Ok as Im in the UK I cant get this with BA, looking at AA start 1 million miles and Qantas starts 7000 points, anyone else know OW partners and how to achieve lifetime recognition?

Pros and cons of each?

thanks in advance

S

QF Life Silver isnt worth much, OTOH QF Life Gold at 14,000 has worthwhile benefits.

PS Its status credits for QF, not points - huge difference.

AA lifetime Saphire status is very easy to get without ever flying AA -- just spend USD 2 million on your credit card. A bit harder to earn flying (150 trans-Atlantic round-trips in F, or equivalent). Whilst on QF it is easy to earn flying (40 trans-Atlantic F round-trips, or equivalent, or 9 AONEx RTWs) but impossible to earn via credit card. And that is the difference in a nutshell. So you decide which you'd rather do: spend 2 million or fly 9 AONEx's.

Ah yes, easy...I'll go and do that tomorrow

Actually, after May 25th QF lifetime Gold can be achieved with 5 AONEx or 7 DONEx.

(FWIW, 28 LONEx) (FWIW #2, Total AONEx distance approx. 300,000 miles, LONEx is 1,700,000 miles)

Presumably you've worked out the optimal routing to maximize SC earning under the post-May QFF plan. Would you mind sharing that routing with us, it probably interests a few people in this thread? I'm continuing to accrue on AA instead of QF, just doing the bare minimum flights on QF. Now if QF introduced lifetime Platinum I would change in a flash.

I posted this Here.

cmb-hkg-nrt-MEL-per-MEL-per-syd-lhr-DXB-lhr-LAX-bos-dfw-anc-dfw-mia-jfk-NRT-hkg-cmb

As I am based in MEL I would break the trip there and maybe LAX then NRT. Starting at CMB as Sri Lanka has the most cost effective DONEx price for OZ residents.

Using the oneWORLD validator It's coming up as 62,891 miles.

Prior to 25th May this shows 2360 SC's for A, 1820 for D & 520 for L.

After 25th May: 3090 in A, 2060 in D and 535 in L.

(a bit optomistic for an AONEx as I am not sure F is available on all sectors.)

I could do the same route with a different origin for a LONEx. Starting in SYD (with a cheap MEL-SYD return) I would break in LAX, HKG/NRT, then again MEL

syd-lhr-DXB-lhr-LAX-bos-dfw-anc-dfw-mia-jfk-nrt-HKG-cmb-hkg-nrt-MEL-per-MEL-per-syd

Actually you would only earn 2760 SC's not 3060... CMB-HKG and NRT-MEL would earn only J-class SC's.
It is possible to earn over 3500 SC's on one AONE6 with the new earning schedule, so only 4 would be necessary for lifetime gold.

Speaking of earning towards LT Gold pre and past May, it looks like I will have two USA trips coming up, one in pre-May 25th and one post May 25th. As my company pays for discount Y fares, I will be looking to pay to upgrade at least one of these to a DCIR22 (post May will fit into 22,000 miles) or DCIR26/DONE4. I only need one in D to retain WP status this year.

Now I have to decide if I upgrade the pre-May trip which will likely cost me a ltiitle more money (since it won't fit into a DCIR22) and take less SC's/$, or do the first one in WHY (ouch since there's more flying involved) and upgrade the second and earn more SC's/$. But if the second trip is cancelled, I may not have enough to retain WP and will have missed the opportunity to earn well towards Lifetime Gold status.

Hmm, maybe I just pay the money and upgrade them both! Its a shame the A$ is so strong at the moment - it was much better for me financially when it was much lower.

True, Hence the disclaimer:

QF Life Gold - Out of curiousity, can someone summarize the benefits of QF Lifetime Gold? Or point us to some informative link?

A quick look indicates Business Lounge access before travel on the same day on eligible flights that are both marketed and operated by a oneworld alliance airline. Marketed means that there must be a oneworld alliance airline flight number on your ticket.

Which, I guess, means lifetime (of the QF OneWorld Alliance) access to business clubs worldwide if you are going to be flying OW.

Anything else significant?

Lifetime Gold gets the same benefits as any Gold member, including:

• Lounge access as you have noted
• Priority checking at business class counters regardless of class of travel
• Priority baggage handling on QF flights
• Priority boarding
• Priority seating according to FF preference
• Seating pre-allocation even if pre-allocation is closed to general passengers
• Priority waitlisting for upgrades on QF
• Enhanced award availability for economy class awards
• Priority telephone service (jump up the queue after entering FF number)
• Recognition by other OneWorld airlines as a Sapphire FF member

I am sure others will add to this list. Way better than Lifetime Silver!