I was thinking that since I have a CDN AMEX Plat, it's easy for me to convert those points to either SkyMiles or Aeroplan at 1:1.

What do you think of the CX card they have here in Canada? http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/credit-c...edit-card.html

EDIT: RBC Canada also has a British Airways-branded VISA but in order for me to maximize one of the perks (companion fare with $30k annual spend), I'll have to give up the AMEX Platinum.

Personally, I think the nickname for Delta's program, "Sky Pesos" is a gross understatement. TERRIBLE redemption rates IMO.

The BA companion fare can be okay but your post said you travel mainly to Asia, so routing via London sounds like a giant pain. I don't much like BA's liberal addition of fuel surcharges on their "award" tickets at all - the best use of Avios is short-haul in North America, North America - Asia or Latin America, or (best) upgrades on BA metal.

Not familiar with the CX card, but I'd still go with the Alaska card - better and more spending options than with either Delta, AC, CX or BA.

I'm leaning more towards either the CX or the AA card. I like how you can redeem with partner airlines but sounds to be a pain:

http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...rd-travel.aspx

I'll have to read up on the AA card. Thanks for the suggestion!

Hi, can anyone provide me with advise on this? Thanks a lot.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?

Reply: priority services when flying the Airline(or alliance), extra baggage allowance, free - discounted lounge Access would be awesome. Mile gathering not to restricted by booking classes.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply:
~20 000 miles, ~10-16 flights

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply:
Economy, on very short flight cheapest.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:
Pleasure. I can choose.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply:
Anywhere in europe. Very often it is either VIE-ZRH or VIE-TGL, VIE-DUS
Airlines: *A: LX, SQ (I try to avoid OS and LH on short flights, too often I had unfriendly FAs on trips like TGL-VIE) mostly because ow doesn't alway fly at times when I Need it.
ow: AB, HQ, BA

(6) What is your home airport?
Reply:
VIE

(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:
at *A A3 vlue at 10750 miles, unable to get the last few miles to get to Gold till Deadline
at ow: topbonus 2900 Award miles


(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply:
No preferences on ow. on *A ist LX and SQ
most common flown AB and LH/OS/LX

Background: Air Canada Elite 75K Member. Looking to switch after recent devaluation. Located in Canada (YOW) with 95% of my flying to the United States from Canada. Trying to decide between US/AA on OW or DL on Skyteam.


(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:
55,000 - 80,000, economy or premium economy

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply:
Mid tier economy (flex)

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:
Yes, I travel for work but have discretion on the airline.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply:
Most often is YOW to SEA or SFO, usually via YYZ, ORD or IAD. Air Canada and United.

(6) What is your home airport?
Reply:
YOW

(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:
Air Canada E75K / Star Alliance Gold. 120,000 or so miles currently banked. No other status - looking to status match/challenge.


(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply:
No preference on oneworld

Thanks for the help!

I'd probably do a Platinum challenge on AA; IMO Delta's redemption picture is miserable. Unfortunately AA/US only serves YOW via CLT or PHL, making for long detours en route to the west coast. However, AA allows credit to Westjet; so routes like YOW-xYYC-SEA would be mileage-earning, using AS for the YYC-SEA segment.

You won't get lounge access with status on AA; nothing on US/Mexico/Canada/Caribbean routes with a very few exceptions.

I wonder if you ought to look at Alaska Airlines instead? You can earn AS miles on AA or DL flights, and their partners list and redemption rates are excellent.

Then just buy an Admiral's Club or Piority Pass membership for the lounge bit and call it good.

Which FFP?
 

I usually fly Star Alliance (Gold with UA for 2014/2015) but my client is flying me Qantas to Australia in Premium Economy and I'm wondering to which FFP I should accrue my miles. Depending on the job I might be going to Australia again.

My home airport is TYO (HND/NRT).

My Qantas Frequent Flyer account is still there but no miles.

My JAL Mileage Bank account has 9,000 stray miles.

My AA account had not been used for the past 10 years!

I believe that with JAL and AA, the yearly countdown for elite status ends on Dec. 31 whereas with Qantas it's a rolling 12 months period. Am I correct?

I am not very likely to fly One World next year but who knows... I want to maximise my chances in case I'm due to fly a OW carrier again.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Good advice, thanks for your time. I'll take a look.

Compared to AA QF is a very poor ffp. But depends on you objectives. It was relatively easy to get QF status, but not any more. QF earning on many partners has been reduced a lot recently. QF status is based on the month you join

AA plat challenge may work for you. Refer to links inpost 1 here

Very little about the JAL ffp posted on the forum.

Alaska is another that suits some people, due to the many airline partners
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...-overview.aspx

Thank you very much Mwenenzi, much appreciated. Very interesting info.

Which One World Airline to use for my miles
 

Hi there,

I'm a Frequent Flyer based in Brazil. historically I've flown a lot with BA and IB and still have 100k + Avios on each of them. I'm also a Red Plus (Emerald) on TAM. Now TAM, the Brazilian company joined One World. This is the airline I fly most by far, still i think their Tam Fidelidade sucks. I fly business internationally at least a couple of times a year, usually one to the US and another to Europe. then I also fly at least once a year intercontinenta on vacation. ???Which Program should I elect??? - I want to concentrate all my One World miles in one program, I usually fly between 100k and 200k miles a year depending on the year. Even AA is an option! Thanks al for the insights!

Welcome to FT!

I'm moving your post to an existing "sticky" thread covering Oneworld FFP options.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Welcome to FT googles.

Couple of questions.
Are USA visas an issue? What is it about TAM's program you don't like? Do you want lounges/upgrades/awards or something else (or all of the above)? Are the four company marketed flights a problem with AA/IB/BA?

You fly enough to qualify in almost any program so it really is a question of which matches your objectives the best.

Happy wandering

Fred

Hi, Here is a summarized form - for a quite specific question

What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: I would put first lounge access, and second the ability to redeem miles


How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply:
I usually fly around 50-70k, mostly in discounted eco, but also with the occasional business flight.

I wouldn't normally think about joining a oneworld scheme, since I am already a "good" customer of the two other alliances, but I have two upcoming business flights on BA (europe-japan and back) and on MH (BKK-KUL-PVG, discounted J), so I'd be interested in seeing where I can put the points.

I realize I might not get sapphire with those 6 legs, but I understand BA, for example, could get me rather close, and I would have 10/11 months left in my membership year to attain Silver. My question is mostly "is BA the best option ? or is there another scheme I should consider ?"


Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply:
Mostly europe to latin america and europe to asia, plus internal european flighs


(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply:
Within OW, IB, BA and LA mainly.


Thank you very much !

For lounge access you need OW sapphire (BA Silver) http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/my-onewo...ub-silver#tier
As you are in EU BA is as good as any. AA is the other default choice, but AA status will not get you AA domestic lounge access. Look at the links in post 2
However there are posts that Air Berlin will/can do a status match. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/airbe...tch-specs.html
Note AA, BA & QF require 4 off AA/BA/QF flights respectively before status. No idea if AB have this 4 segment requirement

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?

Redemptions in business or first class. Would never do an economy redemption, I'd just buy a cash economy ticket. But if I can get a high status level on the back of my RTW flights for a couple of years that would also be good.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?

See my RTW at bottom of post. In normal years, I do 2 - 3 Europe-Asia or Europe-Australia trips a year.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
PEY or Y.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes to both. Work trips >5 hrs are in J.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
BA, CX

(6) What is your home airport?
LHR. HKG and SYD is also useful.

(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; generate about 100,000 BA points/year.
QF no-status but around 300,000 points.
Star Alliance Gold.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply:
Economy: CX; also QF and BA preferred but flown long haul less often
Business: Anybody with a flat seat.

===

Well as noted above I have lowly status with BA and no status but 300,000 points with QF.

The 'Puff family comprising of Me, Mrs Puff, Mini Puff (4yrs), Micro Puff (1 year and travelling as a lap infant) are doing this RTW itinerary from January to July next year as a DONE6 One World Explorer RTW business class:

JNB-QF-SYD
SYD-JL-NRT
NRT-UL-CMB
CMB-CX-HKG
HKG-KA-RGN
RGN-KA-HKG
HKG-AA-LAX (operated by CX)
LAX-AA-ORD
ORD-AA-CUN
CUN-AA-JFK
JFK-AA-BDA
BDA-AA-MIA
MIA-AA-SCL
SCL-LA-GIG
GIG-BA-LHR
LHR-BA-EBB

We will also be doing in economy:
SYD-MEL-SYD
SCL-IPE-SCL

I need to pick a FF program for these flights. Note the lack of BA metal which makes me reluctant to use BA with the minimum 4 (?) flight segments to get increased BA status. There are 3 x QF segments. But I can just take another QF flight somewhere to make up 4 x segments which is required to get status on QF.

My QF anniversary is between the first JNB-SYD flight and the second SYD-NRT flight. Mrs Puff and Mini Puff are also QFFF members but I can't find their login details to work out when their anniversary is? I may be able to join them up with a new account as they have both changed passport numbers since changing the first time?

So question is: what is the best FF program for me? Is it QF or is there some other option I should consider such as AA? I've seen AA platinum challenge mentioned but have no idea what that is.

One attains AA status by accumulating either elite-qualifying miles (EQM), elite-qualifying points (EQP) or elite-qualifying segments (EQS). I'll ignore the segments for now.

AA tiers of Gold (Oneworld Ruby) requires 25K EQM or EQP, Platinum (OW Sapphire) goes for 50K EQM/P, and Executive Platinum (OW Emerald) requires 100K EQM/P.

Most discount economy seats earn 1 EQM per mile but 0.5 EQP, some Y fare buckets earn 1/1, and full fare Y and all premium cabins including BA/QF premium economy earn 1/1.5. (In other words, a 1000 mile segment in PE/J/F will earn 1000 EQM but 1500 EQP.)

The challenges require you to accumulate 5000 EQP in 3 months for Gold/Ruby, or 10,000 EQP in three months for Plat/Sapphire. There isn't an EXP challenge (okay, once in a blue moon for very heavy hitters, but very rare.) Points must be earned on AA, BA, IB, JL, or QF metal (note, not CX, LA, or other Oneworld partners.) You also have to sign up for the challenge, $200 at this time of year. Once you meet the challenge, the status is granted until the end of February the year following, unless you start and end the challenge after July, in which case the status lasts until the second February. (I.e., start now, your status is good until February 2016.) AA uses a calendar year, not the anniversary of your qualifying, so to renew your status for 2016-2017 you'd have to fly/earn the appropriate number of points during calendar 2015.

Now, with your RTW itinerary, you'd hit 10,000 EQP on your first flight. Then, as Platinum, you'd receive a 100% redeemable mileage bonus on all AA, BA, QF, IB, LA, CX and most other Oneworld members' flights thereafter (including JNB-SYD, the flight on which you'd cross 10K EQP.)

Also with your RTW itinerary, a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation seems to suggest you'd come away with roughly 114,000 spendable AA miles at the end of the RTW, counting cabin bonuses (25% in J, 50% in F.) AA also requires 4 AA-numbered segments for renewal, which it sounds like you'd have anyway. Plus, depending on what month(s) the travel takes place, it looks very likely you'd also requalify for a second Plat year after the "challenge" year is done.

(I'm using old calculations that I committed to memory. With the US merger, I believe AA has changed some earning and qualification rules, so by all means visit the AA board before committing to this course.)

But it seems clear to me that AA might be a good option for you. Certainly I find its redemption options to be better than other Oneworld carriers - cheaper mileage requirements, fewer fuel fines... but of course things can change.

But with your big group traveling on a DONE6, it certainly sounds like it's a route worth investigating, and fast.

The best ffp for you, as a UK resident, is definitely not QF. AA or BA would be a lot better. See post 330 QF would be the worst for you IMHO

AA, BA & QF all have the 4 segment rule. For AA & QF this includes codeshares. Unsure about BA codeshares. If you do not have 4 AA flights on the DONE you can change a flight to an AA codeshare, if offered. AA will not charge a fee for this. QF many charge a fee.

For any QF flights on QF aircraft you can burn some points on C to F upgrade, even if another airlines freq flyer number in the reservation. You can use you QF points for family. You can be your "brother" as QF do not have a "self" option. The lap child may complicate an upgrade.

Advise on which OneWorld program is best for me
 

Hi,

I fly about 500,000 miles per year and I am currently PlatinumElite with AAdvantage. Appreciated if someone could advise if it would be smarter for me to change to a different program as I actually never fly AA.

I fly mostly with CX in Asia, or with BA between HK and London. All in Business Class. About 500,000 miles and about 50 sectors per year. I am based in Hong Kong, so HKG is my home airport, but I may move to LHR in time.

I never fly to the USA and I never use AA.

I use my points exclusively for free flights for myself and the family. Mostly in Asia with CX. Some in business and others in economy.

Your guidance is much appreciated.

Paul

moving_man Welcome to FT

AA miles are very good for awards:- good earn to burn. How did you get /maintain AA status if you do not fly AA? From a credit card? With no status you will miss the bonus miles from status

You could split ffp earning to between CX & AA. Get status with CX, which would not be hard for you based on many business flights. CX treats its top status passengers very well from reports here on FT

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?

Primarily decent earn/burn ratio and gaining status.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?

Currently approximately 30k. By mid 2015 rolling 12 month average will be around 65k.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?

Discount Y

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?

Currently travel primarily for pleasure but will soon be 50:50 with work. I control the purchase either way, but I am cheap.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?

At least once a year I fly MEL-HKG-PEK and will make one personal trip to either North America or Europe. When travelling overseas I typically fly CX or QR.

Starting mid 2015 I will have to travel to Albury (ABX) every fortnight for work. For this I plan on flying MEL-SYD-ABX on QF.

(6) What is your home airport?

MEL

(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 status.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?

When travelling internationally I fly CX or QR. I only fly QF domestically.

Thanks for any advice!

Hi Guys and Gal,

This is my first post on this forumn and before loading you all with questions I thought best to say, Hi! :)

I am a british expat who now lives in Moscow. I started there this september and am now trying to figure out what the best way for me to aquire points and loyalty status.

I hope to learn and advise throught this site as I spend far too much time on planes and in hotels. Unfortunately im currently a newbee to most of this so as standard, the first post is more questions than answers...

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
(upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply:(In order of pref) Lounge access, baggage allowance, redemtion schemes, benefits across all FFP, miles aquisition

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
(<25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles - <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply:>40000 miles, 25-50 flights

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Economy (Seldom PE)

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Mostly work, some pleasure. I can choose the arilines and routes

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Mostly S7, British Airways, other one world - European, Central Asia, Asia. Mostly international, Domestic Russia, 1 transatlantic return per year

(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: Domodedovo, Vrukovo, Sheremetovo (Moscow Airports)

(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: Silver Cathay, Gold Star Alliance + many gold/platinum hotel cards

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: One world partners

I hope to redeme the points for international flights to Asia (Thailand, HKK, SGP, etc). If possible the status aquired should also allow for benefits when flying with Cathay Pacific (lounge, business check in, etc). The points can be aquired through any one world alliance member although most flights will be taken with S7 or BA.

If there is anyting else I can add to make it easyer to work out please let me know. I am also very open to learning how you work all this out so any hints or tips would be read and studied! :)

Thank you all in advance!!

Dave

Thanks for that detailed post. (For the benefit of other readers, I've deleted out most of the quote to save screen real-estate). I've had a look at AA redemption requirements which look a lot better than QF, so AA might be the right program. I've posted on the AA forum to ask about it.

Very much appreciate the feedback. I retain AA PlatExec status by using their card on BA and CX flights. I have considered getting another CX card and dividing the points between CX and AA. Just a bit more of a hassle spending my points, but a good suggestion.

Thank you very much ! i'll look between BA and AB then :)

I thought you need at least 4 sectors on AA Metal in order to qualify for Elite status.

I left out "not" in my reply. Have now edited my post 782
Some thing does not make sense.

Yeah let's wait for moving_man to reply.

500,000 miles a year is 84 trips between Hong Kong and London and almost 1000 hours (or half of a full time job) flying a year at average passenger jet speeds. Counting time getting to and from the airport and within the airport, it is more than half of a full time job.

Are you sure you fly that much?

I suspect its 500,000 frequent flyer miles and not 500,000 butt in seat miles. May even include miles from credit cards

Looking to OneWorld options
 

UA refugee here...looking to move to OneWorld, either with QR or AA...Here is the survey form. Any help at all is appreciated!


(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
(upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply In order of pref: Upgrades, priority services, award redemption/earning, Lounge access,

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
(<25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles - <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply:>110k, >50 flights

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Premium Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Mostly work, some pleasure. I can choose the arilines and routes.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Mostly UA- multiple global trips to Asia, Europe, and Middle East. A bunch of US domestic as well. Really all over.

(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: DEN

(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 1K, bottom tier of other US legacies...SPG Platinum

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: Depends on what I choose! For my flying loyalty.

Upgrades? Have you looked at QR forum? QR upgrades??:confused: Must be the day for upgrades Post in Star which ffp?
Generally you only get upgrades, by freq flyer instrument(SWU) or miles, on the airline you fly. Not partner airlines

As resident of USA hard to go past AA. BA is good for short haul awards
UA is still a reasonable ffp compared to others in Star or even OW

Need a Primary OW airline suggestion
 

My nehew called me after taking a new job requiring him to be on the road internationally 1 week a month. To him, FF programs are 'so confusing'.
So he asked me to help him pick a primary airline to credit 'miles' to.

He will be travelling to SIN, PEK, SHA - EZE, RIO,SCL - IST, FCO, VCE. So these look to me to point to OW. (He is concerened about UA going to a revenue basis, but I suspect AA will get there in a year or 2 also).

Now the details:
His company buys him 'cheap, bulk, coach tickets'. They use CX a lot because they "give his company very good deals". AS is important to him as he and his gf have relatives in Alaska.

So, to me AA or CX would be a good fit. He is far from a veteran traveller and I perceive that a major goal should be to get to Saphire status as quickly as possible for lounge access. Of course collecting miles for him and his gf to travel is very important.
Any suggestions, along with the reasoning behind them would be appreciated. I know a lot about Star Alliance and Sky Team, but zero about OW.
Edited to add: Home airport is LAX

AA doesn't sound like a good fit based on the information

If the company uses CX bulk cheap tickets a lot, then it is v unlikely that those would be eligible for accrual of miles to AA ( min needs to be H class )

If using CX a lot, then need to find out what booking classes the tickets are likely to be booked in to determine which scheme might best fit; it may be simply that Asia Miles / MPC is the most appropriate

Alaska Airlines's scheme might work given that L,M and V classes on CX earn miles ( albeit at 50% )

Vulcan
Look and ask here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html

Many discount CX fares earn nil or low miles on many ffp's including Cathay's AsiaMiles
Getting status with any airline ffp will be hard travelling on cheap CX fares

As above, AS may be a good fit due the partners
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...-overview.aspx

Thank you. I will get more info for the "Deciding...." thread referenced above. It may be that until he gets more regular in carriers/fare buckets he uses, that AS is the best (or until somebody scoops up AS :))

However, it still leaves open the question of getting access to quality international lounges. Without status on a OW MEMBER, I don't see how to accomplish this. Am I missing something?

I'm going to move this to the "Deciding" thread as it seems most relevant.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Want to post this as a feeler to get your opinions. Im deciding between OW and *A.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
In Order: Baggage Allowance (I fly with bowling balls 2x ~51lb), Upgrades, lounge access, general service.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
25000-50000 in economy. Only book higher class with miles.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy, cheapest.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, i book everything on my own. Bowling is sort of my job, so its a mixture of both.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
US domestic mostly (ORD and SEA to pretty much all parts of the country) with the occasional trip to Europe and Middle East and possibly a trip to Asia this coming year.

(6) What is your home airport?
ORD and SEA

(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?
AS MVP, with around 50k miles saved currently.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Alaska Airlines and their codeshare partners (Flew Emirates recently, but mostly AA domestic and British when connecting in Europe.)

Again, just feeling it out. The most important thing to me is the baggage allowance and by extension, the fees for overweight/extra piece. I have also flown with OW members (AA, BA, and QR) and really enjoyed the experience, which is why im more inclined to OW than *A. But again, it comes down to what fits my needs.

OW has just introduced an extra baggage benefit for their mid-tier (Sapphire, 50k) elite level: FT thread, OW press release, and the fine print.

Star Alliance does not offer an equivalent baggage benefit for mid-tier elites.

You will not get lounge access on domestic itineraries flying AA/US unless you purchase AA lounge membership or get the AA Citi Executive CC ($450 annual fee).