The only thing I saw was for AA pax: "If you’re flying on American Airlines in Flagship® First or Flagship® Business Plus on qualifying international or transcontinental flights, you automatically have access." I didn't see anything for access based on OneWorld status from other carriers.

Because as far as I know there's no status entrance to it, pretty certain it's just based on your ticketed cabin, don't even think CK's get access based on status. They even have this disclaimer *Departing flight must be marketed and operated by American on the same day (or before 6 a.m. the following day).", so doesn't even seem that partner F gets you Flagship dining. Once First is officially gone I'm not sure how sustainable it's going to be. I guess it depends on how many people are actually buying the Business Plus tickets.

No Flagship Dining, you have to fly AA Flagship First or buy the Business Plus ticket to qualify. Note Flagship First means the premium transcons on the A321T or international F which is on very few routes now. Those are the 77W routes which might only be LHR, GRU, and maybe still SYD now

Ultimately this is something best weighed in the *A forum, but thought I'd mention it at least since you're doing several programs. You might double check on A3, there is a reduced qualification requirement if you have 4x A3 segments, but it isn't a hard requirement like some other airlines. They have raised the bar though, it's now 70,000 status miles without A3 segments vs. the old 48,000. Their earnings and award charts can be quite decent for premium cabins, so worth comparing. The bar on TK is a lot lower for sure at 40k for Elite and 80k for Elite Plus, but which will be more valuable to redeem? (assuming you can feasibly hit the 70k for A3 anyway) Both credit UA P and Z fares at 100% though TK has a 50% bonus for J, C, D that A3 does not.

Thx for the clarity re: AA Flagship dining.

Turns out I'm flying next week SAN-xORD-DTW (D Class), then DTW-PHL-LGA (I Class), then JFK-LAX on an A321T in Business (R Class) (couldn't justify the Flagship First over Biz for work hah).

This will push me over the 2250 for IB Oro/OWS. Crazy to get there in 2 months since April 2024 when the status year begun. I have been carefully choosing AA routing, (not through DFW), to help push the status over the edge. But there were times where UA/DL had better routing. I wonder if there are any Status match promos, I think I saw one to Delta Medallion, and to TK. Will look into it soon.

Congrats on the OWS!

Status matching to DL will have very little meaning flying domestic First on DL flights. I'd be looking at matching to (or earning in) a program that grants access to DL lounges on domestic flights instead. Unless you're going to sign up for the Amex card that gives DL lounge access, but it's an expensive card and I don't see the value in it compared to others in the market. Amex Platinum on the other hand has quite a bit of value, and still gives DL lounge access when flying DL, but I think it's capacity restricted which is a huge issue in DL lounges these days. I'd prefer to have status access vs. credit card access for DL. (Edit, scratch that, I didn't realize that DL doesn't grant lounge access to SkyTeam ElitePlus members for domestic only itineraries, so your only option is via Amex or purchasing a membership)

I want to say TK requires some TK metal flights for their match, but you can earn it organically easily enough.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Lounge access, priority boarding, security fast track

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: Varies greatly. But experienced in mileage runs if need be. Or do detours, different departure airports to maximize etc.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: transcontinental J or Y+ (F on a super cheap deal), continental Y

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: 100% leisure, all on my own money. Not rich, but travel is my hobby, so willing to splash.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: FRA, so therefore LH group (and A*) naturally.

Main reason for OW now is wanting to travel to Doha about once every two months (and would obviously start using BA, IB, AY within Europe as an alternative to LH at times).

(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?
Reply: LH M&M Senator (*G) until 2/27. Also have an AY Plus account but the few points I had in there seem to have expired.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: QR, BA likely

Okay, so from the questionnaire it should be pretty obvious I have 0 status in OW right now and being based in Europe BA would seem like the natural choice as a program. I've always loved AY, but I'm not sure they have a future at all (aren't they expected to get fully merged into BA Ex anyways?). Though starting out at completely 0 and with first flights on QR likely only being in Y will hardly give any credit at all, I'm not sure it's useful at all.

I wouldn't mind gaining options over LH group within Europe though.

My current consideration is paying for the JR Edit:RJ status match for 1 year, enjoying it for the time being and then trying to fly MS or TK on my *G status most of the time after that runs out.

Thank you for your thoughts and recommendations.

Since lounge and priority boarding are your main points, in OW you'd really want to aim for OW Emerald, since you're already getting business lounges on your business tickets anyway (not sure what ratio you're flying business vs. Premium Economy?) OW Emerald gives you First lounges in locations that have them. You'd also already be getting priority boarding on business and PY tickets but OW Emerald will generally give you a higher priority on both.

Without a firm idea of your annual flight patterns it's really hard to say, but I'd suggest evaluating your past year or two's flights and see where you'd come out in QR Privilege Club, AS Mileage Plan, AY Plus and possibly BA and IB. BA and QR both require minimum segments on their flights, but sounds like you'd have no problems with either (just 4 per year), the others don't have that requirement.

AS MVP 75 is pretty easy if you're premium cabin heavy but their award chart sucks for anything longer than a few thousand miles. AYs award chart is pretty awful too but you can transfer to BA, IB, and QR which are all more palatable.AA's award chart is generally superior to all of the mentioned programs, but it's the hardest one to gain meaningful status from zero, you'd need to be able to hit 120k Loyalty Points between March and February the following year for Platinum Pro, the lowest tier for OW Emerald. Qualification year is another point to consider, depending on when you do most of your flying. BA and IB are May to April, AS is January to December (I believe AY is too but not 100% sure), QR is flexible based on your first Q Points earning flight.

Someone in one of the RTW threads mentioned it was pretty easy to get to AY Platinum in just one DONEx. (Something you should really look into as well from what it sounds, you could easily get 2x of your DOH trips into one of those if well planned plus a bunch of other places you want to visit as bonus, right now ex-Japan starts in the upper US$4k range due to the weak yen). You can optimize a DONEx to easily get OW Sapphire in one trip, Emerald in a couple of programs, and very close to BA Gold or QR Platinum (OW Emerald). Since you mention DOH as a frequent destination, if you go with QR Platinum they allow you Al Safwa (QR's special First lounge) access on paid QR business tickets (RTW counts for that). If you're buying even a few business class tickets per year already then the cost is pretty easy to justify and since it books into D, a mid-range fare code (not discount) it has strong earning multipliers in certain programs. There are several sticky threads in this forum for RTW info and questions to start your journey if that's of interest.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: I want to make sure I can use the miles I/we as a family earn on our upcoming trip
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: OW-flights are not in my books normally - I booked an AA ticket in PE however because the fare was very good...this OW-program would be my third priority after *A and SkyTeam
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Mix of Eco to Business, in this case one singular PE flight
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, I choose the airline to fly.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply: Intra-Europe, EU->US, some EU->South America
(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: CGN/DUS/FRA
(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?
Reply: UA Silver, LH FTL (on track for SEN this year), Flying Blue Gold - no miles in any OW program, all accounts I had (BMI->BA, AB, CX) have expired.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: Usually like UA, but KL and AF have been equally nice last year

In a nutshell what I am looking for is a program to credit my singular AA-ticketed flight in PE - flying CGN-LHR-PHL(BA)-MCO(AA) and MCO-CLT-LHR(AA)-CGN(BA), all booked under AA flight numbers in H-class (short-haul) and P class (long haul). We will be a party of three, and it would be great if an award-return on CGN-LHR could be had with the miles I get from this trip. Could top off with Amex points if needed...

Thanks for any suggestion!

Greetings - Dirk

If award space is available for CGN-LHR-CGN on your anticipated dates of travel, then crediting your AA flights to newly-created BAEC accounts (one for each passenger) and redeeming for Reward Flight Saver awards makes the most sense.

Edited to add:

Here's what the pricing looks like for a one-way CGN-LHR Reward Flight Saver redemption with BA Avios:



Of course, one should always compare the cost of a redemption to the cost of a cash flight with comparable benefits. (Redemptions on BA include a free checked bag in Economy Class; HBO cash fares do not.)

I wonder if the earning side on this idea would be optimal - from what I understand is that BA calculates Avios based on the fare paid, and I read that this is also true for flights on AA. With the 6 Avios per pound paid it would give me approximately 4500 Avios that way. If I would get Avios based on distance, however, it would be over 9500 Avios based on the booking-classes.

So venturing a bit into this I thought about earning the Avios into a Finnair Plus account (as they state that all non-Finnair flights are credited based on flown distance) and then transfer them to Executive Club 1:1 without a fee for redemption on BA as Finnair charges more Avios for the desired flight and has a substantially worse availability. Doing it that way we would get a free roundtrip to London each out of this single trip if my calculation is correct vs. a one-way each if credited directly to BA. Or am I missing something?

Sure, you always have to check and compare - but from what I checked it looked decent for the dates I have in mind...little competition on this relation means prices of 200+€ are commonplace over a weekend.

Greetings - Dirk

Yes, if you got a very cheap fare, then crediting to AY rather than BA would yield more Avios. Note that the Finnair website says this re: redeeming AY Avios for BA flights:

"The Avios charges of award flights for British Airways follow British Airways' own pricing. You will find the up-to-date prices on our website’s booking engine."

But I don't know whether AY offers the same Avios plus money options that BAEC does.

I'd be checking QR as well. They have a pretty good earning rate for AA PY. Just like AY, you can transfer those to BA later but don't know if you can pool family miles if they aren't earned in BAEC, you'd need to check into that yourself.

In case it's helpful to anyone:

I'm transitioning to just flying whoever has the best deal/times, and have been looking for the best programs to affiliate with. I formerly just earned everything with whatever U.S. airline that I flew. Given the generally limited amount I fly, I'm really just interested in earning and redeeming; status isn't that important. [Side note: I AM making Silver on Delta this year, but I'm ultimately transitioning that to Flying Blue.] I was able to determine Flying Blue and Aeroplan worked best for me, and was planning to go with Avios for One World . . . until the recent devaluation of Avios points. It used to be that Avios redemptions were a bargain, but no more. I did several side-by-side comparisons, and I'm better off just earning and redeeming on AAdvantage now. (The earning is mostly equivalent.) It's unfortunate, because I can transfer Avios points from my credit cards and not AA, but alas . . . . YMMV.

There are four different FFPs which use Avios as their "currency," and each program has its own redemption rates, fees, etc. Which program were you comparing to AAdvantage, and for what routes?

BA. I thought that if they were all using Avios, they'd have the same redemptions. You're telling me they don't?

I always used to use BA miles for domestic AA routes, where they usually beat AA's redemptions.

I'm telling you they don't. Finnair Plus redemption chart for AA here:

https://www.finnair.com/us-en/finnai...-with-partners

QR, like BA, charges for each flight flown, but I'm not sure if they have adjusted their AA redemption rates upward as BA has.