Background
I am starting to travel quite a bit and need help being more efficient. When I travel within the US, I typically try to fly through AA. I currently only have 19,000 AAdvantage Points.
Now I am starting to fly cathay pacific to Hong Kong (from Los Angeles), so I have signed up for the Marco Polo Club.

My Questions

1. Can I combind my AA points and my Marco Polo Points?
2. If yes, should I send them to AA?
3. I can convert Amex Points to British air ways (but not AAdvantage). Can I later transfer asian miles to Advantage?
4. Whats the most efficient way for me to move up my status?

No

N/A

Maybe through some hotel laundering scheme. But you will lose a bunch of miles in the process.


Credit all of your flights to the same airline's program. Beware that some fares (read: cheap) on certain carriers will not got you 1:1 credit on all programs.

Not possible at all. You cannot convert BA Avios out to anything.

1. No
2. No
3. No
4. Stay with one programme.

Note that if you fly in coach, its better to stay with AAdvantage and book using AA codeshare flights on CX even though their fares are generally higher than CX fares. CX fares however are cheaper if booked as CX flights but most economy class fares do not earn mileage under AAdvantage programme.

If you want the cheapest economy class fares, then bank the miles to Asia Miles/Marco Polo Club. The advantage of earning status on the MPC is that you get guaranteed seats in economy when you have earned at least Gold status. But its hard to get there.. you need the equivalent of 90K miles to get Gold from Green.

More information on the Marco Polo Club can be found here , on the Cathay Pacific forum: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/15321183-post2.html

As long as you get flights w/ the proper fare codes, you can apply to AA and get status with them. Their redemption is better for long haul. Asia Miles is better for short haul, but as others mentioned, some of their really cheap fares don't accrue miles.

However, Silver on Marco Polo gives you access to the Cathay Lounges when flying them, so that's another consideration. Need 30K miles to qualify MPC.

One needs 30K or 20 sectors to qualify MPO SL, but MPO GR only requires 50USD, which can be waived for some credit card holders. Nonetheless, GR has few benefits.