USA-Africa on BA...which ff program?
 

Sorry about another "which program" post, but I am very confused. I am a Star Alliance Elite, but will be travelling to Africa over Christmas with the family on BA, and I am very confused about which FF program is best to join. No one in my family has miles in any OneWorld program, so that doesn't matter. 4 of us are going BOS-LHR-NBO then DAR-LHR-BOS in WT. I thought the best option was a household account with BA, but I just read I will only get 25% of my miles on a discounted coach ticket. So, I really do not care about status, I just want to get these miles somewhere that I can eventually use them, which program? Does any other airline in OneWorld make sense? Thanks!

On discounted coach you can't even join the BAEC, so that option's out.

AA will indeed give you 25% miles on discount Y. Asiamiles (CX) will give you 50% miles in most discount Y buckets (down to R) so that might be a better choice; Asiamiles are slower-earning than some programs but have better award features on some itineraries than some other plans. If your other travel takes you to Asia that might be worth looking into.

thanks for the quick reply...I was under the impression that I could not earn any AA miles on the TA segment, thus taking AA out of the running. Any other ideas or maybe an obscure program?

That's right; I blanked on the fact that you're originating in the US.

By any chance did you price out the flights using AA to LHR then the AA codeshare nos. on the BA flights to/from DAR/NBO? If you did that, you'd get 100% miles, you could sign up for the Plat challenge (all travelers) and most likely (assuming "L" fare bucket both ways, which is typical) make Plat status on the NBO-LHR leg, and Plat bonus (100% miles) on the whole return journey. Back of the envelope calc is around 23K usable miles from the trip (plus Plat status.) Check out the threads on the Platinum challenge on the AA board.

It depends on the exact fare class, but presuming you bought the cheapest ticket you could find and BA was offering the deep discount fares for Christmas (they don't to CPT but might to NBO), no plan will give you more than 50% miles and most are 25% ... so it isn't a lot of miles to fuss over. Booking an AA codeshare typically doubles the fare, but gets you 100% miles (so you decide if it is worth the cost). Similarly on BA booking WT+ (their premium economy) would get you a bigger seat as well as 110% miles (also lets you join BAEC as that is a qualifying fare). The pricing for WT+ varies widely with route and season (but typically not cheap around Christmas!).

All of the OW FF plans are distinguishing between deep discounted and not so deep discounted fares now, not that much difference in shopping around. BAEC not even letting you join with a discounted fare (even an expensive one!) clearly indicates what BA wants from its FF program.

I assumed that as well but when I checked the OP's itinerary (using arbitrary Dec/Jan dates) the prices came back identical. Of course it might have been quite different a month ago or will be a month from now.

Interesting. I don't check AA codeshare prices very often, but all the ones that I've seen were at least 20% higher than the non-codeshare, and often much higher. Good to know that sometimes they are matching prices. I had always presumed that most of these codeshares existed to fill the needs of US govt contracts which require flying a US flag carrier whenever it serves a particular route -- even if the price is higher. Giving little incentive to match prices for codeshares. Apparently on some routes there is more to it than that.

Are you sure about this? Does a codeshare always mean that the rules of the airline have the codeshare flight # and not the operating airline apply for mileage purposes? Is this only for AA or is industry wide? Sorry to ask keep getting conflicting replies and so link to a reliable source would be appreciated.

Yes, the whole point of a codeshare is that it becomes part of the rules of the selling airline. A codeshare really is like a virtual airplane. So for FF earning it is the rules of that airline (AA in this example). The operating airline is irrelevant for the FF plan. All codeshares work this way, but some airlines include special rules in their FF plans to cover codeshares (often to control how status miles are earned). In the case of Oneworld this has been unified, all OW FF plans will earn status on codeshares on flights operated by other OW airlines (subject to the fare rules). I've not seen any FF plans which don't credit fully for codeshare flights in terms of miles earned (it is only status that doesn't always accrue).

As for a link, it is in the rules of each and every FF plan. So you have to look each one up individually; but I know this is one of the rare areas where Oneworld has OneVoice.

I thought AsiaMiles expire after 3 years no matter what (can be renewed for a fee). If I'm not mistaken, you should take that into account.

Also, you could earn AA miles on the BA flight if you route through Canada. Just a thought.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I assume that this is not an industry wide standard. So if a QF FF flies on an AA codeshare on a BA flight would he/she earn miles per AA rules? Also any idea if UA follows the same ? Thanks.

No, by QFF rules for an AA flight (presuming by QF FF you mean crediting that flight to the QF FF plan). Making the codeshare as if it were an AA plane, and not BA. So if that fare class earns 100% on AA and 25% on BA, the flight would earn 4x as much if booking the AA codeshare than the BA flight number ... despite being on the same flight.

Every airline that I have seen has this same rule, but some limit how status miles are accrued on codeshares, or require the base metal for the codeshare to belong to a certain set of airlines. Rules are different for each plan. UA is similar but I don't know the nuances, I avoid UA like the plague for various reasons, one of the few airlines that I find unacceptable and use only in emergencies.

While that may be true for normal miles, it is certainly not the case for all bonuses. For an obvious example, the DBL06 bonus that was recently available (for travel through mid-Nov) as part of the AA 25th Anniv Celeb gives you double miles ONLY on AA metal flights.

Since it's past the DBL06 booking window by now, though, it doesn't matter for the OP's particular situation, tho.

Also, to me the "FF plan" includes the concept of upgrades, and certainly AA mileage upgrades are NOT available on LAX-SYD codeshares with QF and such! (I'd be flying to Australia in an instant if they were.) So the operating airline is quite relevant for other parts of the FF plan other than straight earning.