Without at least some paid, long-haul travel in a premium cabin, I doubt that you will be able to obtain oneworld Sapphire status (the minimum needed for domestic lounge access) based on your flying patterns. I'm assuming that your domestic travels, though not in Basic Economy, are still on a discounted Economy fare, not full Y.

I figured that was probably the case. There are sometimes ways to temporarily buy up to oneworld Sapphire with an international partner for ~$500 for 1 year, although I would have to use the Flagship at least 10 times to match the $50 Sky Club fee after the limited entries (10/yr) via the Amex Platinum card run out. Realistically, other than another status match (fingers crossed), most optimal will be to route as much travel as possible through ATL and rely primarily on the Amex Centurion lounge there, saving the Sky Club entries for other connecting points or when the Centurion line is too long...

So last year i was here trying to stitch together a OW RTW and trying to decide which OW program to accumulate my miles it. At that point i was convinced, thanks to great inputs, that i should go with AA.

But i could not get the extended leave i was looking for, so ended up with a ANA RTW that i had to complete in 4 weeks.

But i am planning a new trip for next April/May/June timeframe. This time I have the extended leave. My question was, is AA still the choice of FF program OR should i gravitate towards Avios. If its Avios, which airline should i book it with.

Off topic
Link--> Oneworld booking and pricing experiences
If you book a *ONE* or *GLOB* on line via the OW Tool the software decides who issues the ticket. Can the first airline or Qantas. Qantas seems to be the default issuing airline in many cases. QF can be difficult to deal with. AA, via phone, will issue if long haul over water flights are AA. But experiences differ. From reports on FT AA are good to deal with if/when changes happen/are needed.

If your question is which avios currency frequent flyer program to join are opinions. BAEC & QRPC are closely linked. Do/can any of your credit cards transfer cc points to an avios FFP?

DELETE

Let me try this again.

I have the option to transfer to a few different Avios programs via 3 different CCs

AA PP frustrated by the loyalty points chase, looking for a long-term program. Please poke holes in my plan below as you see them.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access, MCE seating on AA.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
2024 YTD I have flown approx 50k miles across roughly 50 sectors, all within continental US. This does not include two award trips US-Europe in J that I booked using miles. 2025 will look pretty similar.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
More than half of my flights are in business/domestic first, remainder in economy. All comes down to pricing.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose any airline, work will only reimburse economy (hence price sensitivity).
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Almost exclusively AA. ORD-MIA is probably 60%+ of my travel (hence why I have no shot at upgrade as PP). If I didn't fly to MIA so often I'd also be considering *A, but having 8+ nonstops a day to choose from on AA isn't something I want to give up.
(6) What is your home airport?
ORD

I'm wrapping up my travel for the year this week, as mentioned above I'm Platinum Pro with AA, no shot at EP unless I really play games with loyalty points from non-flights. Being ORD-based, earning OWS with a non-US alliance member would be quite valuable as I'd have access to the Flagship Lounge there on outbound, and additionally I find myself in MIA about once/twice a month so I'd have access inbound quite frequently as well. Canceling the Executive card would save $595, and on top of that I'd have access to much better lounges most of the time.

Plan A would be traveling back in time and taking advantage of the BA status match last year. Since I do not have access to time travel, I'm leaning toward Finnair as Plan B. I have found that upgrading from economy to business on AA books into J, which earns 250% on AY. If I assume all flights are ORD-MIA, I'd make Gold in 8 RTs if I upgrade to J on each. More realistically, some will be economy but I should have no issue getting to Gold and having a decent shot at Platinum most years. I like that AY awards tier points purely on distance, has decent earn rates on AA metal, and has some decent status benefits that I could theoretically make use of given ORD-HEL daily frequency. I only wish there was a way to status match up to gold with AY but currently I'm only aware of SAS matches.

I also considered BA & QR, but the 4 segment requirements for each turns me off. BA I could easily get each year, but really I don't like the thought of routing through LHR solely to meet this requirement as I have found transiting LHR for US-Schengen to be a PITA. And I'm sure my wife would love 4 segments a year on QSuites, but I don't want to be locked into that annually. It is a shame because QR for my travel patterns would be the fastest earn from a status standpoint.

thetaxman29 , have you verified that Finnair Plus awards tier points based on the upgraded booking class, and not the original booking class?

If you're expecting to have long-haul Business Class travel on oneworld carriers, you should also look into the Iberia Plus program. Like Finnair, Iberia Plus does not require any flights on its own metal to achieve status.

Also, adding a connection (if you are willing to do that) can be a good way to earn tier points faster in certain programs, like IB Plus.

I have not verified this - do you know how I could do that?

Understood on IB, I considered that as well. My biggest issue is when I am in economy, earning 20 status points per segment is horrible. Adding a connection I agree about, but being based in ORD that is almost never necessary for me and I'd rather not connect.

Posting a query in the FT Finnair forum might yield an answer to how upgrades are treated for earning purposes. (The same issue could arise if you opted to credit to Iberia Plus rather than Finnair Plus.)

I understand your concerns about poor IB Plus earnings on cheap, ORD-MIA Coach tickets, but if you're going to also fly paid Business Class to continental Europe on oneworld, you're liking going to connect somewhere (in the U.S., HEL, LHR, or MAD) in each direction. Just one roundtrip like that would get you oneworld Ruby; two such roundtrips in a single IB Plus earnings period (April 1-March 31) would get you oneworld Sapphire.

There is a recent data point where someone said that paid upgrades on AA prior to departure date no longer credits as J with Finnair Plus.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36725365-post1258.html

If you are heavily relying on this particular aspect, you may want to confirm ... or make backup plans on how you would earn status with AY+.

This is very helpful, thank you! Back to the drawing board...

I would suggest giving BA another look. You don't have to fly via LHR for the 4 segments; you just need flights marketed OR operated by BA.. or flights marketed AND operated by IB.
BA is more than happy to sell you codeshares marketed with a BA flight number but operated by Oneworld partners. See below.

I also have a question, if i can book my itinerary with AA, how can i calculate how many Loyalty Points i can score ? I do not have status with AA currently.

Look in the AA forum. Can be complicated and inconsistent.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...advantage-733/
If a RTW ticket RTW / Round the World ticket - earning AAdvantage Miles