/GBP?

Currently I'm not in any frequent flyer program and I would really like some advice on which one to join. Does it matter? Do I have to choose one before paying the tickets and tell AA about it?

This is our itinerary:

LHR-SIN Qantas
SIN-CNS (via BNE) Qantas
CNS-MEL Overland
MEL-HBA Qantas
HBA-AKL (via SYD, second part operated by Jetconnect for Qantas) Qantas
AKL-SCL (operated by LAN for Qantas) Qantas
SCL-PUQ LAN
PUQ-SCL LAN
SCL-LIM LAN
LIM-GYE Overland
GYE-GPS LAN
GPS-UIO LAN
UIO-MAD IB (I wanted LAN, but AA RTW desk person only saw this one)
MAD-LHR BA

Joining Qantas seems to make the most sense to me, but I know too little about it. Which program would make us collect most points? Or it all the same?

We definitely want to spend the points to be earned on flights. Do we have to think about which airline we want to use spending the points? Living in the Netherlands, BA would probably make the most sense in that case.

Any advice is most appreciated. Thanks!

Gardyloo

Welcome to FT!

It's not just how many miles/points you'll earn with the various FF programs, it's also (even more important) how many miles/points it will require when it comes time to redeem them.

Every FFP is different on both earning and burning levels. You should start by looking at the earning tables for the 3 programs you might want to investigate:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...d/public/en_us
http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/pa...n.jsp?from=Nav
http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/...ms#airlineearn

Note that L fares earn 25% miles in the BA program and either 50% or 100% with the Qantas program depending on which airline is flown (e.g. L earns 1 mi/mi on Iberia and Lan, 50% on Qantas and AA, 25% on BA and so on.) With AA, L earns 1 mile on AA and Lan, 25% on BA, 30% on Iberia and 50% on Qantas.

However, when redemption requirements are added, the picture changes. Looking at your route, it looks like you'd earn around 20,000 - 25,000 miles in either the Qantas or AA programs (and quite a lot fewer in BA's.) For 20,000 miles you'd earn a return trip within Europe using AA's program, while Qantas' would cost you 28,000 miles. Those differences are typical.

Even though you have no AA segments in the RTW, I think you'd probably do better overall by using the AAdvantage plan. It's worth noting too that the pending joint venture agreement between AA, BA and Iberia is likely to result in changes to all 3 airlines' FF programs - "alignment" they're calling it - - so looking ahead having the most points "grandfathered" in any one scheme will probably be smart.

Dr. HFH

Yes, Welcome!!!

Looking at earn/burn, I think that AAdvantage is definitely the way to go. Also, you might take a look at comparative country pricing. It might very well turn out cheaper to fly to another country and buy there.

serfty

Welcome to FT.

As Gardyloo posted earnings can vary.

Here is a table Gardyloo set up four years ago showing earnings. It does not include any of the recently joined oneworld member, but should be a reasonable guide:

QFCHC

When I did a OneWorld Explorer RTW I used different FF numbers (sometimes AA, sometimes QF) on different flights depending on the best points earned for each flight.

Supersonic Swinger

Can you elaborate on "grandfathered"? Is this something which has been announced or you are hoping for based on some previous airline or program merger you have been through?

I'd personally prefer the entire AAdvantage program to be "grandfathered" but that's unlikely...

EGW

Thanks, all of you, for your great help!! I will probably choose the AAdvantage plan.

As far as the price of the LONE4 ticket, we are leaving from London for sure, does it matter if we pay in the UK or in the Netherlands? Right now, AA gave a price in GPB (2452 pp including all taxes and a fee for one extra flight). Does paying in the Netherlands only mean calculating this in euro's or will AA come up with a different price?

Dr. HFH

From the Official Rule Sheet:

So you might be able to buy in another ECAA country at a lower rate. There are bound to be FTers here with more experience with this than I. I have, however, used the Canada exception with no problems.

henry999

While this may work for someone who flies a lot, it is decidedly bad advice for someone who is not yet in any FFP. Chances are he'll wind up with not enough miles in any account to get a post-RTW advantage out of any of his programmes!

cheers,

Henry

mkjr

... please do eleborate on this grandfather point also...

Gardyloo

First, I have no knowledge of what changes might result from post-ATI "alignment" of the BA/IB/AA FF programs. They might be major, or they might be trivial, or they might not happen at all. However, my personal view is that given AA's more liberal earn/burn profile (with exceptions) it seems to me that BA will have to move more toward AA's system rather than AA moving closer to BA's, given the relative size of the programs. Thus if I were starting now I'd want to use any mileage-earning opportunities to pad my AA account (since they're more plentiful) so that the miles would be more "useful" down the road, presuming that one's mileage balances and (relevant to AA) lifetime status are "grandfathered" forward into whatever new system emerges. But that's just me speaking from the context of my own travel patterns.