One other thought: If you can achieve desired status with IB without some or all of your flights to DAC, you could fly QR or EY to/from DAC, and credit to AA. Both airlines would earn you redeemable miles on AA; but only QR flights would count towards status on AA. As long as you'd be flying Business Class to/from DAC, the lack of status benefits on those flights should not affect you much -- if at all.

Also, note that Avios earned on IB can be transferred to BA and QR, if those programs should offer more favorable redemption options for a particular reward flight.

since I'm too lazy to search (yeah, I know) - can I credit EY to anyone else in OW, other than AA? I've considered flying EY a few times, but didn't due to the lack of creditable mileage, and the fact that I hate AUH airport, and this whole thing requires an overnight stay in AUH.

I've done YYZ-DOH-DAC multiple times, with the first leg being on AC (so I'm getting good credit with my TK status), and the rest on QR. I've flown to YUL from DOH recently, so that's the longest haul flight I have on hand which I can credit. These are mostly D and R class fares.

.....

It appears that EY flights can also be credited to oneworld carriers AT and MH:

https://www.etihadguest.com/en/earn-miles/flying.html

I blew the AT status match, and MH doesn't really do it for me, location and all :)

You can credit EY to AC, I think. Which is an amazing program.
You can obviously also credit them to EY’s own program.
Both AC and EY miles can be redeemed for WY…

Yes, it’s not Oneworld, but it seems like you’re flying quite a bit, so why not use multiple programs?

I don't do AC. Terrible program. Given that I'm kind of stuck with TK, given the amount of mileage I have, and never ending status renewal, I'm just sticking with them for Star Alliance accruals.

EY's own program doesn't really make sense, since I don't see myself doing EY more than twice a year - don't like AUH (I'd rather drive from DXB, if I have business in Abu Dhabi).

Decisions, decisions... I'm taking an AA flight in the morning, so I kind of wanted to decide some thing today 🤣🤣🤣🙈🙈🙈

If you are willing to pay for an annual Admirals Club membership -- with either cash or AA miles -- then I would probably credit oneworld flights to AAdvantage. If not, then the Iberia Plus program would probably suit your needs well.

AC is an amazing program. If you don't fly AC much. ;-) I had missed that you live in Canada.

woah, how did I miss the paying for the membership part... this obviously seals the deal as far as AA is concerned - screw that. Back to picking between QR and Iberia, simply because QR gives more avios (125% on Iberia, vs. 175% on QR, for some booking classes).

really regret, crediting a couple of flights to AA, earlier in the year...

The fee is for an Admirals Club (lounge) membership, not for an AAdvantage program membership.

Remember that AAdvantage miles can be a lot more valuable than Avios for certain redemptions because of AA's policy of not collecting carrier surcharges on award tickets, except when flying BA/IB. So the decision is not a slam-dunk. A lot depends on what AA would charge for a particular redemption vs. what BA/IB would charge for the same redemption.

my primary goal is lounge access for Y flights in the region, and the Caribbean, so basically AA is useless to me.

Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that. Different programs can charge vastly different amounts of miles (and cash) for the exact same redemption. Depending on your intended redemptions, it might actually cost you less to pay for an Admirals Club membership and collect and redeem AA miles than to get lounge access for "free" by attaining status in a foreign FFP. Here's one example, a Business Class one-way on QR from MAD to DAC, connecting in DOH. This is what AA would charge:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...000679e462.png

And this is what BA (and presumably IB, too) would charge:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ee7b9cf473.png

So not only would you have to redeem far more Avios than AAdvantage miles for the redemption, but you would also have to pay about $140 more in cash when using Avios. And that's for a one-way.

The plot thickens... 4 of the flights I wanted to credit somewhere, are older than 90 days, meaning I can only credit them to QR or AA...3 of them aren't much to write home about - DOH-DAC return, and DOH-DXB, but one is kind of nice - DOH-FRA.

I guess I'll start by trying to credit them to QR, to see if I get the 180 day bit. Right now I'm focused on status, rather than accrual - if I got a status match somewhere, then this whole discussion would be moot, but nobody wants to do anything - AA blew me off, in writing.

May be of interest. Has retro credit info, but check the ffp web sites--->https://www.finder.com.au/how-to-cla...t-flyer-points