If awards are the objective earn to burn is what matters
Frequent flyer miles/avios/points are not 1 to 1 in value. While many credit cards transfer at the same rate, earning from flying can be very different. As is status bonus, if any. The cost of awards (miles,avios,points) and cash surcharges, if any, can vary a lot. As do the rules for awards.

The Avios ff currency is used by QR, BA, IB, IE & now AY. Subject to t&c's avios can be moved between some (all?) these airline ffp's. [check the rules] Status cannot be moved, but recognised by other OW airlines.

Most of AA's oneworld partners still earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points based on distance flown and booking code, not cost. In fact, of the various carriers on your itinerary, only AA and BA would earn based on cost, and it's even possible that those segments would earn based on distance and booking code because this is a RTW ticket. You cannot count on that happening, but it's possible.

As just one example, here's what the AAdvantage earning chart for AY-coded flights looks like:


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bc29fa9e6d.png

Have you verified that Iberia's new Avios-earning scheme applies to all partner carriers? This page from the Iberia site suggests otherwise:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...230f556db9.png

Even when crediting AA flights to Iberia, you might earn based on distance and booking code if Iberia cannot "see" the fare attributable to the AA segment(s):


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...fd8fe7ffef.png

Note the "Excepciones" language. I do not know whether Iberia Plus will have access to the fare of each segment of a RTW ticket where IB did not sell the ticket.

As has been pointed out up-thread, you do need to be concerned about the cut-off date for the yearly earnings period on some FFPs, like AA's and IB's.

Good luck!

Any one has experience with Finnair elite status?

I use wheretocredit, it shows up as 110000 tier points and mile for my RTW trip, which will give me Finnair Plus Platinum (OW emerald). I do not think any other OW partner will give me that. Did I understand their rule correctly?

Pro:
1. OWE earned
2. Avois system and I can freely move to BA and IB to book award tickets from TYO to US operated by JAL on 360 days out. 75000 avois + 250 fee.

Con:
Useless milestone (Lounge access and free upgrade if operated by Finnair)


Any thought and advice?

Has the functionality to transfer Avios to Finnair been implemented? I'm always a little nervous about different IT programs talking to one another on the prescribed timeframe until there's proof it actually works.

I know nothing about their program, but did you verify that's how it will credit on the Finnair site? Sometimes wheretocredit is wrong. I also don't know if they require any AY segments or not.

One additional small perk, they are part of the group that gets free MCE seating on AA, plus you'd get domestic lounges which is nice in airports with the AA FL and very nice in JFK if you fly in and out of there often.

Finnair doesn't require any AY segments for status (other than a status above Platinum/OWE). Tier points for AA/BA/IB D class are 250% of distance so at present it does seem to be the easiest program to get OW Emerald from a DONEX. Avios transfer is not yet implemented but it's supposed to come sometime this year. Of course, if tomorrow AY decides to make earning on partners spend based, this will collapse as (unlike BA) there is no separate tier and avios accrual.

Just had a quick look, it's interesting, 80,000 TPs for Platinum.. Multipliers are good on the airlines you mentioned but most others are just 125%. A well thought out RTW though with a bunch of AA, IB, or BA codes would do well. You can put AA codes on a lot of JL and QF flights, I suspect a BA code is fairly easy on JL from LHR, any QR flights from the US should have an AA code available. That covers a lot of distance on 250% partners.

I can see this being a good recommendation for someone just wanting status and ok with Avios. AY's award chart isn't good for the most part, but once they are transferrable it's fine. I can still get a LOT more in terms of RDMs out of AA as an EXP, but most people don't have that benefit and lower tiers if they can even qualify don't give a great bonus.

Yeah, for TYO to US west redemption. IB or BA does not have the best redemption, but it is still pretty solid.

What do you mean put AA codes? Do you mean when I book DoneX I should request to use AA code instead of QR/JL flights? Can they offer option to select?

If you're calling AA, you can feed them AA codeshare flight numbers as opposed to the standard flight numbers.

Think as it stands, AY's pretty clearly the easiest path to OWE status with RTWs.

Thanks. If the flight is already booked, can I still change to AA codeshare without triggering reissue (for the first leg)?

Don't believe so.

Yes, exactly since AA codes will earn you 250% and JL codes will earn 125% in AY's program, so it's highly advantageous to use AA codes on those.

The OW tool won't offer codeshares, but any human agent can do it quite easily. AA RTW desk typically won't allow you to use other airline codes on AA metal flights, but they're happy to put AA codes on partner flights so long as there's one available.

Even if so, it would only be $125, which I think would be worth it to double your earnings. The ex-Japan base fare hasn't changed, so that's not an issue. If you have to pay, look at the rest of your itinerary and see if there's anywhere else you can change to an AA, BA, or IB codeshare.

*Edit: I just found the itinerary you posted in the other thread. Definitely TYO-DFW-BUR and LAX-DOH-CAI can go on AA codes.

I'm not 100% sure on that, it's not a change to ticketed points. But haven't seen a lot of data points on it either. When I did my last big change with QF and added GRU to my itinerary, I told them I wanted JL codes to / from GRU (AA metal) and they ticketed it as AA at first. When I complained that I told them the JL codes and explained that was important for me they immediately changed them to the JL codes without fuss or mention of wanting to charge me the $125 again. I don't know if that was because they made a mistake or if it's just a free change anyway.

Some recent posts tending off topic.
The topic of this thread --> Deciding on a Oneworld Frequent Flyer Program? Help is here.
In the OW forum are many threads on the intricacies of *ONE* tickets, which those above have been posting in. --->https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld-411/

A dumb question: How is flown distance from partner flight is calculated?

LAX -> xJFK -> ORD in one ticket. Do they use sum up all fly distance or direct distance from LAX -> ORD

Um, which FFP are you crediting to, and which airline's code is on the flights?

As a general rule, flown distance will be the sum of each flight that has a unique flight number. By contrast, if you are on a "through" flight -- a flight which makes en-route stops by has just one flight number -- typically it is only the mileage from origin to (final) destination which counts.

Sorry. My bad. LAX -> xJFK -> ORD. Two flights with unique flight number under same ticket. This was just dummy example to understand how they calculate mileage. AA flight, probably credit to AY.

If you'll be crediting to a program which still earns based on flown mileage and not pre-tax ticket cost, then the flown distance for each individual flight number (times whatever multiplier is utilized for the fare basis) will be credited.

If part of your *ONE* better to ask in one of the *ONE* threads and/or the AY forum. As above no simple answer.
Can depend of fare booking class and your status. Redeemable avios/miles/points earning is a different calculation to status earning. Every ffp can/does have a unique method of determining redeemable avios/miles/points and status.
AY is moving to a spend and avios model.--->https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/finn...sed-avios.html
A broad guide, but need to read the ffp fine print---->https://www.wheretocredit.com/american-airlines

Have been a QFF Plat (OWE) in the past, but now starting from scratch, living in USA.

Considering Finnair/BA/Iberia? All I really want is Domestic Flight Lounge Access. (Lots of internal AA or AS Biz Flights for work).

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: Lounge Access on Domestic US Flights
(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: Not too sure, new job, just flew LAX-JFK-LAX, Have an upcoming LAX-PHX-ICT-DFW-SNA in a few days, likely in D Class
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply:Business or First, Class D/I
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Business/First for work (booked through Concur/Sable, Can choose airline usually, but have to look at price. Thinking UA crediting to TK for *A for 777/787 routes, and AA/AS crediting to AY/BA/IB?
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply: US Domestic All around, Always Biz/First.
(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: SNA/LAX/SAN/ONT
(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 anymore, used to have QFF Platinum (close to lifetime silver), but no longer live in Aus, so couldn't hit the 4 QF Segments.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: I prefer widebody if possible, 787/777, Lie Flat seats when avail, AA A321T was pretty good too.

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Unless you plan a trip to Europe, BA is a non-starter, as you won't be able to get the four required "qualifying" flights needed for mid- or high-tier status.

IB does not require any IB-operated or IB-operated flights to achieve status, so that's the program I'd probably shoot for. This Insider Flyer article, which analyzes crediting QR Business Class flights to IB, might be helpful:

https://insideflyer.co.uk/2019/03/qa...f-iberia-plus/

("WHY QATAR AIRWAYS BUSINESS CLASS REGULARS MIGHT BE BETTER OFF WITH IBERIA PLUS")

Note, however, that since you'd be flying a bunch of relatively short AA/AS flights in Business Class (domestic First on two-class aircraft), you'd have to fly a fair number of trips to attain status with IB, but you should be able to attain at least mid-tier status (oneworld Sapphire) which would get you lounge access. (If you made a trip to Europe on BA, attaining status through BA would be faster.)

Since you mentioned AY, the AA and AS flights do both credit quite nicely to them, and it's a strictly distance based program for non-AY flights, at least as for now vs. IB and BA being segment based and xx tier points per segment based on length. That may be an advantage or may not, just depends on how your segments fall into their brackets.

AS: D = 200% I = 125%
AA D = 250% I = 150%

You need 45,000 for Gold (OW Sapphire) and 80,000 for Platinum (OW Emerald), sounds like both could be achievable based on your patterns once you see how much longer distance you'll be doing. But there's little incremental benefit of Emerald over Sapphire since you're buying business fares anyway. There might be some theoretical benefit for standby priority, and I believe you can access the QF F lounge in LAX with non-US based Emerald, but you have to decide if that's worth the additional trek over to TBIT everytime as well, personally I'm generally content with the AA FL at LAX. In JFK you'd get the better lounge in T8 (SoHo vs. Greenwich)

The only bad part about AY for now is that their award chart isn't great, but it's expected they'll implement transfer to BA this year sometime, I kind of look at it like AS's new award chart though, if you're racking up bigger multipliers than you would have elsewhere then even a bad award chart isn't that bad.

brosephine69 Welcome to FT (down under branch)
In USA for ever? Or back to AU to live in few years?
Your QF points will expire if you do not have eligible activity in 18 months. So do something to keep them alive say once a year.
QF --> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qant...l#post28330576 Has links to other threads on how to keep QF points alive.

QF status has soft landings IIRC. So QF Plat (OWE) to QF gold (OWS). OWS Oneworld sapphire gives you lounge access. As does paid QF club membership for AA.
Unsure if you need the 4 qualifying flights for the soft landings. Have a look in the QF forum and/or AFF.
QF lifetime silver (OW Ruby) does not give you much. But QF lifetime gold (OW Sapphire) does give lifetime lounge access (your life or the life of the current QF ffp rules)

Appreciate all the replies.

Long time Lurker, since I moved to USA 10 years ago, haven't traveled much back to Aus, so doing the QF 4 segments will be difficult. No plans to return to Aus, at this stage. Have kept QFF Account active, by redeeming on AA, but there's minimal points there now.

I may be able to do a UK run, for the 4 BA flights, later this year, but that'll be difficult to make sure I do, so AY and IB seem like the best contenders.

All I need is OWS, OWE is a stretch goal, but likely not that useful while in USA.

Leaning towards AY at this point, But if status is easier with IB, then let me know and I'll sign up for IB instead.

IB Oro status (oneworld Sapphire) requires 2,250 Elite Points. In my previous post, I included a link to an Inside Flyer article which includes the Iberia Plus Elite Points earning chart. Based on the distance of your domestic Business Class segments, you can calculate how many Elite Points you are going to earn from your expected flights. You can do the same calculation for Finnair's program.

Re: achieving status with BA: Courtesy of Head for Points, here's the definition of "eligible flight," of which you'd need four before you could earn BAEC Silver (oneworld Sapphire) status:

"An ‘eligible flight’ is:
any British Airways operated flight
a flight with a British Airways flight code but operated by another airline
an Iberia operated flight with an Iberia flight code"

So if, for example, you were to book an LAX-LON roundtrip with a connection in each direction, you would have your four eligible flights, as long as your connecting AA or AS flights were BA-coded. And if you were to make such a a roundtrip in Business Class, you could earn 560 of the requisite 600 Tier Points needed for BAEC Silver, provided that you connected somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard.

Can't seem to find the Finnair Tier Points earning table. But it seems like I do a lot of flights that are "shorter" (Today's is SAN-PHX-ICT), so not super long haul that Iberia benefits from.

I am starting with my first AA flights this afternoon, Gonna go with Finnair over Iberia/BA.

(I'm 6ft9in and 400lbs, so doing the BA legs, would require paid Biz/First on BA, likely not doable this year for me anyway).

Building up the Avios for redemption later someday is fine.

Finnair does not use a Tier Points system, according to Post #1862:

"Since you mentioned AY, the AA and AS flights do both credit quite nicely to them, and it's a strictly distance based program for non-AY flights, at least as for now vs. IB and BA being segment based and xx tier points per segment based on length. That may be an advantage or may not, just depends on how your segments fall into their brackets. AS: D = 200% I = 125%AA D = 250% I = 150% You need 45,000 for Gold (OW Sapphire) and 80,000 for Platinum (OW Emerald), sounds like both could be achievable based on your patterns once you see how much longer distance you'll be doing."

If you do SAN-PHX-ICT-PHX-SAN in D class, you would earn 380 Iberia Plus Elite Points, of the 2,250 needed for oneworld Sapphire, or roughly 1/6 of the way there. If you credited to Finnair, you would earn 4,696 5,870 miles of the 45,000 miles needed for oneworld Sapphire, or a little more than 1/8 of the way there.

If that trip is representative of your expected travel, then you would achieve status faster by crediting to Iberia, but you would likely amass fewer redeemable Avios with Iberia.

thank you so much for this analysis, I am at the airport about to board and changed to Iberia just in time.

from what I read on AY, i had misunderstood the post (between them talking about Spend on AY metal flights, and tier points I thought it was Avios not tier points).

1/6 vs 1/8 will Definitely be more helpful. Not so worried about collecting the spendable Avios vs actually getting the status. So let’s see how it goes, I should have another set of AA flights going from SNA/LAX to Orlando and back in a couple of months so will do some more research on the connections and see how the routing will be.

thanks again!

You're welcome! Best of luck.

You will find that SNA/LAX-PHX-MCO will generate more Iberia Plus Elite Points than SNA/LAX-DFW-MCO. ;)

yes I did notice that, gotta maximize the legs over 600mi (or 1500 if I can)

I’m now trying to figure out best way to get from SoCal to Orlando, looks like LAX-CLT-MCO and that way the LAX-CLT is a B777 with lie flat. TBD

Just curious but can anyone share how their OW RTW AA-coded segments are crediting to their AAdvantage account? I know it's based on $$ spent, not miles traveled, but I wonder how the ticket is assigning $$ for each segment..
I am thinking of possibly changing programs back to AA but not sure how much I would lose on AA-coded segments.

This is the https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onew...p-here-47.html thread.

Best to ask *ONE* questions in 1 of the dedicated threads.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onew...r-guide-9.html

See this thread in the AA forum regarding credit for xonex tickets with AAdavantage:
​​​​​​https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...-miles-17.html

It's a huge risk to credit AA coded RTW flights to AA, it seems more and more are crediting based on revenue, not distance, and that's an absolute pittance compared to what you'd get on a distance credit. (Base fare divided up by total miles on the ticket and the AA segments calculated from that). For that matter, you also now have to avoid BA and IB codes too.

There may be ways around it, if your flights have codes available from another carrier and it's not ticketed by AA then you can use the other carrier codes. JL, AY, QR are the best by far, followed by AS and QF between North America and Australia / New Zealand. But even the ones that credit at 100-125% are still better than AA codes if you get slammed with credit by revenue.

The problem is you never know which you'll get with AA until it's already done and too late to change it back to a more lucrative earning on another program.

This is all I needed, thanks!

P.S. - sometimes the goal is not necessarily to gain the most amount of award miles.

I'm currently a UA frequent flyer based out of LAX, but will be moving with my family to LHR. Naturally oneworld makes the most sense out of LHR but I'm trying to decide if it makes more sense to join BA or AA. My main goals are lounge access and free long haul business class tickets for my family (either booking outright or through upgrading PE fares).

Some basic info about my expected travel / spend:

- Two to three paid business class flights per year through work to MIA or Latin America: total estimated spend $7-10k
- One to two personal flights to the USA per year in premium economy: total estimated spend $3-4k
- Two to three personal flights to Europe per year in economy: total estimated spend $1-2k

- Natural credit card spend: ~$30k/year

Based on all of that it seems like I could easily reach AA Platinum in my first year and Platinum Pro in my second year. Maybe even Platinum Pro my first year if I get an AA credit card. On the BA side it seems like I'd be stuck with Silver unless I went out of my way to add additional legs to my trips or do tier point runs, neither of which is really appealing to me. So for elite status the win seems to go to AA.

It seems like I would be earning 8-9 miles per $ on AA, while with BA it would be only 8 avios per £. Again this is a win for AA in terms of mileage earnings.

Am I missing anything here? Based on the numbers alone it seems like a no brainer to pick AA, but that feels wrong being based out of LHR. Will I be at any disadvantage by picking AA? Thanks in advance for any help here.

Missing a lot.
How long in London for? A few months/years or for ever. If only for 1~2 years may not be worth the effort.
Many airlines from UK airports. Not just BA. And other airports in London region. LGW LCY STN

Free long haul business class tickets is not gong to happen. BAEC is notorious for award cash surcharges. If an AA award on BA the same surcharges apply. Unless using an AA SWU from memory an AA upgrade has $350 fee plus ff miles. As well as real taxes & regulatory fees. UK has the infamous APD,

BA mid-top status will give AS-AA lounge access in USA for USA domestic flights, where as AA status will not. International flights have different access rules. Can be important for some.

Avios is used by BA-IB-IE-QR Qatar and now AY. Avios, but not status, can be moved between some of these ffp's . Consider IB

BA or Oneworld airlines may not be the best price-schedule-routes for London to EU. Better to fly based on schedule~price. EU is small.
For Paris~France or Belgium taking the train from London may be better point to point when considering time and cost to get to/from airports depending on where you will live.

Will you be able to get ff miles/avois/points from non flying activities? UK credit card?

Do you currently have any elite status in Mileage Plus? If so, applying for a BA status match before the May 7 deadline is a no-brainer. Details in this thread:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...residents.html

BA Avios can usually provide better value than AAdvantage miles for trips between London and the rest of Europe. Conversely, AAdvantage miles can provide better value for intercontinental travel, as long as you are not redeeming for travel where BA is the carrier on the long-haul segment.

Thanks for all this info - very helpful. The intention is for the move to be permanent but obviously things can change as parents age and kids go to university. I'd guess at a minimum we'll be there for 10 years or so. We will be moving to SW London so LHR will be the most convenient airport for us - probably not much travel out of LGW, STN or LTN unless the fares are significantly different / more convenient.

I suppose I misspoke when I said 'free' business class - I understand there will be fees but my intention is to use miles/avios to get my family in business class at a significantly reduced price. On UA for example we would buy PE fares and use miles to upgrade into business class which generally worked pretty well (though not always guaranteed). I did have a look at random dates for LHR-LAX on both AA and BA, and BA's website was saying 'no availability' while AA was showing business class availability for ~230k miles. That seems like a win for the AA program?

As for CC spend, my intention was to continue using a US based credit card with zero foreign transaction fees since the rewards are much better. I can use my parents' US address to keep the card. Currently I have a UA card but I'm open to switching to an AA card or maybe CSR or Amex Platinum if the value is there. In SoCal our current natural spend is around $30k/year so I'd guess it will be similar in London but hard to say for sure given all the differences in cost of living.

Thanks this is a good shout, I have UA Gold status so might as well get free BA Silver. In terms of value of points - that's good to know thanks. I am fine using other airlines besides BA for my personal travel. My main goal is to extract as much value out of the ~$7-10k of spend I will be doing for my work trips which will most likely be on BA flights (except maybe MIA) since our corporate travel program forces non-stop when available.

A few observations:

1. If using a dollar-denominated, no foreign-transaction-fee credit card overseas, you need to be vigilant to ensure that merchants process the charge in foreign currency (GBP in the UK), and do not process the charge in USD, using "dynamic currency conversion." Details here:

https://www.investopedia.com/dynamic...rency%20(CPC).

("Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC): What It Is and How to Avoid It")

2. The benefit of using AAdvantage miles on trans-Atlantic award flights on AA metal is that you avoid the high cash surcharges that would be charged if you used Avios on trans-Atlantic flights operated by AA or BA, or if you used AAdvantage miles on trans-Atlantic flights operated by BA. But AA often charges a lot of miles for premium-cabin trans-Atlantic flights on AA metal, as AAdvantage awards on AA metal are now dynamically-priced. So in a sense you have to pick your poison: more AA miles but less cash to fly AA; fewer AA miles but more cash to fly BA; or fewer BA miles (Avios) and more cash to fly. (You will not often find AA premium-cabin trans-Atlantic award seats available with Avios.)

3. If you do decide to collect AAdvantage miles rather than Avios, one of the ways that you can sometimes get better value when flying between Europe and the U.S. is by starting or ending your trip in a city other than London, and then connecting in London. That avoids the high U.K. APD when heading to the U.S., and could cost fewer AAdvantage miles too, since any award itinerary which involves at least one flight on a partner carrier prices as a fixed-price "partner" award with AAdvantage. But with young children, starting or ending in a city other than London might be difficult -- unless you wanted to visit the other city for a few days anyway.

4. If you plan to book AA flights through a travel agent and hope to earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points from those flights, make sure that the agent is one which AA will recognize for AAdvantage earnings. Details here:

https://thepointsguy.com/news/americ...ooking-direct/

("Big changes to American Airlines program delayed, but still coming: AA wants you booking direct")

5. Finally, if you do decide to credit to BA instead of AA, you can still earn Avios and BA Tier Points toward BAEC elite status on AA flights. But to keep BAEC Silver (or Gold) status, you must fly at least four "qualifying flights" in an earnings period, in addition to the Tier Points earned. Flights on AA metal can be qualifying flights if and only if they are purchased with a BA codeshare flight number (i.e., BA XXXX, operated as AA YYYY).

Good luck!