I'm hoping to get some guidance here.

A friend has been flying QF between JFK and SYD for a while now, and dutifully accruing the miles on QF. He's at QF gold, and can make QF Plat on his flight from SYD to JFK tomorrow. Tomorrow, however, will likely be his final flight on QF for at least several years, but he'll probably have some travel on AA in the next year or so. Given AA miles are worth quite a bit more than Qantas miles, I've suggested he start accruing miles on AA instead. The one-way SYD-JFK flight (in full J) will give him close to 15,000 Q-points--more than enough to give him AA Plat till 2/2007 with the Plat Challenge. So, basically, the question is whether oneworld Emerald perks are worth enough vs. the oneworld Sapphire perks to justify the higher award costs using QF points.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
m

If he is about to attain QF Platinum on his next flight, I would recommend doing that and save doing an AA challenge until it is useful. He will have OW Emerald for the rest of his current year plus his next year and then have OW Sapphire for a year after that.

It would seem silly to me to miss out on OW Emerald when its just 1 flight away

Dave

I could not have put it better! merrickdb Dave n:-: Nobel has encapsulated it !

QF Plat will get him admission into the AA Flagship lounges for the next 2 years, even when flying AA domestically. If he routes through ORD/LAX often enough he can eat/drink thousands of dollars worth of not too shabby food.