FJ now use AAdvantage as its ffp.

Hi everyone,

Can you help me find the cheapest way to go back to OW Sapphire and *retain it*?

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
baggage allowance, priority security/boarding and lounge access
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
I do 1 or 2 full trips in BA's economy plus every month. Then I tend to have 2 or 3 long hauls every year. Mostly to Asia... but I use avios redemption flights or the BA vouchers for those.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy plus (with baggage) mostly... but I've used club europe to gain status before (and even the occasioal premium economy in long hail)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Leisure travel only. But I don't mind stop overs to gain status.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
At least one LHR to NRT with the BA6/BA7 every year. Then LHR to Spain and Germany monthly. And 1 or 2 long haul that vary every year.
(6) What is your home airport?
LHR (LCY when available )
(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?
BA Bronze since may :'( , Eurobonus gold with SAS, (after status match), and Volare Premium. I have a couple of BA vouchers ready for redemption (class upgrade and companion).
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
BA, and it will have to be BA for my most frequent trips to Spain. However, I'd like to enjoy OW status to make it more bearable. Ready to invest in long hauls with other alliance airlines to go back to Sapphire.

Since some FFPs now base status on annual pre-tax spend on flights, perhaps you can provide us with an estimate of your annual pre-tax spend on oneworld flights. Also, do you have much in the way of hotel stays and/or car rentals during the course of a year. Those can count towards status in American's AAdvantage program.

In the meantime, I'd take a look at Iberia's program to see if your annual paid flying would get you to oneworld Sapphire (Iberia "Oro") status.

Good point and thanks for ​the quick reply. Based on my usual travel patterns and the taxes (�60 or �84 to my most usual destinations), I’d estimate my annual pre-tax spend on BA flights at around �2,500 each year.
As you can see that's really far from the �7,500 needed to reach BA Silver nowadays

On top of that, I normally take one or two long-haul trips a year, usually costing somewhere between �900–�1,300 each (pre-tax). Since the airlines vary, it’s a bit harder to pin down the tax portion on those.

With AA's AAdvantage program, annual pre-tax spend of $8,000 would be needed to get AAdvantage Gold (oneworld Ruby) status: each dollar earns five Loyalty Points, and 40,000 LPs are needed for AAdvantage Gold. Once you have Gold status, you earn seven LPs per pre-tax dollar spend. So an additional $5,000 in spend would get you the additional 35,000 LPs needed for AAdvantage Platinum (oneworld Sapphire). Thus you'd probably need about �10,000 in annual airfare spend to reach AAdvantage Platinum -- unless you also had significant LP earnings from hotel stays and/or car rentals.

For most economy travelers, I would say status with Malaysia Enrich is your best bet. You can probably earn Oneworld emerald with them if you are traveling twice a month plus one long haul.

Enrich is not ideal if you are focused on redemptions and/or you travel with AA a lot.

Hey everyone,

so I am looking at branching out into OW - and am debating which program to join. Goal would be one where I can reach OW Sapphire - Emerald will be out of reach since I do want to keep my SQ*A Gold as well.
Situation is the following:
Currenly I am holding LH SEN and SQ KFEG. SEN will run out by Feb '26, status with SQ by end of '26.
Based out of BKK, I have at least 4 roundtrips BKK-Europe and 3 Europe-USA plus some personal travel around Asia.
Flights BKK-Europe are either high Y+ fares or discounted C.
Flights Europe-USA are Y+

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access and decent award flight availability/not too high fees
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
This year around 140.000 miles, 57 segments till now, one more RT BKK-SIN-CDG in C around Xmas
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Y+ or C
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Free choice of airlines, routing, connections.
Mostly work but with a mix of pleasure.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
This year 3x BKK-NYC (sometimes SQ xSIN, sometimes NH xHND)
4x BKK-SIN-FRA/CDG
(6) What is your home airport?
BKK into Europe I usually fly into FRA/DUS/CDG, into USA its NYC/CLE/CLT
(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?
No affiliation with any OW airline
*A Gold with LH and SQ
a few miles sitting with AF/KLM but really just very few
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Currently SQ, BR, UA, LH, LX but obviously open to mix this up.

Now for next year I've been window shopping a little and found decent priced C availability with QR, BKK-DOH-FRA and also OW flights with a mix of BA/AA into the US (Y+)
To my calculation with BA Club I'd be at 50% to BA Sliver after that trip. Whereas with QR I'd just made Burgundy and still need 240 points to Silver. Yet BA seems to have fees for awards like LH and so.

This trip would happen in Mid-Jan (departure BKK) to Mid-March (arrival BKK) time frame, so status year with the airline is also of consideration. Or I fly *A on this trip to start requalification with SQ and branch into OW later in the year.

Route / BA Avios / QR Qpoints
BKK-DOH / 817 / 30
DOH-FRA / 712 / 30
BSL-LHR / 32 / 10
LHR-ORD / 475 / 25
ORD-CLE / 23 / 10
CLE-PHL / 26 / 25
PHL-LHR / 426 / 10
LHR-BSL / 32 / 10
FRA-DOH / 712 / 30
DOH-BKK / 817 / 30

Avios: 4072
Qpoitns: 210

At the same time I do want to re-qualify for SQ*G (50k miles). Any ideas which program would be advisable for OW?

Thank you!!
F

ffly , I would take a look at the AAdvantage program and Club Iberia. The AAdvantage program elite-qualifying year runs March 1-end of February. The Club Iberia elite-qualifying year runs April 1-end of March.

You'll have to watch out for which flights earn elite points based on fare class/distance versus fare paid.

Iberia Club redeemable miles can be transferred from IB to BA, and thence to AY and QR, if doing so would be beneficial for your intended redemptions. Note that most partner redemptions made with Iberia miles are non-changeable/non-refundable.

The AAdvantage program does not collect carrier surcharges on redemptions on any carrier except BA and IB. AAdvantage Platinum (OWS) does not grant lounge access on domestic AA flights unless you are connecting to or from a qualifying international flight.

Thank you guv1976!
Iberia seems quite good from what I see - the 7.500 points (7.500 EUR eligible spend, right?) seem better manageable for me than the 75.000 miles with AA (since I can book more expensive Y+ for example with no questions asked). Also domestic lounge access in the US is a valid point since I usually do have a good number domestic flights and enjoy the lounge access instead of waiting at the gate.
The April 1 to March qualifying year should work out as well since after the Jan/Feb/March trip the next international run will be end of April/May. I'll just have to plan the first trip of the year with *A then.

Not necessarily.

Some IB partners earn based on ticket cost; others earn based on ticketed cabin and flight distance.

https://www.iberia.com/us/iberiaplus...tospuntoselite

Edited to add:

Once you obtain oneworld Ruby status (with AA or IB), you would get a free checked bag in Economy when flying AA domestically. And you'd also get to select a free Main Cabin Extra (extra-leg-room) seat, at T-24. When you move up to oneworld Sapphire status, you get two free checked bags, and get to select a free MCE seat at time of ticketing. MCE seats include free alcoholic beverages and dedicated overhead bin space (although the latter might not be well policed by the flight attendants).

Just a couple of pointers in there on the AA program that might help in addition to the additional info that guv1976 provided on IB.

When you say you have a good number of domestic flights in the US, are these on the same ticket as your international trips, or are they independent? You'd only lack lounge access on independent tickets not part of an international trip. Otherwise you'd have Flagship lounge access when in conjunction with a long haul, or Admirals Club on international North America, and upper South America. (with foreign FFP status you'd have Flagship Lounge access always if in an airport that has one).

Something else nice and I believe unique to the AAdvantage program is the status bonus on all OW partners. So as you gain higher status it becomes easier to maintain status from that bonus, as well as elevate to the next status. Platinum Pro in AAdvantage is achieved at only 125,000 LP, which might sound high for the first year, but could be possible in your second year and gives you OW Emerald (First class lounge access).

AA also is revenue based for some partners (AA, BA, IB, FJ, WY), and I see what looks to be a lot of BA and / or AA segments in that sample trip you posted, so the price of those tickets will factor in. Since you're BKK based WY is also a great option to Europe with often good prices in C but unfortunately 'good prices' in C would mean poor earnings in AA.

One last one that I'll throw out there, but I haven't looked at it for PY earnings, is AY's program. We get a lot of people flying RTW (around the world) tickets on here and want to maximize from those and it has become a popular one for business class RTWs for somewhat 'easy' Emerald status. I think it'd be worth running the calculator there too to see where you might fall. Just like IB's program, the Avios earned are movable to all other Avios programs via BA.

Thank you for the insight dvs7310 guv1976!

A good number of my US domestic flights are on a separate ticket - unless it's my connection in or out of the country. Which would be an argument for IB - but sounds like I'll need to do some more planning and calculating with potential trips.

WY flights I will need to look into - and yeah, if I book C then it's always low/discounted fares (when I can plan ahead) and Y+ are the trips with less lead time so it tends to book into higher fares..
I'll do some calculating with AA (though I think its out due to the domestic lounge situation) and AY - though IB looks like a good one.

Good thing is my SQ status year is Dec 1 to end of Nov, so my Xmas flights will account to SQ*G requalification already. So by the time I'm back from the holidays I'll already have close to 50% done, add in the trip in Jan/Feb/March and I should have achieved requalification already (or almost) and can go for OW status after.

ffly , yes, there are trade-offs between the AAdvantage program and Iberia Club. OWS through Iberia Club, as noted, gets you lounge access when flying AA domestically, while OWS through AAdvantage does not. But AAdvantage miles are generally considered more valuable than Avios for redemptions. (There are some exceptions, of course.) And AAdvantage flight redemptions are fully refundable (no fee) prior to scheduled departure time.

If your travels involve hotel stays and/or car rentals, note that such activities can also earn AAdvantage Loyalty Points if you choose to credit to AA. That could help you reach AAdvantage Gold and then AAdvantage Platinum.

Hello FT!

I have concluded that I am going to miss the silly BA requirements for OW Emerald - I have just short of 10k points now but will miss 20k by around 3k by end March. I am thinking that QR is the way to go but I would love for some validation / expertise from here. and yes, I know I should have credited all of these flights to the new one this year...

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Prob Lounge Access - the first Wing at Heathrow, not having to trudge through airport, baggage, Low fees on redemptions a bonus
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
I do 2 return flights short haul Europe / UK Domestic each month + 3 or 4 long haul. All in Club. Around 50 - 60 sectors
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
BA Business (with fee to Change), discounted business for long hauls. BA flights c �250 (in Taxes), long haul target 2k
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can but my regular routes are only BA. Longhauls can be any
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
BA - EDI/LCY or EDI /LHR. EDI/SIN EDI/KUL EDI/HKG
(6) What is your home airport?
EDI (surprise)
(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 FB, Gold BA (but will drop to Silver), 300k Avios, 100k FB miles, 800k MRs)
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
EK / QR for long haul East but useless for my regular BA for routes, KLM for anything West as sometimes good value from EDI. CX can be good for HKG but needs connections.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Airport priority services, lounge access, gaining miles/points towards status when flying with alliance partners/other partners
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Monthly flights between Hamburg and Tokyo
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Business and premium economy mostly
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose my flights and the travels are for work
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
EU to Asia mostly and sometimes EU to USA
In the past I fly more with KLM/AF/DL
(6) What is your home airport?
HAM
(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?
Not in OW. I have Platinum with FlyingBlue and Silver with Krisflyer
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
An airline with the quickest way to get and keep status, since I do plan to also mix the monthly travels with the other FFP alliances to keep my statuses there
Prefer airlines with the least stopover and no more than 20 hours of total travel time if possible
This is considering the monthly Hamburg - Tokyo flights