AA vs QF
 

My family and i fly from Missouri to Sydney yearly to visit her family. We try to bank as many miles on AA as well as QF.

Last year I had enough for an award ticket on AA. Total cost was approx $125.

This year my wife and son had a enough for an award ticket on Qantas. Cost was approx $850 each! (Yes that is less than a ticket) But when I questioned the Qantas rep she said it was due to fuel surcharges. I speculate the carbon tax imposed in Australia. Not looking for a political debate.

My question is this. Is there a way to make sure the miles we fly can all be earned on AA rather than them being split between AA and QF. Our US legs on American credit to AA. Our Qantas leg gets credit towards QF. I would like to keep them all with AA to earn quicker and pay less when using.

I posted here rather than in American thread and Qantas thread since it is kinda both

Thanks

AA vs QF
 

put your AA number on your QF reservation s, not your QF number. voila


QF and several other airlines do indeed charge high fuel surcharges on award tickets. It is not Australia specific.

You will not earn miles/points on an award flight.

If you have a cash booking on AA or QF, just put your AA number in the booking if you want to credit the flight to AA.

The fuel surcharge doesn't really have anything to do with the carbon tax, Qantas just decides to charge it on award tickets, whereas AA does not.

AA vs QF
 

Thanks all

I do understand that we can't earn on an award.

I never tried just using my AA number. Will start that. I guess I just assumed I had to stick with the carrier and account number.

We do all we can to earn AA and just wanted to capitalize on their program and didn't want to "lose" miles/points to Qantas when we didn't need to. Of course their service is great and will always fly with them (IMHO).

Thanks!

You can credit any oneworld flight to any oneworld airline. Just check the program you are crediting to (AA) as to what fare classes credit and how many miles you will earn. Some discount economy fares earn only 25%/50%.

If crediting to AA, then you might want to look at booking the AA codeshares to Australia rather than the Qantas flight numbers. If you book on aa.com or over phone with AA, they can book you on AA flight numbers and so will be eligable for 100% mileage accrual

Do compare prices since sometimes there will be a price difference between what AA offers and what QF will offer

As far as award fees goes, nothing to do with Carbon tax but just simply that Qantas charges significant cash surcharges when booking award flights using Qantas points. AA does not do the same ( other than for redemptions on BA and on IB )

Since you're US based, are you aware that you can use QF points to fly within Nth America and that it can be quite an effective use of those points?

For example:
STL-ORD in coach for 8,000 QF points + USD2.50
STL-MSY for 12,000 +USD5
bookable on the qantas web site

If you do use AA ffp all your flights, as is best to do, be careful as QF points expire in you do not have an eligable activity every 18 months. An eligible activity is earning points (flight, hotel, rental car, shopping, etc) or redeeming points. Transferring points between family accounts is not an eligible activity. Full details in the QF web site. So at least every 18 months earn or burn some QF points. That may be every 12 months for you. You can earn QF points shopping for food or booze at Woolworths when spending $31 or more. www.everydayrewards.com.au. So sign up and buy the in-laws some food or booze every trip and you will not lose the points. The inlaws can also use your ww card if they do not collect QF freq flyer points

Without fuelling a debate (no pun intended); Carbon Tax has nothing to do with the $850 being charged. Just that QF collects fuel surcharge on award tickets (as do most other airlines) while AA doesn't.