Would someone be kind enough to check the following assumptions about a AONE4 ex-CAI and the flights to get to CAI for my wife and myself.
We are planning to fly YVR-LHR-CIA in business class on BA using a RBC-BA Visa companion ticket for my wife. We will be starting in October with stopovers of a couple of days in LHR and CAI before beginning the AONE4.
(a) If I start the AA Platinum Challenge prior to traveling (Oct. 1), I assume that I get 10350 Q points for the 6900 miles (4710+2190) flown to get to CAI. So the last leg makes the Platinum, right?
(b) And is it correct that the 200% Plat bonus applies to this flight and so I would have 11363 miles at this point before starting the AONE4.
(c) Then, I assume that all subsequent flights would receive the Plat bonus through the end of 2006.
(d) Because my wife is flying YVR-LHR-CAI on an award ticket she couldn�t get any credit but if she started the Plat. Chall. on the first two AONE4 segments (CAI-LHR-CPT) it would get her to Plat. also.
(e) These initial flights would be completed in October (2005), thus I assume we both would have Plat through Feb. 2007.
I realize the q-points will be reset on Jan. 1 but after completing this RTW trip in March 2006, we plan to start another AONE4 in June 2006 and so should be able to reach Exec Plat with more than 100,000 q-points each by the end of 2006. Without bothering you with details of the itineraries, according to my calculations, we each should have more than 250K spendable miles- does this sound like a reasonable number after two AONE4s. Thanks.

a. correct
b. The bonus is 100%, not 200%, but it sounds like you have the right idea. I believe your calculations are a little off and that you should have about 10815. (4710+2190) * 1.25 + 2190 = 10815.
c. You will receive them until youre no longer platinum or executive platinum. If you don't reach a tier, you drop one each year you don't qualify. In other words, if you are platinum, you will drop the following year to gold (which has a 25% bonus), and then drop to normal the year after that. If you do qualify, you get the bonus you qualify for. Incidentally, you keep your status until March 1 so your platinum status would be good until March 1, 2007.
d. It would on the Capetown segment, yes.
e. Correct, see the end of c.
f. Yes, 250k miles sounds about right (maybe a little high) depending on your itineraries.

Don't you need at least 4 segments on AA per year to qualify for Platinum etc? Or does this not count for Challenges?

Quote: "Member must fly at least four segments on American Airlines, American Eagle or AmericanConnection to qualify for AAdvantage Executive Platinum, AAdvantage Platinum or AAdvantage Gold status within the qualifying year.", see http://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage...irements.jhtml

Doesn't count for challenges and I have never heard of it being enforced for anything else.

Thanks, Darren. My calculations (point(b)) were based on the mistaken assumption that the Platinum bonus got applied to the class-boosted miles, i.e, (4710+2190)*1.25 +(2190)*1.25= 11363. This is how I probably got to higher overall totals (point (f)) than seemed right to you because for the rest of the trip I was applying the 100% (which is what I meant not 200%, thanks) Platinum bonus to the actual miles after being boosted by 50% from first-class travel, through the rest of the AONE trips.

Yeh, the bonus is on miles flown and don't include the COS bonus. So a 5000 mile itinerary in coach would be 10000 miles (5000 + 0 + 5000) (miles + COS bonus + elite bonus), in business would be 11250 (5000 + 1250 + 5000), and in first would be 12500 (5000 + 2500 + 5000).

Just one thing you need to remember, whilst you will be travelling on an 'A' ticket, not all of your flights will offer 'A' and you will end up in 'D' on some of them - certainly the flights within Australia, and IIRC the USA-Canada flights.

The basics in terms of miles are that, as Plat (or indeed Exec Plat), if the flight is booked in 'A' you will get distance*2.5, if the flight is booked in 'D' you will get distance*2.25.

If you do all of your 2nd AONE* in 2006 you will have no problem getting Exec Plat - which gives Exec Plat untill Feb 2008, Plat until 2009...

On your routing front, have you sorted out Asia - last time I checked you had 5 segments I think? Post below if you wish.

Thanks for these clarifications. I guess I need to work through the implications of the flights in which there is not first class service. Thanks for pointing this out.

Also, nice of you to recall my previous itinerary drafts. What I have now done is dropped from AONE5 to AONE4, leaving Asia off the first trip but putting Asia and South America on the second trip. The details of the first trip are yet to be pinned down (and there is plenty of time to do that). For the record, the first AONE4 is now the following (which scans OK in the OneValidator as 52763 miles):
CAI-LHR-CPT-JNB-SYD-TSV,
CNS-DRW-PER-MEL,
SYD-JFK-YVR-DFW-SJU-DFW-SJO-DFW,
LAX-LHR-FCO-LHR-CAI
While it is only 19 segments, it has the full complement in Europe (4/4), in SWP(4/4) and in NA(6/6). Without paying extra it seems the only possibility would be to find flights from SA to another part of Africa and back, however I figure I may need the extra segment if I can't get the LHR-CPT flight when I want it and have to fly LHR-JNB-CPT instead.

It all looks legal. You will not be allowed a stopover in LHR on the CAI-LHR-CPT routing, due to the LHR-FCO-LHR at the end of the trip. Also the LAX-LHR flight will need to be AA rather than BA (at least if you want to collect AA miles). If you want to crosss the Atlantic in BA FIRST (generally regarded as a superior product) you could do it from YVR - and seeing you (seem to) live in YVR that would probably be a better idea.

The flights which offer A are CAI-LHR, LHR-CPT, JNB-SYD (I'm not sure whether A is offered only on a seasonal basis), JFK-YVR (this will be operated by CX), LAX-LHR and LHR-CAI. The North American flights you have choosen, with the exception of JFK-YVR can only book into 'D' class. This makes no difference in terms of service, but it does impact on miles a little.

By my calculations your routing will net you, asuming you start the routing as a Plat, about 127,500 AA miles and about 78,100 AA Qualifying Points. You wife will get about 2000 less of the miles, as IIRC, the flight on which you complete the Plat Challenge earns you miles as if you were Plat.

In terms of mileage running, you could, depending on season do Alaska instead of SJO or SJU, and you could have a bit of a rejig in Australia - but you're pretty well there.

One tip, if you've not been to NZ before - include it in your plan. Maybe you could do SYD-CHC, surface, AKL-MEL, MEL-CNS, surface, BNE-PER, surface, SYD-JFK. The long surface sector between PER and SYD should be done by train - one of the 'top' train trips in the world - check www.gsr.com.au

Happy Travels.

Thanks again, (Incidentally I had meant to say that the �second� trip details were open, not the first- but certainly I�m open to suggestions for the first too).

I wasn�t planning a LHR stopover on either end of the AONE4 trip because I can take LHR stopovers with no restrictions with the separate ticket of YVR to/from CAI through LHR in either direction.

Thanks for the info on A class routes (I assume that SYD-JFK is also meant to be on the list).

I thought that I had read somewhere that although there is indeed only 2 class service on the AA NA routes, that it was called economy and first. If so, would an A ticket still become a D there?

The NA segments to SJU and SJO are planned for February and so Alaska would be a big shock, temperature-wise. Although it is worth thinking about (for the glaciers, etc), I think we�ll pass that route for this trip.

Also, we appreciate the suggestions about NZ. We did spend the month of January this year in NZ�and it was great- especially enjoyed the South Island. We did it then on a C$900 RT ticket (YVR-CHC)�this trip should be very different quality-wise. I�ll give some thought to reconfiguring the AU segments- the train sounds appealing. We will be based in TSV for about six weeks starting in late November so perhaps buying some kind of train pass for trips to and from there makes sense.

Thanks for doing the calculations, they agree pretty much with what I have.

The persuasive advice from you and others on earlier drafts did cause me to focus on AA credits rather than BA and I definitely plan to go for EXP but I am still toying with the idea of getting BA Silver along the way. By my calculations, I can do so by the end of the AONE5 trip by using the six segments (CPT-JNB, SYD-TSV,LAX-LHR,LHR-FCO,FCO-LHR, and LHR-CAI)on BA which will give me exactly 600 BA points and 4 trips (the last 4) on BA metal. It also will mean flying LAX-LHR on BA which I understand is preferable.

Rechecking my calculations, based on the points/mileage credits brought out earlier in this thread, even allocating these six segments to BA, I still should be able to reach AA EXP during the second AONEx trip-- on a segment planned for Dec. 30, 2006!

Firstly, yes SYD-JFK should have been on the 'A' list.

As to AA North American routes, there is a difference between domestic US and North American routes. For domestic flights (mainland US and Hawaii) the cabins are First and Economy, for other North American flights the (identical) cabins are Business and Economy. SJO and SJU are thus 'Business and Economy'..

As to Alaska, based on current operating patterns it's a summer only route, so you wouldn't be able to do it in Feb anyway.

Moving onto trains, there are train options in Queensland, but the options and quality is nowhere near that which the Perth-Sydney route offers - which is also know for having the longest stretch of straight track in the world.

On the topic of BAEC, I'm not sure. I'm planning my own DONE4 and will credit it all to AA, for you - if you can get BA Silver in addition to AA Exec Plat it probably makes sense, otherwise probably not. You also need to bear in mind that AA will almost always give you more miles and that redemption levels are lower on AA.