Interested to know what the cheapest way anyone has come up with to cover all five carriers to get the 100K. Don't mind where in the world it originates (though my calculations seem to indicate that Asia would probably be the cheapest).

Would that be in F, J or Y class?

I thought cheapest implied coach! If I want to do F or J cheaply I would use one of my RTW trips to get the bonus (and maybe multiple ones following quebec's example). This is to see what the minimum cost I can get out of this for to secure as many of the bonuses as possible. Ultimately I will have the bonus on with AA on my next RTW trip and maybe be able to get one in on either CX or QF. But now that there are five on offer....

mgm: I, too, am looking for the cheapest method to score the 100k, but I am disappointed to see that no-one has risen to the challenge. Here's what I'm working on and with your help maybe we can do it.

I am in Boston, but this plan should work for any resident of a major city in the northeast. On the east coast, it seems the most likely combo of 5 airlines and the cheapest (or at least shortest) segments is:

AA
Canadian
British Airways
Finnair
Iberia

Since I fly AA regularly, I'm not going to worry about getting that qualifying segment, though you could integrate them into this itinerary without too much hassle. My plan was to work out an itinerary that incorporated Toronto (Canadian's hub), London (British), Helsinki (Finnair) and Madrid (Iberia). But when I called to get a fare quote on just the Euro section, I spent 20+ minutes on hold and the res agent finally said she couldn't get a quote. She gave me the locater number and suggested I call back in a few hours -- at which point the London-Helsinki-Madrid-London quote was $1800!!! When I asked what fare requirements would make the itinerary cheaper, she said she didn't know, and that I'd have to suggest a different routing! (So much for abandoning your travel agent.)

With some nosing around, I realized that I hadn't asked for any round-trips, and one-ways are usually more expensive, plus I wasn't incorporating a Sat-night stayover into two of the segments. So, my next course of action was to plot a series of round-trips (besides, there is no direct Helsinki-Madrid service).

Boston-Toronto on Canadian (and return)
Toronto-London on British (return)
London-Helsinki on Finnair (return)
London-Madrid on Iberia (return)

Because the Toronto-London segment is a Canadian/British code-share, the Boston-London portion can be bought relatively cheaply (about $450 this fall). Where I'm having trouble is getting cheap fares within Europe (not unusual). The approximately $300 round-trips to Helsinki and Madrid require Sat night stays, and I'm not sure I'll have two Saturdays to make this work. Even still, that pushes this trip to $1000 or more. I'd like to do it for less, and I'm sure it's possible.

Incidentally, the Toronto-London flight on British is a code-share with Canadian. AAdvantage tells me that this will count as my British segment, even if I buy it with a Canadian flight number, but I want to verify this. They also say the prohibition against earning AA miles on a British flight does not apply other than trans-Atlantic to/from the US.

So, suggestions as to how to snare cheapo fares (that qualify for miles) out of London?

[This message has been edited by roti (edited 09-08-1999).]

Ok -- I have been trying to figure this out also from NY. You are right, the AA is easy. I did not think about the Canadian code on British. My thoughts were going AA to London, London to Mardrid on British, return on Iberia, back on AA. Then do a Canadia trip and Cathay from JFK to Vancouver.

Total cost was around 1500. $400 on AA, $450 LHD-MAD-LHR, $200 Canadian, $450 Cathay.

I can cut about $200 off the fare if I do NYC-Toronto (Canadian), Toronto-LHR(British), LHR-Madrid (Iberia), LHR-Toronto (British), Toronto - LGA (Canadian), JFK-Vancouver (Cathay).

Thoughts?

--Jim

Why bother putting yourself on hold withan airline just to get a few fares? Go to any travel agency...and ask them. Their computers can access all the inter-european fares of the various airlines for you to get an idea on fares! They might even be able to help you get what you want...as many airlines as possible on one fare.

Just for info - Cathay fly AMS-MAN and CDG-MAN - they sort of alternate. So you can go AMS-MAN-AMS in a day.

Their web site has details of which flight operates on which days of the week. It didn't seem to expensive.

Are you able to accrue AAdvantage miles on Cathay from JFK-Vancouver?

I think that route is blocked since American can fly it.

This was the case a year ago but it might have changed.

Cathay has full Fifth Freedom rights between Vancouver and New York. The flights actually compliment AA's since Cathay's flights leave in the early morning and AA's leave Vancouver at noon.

Your choice too - AA's B757 or CX's B747-400.

Be careful with cheap-o fares, at least on Iberia and Cathay. A friend discovered her trans-Atlantic flight to Madrid doesn't count!

In order to qualify for AAdvantage credit, the fare requirements are:
Iberia Y, M, and N always; D, L, & W transatlantic only; never on B
Cathay Y, B, H in coach; J, C, D, I in business
So Roti your LHR/MAD round trip may have to cost more.

My solution is to fly BA LHR/MAD r.t. (with a Saturday stay) since "all published fares" qualify. Then in Madrid I'll fly r.t. Barcelona on the Iberia shuttle - ~$200 r.t., in class YD (seems to count).

And since all your flights are returns, be sure to look at whichever second carrier you plan to earn the bonus on. For example, BA (my 2nd) needs Y or M on Iberia, the other fare bases don't count. But BA is more forgiving on Cathay.

This will require four nights (3 in Europe and 1 in Canada) for those in the Northeast.

Cost around $1113 + (CP airfare).

Thursday morning
JFK LHR AA M fare $438.15

Friday morning
LHR MAD IB N fare $209.08
MAD AMS IB N fare $177.96

Saturday morning
AMS MAN CX K fare (more on this later) $288.32

Sunday morning
MAN LHR BA M fare (more on this later)
LHR JFK AA M fare

K fares on CX do not earn AAdvantage miles. However, I spoke with AAdvantage on two seperate occasions and was informed that you'll get credit for flying on a oneWorld carrier regardless of whether the booking code you are in earn miles as long as the flight is ticketed and operated by oneWorld carriers. As in my previous message, I'll appreciate if someone else confirms this fact.

M fare in BA is in conjunction with the AA transatlantic segment. Basically, this is an open-jaw ticket priced with the following flights:

JFK-LHR AA
MAN-LHR BA
LHR-JFK AA

MAN-LHR has to be priced as a connection with LHR-JFK in order for this work.

So, AA, BA, CX, IB will net 4. You can take a side trip to Canada on CP at your leisure.

Note: This itinerary involves throwing away the tickets for three segments since both IB segments and the CX segments are priced as RT.

[This message has been edited by seawolf (edited 09-21-1999).]

[This message has been edited by seawolf (edited 09-21-1999).]

seawolf, you are throwing away very valuable tickets. Try to use them, and earn a 2nd 100k bonus on another airline.

UserMark,

Thank you very much. You're right. The marginal cost of earning the 2nd 100k is very small especially small. it's now sweeter with BA's fare sale to LHR.

What is best strategy of posting miles to two different airline's frequent flyer accounts? Do I just tell them to change it on my second flights?

Thanks.

This one should work and no unused tickets. However, you'll need a side flight in CP. Plus a non-transatlantic AA (if you want 100K in BA as well).

JFK LHR AA M-fare
LHR MAN BA M-fare
MAN AMS CX Y-fare
AMS BCN IB M-fare
<Spend night at BCN

BCN AMS IB M-fare
<Spend night at AMS>

AMS MAN CX Y-fare
MAN LHR BA M-fare
LHR JFK AA M-fare

Itineraries:
JFK-LHR
LHR-MAN
MAN-LHR
LHR-JFK
$369.49

(2,500 European Bonus miles)
(Could earn 5,000 bonus miles if LGA-ORD-MAN and back but the $300-$400 fares are gone.)

MAN-AMS
AMS-MAN
$333.46

(Miles in both AA and BA cuz the only fare available is that and it is a Y excursion.)

AMS-BCN
BCN-AMS
$213.85

2 nights lodging at $150 each = $300

$916.8 + $300 + CP side-trip + AA side-trip (if you want 100K in BA as well.)

Should probably do CP and AA side-trips during one weekend to save on lodging.

[This message has been edited by seawolf (edited 09-23-1999).]

You could in theory try to change your FF number on every flight, but they'd probably screw it up, so just don't give a number initially and mail it in later.

As for the extra AA leg, you should be able to do JFK-LHR via BOS or MIA for no extra charge.

or your CP flight to YYZ or YUL via BOS.

jl