To compare the different oneworld programs...I did a pretty thorough analysis for a sample round-the-world trip, given by 3544quebec in The Buzz! some time ago...

The itinerary is...

From To Miles Class
YVR JFK 2,447 F / C / Y
JFK SCL 5,086 F / C / Y
SCL EZE 703 F / C / Y
EZE GRU 1,061 C / Y
GRU LAX 6,158 F / C / Y
LAX DFW 1,234 F / C / Y
DFW LHR 4,763 F / C / Y
LHR MCT 3,626 F / C / Y
MCT LHR 3,626 F / C / Y
LHR LCA 2,034 C / Y
LCA LHR 2,034 C / Y
LHR JNB 5,598 F / C / Y
JNB HRE 615 C / Y
HRE JNB 615 C / Y
JNB HKG 6,643 F / C / Y
HKG BOM 2,694 C / Y
BOM HKG 2,694 C / Y
HKG JKT 2,011 F / C / Y
JKT HKG 2,011 F / C / Y
HKG AKL 5,658 F / C / Y
AKL PER 3,337 F / C / Y
PER SYD 2,067 F / C / Y
SYD PPT 3,832 C / Y
PPT SYD 3,832 C / Y
SYD LAX 7,478 F / C / Y
LAX YVR 1,079 F / C / Y

Total 26 segments, 82,936 miles...a 6-continent oneworld Explorer...

I did an analysis for this itinerary, for First, Business and Economy fares...depending on the status level that you start off with...I come up with the number of miles you will get from each program (only AA, CP and CX for now)...and the status you'll get after the trip...note that in some segments, there's no F...so if you buy a F ticket, you'll get a C seat / miles / bonus...these segments are identified above and represent about 19,411 of the 82,936 miles...

A major assumption that I had in the calculation is...this RTW trip are the first flights you have in the calendar year / membership year (depending on the program)...that means, your status miles / sectors are 0 when your trip starts...and I took into account all the elite bonuses which are applicable when your status changes after you fly a certain number of miles / sectors...

You can find the results at: http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Harbor/8838/RTW.htm .

A couple observations...

With AA and CP, you will have Emerald by the end of this trip, if taken in F or C, no matter what status you start with...but with CX, you'll only have Sapphire...even if you start with Emerald (CX Diamond), you will not earn enough to re-qualify for Emerald by taking a RTW First with this itinerary...in fact, if you start from nothing (Green) with CX, after this trip, you'll just barely make Sapphire, need almost 100,000 miles more to make Emerald...

If it's an economy RTW trip and you're already an Emerald with CP (Exec Plat), you'll re-qualify with this trip...otherwise, you'll re-qualify as Sapphire...same for AA, no matter which status you start with, you'll (re-)qualify as Sapphire...but for CX, you'll just make Ruby in all cases...in the worst case, you'll need about 50,000 more miles to reach Sapphire (and an additional 120,000 miles to reach Emerald)...

About actual award miles...since there's no elite bonus in CX's program...no matter what status you have, you get the same miles...in some cases that means you're getting only 1/4 of what someone with a similar status at AA or CP are getting...e.g. you're both Emerald's, and you're taking an economy RTW...AA and CP gives 100% elite bonus, and 100% for discounted economy...CX gives no elite bonus, and 50% for discounted economy...

In most cases, the earning potential with CX is at most 60% - 70% compared to AA and CP...and, as I said, in the worst case, you're only getting 25% of what others are getting with AA and CP...

I'd be happy to do the same analysis for BA and QF...but I need some inputs on how many status/tier points these flights would give in BA's and QF's program...I think the number of miles you get from QF is the same as CX, since there's no elite bonus (is this right ?), but maybe you can get a better status with QF than CX...for BA, since there's elite bonus (for US and Global)...the number of miles you get will depend on your status...

There's so many numbers involved...pretty tedious calculations...especially those involving status bonuses and what counts towards status and what not...so if there's anything that doesn't quite make sense to you, let me know...maybe I did something wrong with my Excel file...

Good job!

I was going to start off by saying more interesting, but not as useful, as the oneworld comparison chart. But after thinking about it, this chart is just as useful for determining which is the best program to get status, based on your travel habits. Hopefully, someone can add the BA and QF sections.

Thanks,

Ken Hamer

The big questions is: How much would an itinary like that cost!

--Jim

Here is the qantas comparison for the itinerary (hopefully no errors). The first column is discount economy, then full Y, then business, theen first (where available). Shows how stingy the qantas system is especially when you travel discount economy. Given that if you flew the whole of this in discount you do not receive enough tier credits even for ruby (9 points short). The points required for tier status are 350 for blue/ruby, 700 for silver and 1700 for gold. Also noting that 4 sectors must be on qantas planes for you to get the status.

YVR JFK 2,447 F / C / Y 8 15 30 45
JFK SCL 5,086 F / C / Y 8 15 30 45
SCL EZE 703 F / C / Y 8 15 30 45
EZE GRU 1,061 C / Y 8 15 30
GRU LAX 6,158 F / C / Y 8 15 30 45
LAX DFW 1,234 F / C / Y 8 15 30 45
DFW LHR 4,763 F / C / Y 25 50 100 150
LHR MCT 3,626 F / C / Y 25 50 100 150
MCT LHR 3,626 F / C / Y 25 50 100 150
LHR LCA 2,034 C / Y 8 15 30
LCA LHR 2,034 C / Y 8 15 30
LHR JNB 5,598 F / C / Y 25 50 100 150
JNB HRE 615 C / Y 8 15 30
HRE JNB 615 C / Y 8 15 30
JNB HKG 6,643 F / C / Y 8 15 30 45
HKG BOM 2,694 C / Y 8 15 30
BOM HKG 2,694 C / Y 8 15 30
HKG JKT 2,011 F / C / Y 8 15 30 45
JKT HKG 2,011 F / C / Y 8 15 30 45
HKG AKL 5,658 F / C / Y 25 50 100 150
AKL PER 3,337 F / C / Y 12 25 50 75
PER SYD 2,067 F / C / Y 12 25 50 75
SYD PPT 3,832 C / Y 12 25 50
PPT SYD 3,832 C / Y 12 25 50
SYD LAX 7,478 F / C / Y 40 80 160 240
LAX YVR 1,079 F / C / Y 8 15 30 45

TOTALS 341 670 1340 1855

Regards,

Mark

JIMBOLIGUY:

Earlier in the thread (in the "Buzz" forum, I think) it was stated about 12,000 Austrailian or Canadian dollars (they are roughly par.) This translates into about US$8000. But elsewhere, it was stated that a 39,000 mile, 6 continent, 15 stop trip would be about US$2400. If you did 2 of those end to end, that would just about be equivelent. (78,000 miles vs. 83,000, 30 segments vs. 26, etc.) So it sounds like you could almost do this trip for about US$5000.

Regards,

Ken Hamer

Great analysis tedhl! My brother is studying this carefully for a possible trip(s)

Tedhl - You should send your commentary findings to Cathay Pacific and remind them what a crap programme they have when compared to other oneWorld partners! Maybe they would do something about it. Yeh..like maybe laugh.

well...seems CX, QF and BA are all pretty stingy for discount economy travel...but, at least QF and BA do reward their business travelers by giving them faster track towards higher status recognition (100% and 200% status bonus for C and F)...BA Exec Club (UK) even gives 100% and 200% bonus miles for C and F...but, CX is stingy to discount economy travelers, and on the other hand not very generous towards C and F travelers (only 25% and 50% bonus, kind of the absolute minimum class-of-service bonus found in all airline programs)...

The 'old' Marco Polo Club , you got full mileage for all economy class flights, the usual 25% and 50% for Biz and First class, plus a 1,500 km bonus for every 6 sectors on Cathay Pacific. DragonAir flights are not considered for the 6 sector bonus. Every month too, there were promotions, where one could earn bonus kilometers for certain trips. SOmetimes in Biz class, sometimes in all classes or even sometimes for economy class only. Then when you reached a status elite level, you'd get a nice leather wallet to start with, booklets to advise you of special hotel deals you were entitled to, extra baggage allowance coupons and when you reached gold then, you were even given complimentary issues of OAG Executive Travel Planners. Gold members could also access the CX lounge anytime with one guest, even when not flying Cathay Pacific. So what happened?

Then they decided to relaunch "The Club". And now you have a much inferior product when compared to even other regional competitor carriers. I hope they wake up one day and smell the coffee.

I've already told them that they will lose my membership after next year. They haven't replied.

under the old system...they were more generous in giving out "bonus miles", because those were not actual miles per se...only used for determining status in The Marco Polo Club and not really award miles...now that they have Asia Miles..."miles" represent some kind of a real cost to them, so I can see why they'll be more careful in giving us bonus miles in the future...

and, in the old system, only miles were used to determine status (and F/C sectors, but not Y sectors)...so the system was much more favorable to long-haul travelers (even discounted economy) and, on the other hand, very disadvantageous to short-haul business travelers...even when they paid full-fare economy, they might find it hard to meet the mileage requirements, even for the lowest Green level...so I think the 1,600 km bonus for every 6 sectors traveled was meant to adjust for this bias...and now that they do count sectors as part of the membership qualification requirements, probably they think it's no longer necessary...

but, I agree...lounge access, OAG flight guide, etc...in these aspects the program was really much better before...

does anyone know why DragonAir flights do not count towards anything starting from February ?? is there a reason ??

Only CX can answer that!

But in the old days of CX, you can still earn real miles while still getting the status miles towards Gold or Diamond membership, but the real miles that u earn are not with CX, but other airline FFP, such as the AC Aeroplan, Passages, BA Executive Club (not too sure).

Anyway, it was quite a good deal before, but now.......... better join CP and register with a non-Asian address for full mileage on discount economy.

right...in those days you can fly CX and earn miles with AC Aeroplan - before Dec 20, 1998 (F, C, Y and even discount economy), CP Canadian Plus - on and after Dec 20, 1998, Passages (only F and C), and some other programs too (e.g. AA)...but mostly only for F and C travel...

but, the "bonus kms" that Celestar340 was talking about (1600 km for 6 sectors, and occasional bonus kms on certain flights)...only applied to the status miles you earn towards qualification with The Marco Polo Club, and did not apply to the actual miles you earn with partner frequent flyer programs...i.e. those bonuses gave you faster qualification towards higher status, but did not help in getting you faster towards free travel...

And that's precisely what I did - amass as many short sector flights as possible, where there were promotional bonuses for certain sectors as well, before the end of the old Marco Polo Club. SIN-BKK-HKG-BKK-SIN-MEL/SYD-HKG-BKK-SIN back and forth. After 31Jan99, CX converted the club kilmometers (and other bonuses) into miles. Now I only have to fly anothe 2.5K miles to retain Marco Polo Gold through to Nov 2000. I'll worry about next year's flights later!

Before oneWorld's RTW fare, there was and is the Global Explorer Fare. This fare is available in some countries which also has the oneworld fare. It goes on a maximum permitted mileage of 28,500 miles, and the fare is generally cheaper than the oneworld 4 continent fare. In some places, it's cheaper than the 3 continent fare. Interestingly enough, in UK and Australia, this fare renamed The oneWorld Global Explorer fare, and only this product is available and not both.

The interesting thing about this fare is that it includes FJ (Air Pacific), LA (LanChile) and AR (Aerolineas Argentina) in addition to the other oneWorld partners as their list of carriers which can utilise this fare.

Do we see AR, FJ and LA joining 1w soon?



[This message has been edited by Celestar340 (edited 04-29-99).]