allianceflyer9506

get it now about that

mellikr

Thanks in advance for any advice! I relocated from NYC to HKG a couple of months ago and will be in HKG for the next 2-5 years. I was mostly flying DL/VS/CX prior to the move. I credited a lot of my old CX flights to AS, so I have status + miles there, but now I'm wondering if CX makes more sense given I'm based out of HKG, and given the difficulty in finding awards availability on CX via AS? I still have some family in the US, so I'd be happy to use my miles to buy them flights to visit HKG.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Good award redemption rates, better award access, upgrades on travel - specifically looking to upgrade my family on flights to HKG. I haven't been great at using either my Amex points or FFP miles to book flights and am also looking to do this more.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
>50k mi
<25 sectors

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Long haul - Business
Short haul - Economy / cheapest

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Can choose airline/class
Long haul - for work
Short haul (mostly within East Asia) - for pleasure

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
CX
HKG-NYC-HKG (~2x per year), HKG-LHR-HKG (~1x per year), and smaller trips within Asia

(6) What is your home airport?
HKG

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
AS MVP Gold - 70k miles
DL Silver Medallion - 70k miles

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Mostly fly CX these days for work and convenience out of HKG

wandering_fred

With apologies to CX management and employees, unless you plan to never return to the USA I would stay with the Alaska program.
Just ensure your CX flights will credit to the AS program.

And continue your wandering
Fred

kayzng

Hi,
As I just confirmed my xCAI DONE3, I would like to get some opinion on how to optimize with FFP.
I am current Enrich Platinum, equivalent OWE, which I am not quite happy with the miles conversion, thus, I am considering if I should take this opportunity to switch.
Here's my segment, SP and miles that I use QR/CX website to calculate.
Is my understanding correct that it's easier to gain status/miles in QR compare to CX?


Questions
For members asking for information, to help people to assist you, can you please provide:
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
(upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: upgrades and tickets redemption
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
(<25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles - <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: exclude this RTW trip, yearly between 20k-30k, mostly in SEA (economy), with 1 trip each to US/EU/Australia (Business)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: within SEA - Economy, SEA -> US/EU/Australia Business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: 60 work : 40 pleasure
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: MH within SEA
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: KUL
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
(AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Enrich Platinum under Malaysia Airlines, equivalent to OWE
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: Preferred QR or CX

dvs7310

I don't think you have a wrong answer with either, depending on how you fly. Both are somewhat similar in terms of redemption based on distance. If you transit DOH a lot then QR status would be better but only if you can achieve Platinum. Avios have an advantage that they can be shifted easily between QR, BA, IB, and EI, maybe soon AY too but they don't have sexy redemption rates on long haul flights. Nor does CX for that matter. If you want long haul flight redemptions in OneWorld then AA and AS tend to be better but might be harder to gain status in, especially the first year in AA.

I know it's not a perfect answer, there's never a perfect answer for these questions without knowing your flight history for the last 2 years and next 2 years.

felix1224

Hi, I guess I should post it here instead of The Oneworld Explorer User Guide. I'm having a RTW trip coming up as DONE5, all in business class D, here are some, would much appreciate to use some advice on which FFP I should go for under this ticket. the bracket airports are connections while the rest are stopovers. I'm also open to ideas to make changes of this ticket within reasonable costs to add more destinations or have more stopovers. thanks in advance!

May 2024 CAI-(LHR) via BA
May 2024 (LHR)-HEL via AY
May 2024 HEL-(JFK) via AY
May 2024 (JFK)-EZE via AA
Jun 2024 EZE-(MIA) via AA
Jun 2024 (MIA)-YYZ via AA
Dec 2024 YYZ-(DFW) via AA
Dec 2024 (DFW)-AKL via AA
Dec 2024 AKL-SYD via AA
Jan 2025 SYD-(BNE) via QF
Jan 2025 (BNE)-NRT via QF
Mar 2025 HND-(DOH) via QR
Mar 2025 (DOH)-CAI via QR


(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
tickets redemption availability and good award redemption rates

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
>50k mi
<25 sectors

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Can choose airline/class, travel for both work and pleasure

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
AC is the most flown airline, used to be YYZ -PVG now probably more YYZ-HKG/TPE/PVG and Can-US flights like YYZ-LAX/ORD/MSP, would love to have more YYZ- Europe flights though

(6) What is your home airport?
YYZ

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
AA member....160k miles

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
most flown airline is AC

guv1976

Given your answer to Question #1, I don't see how crediting to any oneworld program other than AAdvantage would make sense for you.

Mwenenzi

AKL SYD will not be AA, as AA do not fly that route. A QF route. You may have an AA marketed QF operated flight, but unlikely given your ticket (hopefully) issued by QF.
Dedicated AA thread --> RTW / Round the World ticket - earning AAdvantage Miles
Changing some flights from AA marketed to other airline marketed may help AA ffp earnings. Look in the linked thread above. But not as easy as it once was with (now) different YR YQ carrier surcharges. And airlines (agents) less inclined/skilled in making changes.

Orphan ffp's of little value, if you cannot keep alive (~expiry) and cannot use for awards (balance too low)
Can be harder to get & maintain status. With new ffp's look at status earning term. Some can be calendar year, fixed dates or based on when you join.
More ffp's base ff earnings on revenue.

Given your answer to Question #1 and #7, I don't see how crediting to any oneworld program other than AAdvantage would make sense for you.

dvs7310

The big issue I see is that your itinerary crosses the cutoff of nearly every FFP in OW, so some of your itinerary would be in one year and part in another after the reset, that's of zero use for status unless you already have some other status points in that program to build on.

The only one I know of that still has a flexible year based on your first earn date is QR's. It's pretty easy to get QR Gold (OW Sapphire) on an itinerary like this but would need to check how many QPoints you could get toward the 600 required for QR Platinum (OW Emerald).

Just to be clear, the airlines you've mentioned are the codes you're booked on or the operating airline? In OW, the actual airline codes booked on are the only thing that matters (as long as it's a OW operated flight).

If you're booked on a ton of AA and BA codes as indicated in your itinerary, then AAdvantage is absolutely the worst program to credit to despite what a couple of others have said. I'd actually like to say they're trolling you but they are both very reputable members here.

Sometimes AAdvantage does credit RTW fares as distance, but it seems to be getting rarer and often they'll credit on a revenue basis and you'll be given an absolute pittance (5x-11x based on status) compared to what you'd have gotten on a distance calculation with a different airline's code (Basically for AAdvantage you have to avoid any AA, BA, IB codes and I'd bet within the next year, AY also). As a base member you get a paltry 5x of revenue assigned to that sector, basically consider that something near zero on a RTW.

Without running numbers yet, my initial reaction to your itinerary if this is your only OW flying is probably QR and maybe AS. You wouldn't earn enough in AA to be meaningful with that many AA and BA segments.

guv1976

felix1224 indicated that his priority is award availability and reasonable redemption rates, not attaining status. If attaining status were his priority, then I might have suggested crediting to Iberia Plus.

Yes, there is uncertainty as to whether the AA and BA segments on this round-the-world ticket would credit to AAdvantage based on cost or distance. But for Economy Class travel from YYZ on oneworld, redeeming Avios rather than AAdvantage miles could require more "miles," would likely have carrier surcharges for travel to Europe or Asia, and would not have the free cancellation offered by AAdvantage awards. All of these are factors to be considered.

As an example, here is what AA wants for YYZ-ORD-HKG (AA/CX) on a random date in April:



The same itinerary, if available with BA Avios, would cost 60,000 Avios, plus not only the taxes which AA collects, but also the CX carrier surcharges -- which, in turn, would trigger some additional taxes.

One cannot just consider the earn rate for various FFPs without also considering the burn rate, plus carrier surcharges, if any.

guv1976

Here's another example comparing an AAdvantage redemption with an Avios redemption for YYZ-PAR in Economy:







Although the number of "miles" required is roughly the same, look at the difference in the cash component!

Fliar

Hello friends,

Haven't had status in OW for over a decade and don't know anything anymore about its various programmes> I hope you can advise.
I have requalified for my Air NZ Gold Elite and frankly am not impressed with their newly planned business seats, which will be out of date before they even launch so I've been booking other airlines for this coming year - including a bunch of flights on Etihad. I can see myself flying NZ less in the coming years and picking up more tickets starting from Asia (with 'stopovers' in NZ).

I find myself this year flying on CX in business from ICN-HKG-AKL return and BKK-HKG-AKL.

This probably won't get me status anywhere but am wondering where I should credit these miles. I used to crdit all OW miles to Qantas by default (have about 20K orphan miles left there). Perhaps a sign up bonus might help boost the earnings?


(1) What is most important to you?
Award bookings in business/first

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
100K but mostly on * about 60% in bus, 10% PE, 20% economy and 10% in first


(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
business

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
complete freedom, including in terms of positioning.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Auckland to Asia / Europe


(6) What is your home airport?
AKL


(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
Gold Elite on Air NZ

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Most flown: NZ
preferred: SQ

guv1976

ICN-HKG-AKL-HKG-ICN in Business would get you oneworld Ruby (lowest tier) status if credited to Iberia. Adding BKK-HKG-AKL one way in Business would not be enough to advance you from Ruby to Sapphire (middle tier), but BKK-HKG-AKL-HKG would. But then you'd have Avios to redeem, which might not be ideal for your future redemptions.

AA has some decent redemption rates between the South Pacific and Asia if you can find award availability on their partners, which include not only oneworld carriers, but also FJ which serves both HKG and NRT via NAN.

Suggest that you check availability on some dummy redemptions at aa.com before making any decisions; no log-in required.

If you regularly fly in Business Class, oneworld status benefits might be of limited value to you.

Mwenenzi

As a broad generalisation long haul business awards seem harder to get on Oneworld than Star from this part of the world (AU NZ)

Etihad EY is a ff partner of OW airline AA. AA has a revenue based ffp, with distance based for some partner flights. AA now does not have award chart. All dynamic awards on AA.

QF points expire after 18 months on no eigble activity. Are ways without flying to keep alive. All JQ NZ domestic flights earn some QF points. In AU and trans Tasman JQ flights need a bundle to earn QF points. But doubt you are a JQ flyer.
QF has an award chart. QF are revising the ffp which will be announced in a few weeks. These changes tend to favour the airline profits and not the frequent flyer benefits.

The avios ffp's are interesting [BA QR IB IE AY.] Avios, but not status, can be moved easily BA<--->QR. For moving other avios look in the airline web sites and BA forum.
In Australia VA is a ffp of Qatar QR, but looks like you have minimal AU domestic flights.
BA has a reputation for high cash $ award carrier surcharges.
On BA flight you need mid top tier status to be able to select (most) business class seats. Refer to BA forum for the finer details.
QR AKL-DOH-xxx can get you to many EU airports.

For any new ffp look the expiry and if own flight requirement for status. QF & BA (& QR?) have own flight requirement for status. AA does not have own flight requirements. Unsure for others.

Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire
https://www.wheretocredit.com/

guv1976

Not so. While award travel on all-AA metal is now dynamically priced with no award chart, all AAdvantage awards involving at least one flight on a partner carrier (with or without an AA flight on the award) are still fixed price. The redemption charts for various starting regions can be found here:

https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...ward-chart.jsp

But it does appear that finding AKL-HKG Business awards with AAdvantage miles is challenging. I do see some options with FJ, but they require an overnight at NAN.