Forgot to mention that both route via LHR and are on BA metal.

Thank you!

If you credit your AA, BA, and EI flights to AAdvantage, you will earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points based on the pre-tax cost of those flights. (Both fare and carrier surcharges count.)

If your pre-tax fare is at least $8,000, you should earn AAdvantage Gold status (oneworld Ruby) by the end of your trip. Such status would get you some benefits when flying AA or AS in Coach.

Hi All, thanks so much to all the 'regulars' answering lots of these questions. Here's my particular case.

For historical reasons I've always been a Qantas member, and have just about got my lifetime Silver (which is only bronze for BA). I'm living in London permanently. So the question is whether to ditch QF and start over with BA? One thing to consider is that I'll seldom fly Qantas so I wont be able to use the status from year to year unless its a 'lifetime' impact (because of their 4 flights minimum). I'd imagine it will take another 7 years to get from 7000 SP to lifetime Gold 14000SP on QF (14000 points, 'silver' equivalent on BA). So I think I should be concentrating on mileage and upgrades?

Many thanks for your help, Giles_G

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- Good award redemption rate, Upgrades - particularly LHR-LAX-LHR

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
40-50K, business long-haul, economy shorthaul.
I'm planning to fly a 16 segment DONE5 each year, (starting this year 23feb with most flights completed before 1st April. FYI my DONE5 routing this year will be OSL_MADx_BOG_MIAx_LAX_HND_BKK_CMB_BOM_LHR_NBO_LHR_ OSL - mostly BA/IB/JL)
1 x RAK-LHR-LAX-RAK in business each year.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Cheapest business I can find. So normally f£6500 incl tax from OSL if DONE5, or £2500 incl tax RAK for LAX

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Leisure only, mostly BA.
I have family in LA so 1 or 2 trips a year, usually 1.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
as above in answer 2

(6) What is your home airport?
LGW/LHR

(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?
QF Silver Lifetime, 7000 status points

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
BA, Iberia, Norwegian

Giles_G , how much would you estimate that you spend on pre-tax fares (base fare plus carrier surcharges) annually? If it's not enough to get at least oneworld Sapphire in the AA or BA programs, I would look at crediting to Iberia Plus for 2025-26, as long as IB+ does not go to a revenue-based program for earning status before April 1.

And since one earns Elite Points in IB+ for every segment flown, you could achieve status a little faster if you were willing to connect in, say, JFK or BOS on your trips to California. ;)

Many thanks guv1976 . I think some years it'll be under the Sapphire target, others over. I'm unclear if just a portion of the DONE5 revenue sectors will credit to my chosen program, or if it reduces it if I'm travelling UL/JL etc? If it's the whole lot, then likely I'll get over the Sapphire line. Great suggestion for the extra SP's for extra sectors, but I think I value going direct more!

From your answer, it seems that you'd recommend the sector-based-IB program only for the potential extra status points. If it does look like I'd get Sapphire anyway through the £6500 revenue, or IB do go full revenue-based on SP, would you recommend I go with BA? Would you suggest I just let go of the QF thing even though they are still revenue based right now? Many thanks

Thanks so much guv1976 for your suggestions.

Assuming that the whole of my DONE5 will get credited to my chosen program regardless of carrier, then I think I'd get over the £6500 line for the year. If its just a partial or 50% credit, then probably not.

Great suggestion for getting the extra SP by flying indirect, but I think I prefer the benefits of going direct given the choice.

In the case of me getting over the Sapphire line (or IB start a revenue-based scheme for earning Sp), who would you recommend I go with - my more local carrier BA (with whom I'd fly most), or someone like QF (who I'd still earn miles with on a mileage basis, but need another 7000SP to get lifetime Gold (Silver?).

Many thanks, GIles_G

Hello! I'm new to this forum and am seeking some advice. Thanks in advance!
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Upgrades and lounge access
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: 40-50k, mostly economy, a few US-Asia business
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: usually economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, I travel for pleasure.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply: US domestic: BOS-LAX (5-6 times per year); US-Asia (2 times per year); sometimes Europe
(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: BOS
(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: None. But I have 26k miles in JAL.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: OW - JAL, non-OW - Jetblue, Etihad, Emirates, Hainan airline

Welcome to FlyerTalk, zhangdjw !

If you want lounge access when flying on AA or AS in Economy on domestic flights, you would need to attain oneworld Sapphire (or higher) status in a non-U.S. frequent-flyer program. If Iberia does not go to a revenue-based status-earning scheme by April 1, then your Business Class trips to Asia should get you to oneworld Sapphire status pretty quickly.

Edited to add: Iberia just announced today that it will become a revenue-based program for earning status when flying on AA, BA, and IB; but will remain distance based when flying on other oneworld carriers. You should take a look at the new program to determine whether it still makes sense for you.

Hi, I will answer the questions first and then focus on the specifics below.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Upgrades and mileage redeption, lounge is nice as well
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: 50-60k, mostly business long haul and economy mid and short haul. See below my flights for this year.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: business for LH and economy for short
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, I travel for pleasure and I choose the airlines.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply: Based in Europe so travel most to European cities for city breaks, but do at least one or two trips to the US and one to Asia per year.
(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: SOF, BG
(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: None. I have an upcoming flight with QR that will make me silver on BA but am resistant to do it because will not requalify under the new rules.

I have star alliance gold through TK which I also use a lot.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: OW - BA, AA, also EI
SA: TK, LH and OS

Here are the details. I am looking into Alaska and Royal Jordanian. Here are my flights: QR:P:FCO-DOH-MLE-DOH-FCO

QR:P:SOF-DOH-SOF

QR:P DXB-DOH-AUH

BA:I:ORD-JFK

IB:I:JFK-MAD

EI:Y:FCO-DUB-FCO

EI:I DUB-JFK-DUB

Alaska will give me 250% for the FCO-DUB-JFK-DUB-FCO as it was booked on Alaska as a partner flight. according to my calculations, it will reach around 42k miles and will give me Silver for OW.

Here’s the exact calculation:

11466+5672+9729+21698‎ = 48,565



Royal Jordanian is also an option, especially given the fact that it treats QR P class as first class and gives more miles. My calculations show that I will be something like 4-5k miles short.

Details: I don’t care about lounge access in the US and I am usually travelling business so will get there organically. Lounges will serve me in Europe and Asia. This means Alaska will serve me well. As far as I know it also has the best redemption rates. Issue is that my OW flights are usually not booked through them - I use BA, AA and QR for the favourable DUB-USA-MAD fares and QR directly for Asia. Good thing is that EI gets miles with Alaska (and BA, but that is out of the question).

Royal Jordanian has less requirements for keeping status and gives it for two years, but miles are basically unusable and I don’t fly with them at all.

For future bookings, I will probably not use EI as it was good for the current BA system, but given the fact that it is not OW, there is no need to fly them.

So I am torn between RJ and AS. QR is also an option but they give less Qpoints for P fares… and they are somewhat hard to reach. Finnair looks good, but also sounds hard to reach and I don’t fly in that region at all. SOF is mainly Star Alliance, but willing to reposition for good fares. Positioning to the Nordics from SOF is not the greatest…

If anybody else has any ideas…

For AS look carefuly at the "Qualifying flights" requirements. Including "Qualification via eligible miles or segments must include this minimum number of flights marketed and operated by Alaska Airlines"
Blogger -https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/alaska-airlines-mileage-plan-your-complete-guide#alaska-elite-status
Will be in AS web site some where but cannot find

Getting upgrades on airlines, other than your own ffp airline, is forlorn hope. [a persistent or desperate hope that is unlikely to be fulfilled.]
OW does not have a allaince wide uprade scheme. A preliminarly AA miles for upgrade on QF is in test phase.

I think they dropped own metal requirements last year?

I am unsure on that.
FT https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alas...-earn-eqm.html
Blogger --> https://viewfromthewing.com/alaska-a...medium=twitter

According to the first topic here:

“

Also interesting is they eliminated the AS flight requirements for status.”

Are you sure there are own metal requirements?

AS qualification in just EQMs now. There are no AS Flight requirements.

They removed that from the app as well. If you go to the "Account" tab in the Alaska Airlines app, it will show "Your progress toward elite status."

There used to be a "segment" portion as well. Currently, it just shows "YTD elite-qualifying miles", and "Progress toward Alaska Million Miler milestone."

Hope that helps.

Thanks. So I am good to go.