Hello FT'ers
I am a newbie, and booked my first RTW last year. We depart later this month x-OSL. My question is related to earning miles/status when flying on a One World RTW DONE4. Our trip length is approx 52,000 miles and fly on BA, QR, AA, JL, CX. Is there any way to calculate miles earned on a RTW trip? Even a good approximation. I have initially credited miles to AS for myself and AA for my wife. Now I am not so sure that was a good idea. I considered using AY or QR, but I cannot find any way to determine how many miles can be earned , regardless of which FFP I use. I would like to earn Emerald status if at all possible, which I know is a stretch but we may start a second RTW within the year we are completing our first. I answered the questions below, but I thought it would be good to preface that with the above comments. Thank you in advance.

Questions/status
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?
Reply: I want to leverage my first RTW trip to gain as many miles as possible. I would like to earn OneWorld Emerald, if possible, along the way.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: If this RTW works out well, I suspect we will continue to book these every 12-18 months. The one I have currently booked clocks in at about 52,000 miles, in Business (D). Using BA, QR, AA, CX, and JL.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Domestically, we go for the cheapest, Internationally, Premium or Business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: As an airline retiree, we have traveled standby for nearly 40 years. But the OneWorld RTW has opened up a whole new way to fly and Long Haul Business class is highly desirable. So all travel is of the pleasure variety.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Until now, we were almost entirely on UA, and occasionally on UA partners using miles. We do take 1-2 International trips, mostly Europe though we traveled to Australia/New Zealand last year.
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LAS, but easy for me to reposition as a standby, just have to allow enough time.
(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: UA Silver (sad, I know)
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: Most of my flying in my lifetime has been on a standby basis on United. My family was very fortunate to travel to many countries over the last 40 years. But I am looking forward to flying the premier airlines in the world, Singapore, ANA, Qatar, Etihad, etc.

1. Look at possibility of codeshare flight. If you can change your flight to QR codeshare, then you should credit to AA.
2. If most flight you can change to AA/BA/IB market flights, then credit to Finn air.
3. If most flights you can change to JL marketed flights, then credit to AS.

Note: Change to codeshare flight is free if you booked from AA RTW.

Just search around what codeshares are available for all your current flights.

AA points worth a lot more but harder to get OWE. Avois does not worth a lot, and possible to get OWE for one RTW

Have you looked at Malaysia or Qantas? With Malaysia you will always be connecting via KUL, but that will increase your earnings towards OWE. With Qantas, you will probably not fly with them directly except for SIN-LHR or SIN-Australia, but they own part of Jetstar Asia which is based in SIN.

TBH you might be better off crediting to Singapore given you are at their hub.

Heads up that the first class lounge in DOH is not accessible by OWE status alone. You'd need to be flying any oneworld airline in first class, or have some level of QR elite status in their program (I don't remember the specifics here)

Hi all,

Thanks for contributing to this thread.

I'd like to maximise the benefit from points, and I'd like to get lounge access for me plus a guest (better still, two guests). Extra baggage allowance would come inuseful in August/September but that might be a bit soon for earning elite status.

I mainly fly long haul, mainly business class award fares (although I'm starting to look out for cash options up to 1.5x the net cost of the award fares), mainly with QR. I value flexibility and availability to fly at short notice.

My research so far has indicated that my options are,

a) Qatar: Getting to sapphire with them would be great (Doha lounges, QCredits) but not sure I'll fly enough cash fares to justify going for that
b) American: seems to have the most valuable points and the best route options (mainly from readily combining partner airlines without increasing the cost)
c) Alaskan: has relatively low requirements for status levels (40k miles for Sapphire) and counts award flights towards status, and has some decent redemption options, so perhaps the easiest way to reach Sapphire? Could buy some points in a sale so I have enough for an award fare to get across the line.
d) Jordanian: could buy status with them for the next year, but I don't know anything about their partner redemptions. Obviously I could buy status then try to credit points to somewhere else.

From these, I'm thinking I should probably go for Alaskan unless I think I can make Sapphire with Qatar work. Any thoughts, and any alternatives I should be considering?

Thanks!


1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Redemptions (cost and availability), lounge access
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Considering Oneworld only: >50000 miles, <25 flights
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Lately, mainly award fares - short-haul economy or long-haul business.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Europe-Asia with QR, shorthaul with BA. Transatlantic once per year or so but that will usually be burning SAS points
(6) What is your home airport?
LHR, but last time I changed at CPH the guy looked at my passport stamps and asked me if I live in Copenhagen or just work there!
(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?
Eurobonus Millionaire with Gold status, 300k Avios (plus a couple of BA companion vouchers), 80k Flying Blue, 250k UK Amex points
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
QR preferred, BA for convenience, SAS to burn points

Replying to myself:

I found the calculator at Traveldealz and did a bit more reading. It looks like,

• Malaysian would be the easiest way to obtain Sapphire, but not a great programme otherwise, so doesn't seem worth it.
• Qatar requires the least travel to obtain Sapphire just from cash fares, and would be the best option for shorthaul tier point runs; but Alaska has the points for award flights and BA will supposedly offer tier points through Amex, which would probably make them easier to obtain overall.
• Qatar counts all flight within the last 12 months, it's not on a "calendar year" basis or similar. And the lower target for retaining status would be handy.
• On the off-chance I land up flying much more than I'm anticipating, BA would be much tougher to get to Emerald than the others.
• There would be upsides and downsides to having miles in Alaska as well as Avios - more routing options and often lower fees, but another scheme to keep track of, likely meaning more money to be tied up in points in total.

Based on the above, it seems like it's between Qatar and Alaska; but the perks of Qatar (Better Doha lounge access and QCredits; plus no restrictions on lounge access within the US) seem to make that the right choice for me. Any advances?

Thanks!

I think you summed it up pretty good: it really just depends on how much you value Alaska points versus domestic lounge access. Alaska points are definitely worth more and have a wider range of redemption partners compared to Avios, but the Sapphire access to AA flagship lounges is also something to consider. Do note that I don't think there is a difference for Qatar Sapphire vs other OW sapphire in terms of Doha lounge; Qatar does have first class lounge access for their platinums traveling on business, if that's what you were referring to.
I am in the same boat, and I think I'll probably go for either Qatar or Royal Jordanian, depending on which exact flights I'd take for the easiest status.

Thanks, good to know I'm on the right track.

Ah yes - I'd remembered there were two lounge benefits through Privilege Club, but the other one was there being a lounge just for QR Silver members, nothing for gold (although the guest passes could come in handy too).

I'm UK based so the "domestic" lounge thing would be relevant very rarely.

One annoyance with Alaska is that Europe to Asia via Doha doesn't come up on their award system, which would mean a fair bit of hassle - finding the flight elsewhere, checking both legs are available on Alaska, calling up etc.

Thanks!

Replying to myself again:

Spotting that Philippine Airlines are now a partner of Alaska seemed promising, but it turns out that you can only earn Alaska points if you book the PAL flight on the Alaska site, which usually wouldn't be possible for me.

There's talk of PAL reentering Europe, but, even if they did, I doubt redemptions would be sufficiently cheaper than QR to make them attractive.

For AA, IB, and BA coded business class flights, actually AY is really good too for easy Emerald. Their award chart is inferior to BA and QR, but you can transfer the Avios freely. But if you're flying QR coded flights a lot, AY's earning is just average.

Having said that though, AS earning isn't that great anymore either unless you can book via the AS site, so could be a wash.

QR has poor business award availability through partners, so even if PR is the same cost in miles, it's likely to have much better availability.

Hello guys, I am struggling to find the most suitable FFP for me. I am an international student, so I will be going back and forth between the UK and Hong Kong.
I am considering AY, QR or MH?
One thing I am looking at: the value of using MH enrich point to redeem a flight doesn't seem good compared to Avios + I have a cc to earn avios through daily spending. But I am not sure is this a problem that I should be worrying about.
Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you so much

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?
Reply: Priority check-in, priority boarding and seat selection. If possible, an extra luggage allowance, but not a must. For lounges, I have credit card lounge access, and I am fine with those.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply:
One return flight with QR economy classic, sometimes economy convenience if economy classic is not available. BHX-DOH-HKG & HKG-DOH-BHX. (I chose QR because they operate flights between HKG-BHX). However, I can still choose to take another OW airline to MAN or LHR if they are good for earning FFP status points
1-2 EU trips with BA/IB economy or possibly business (between October to June)
1-2 Asia trips to Japan/Southeast countries with JL/MH economy (Trying to avoid CX as they are expensive and their earning rate in most OW FFP is extremely poor) (between July to September)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Cheapest economy unless they are unavailable or a specific cabin class is required for FFP.
(Business class/Premium economy is possible for EU trips, but premium class is extremely rare for Asia trips and flights between the UK and HK)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, I can. I travel for pleasure and study
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Refer to Question 2: Usually QR for BHX-HKG return flight, IB/BA for EU trips, JL/MH for Asia Trips
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: HKG, BHX/MAN/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?
(AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: No, I have some Q points in QR but expiring soon as I didn't travel much this year
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: No preferred airlines, I can accommodate taking other OW flights as long as it is good for my FFP

you can consider AY. you will still earn based on mileage, and sounds like you can hit gold or plat, which is ow sapphire or emerald. you also earn in avios, which sounds more suitable for you since you fly qr/ib/ba and is based in the uk

edit: it seems like the post above disappeared. no wonder i had problems quoting it

Are you referring to my post? the post about flying between HKG and BHX with Qatar once a year. I posted twice and idk why my posts are gone. :(((
When comparing AY and MH, MH and AY are both mileage-based. I looked at both FFP and MH seem to be less impacted by booking class when travelling with OW Economy class.

ay (jl) vs mh (jl)
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...77d707cf3b.pnghttps://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...aaf3f19b69.png

ay (qr) vs mh (qr)
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7aa8f13b07.pnghttps://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...99e5918024.png

but im not familiar with MH, but doesnt seems to be the case to me. i used qr and jl because these are your longest flights

Thanks for letting me know. When I look more into MH and AY FFP and their t&c, I see the difference between them.
For AY, the tier points and avios earned are based on miles and corresponding booking class, which is the screenshot you shared above
For MH, as long as the flight is eligible to earn enrich points, then it is eligible to earn elite points for status. the booking class in MH FFP will only affect the enrich points earning rate (which is the table of multiplier you shared above) but booking class do not affect the earning rate of elite point.

If you're just chasing status and don't care about redemptions, then understand weighing the two programs. But MH's redemption chart is pretty awful compared to many other OW programs. So that would be my point of caution.