Fastrack to OW S/ OW E?
 

About to get EXP on AA.
99% of my travel is Domestic US on AA Metal.

Would like to get free lounge access and though that getting status on a OW partner might be a better choice than just buying an AC membership as i could use BA/QF lounges as well.

Ideas?

Get an Amex plat which offers lounge access.

Its cheaper to just buy AC access. Priority Pass isnt very good IMO.

Amex plat gives (or at least did) access to the AC not via PP but the card itself.

But card has a $475 fee, sure you get $200 back on airline fees....but if you are Elite you dont have fees anyways.

AC membership gives you access to QF lounges (although not BA - http://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInforma...ungeAccess.jsp)

If you fly paid J or F, you'll get status quickly on Qantas but you need to fly 4 QF coded flights in any membership year (hard if you just fly domestically in the US).

The AA Mastercard gets you AC access for $450 pa (http://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/citiexecutive.jsp)

If you're flying on AA, you're better off using your EXP status for the flights themselves. For the most part, the QF/BA lounges are hard to get to if you're traveling on AA domestic metal (consider at JFK: AA is in T8, BA and its lounge is in T7, for example). It's likely that many of the times you'll happen across a QF/BA lounge (other than the--I believe--joint QF-AC operation at HNL), you'll be traveling internationally.

As far as lounge access goes, you should look into getting the Amex Platinum card or buying AC membership outright (with the EXP discount).

I guess the primary question that no one else raised in this thread-- if you fly primarily AA and reach a higher level, then I would simply get the Amex plat card for the Admirals Club access. After all, why would you give up FC upgrades on AA just to gain lounge access by getting miles on another one world carrier's program? If lounges are more important, then by all means... I fly other carriers and have One World Emerald status. It's great, I can use the AA Flagship lounge on a domestic US flight, but I never receive an upgrade on AA if I fly domestically because I am a One World flyer, not an AAdvantage.

Good point, but im not considering giving up AA status, i would keep my EXP in perpetuity. I was thinking that as long as I will be flying this much on AA, maybe it makes sense to get a CC, Match, do a MR on another OW airline so i can use my OW E/S status in any lounge i choose to in the US or abroad.

AA miles are more valuable than BA, and especially QF miles so think carefully before doing this. The Amex plat has a great range of other benefits for frequent travellers and depending on your activities might be a lot more valuable. Also don't forget you would be reducing time to achieve lifetime status by continuing to put miles to AA.

Finally, remember QF and BA are geared to give status on premium and not economy fares.

Buy a Qantas Club membership. Good for AA/BA/QF lounges when flying those airlines. Better than an AC membership.

BA Euro cheat is a good way to get BA Silver/Gold if you fly some premium classes, but if you want to do it, you have very little time to reach the status this year. If you do reach status before end of March, then you can continue getting it at the same level as currently.

Yea i saw that a while back. I am all about Status/Points Hacking, but i would have to lie about my address and for me thats crossing the line. Also at this point my weekends are full up thru the end of Feb so probably dont have time to qualify anyways.

Hmmm....Well i think ill just bite the bullet and buy an AC membership....Definitely is going to be the cheapest.

thanks for all the help.

A couple of years ago, I went from having just made QFF Silver (OW Ruby) to QFF Platinum (OW Emerald) with a DAS13+DONE3.

I would think a well planned DONE3 in itself would be able to get you QF Plat (subject to the QF 4 flight rule of course).

Note less good for BA lounges at present - only BA Terraces, Exec Lounges and the T3 lounge -- ie. at present no T5 access... There is a lengthy thread on this in the Qantas forum.