easiest OW status? ...
 

assmuing that i will NOT be loyal to that single airline and use miles from partners mostly.

i know on *A its BMI, but i don't know for OW.

thanks for any info on this.

Depends on what status you want, and your flying pattern.

AAdvantage Plat or Gold challenge are easily completed.

for OW...my gf would mostly fly in europe, asia, and south america. nothing in north america really....i'm gold for life with aa...but my gf flies allot with me and often meets me in places. so its nice when she flies alone that she can skip the economy lines.

The easiest status is on QF if you fly in F/J, and on AA for discount economy. Several of the OW airlines (QF, BA) greatly differentiate in status earning between premium and discounted fares (an order of magnitude), while the mileage-based status earning airlines only have a factor of 1.5 instead of 10x. The other wrinkle in OW is that a mile on one airline is often worth 2 or 3 miles on another airline, it all depends on your earn and burn patterns. If you are looking to optimize things, you got to do the math for your own situation (and it does come down to fare codes). If in doubt, AA is the best. OW doesn't have any airline as desperate as BMI, so no such sweet deal in OW as in Star.

Agree with no6 AA is the best. Sounds like your GF friend fly's Y so QF would be no good. If she did fly Trans-Atlantic she would have to fly AA not BA.

CX is also pretty generous in discount economy if you read their earning tables. In fact many fares (except on BA and QF & IB - although they are more generous with BA than other OW airlines are with BA) earn 100%.

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_.../terms#earning

BD is only easy in that they readily comp. In terms of actual earning, BD became far less generous last year when they 'enhanced' their programme and many discounted Y fares only earn 25% or 50% some even 0%! Having said that, if your flying J or F they are still a programme of choice especially if you are UK based and can get hold of their credit card (with it's 20K sign up bonus). If your down the back, your better off crediting to either UA, US or AC. Even LH is much better to credit to if your in discounted coach. LH's biggest issue is that you have to earn more miles to gain the same level of status, but their status does last 2 years so it evens out in the end.

Hmm...CX is most generous to AA EI and LA. It must just be a coincidence they don't fly to HKG.

If you're a big spender, then AA lifetime status (1 million for gold, 2 million for platinum) is easiest since all miles earned count, not just flying ones. (Note annual status is only based on flying miles.)

Remember on AA, you have to fly at least 4 segs a year on their flight number in order to maintain status. You don't have to to if you're lifetime member (ie Gold or Plat). But ordinarily you do. So you must remember that.

It says you have to but the rule is not enforced. Similar rule applies to QF but again not enforced....

I would add if you flew F/J/(Y) and your BA account showed you're based in Barcelona, then BA Ex.Club would be the easiest.

Just remember that BAEC does enforce the 4 flights on BA rule, also that you cannot even join BAEC now until you fly a full-fare flight (non-discount Y, or any J or F). BAEC offers status at half price for non-UK European addresses (addresses outside Europe do not qualify for this offer).

And Ireland is also not counted as Europe within the BAEC programme! :D

True, I forgot.
BTW, would codeshares count?

I believe so.

Possibly, but I wouldn't want to bet money on it.

AFAIK the only condition is that the BA flight earns tier points.

Codeshares definitely count as long as it is on Oneworld metal. But most BA codeshares can only be purchased in conjunction with a BA metal segment (so you have at least 2 BA metal flights, no matter what, though this is hardly a hardship for someone in Europe).

Update
 

It seems not, I just found this (emphasis is mine):

It seems however (based on anecodate evidence supplied within the BA forum) that codeshares get counted by the system as being equivalent to metal so as long as you fly 4 BA coded flights you should be ok. Having said that I am no expert in the programme so don't take this as gospel.

AC is actually easiest by using miles as the yard stick.

Depending on your location - if you are EU and you manage to get some nice cheap F flights, you wil be able to get OW saphire quite easy. You would have to pay a bit more for some flights (world traveller plus) but they have benefits of their own.

It is worth calculating it. Also you might consider to get 'easy' status with BA for lounge access and check in and then use this the year to build up status on aa.

due to the travel pattern I would also look at how much miles you can earn.