I moved to the US from the UK a couple of years ago. I have BA Gold status (OW Emerald) and asked AA if I could switch to their program. They told me do 10k miles in 3 months & they'd give me AA EXP. Nearly there. Today though they told me that was a mistake, & they don't do status match or challenges for EXP only Platinum.

I have a OWE FC trip in Dec Jan & if I booked the flights to my BA Gold it would renew. If I use the AA card it won't get me EXP but could probably (maybe) get this later in the year... but meanwhile my BA Gold will drop to Silver.

Question is: is it worth going for it with AA to get EXP and losing BA Gold, or should I just keep Gold. Anyone have expeience of both programs? Which is better. Should I switch (the hard way) or stay (the easy way)?

I suggest maintaining your BA staus (at least to Silver) which gives you access to the Admiral's Club lounges in the US when flying domestic services. AA EXP does not get you into the AC lounges when flying AA domestic services.

Also, isn't the BA EC more generous to US residents than UK residents. You can use miles for upgrades on BA trans-Atlantic services originating in the US.

Personally, I would keep the BA Gold. It is easy to maintain if you do premium travel and also gives access to AA Flagship/Admirals Club lounges even when travelling domestically in the US. The main benefit that the AA scheme would give you would be the ability to upgrade on domestic services which you could do with Gold / platinum status on AA. On your OW 1st ticket, you should be able to retain Gold with BA plus get 6667 miles of flights to credit to AA and get Platinum via their challenge.

Dave

Try to keep your BA Gold since it gives you access to AA lounges on domestic flights. And if you fly premium classes on BA then their program is pretty generous. Also, don't forget that every AA segment under 1000 miles in C/A gives you 45 points towards your BA status, so you can requalify really fast.

I agree with the above posts and their suggestions.

Reading your original question there seems to be two points where you might be incorrectly informed.

In order to get Platinum through what they call "challenge" AA requires you to accrue 10.000 Q-points or 10.000 non-cheapo miles.

What is this ?

A mile flown in a deep-discount fare yields usually 0,5 point. If it's Y fare it yields 1 point J fare-1,25 points and F 1,5 points. In fact regardless of what you fly your AA account has got to accrue 10.000 Q-points. You can check through the Internet how many you already have.

For short segments, regardless of fare it'll yield at least 500 points.

I'm also under the impression that you'd have 6 months to complete the so-called challenge. Please check.

[This message has been edited by pb9997 (edited 09-28-2002).]

AFAIK, challenges are for 3 months only. 5,000 points for Gold and 10,000 for Platinum, unless something has changed drastically.

Spider,

You're correct !

Probably it was too early in the morning when I wrote that post ...

Thanks everyone. I was leaning towards the BA Gold anyway - not going to live in the US forever. The challenge is really easy so I'll get the Platinum (thx for the advice on domestic upgrades), but then start loading onto BA. Apart from the 100 hour upgrades, is EXP actually any better than Platinum? If you have the BA Gold you get lounge access anyway.

You would get 8 * 1 way upgrades valid internationally and the price to purchase domestic upgrades is slightly less than for platinums. If your travel is going to be in 1st class , I would suggest keeping your BA account based in the UK for a while and getting the 3x mileage for flights and transfer it across to the US when you are wanting to use the points since the redemption costs are lower in the US ( e.g. US - Australia in 1st for 125,000 pts ).

Dave

Actually, if the current system holds (a big "if" these days ), you get 16 VIPOWs for qualifying once for EXP- 8 for the year in which you qualify and 8 more at the start of the next membership year (the following February).

I would recommend that the original poster check out FewMiles site for info on the VIPOWs and other aspects of the AA program- www.fewmiles.net

I switched my membership 2 years ago. Its actually a pretty good way of keeping Gold status: you can switch every six months, but when you do switch, your membership year restarts. Anyone ever try this several years in a row? I switched in 2000 but as a result my year only reset in 2002.

You get a better tier bonus in the NA Gold program (100%). This works out better than the UK program for most classes. In first you get 50% cabin bonus plus 100% tier bonus so you're not far off the triple you'd get in the UK program anyway. In all other classes you're ahead if your in NA.