Homeport YYZ and I have alaska airmiles + avios i was going to be redeeming for award flights only... i want status asap so looked into *A and A3 offers it very quickly (still have to look if they will give me miles for alaska award flights (mostly going to be to South America so on American Airlines)

Cant find anything on oneworld to gain status quick like A3 and the restrictions for cross over status is stricter than *A.

Here's my goal, redeem award flights using alaska pts + occasional short haul with avios but unfortunately my goal is to take all my vacations in SA and because of that American Airlines is the one il be flying most of the time.

What can i do to get status fastest on oneworld (or AA) if im flying on award flights and its mostly going to be in AA, should i still go with setting my FFP with A3 and *G even tho I probably wont fly on a star alliance airline.

Actually if i get gold on *A can i still use their lounges and other benefits despite having my flights on AA? Lastly my goal is to make trips from YYZ to South America on American Airlines as comfortable as possible with w/e status i can get...

1. No program that I am aware of gives FF miles for Award Travel.

2. A3 is a *A airline so you cannot credit even miles earning flights from AA, which is oneworld.

3. Unless you have a same day *A flight you will not be able to access *A lounges.

Sorry to sound so negative.. but REALLY? Expecting to earn miles on award flights.. on a different alliance?

So why not join AA's program...?

Check out their status challenge, pretty easy to get gold with 5,000 EQP or platinum with 10,000 EQP.

To answer your question - you are oblivious . Oneworld might not be as large as *, btu it definitely doesn't suck. I was a * guy for a decade and a half before switching a few years ago and don't regret the move. In fact, haven't looked back even once.
There is indeed no A3 equivalent in oneworld. The road to status is roughly equally long in all oneworld programs. South America' s Latam goup airlines LAN and TAM have FFPs that are kilometer-based, and the thresholds for status are a bit lower than on miles-based programs (150,000 kms for Emerald status instead of 100,000 miles in miles-based programs which equals 161,000 kms).

If you already have status on *A with A3 or can get it easily and quickly, I'd look at having it matched by an oneworld airline. Check www.statusmatcher.com/ for details.

I must say, if I were to join a program it would be AS. If you look at AAdvantage, they recently had a devaluation. Example, DFW-HKG in J would be 55k one way.....it's so difficult to get those award seats. If you want any chance to get them, you must be willing to shell out 175k and that's oneway!

Avianca LifeMiles on AV metal (horizontal matrix in their award searches) gives you the chance to pay more miles for flights and earn miles back. The number of miles you earn back is less than the additional number you have to spend but I think they are elite qualifying when they come back.

If the OP is referring to South America when he says his vacations are in "SA" then AA is fine but LAN's earnings on AA are only 25% for national and regional flights. It can be hard to get anywhere in terms of status unless you put together a strategy and upfare yourself on certain segments (But can be worthwhile, just takes some homework)

LANPASS flyers that are able to register in Colombia need 4 J segments and 50,000 kms (about 30,000 miles) for OneWorld Emerald. If you can find a Colombian address then this is quite a simple route to qualification. Especially if you are in the USA, can fly lots of AA at 100% credit and will pony up for biz on MIA BOG/LIM/UIO which is often affordable.

i just got sign up bonus points from credit card with alaska points that i intend on using for reward flights, so i wont be flying AS metal just whatever comes to toronto (mostly AA) to take me to south america and il use colombia as an example because its going to lead to next post. Anyways so theres no way whatsoever for me to get miles for flying from YYZ-BOG on AA on any FFP when using my alaska airline miles?
im going to be flying on award but if status is relatively easy i dont mind shelling out $ to do segments but its going to have to be in economy.. but to put into perspective how many YYZ - MIA is that going to take if i fly only on AA?

very grateful for status matcher, but il have to some digging to see whether a) i can even get miles for an award flight using Alaska Miles on A3 for *Gold. When it comes to LAN and TAM, only LAN is partnered with AS, and I guess i could choose them over AA but havent decided yet, let alone figured out if its even possible to get miles with award flights. if worst case scenario is its not, maybe il pay cash but to get a perspective of how many runs from primarily YYZ-MIA it would take would be nice (pretty good cash price from yyz-mia but $ price skyrockets when say if i paid cash second segment from MIA to BOG)

im only going to be flying on economy class (ik its low pcm but i got my points from sign up and view the plane as just as a medium to get from point a->b)

okay wait im actually canadian, and home port is YYZ. that said, i can get a colombian address probably because colombia is where im taking my first vacation. Now AS is parterned with LAN + AA (bunch of others as well) but LAN redemption chart vs AA requires more points (not alot but still trying to be frugal) however... im not very good at this so can you clarify whether id actually rack up miles on AA/AS/LAN if im flying award using AS sign up points from YYZ-MIA-BOG? If not because i intend on going to South America alot, how many segments of YYZ-MIA economy would i need to do (prices are reasonable from YYZ-MIA but MIA-BOG nthx)..

Also if i was to get a colombian address once im there, could i use my AS reward flight on a J (business right?) and still have it qualify if i went with LAN FFP?

No, you are not going to earn LAN or AA miles/kms flying on an AS award ticket. And paid AS flights are not elite qualifying on LAN, so you get the miles but no status or bonuses.

AA might require different amounts of miles compared to LAN but that is not to say one is better than the other. AA is region based, LA is distance based with all segments counting, (i.e. AAA BBB CCC prices as AAA BBB CCC not AAA CCC)

If you want to go LIM CUZ then you are way better using LA than AA. Likewise if you want to go LHR to AMS or CDG or DUB. Without checking, I am almost certain that LA would be more economical for YYZ to NYC too.

okay very depressing update, after some further digging apparently theres no way i can earn miles for any AS award flights, but however there seems to be loopholes, anyone knowledgable about some of the specifics?

lastly if im flying from YYZ, lan doesnt come here (if it does it just never showed up when i tried booking award flight on AS) furthermore im confused as to why were talking about nyc using LAN airlines... i just want to get my destination in south america, starting with colombia and alternating between the countries several times a year...

Now the guy that said if i get a colombian address, i need only 4 business segments on LAN + 50k km.. that seems VERY good... maybe il use AS miles for award flight from YYZ to MIA on AA metal and pay MIA-BOG with cash on LAN metal in business class. but how many runs, if anyone can put it into perspective do i need after 4 business segments, if i went to cheaper option of economy to get 50k km for emerald with LAN..

also im going to read into AA status challenge (because id really like to use AA only as AS charges least number of miles for award booking with them), but how easy is it to gain status during a challenge, if someone can put it into perspective for me, how many say YYZ-MIA runs do i need which i believe in the challenge is only 5k miles in 3 months?

microcosm Did you read and understand this post?
You seem to have a low understanding of how FFP's work in the real world
Wth FFP's when it comes to awards earn to burn is what matters.
How are you planning to earn miles?

Have a look here
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html

If you route one direction through LGA or JFK you could to YYZ-MIA twice for just over 5,000 miles. However, remember the status challenge is 5,000 (for gold) or 10,000 (for platinum) POINTS not miles. All AA flights earn 100% of miles flown but the points are based on fare class. Deep discount economy fare classes earn 50%, not 100%.

Also, keep in mind you could do 1 trip to LA routing with a stop in NYC for just over 5,000 in one trip. But don't forget the fare class determines points earned and points are needed for the challenge, not miles.

at initial writing of thread, i thought we could get miles for award flights, turns out apparently not (even tho i'd be flying on a first class on AA)... and i accepted that and went on to maybe seeing if getting LANPass was more feesiable or AA for me, specifically cost wise if im paying fare with cash and directing most of my traffic from YYZ to MIA as my ultimate goal is to make my experience from YYZ to South America comfortable as possible so either get AA or OW status

okay this is almost exactly what i was looking for, it doesnt seem that bad to get plat then but hold on, it seems a bit too easy, one way trip from LAX to NYC will give me 5k miles, a return trip 10k miles.. but when it comes to points...il have to look into the rates for diff classes..

edit: not worth it because i dont keep the status ... and id have to redo the challenge? not exactly attractive

How often will you be flying to South America or is this award trip the only one planned? Honestly I'm not sure I see the point of you getting status if this is the only one. Unless you have top tier status you won't get any international upgrade certificates (which you can't use for an award flight anyway) and you can just buy Economy Plus or Main Cabin Extra seats on your award ticket for way less than flying a few trips for status.

Plus if your award ticket is in First Class you'll have the same benefits as if you had top tier status for the duration of the flight.

Now if you are planning on making this trip a lot or have long term plans that involve a lot of travel that's a whole different story.

Note you have to pay for the AA challenge the only free challenge for AA AFAIK is DL Diamond or UA 1k to EXP