It looks like BA has local-traffic rights:

When i add CPH as in LHR-CPH and CPH-HEL, the itinerary gives errors on the OW RTW tool. When i remove it and have LHR-HEL nonstop flight, it prices the itinerary.

BA flight from EZE-GIG was successfully selected on OW RTW tool.

Well, I'm told that the tool can be problematic sometimes when it comes to pricing, but you're going to have to call a carrier to book it in any event.

With a little tweaking, we can get you four BA segments and BA Gold on this trip, with an itinerary something like this:

HND-HKG JL
HKG-SIN CX
SIN-SYD BA
SYD-MEL QF
MEL-DOH QR
DOH-BCN QR
BCN-LHR BA
LHR-CPH/MAN/DUB (pick one) BA
CPH/MAN/DUB-HEL AY
HEL-DOH QR
DOH-DFW QR
DFW-EZE AA
EZE-GIG BA
GIG-MIA AA
MIA-LAX AA
LAX-HND JL

Change HND-HKG to CTS-HKG and it's 140 TP instead of 40 TP as well. The original itinerary was at 1500, changing to CTS makes it 1600 plus the segment you've just added in. Also AY doesn't fly to DUB much to my dismay as I wanted that segment without LHR in the middle.


@ memanny
I'm still working on it, but I've done some re-ordering and I've got an itinerary that's definitely 91k AA LPs, assuming the AA and BA segments count as zero (which of course they don't), and if the AA segments count as distance then it's right around 120-121k (which I believe they would if you ticket from CX or QF). Will post a bit later after a meeting and some more tweaking.

Hope your itinerary was flexible in terms of which stop comes when , but I kept all of your cities.

It looks like Nordic Regional for Finnair offers regular DUB-HEL service (don't know whether that's bookable on an Explorer ticket), but Finnair flies its own metal on the route seasonally:

If you want to go for AA status, this "should" do it. It can't be ticketed with AA however and I'd be leery of ticketing with BA also. Sadly you may have to ticket this with QF, but AA segments "should" credit as distance with a 75% cabin bonus (special fares). SYD-JFK is via AKL but I'm pretty sure that counts as 1 segment, it can also be quite difficult to find D availability on nearish any major holidays.

NRT MEL QF or JL (both credit the same on this segment)
MEL SYD QF
SYD JFK QF
JFK EZE AA
EZE GIG BA
GIG MIA AA
MIA JFK AA
JFK LAX AA
LAX DOH QR
DOH BCN QR
BCN LHR BA
LHR HEL AY
HEL DOH QR
DOH HKG QR
HKG SIN CX
SIN HND/NRT JL

Assuming the AA segments all credit as distance that puts you at 128k LP's for PlatinumPro (OW Emerald) plus whatever the BA segment credits as. (if for some reason AA segments credit as revenue then you've got 90k LPs + whatever mystery LPs AA and BA credit at) but I've yet to see anyone said a QF plated DONEx credited as revenue in the AA thread.

Once you're PPro, you'll earn a lot more miles for the same itinerary next time. Just using my example above, if you were PPro today then it would put you at 177k LPs, again assuming you get the AA segments to credit by distance. That's just a stone's throw from EXP, and once you're EXP then it's pretty easy to maintain doing the same type of itinerary. An EXP doing that same itinerary today would net 216k LPs, again with the same assumptions.

Good to know for next time, I'm quite certain I was unable to find it before, not sure if it's been long running or recent?

If the OP decides to pursue AA status from this trip, he could also amass thousands more AA Loyalty Points by charging the fare to a qualifying AA credit card. But there are more lucrative cards for charging airfare -- including cards which offer Trip Cancellation, Trip Interruption, and Trip Delay insurance.

Yeah, I very reluctantly put my most recent DONE5 on my Citi AA card before I actually did a full LP calculation for the remainder of the year. Now I'm going to be sitting on about 270k LP which I'm not super happy about. I could have moved some spend to Chase for more UR. (I'm not going to switch flight earnings over to another program because the EXP bonus is too lucrative, this overlap is simply being more cognizant of changing spend from Citi to Chase in future years.) I'm not one that needs to compete for domestic upgrades by maximizing LPs as high as they can go as I don't fly domestic much and I rarely buy an economy ticket hoping for an upgrade now. Even going to 250k LP for SWUs vs 200k just for EXP (or for that matter even 125k just for PPro) is starting to reveal how difficult it is to justify for me. I do appreciate getting to 200k for EXP just because the 120% elite bonus and I am in a place in the world where I can REALLY utilize AA miles quite well (and in this part of the world they are the best in OW if you're going beyond the short range tier with Avios. Literally the only program here any better is LifeMiles and that depends on the city pair as their regions are a bit different.). So the 120% for EXP vs. 80% for PPro actually is beneficial for that reason alone. I value the 120% elite bonus and the Emerald status. A couple of years ago I had to burn SWUs for MIA-SXM and back, despite most likely clearing for "free" anyway. The EXP agent was like 'are you really sure?'... I said yeah I have literally nothing else to use them on. I'm going to be sitting on 3-4 of them again at the end of this year sadly.

Not complaining, AAdvantage is wonderful where I live, and OW availability intra-Asia and Asia to the west is REALLY good (that's not unique to AA, every OW program has the same general availability, just a fact of the location) But I think this is the last year I chase SWUs, sadly. The restrictions using them on BA are too difficult where I might actually be able to C to F. If AA ever adds JL to the SWU partners, now that's something I can get excited about again. But even for the OP, AA is likely a very good program, just has to plan ahead for partner awards and be willing to position to where they fly (pretty sure OP is in DEN and that's not served by any international OW airlines I believe). Not saying chasing BAEC Gold is a bad idea either, but Avios are pretty terrible these days for any long haul redemptions and the status doesn't give much beyond other OW Emerald except domestic lounge access in the US (which I don't need but the OP might).

If I lived in the US and traveled on economy tickets a lot, I'd 100% go for AA EXP, not a question. But if most flights are international and you buy premium cabins, then that 'upgrade potential' looses it's luster. Then you get the question of where you're treated best... I find the abundance of AA miles highly beneficial but the OP may find Avios more beneficial.

I was under the impression ( i know in all likelihood I am wrong) that the segments need to be long haul for BA status.

But its great how you got 4 QR segments and 4 BA segments. Thanks so much!

I am assuming i ticket this with BA.

This is very interesting. I would have never thought of this.

One quick question, can i do this in reverse. Reach stateside and than take a break. Than pick up the GIG, EZE, MEL, SYD part of the itinerary.

I am in DEN. I only fly domestically once in a while and for positioning flights.

From DEN, BA does have a LHR-DEN daily flight which i have flown a few times.

I am not sure how to use Avios except for domestic AA flights where you save a few thousand miles. For BA redemption, the fees are too damn high. So that [ushes me away from BA. If i lived in OW hub city AA flagship lounges would have selected BA.

Never used AA FFP. But people seem to still like it a lot compared to say DL or UA. So may lean towards that. Not sure as yet though.

Actually I just noticed that I made a calculation error. I had the elite bonus multiplier on the base + cabin bonus, which is incorrect. The elite bonus is only on the base miles. I just fixed it and you'd only end up at 110k-112k LPs now, needing to find about 13k-15k another way (Other flights, AA credit card spend, AA Hotels (I'm assuming it's still out there, I found one after the change this year where you could still get about 16k LPs for $500 and not need to ever visit the hotel).

Reversing the itinerary does work, but it would then ticket through JL (assuming it even works in the OW tool, I haven't tested that). So I changed it slightly to cause it to get ticketed by CX, but you'd lose MIA. Just be sure you're timing your start and end within AA's Elite qualification year (March 1st to Feb 28th). BA is different and your qualification year is based on the month you earn your first Tier Points (which I'm assuming you already have done in the past so it's probably already set, you can see in your account, mine is May).

HND HKG CX
HKG SIN CX
SIN HKG CX
HKG DOH QR
DOH HEL QR
HEL LHR AY
LHR BCN BA
BCN DOH QR
DOH LAX QR
LAX JFK AA
JFK GIG AA
GIG EZE BA
EZE JFK AA
JFK SYD QF
SYD MEL QF
MEL NRT QF

One caveat in this, you'd hit Gold during that DOH-LAX flight, and I don't know how AA handles that 40% bonus. If it only counts from the next flight then you're at 110k LPs + the 2x BA flights mystery amount. But if AA pro-rates it exactly from 40k LPs then you'd have about 4,400 more LPs than I've accounted for, which might also kick Platinum in sooner than I've calculated so maybe a couple thousand more LPs than I've accounted for.

The biggest difference (high fees aside) between AA miles and Avios is that AA is zone based for redemption and Avios is distance based. Very short flights in business class are a good deal with Avios, but their long haul redemptions are atrocious these days. AA has some really attractive long haul rates, but some of the short haul wouldn't make sense in comparison. It's useful to have both on hand. I have AA as my primary but I always keep some Avios active for specific shorter redemptions. AA also weirdly doesn't have all OW inventory for redemption. I haven't found very many examples of this but there are a small handful that I've noticed on JL and CX where BA would have availability on those routes, I think they fixed one of them after I lodged a complaint to AAdvantage CS but it took a while and I couldn't use it when I needed it.

For you, domestic, if you go with AA once you get to PPro you'd have some chance at upgrades but I wouldn't expect many, you'd also get free Main Cabin Extra selection at booking and 3x free checked bags on AA metal, but only would have lounge access on long haul international. (they were allowing Admirals Club on Caribbean and Central America as well for a while but not sure if that's still in place). If you go with BA you won't get the upgrades or MCE seating, but you'd always have lounge access regardless of itinerary. Your baggage would also go by the OneWorld Emerald policy which is +1 on top of whatever the ticket allows (which is usually zero on domestic economy).

It sounds like you don't do a ton of domestic flying as it is, so I think the big decision comes down to how you will use your miles. In the end, after achieving PPro once, it's easier to maintain. I think you'd likely earn a lot more miles with AA but depends on which airlines you fly on going forward. AA's tier bonus applies to all OW flights. BA's tier bonus for Gold only applies fully for BA, IB, AA, JL and partially for AY (maybe more, I just didn't find them), though I suspect those will be changing for at least BA and IB soon and will just be a higher multiplier on the revenue, just like AA for it's own flights in AAdvantage.

BA Silvers and Golds both get free MCE seats on AA at time of booking, and get at least two free checked bags on AA. AA is more generous than what oneworld rules require.

Fair enough, I thought AA took that away from all non-AA OW elites (this was before AS joined), wasn't aware they allowed BA elites to continue the benefit.