No. RJ you need to fly 55k plus 42 segments with 12 segments on RJ.

I would say AA is the best program for you. Or look at a Middle Eastern carrier instead. Its not easy to get OW Emerald with only economy flying.

Are you sure it's AND, not OR?

Sorry, you're correct. Its either or, not and. So seems like the easiest OW program to gain Emerald status in with economy flying. However, I'd want to check the earn/burn rates compared with say AA, as the other than access to first lounges, checkin and baggage, theres no other real benefits unless flying RJ.

Agreed. Mile accrual (AA +100%, RJ +35%) and redemption (??) is really quite good with AA. At the moment I'm happier with AA OWS than to go after RJ OWE.

(1) What is your home airport?
Will be Adelaide (ADL)
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
probably 40-60k, economy
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Discount Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Choice likely constraint by lowest price, mostly work based (with private use)
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Australia-Europe/US (at least 2x of which at least 1 to Europe/Germany)
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
A3 (*A Gold)
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
not sure, likely some form of redemption
(8) Preferred Airlines
regarding OW no real knowledge (*A Asian>European>US carriers)

In September I will be moving to Australia and due to related *A gaps in their network will likely switch at least some flying to OW. I am now trying to find out what is the best OW FFP for me. Will likely fly at least 2x a year to either Europe or US (maybe a third one as well) plus potentially some domestic or Asia. I believe that I can pick some of the details though since this is mostly work-based I have likely to take the cheapest economy option.

Until now I was mostly after status for the convenience since most of my flying was short-haul Europe plus a few TATL, but with the focus on very few (but very long) long-haul I am probably looking more for redemption value.

From reading this thread I gather that it comes down to AA vs QF, the first being better for economy flying, the second, well, because it's Australia...
Additionally AA's flight redemption look better, but QF does have the possibility to redeem for money value (and I might be able to get a CC)

Since I guess that most of the flights will be QF I might end up using both, credit to AA when the fare class turns out to be right, to QF if not.... Any other OW alternatives for this scenario ?

Additionally I have a RTW (mostly on QF numbers, though I think not an official OW one) in June with close to 25k miles, which should give me AA Gld but will only get me halfway to QF silver.

Hi Floplo,

I cant help with OW stuff but i used to live in ADL so if you have any questions PM me

Yeah, I just got curious about the accrual difference and looked them up. I'd certainly be clocking in more miles on American more often than any Middle East carriers. So with RJ's weak accrual rate on partner airlines, it would probably take me just as long to reach their 55k as it would for me to hit 100k on AA.

According to what I've seen online, it seems that AA OWS wouldn't allow me any extra baggage pieces and/or weight.
So I can only get that perk with OWE (regardless of airline)?
Since the extra baggage bit is one of main motivators for maintaining my status, this is disheartening.

Extra baggage is a new official OWE benefit from this year on, however many carriers already extended this benefit to OWS (even OWR in some cases!) and above:

- AA (OWR+)
- BA (OWS+)
- AY (OWR+)

are there any OW carriers that allow you more than a year before having to re-qualify?
i imagine there are very few of them in OW,*A, or SkyTeam.

Many have a "soft landing" so if you are Emerald and don't requalify then the next year you will be Sapphire.

Moving continents. Where to build loyalty?
 

Hi all, this is my first post! I stumbled upon FT a few months ago and I've been (naturally) hooked ever since. I wanted to ask for your opinion: I am in the process of moving to the NY area from the UK. I'm gold with BAEC but I don't see myself retaining that as I will not need to travel for work outside the US after my move here. Any domestic travel will most likely be limited to fewer than 10 segments per year. I will however need to do 3-4 JFK-ATH roundtrips per year and I would certainly like to do those in J. BA are pretty pricey and award seats are tricky for that route, hence my question. Do you think I'm better off starting from scratch elsewhere?

I can't really advise if you should switch or not. I will note that, if you do switch, who you should fly on depends on where in the NY area you live. Long Island/Brooklyn/Queens? Delta and American are good choices, though skymiles obviously isn't all that great. Also, Delta does seasonal JFK-ATH nonstop. NJ? United is your best shot because of fortress Newark. Manhattan and the Bronx, you could reasonably argue any of the three.

Thanks for the reply. I don't see the airport being an issue, I'm happy to travel to any of the 3. Would switching to AA be easier given the gold BA status and the soft landing to silver next year? Would it be cheaper to book rewards on BA metal with AA points?

This is a good candidate thread to merge with our existing sticky thread regarding choosing a Oneworld FFP.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Booking BA award seats with AAdvantage miles will still incur BA's hefty surcharges. The number of miles required might be more or less than the number of Avios required, depending on exact routing, class of service, etc.