Hi, folks,

I'm a United 1k (175k last year, 100k this year so far), but my work has shifted and now I need to fly to India (from San Francisco) a lot for the next year; and aside from that my flights in the US will be unpredictable, so I don't want to rely on United/Continental. I tried Lufthansa for the flight to India, and their business doesn't match British Air, so my current thought is that I'll fly BA primarily to India, and mix American and United in the US. So far I have 50k on BA this year.

So anyway... a few questions:
1) Do you all agree that BA is the best choice for the India flights?
2) What is BA's policy regarding matching? I didn't see anything on a search.
3) Would you suggest I get American to match or BA? Where should I accumulate my miles?

With regards to the latter... my primary question is about the status recognition within OneWorld. My #1 goal is to get the status perks while flying in the US (ie, early boarding, upgrades); I don't need to worry about international perks since I'll be buying business class. From my experience with United, they don't grant 'full perks' to their partners - e.g., Star Alliance Gold boards after Global services, etc. This leads me to think getting status on American is better.

The other consideration is that mostly I'd like to use my frequent flier tickets for international business travel, probably on BA; again, my experience on Star alliance is that it's painful to use United miles to get Lufthansa flights. This leads me in the other direction - get status on BA.

My current thought based on this is that I'll go with BA - status match (assuming that's possible) and miles, including flights in the US - but I'd appreciate any input!

- hyperlexic

Regarding BA comping status, see:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/13303070-post9.html

Look for the status match sticky thread somewhere in flyertalk. I'm pretty sure that BA don't do status matches unfortunately.

BA doesn't status match.

Reading through your requirements of getting (free or almost free) upgrades on flights in the US is a perk only a US-based program would provide. I'd look in to AA's AAdvantage program; you can signup for the Platinum Challenge (search around on the AA forum) to fast track to Platinum status (Oneworld Sapphire). This will give you access to upgrades, priority boarding, and checkin; and int'l lounge access on Oneworld flights.

The advantage of the BA program is that it's relatively easy to achieve the same status if you're flying Club US to India often. One roundtrip will net you 480 Tier Points, which is 120 TPs or one Club segment away from Silver (Oneworld Sapphire). Maybe you should try to keep both, this way you get free Admiral's club access on domestic itineraries (via your BA Silver status) and potential domestic upgrades (via your AA Plat status).

Hope this helps!

Thanks for all the quick replies! So much for the idea of BA status matching.

As was noted it looks like I'll get to at least silver quickly on BA with my flights back and forth to India, which is nice. I'm already 480 points, next time I'll make silver, I should make gold by YE.

Question still remains on whether it's better for me accumulate all my points on BA's program or AA's.

Just to make sure I understand the tiers - BA silver is oneworld sapphire which is AA platinum?

Theo

Yes that's correct.

Although both levels are equal, it's for you to decide whether there are any benefits in going after AA Plat status (such as ability to request upgrades using 500-mile vouchers, better AA mile redemption rates (and lower surcharge fees when redeeming on non-BA free flights), enhanced ability to accumulate AA miles via credit cards, lifetime status, etc), or going up to BA Gold (access to F lounges, better availability on BA reward flights in Y, better chance of opups and getting taken care of when things go wrong).

SFO to India? Have you considered SFO-HKG-India on CX? Then do the PLT Challenge on AA (mentioned upthread).

Note that for the Platinum Challenge you need to fly either on AA metal or on an AA code on a partner. So for example, if you want SFO-HKG-DEL/BOM on CX metal but using the AA code (just the SFO-HKG part; no AA codes on HKG-India) you'd earn over 10,000 elite qualifying points on the outbound HKG flight, and land in Hong Kong as AA Plat. You'd earn 100% bonus redeemable miles on that flight and all subsequent flights on most Oneworld carriers (the exceptions are Malev and S7 I believe) so not bad.

One thing to note, however, is that Plat on AA doesn't allow you to use AA lounges on domestic itineraries, so if you reach Executive Plat or else decide to try for BA Silver on subsequent trips, your BA card would let you into Admirals Clubs on domestic flights.