Oneworld Zurich to Hong Kong
 

I'm have American Platinum status and would like to gain as much mileage as possible for my next summer's roundtrip (economy class) travel from Zurich to Hong Kong. What would be the best routing/carrier for a reasonable price?

Cathay Pacific has a nonstop, but I would gain little to no mileage based on the fare class. Would British or Finnair be the best option for reasonable price and maximum mileage?

July 22, 2017 departure Zurich to Hong Kong
August 5, 2017 return

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

Do you want to earn miles on a Zurich - Hong Kong flight, or earn miles to use for a Zurich - Hong Kong, or both? It's not clear to me.

Sorry, EARN miles on roundtrip Zurich to Hong Kong on Oneworld.

So, you're aware that some Cathay Pacific fare classes earn nothing. There's too much to memorize, but one needs to be willing to find and use the relevant partner carrier earning charts.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...r-airlines.jsp

Only you can determine your valuation of AA miles earned vs. price premium and adding hours of travel in each direction.

Got it. I found the "for" in your original post ambiguous.

Anyway, a quick check on GFlights shows that far and away the cheapest option is QR through DOH, which looks to earn at the same ratios as the more expensive BA and AY choices with comparable travel times.

Since no choice is the winner in all categories, as 3Cforme says you'll have to weigh cost / time / miles earned / convenience of nonstop to decide which of those -- or the CX flight -- is the best choice for you.

Also, if you have restrictions on departure or arrival times, that could rule out some of the choices.

We've moved this to the oneworld forum for broader input. /AA forum Moderator

In all cases, check the AA partner pages on AA.com for AAdvantage earnings. (CX earns AA EQM only on H, B and Y in Cosch, but forbflights of that duration you might wish to check Premium Economy pricing; W, R, E earn AA miles.)

Thanks for all your comments SpammersAreScum 3Cforme and JDiver, I really appreciate it.
Seems like there isn't any easy answer. I'll just have to print out the earnings rules from AA partner airlines and decide what's the best choice for me.

www.google.com/flights
Search by oneworld, compare prices and fare classes against the AA mileage chart.

AA forum Moderator, I don't think it was useful to move this to the oneworld forum. Most of us have no idea how the AA program works - and that seems to be the OP's concern.

Otherwise, not taking into consideration AA program related issues, it's pretty clear that the daily nonstop service operated by CX is by far the best option.

BA/AY/QR all involve one transfer in LHR/HEL/DOH respectively - which is not the end of the world, but certainly more time consuming. Easiest transfer is definitely at HEL, due to the small size of the airport, but LHR and DOH are both doable as well. Also HEL is not much of a detour, if you look at the great circle map, while LHR and DOH both are.

Agreed.

Anyway, one can use XONEX/XONEWCX products to go to HKG from ZRH and back with earning some extra miles, with more costs and more time.