Maximizing AA miles on ONE RTW fare (starting in Australia)
 

Hello everyone... recent addict to these forums posting for the first time.

I'm an American living in Australia.

I'm about to book a ONE RTW fare starting in Australia, through the US and on to Europe for conferences before ultimately returning to Australia.

My goal is to maximize accrual of AA FF miles, and do the platinum challenge during this trip.

I've been speaking to an agent here in Australia, who has informed me that I should be able to book on all AA coded flights regardless of the hardware (subject to availability of course). This is important to me of course since the trans-pacific and trans-atlantic flights are going to be my biggest segments. Since I'll definitely be flying Qantas hardware from SYD-LAX it's important to me to get the full miles for that flight. To my knowledge, ONE fares are supposed to be booked in "L" class on all carriers. An L fare on QF will get me 50% miles, but an L flight on AA codeshare will get me 100% (my interpretation).

Has anyone been in this situation before? I've read the FAQs and my interpretation of this would seem to indicate that it shouldn't be a problem, but I'd be thankful for any experiences or warnings from other flyers.

It would have no problem doing that method to get AA Platinum status. If you want to improve your miles , I would suggest booking BA WT+ back to Australia since (a) it is a lot more comfortable and (b) earns 100% plus 10% class of service bonus rather than 50% earned by QF and 25% earned by BA

Dave

I'm thinking of turning my next US trip into a RTW, so please do keep us posted as to how your planning and trip goes, and the ticketing you end up arranging.
And.... Welcome to FlyerTalk :)

Thanks for the advice Dave.

I don't know much about BA WT+ fares, other than that they're more comfortable. I remember reading that I can upgrade those BA segments on a ONE fare for a small fee... it would certainly be worth it to me since I'm 6'2" and 110kg. I was really planning on dodging all BA coded flights because of the crappy 25% accrual policy. Is there written documentation somewhere about WT+ getting you 100% miles?

Cheers.

Yeah. The AA site lists T and W as being 100% plus 10% miles and 150% qpoint earning

It costs $600 on top of the LONE fare for all flights other than UK-Australia (or v/v) which is $900

BA WT+ has slightly wider seats , proper armrests plus 38" pitch. It is somewhat akin to QFs domestic business class spacewise I would say . The meals et al are still economy, but you do get served 1st

Dave

If you are having trouble getting the AA code share on the QF flights transPacific consider going through Asia and using AA from NRT to the USA. Then invoking the "no-stopover" rules for travel back to Oz. Besides if you're in the eastern states it's more miles.

ie SWP-SEAsia-NA-(optSA)-Europe-SWP

You'll probably need the AA code shares or the Asia AA flights to convince AA to issue the ticket - which will save you "tax" dollars.

Happy wandering

Fred

Dave... I'd definitely love the extra room (and I read they have powerports in WT+) but if I end up paying for the upgrade out of my own pocket I may have to think twice. I'll have to have a chat with the agent and see what flights are available. I've got flexibility on the Asian legs of my trip since the conferences are over and done with by then.

Fred... I'd certainly be willing to fly through Japan, but as I am flying to the eastern states, I should make 10k miles by the time I hit my US destination. I didn't quite understand your comment about "tax" dollars?

wandering_fred means that if you get AA to issue your ticket the cost will be significantly less, because AA imposes lower fuel surcharges than the rest (base fare is the same for all).

Thanks for the advice guys... right now here's what I'm considering:

ADL-SYD-LAX[STOP]-ORD[STOP]-PIT[STOP]-ORD-PHL[STOP]-ORD-LON-CPH

I've got plans to stop in LA, Chicago, and Pittsburgh before going on to my first conference in Philadelphia

After my conference wraps up in Copenhagen... I'm completely flexible on my route back to Australia. Any suggestions?

I should have AA Plat status by the time I hit London... maybe before if I work an extra leg in there somewhere (thinking about going through Japan or NZ on my way to LAX). I'll be taking an AA or AA codeshare flight from ORD-LON to make sure I get my miles.

On going process... probably won't be booking until April... but I'm trying to plan the ideal route with a couple of backups. Any advice or thoughts are welcome.

Your best bet would be to do something like ADL-HKG-NRT-LAX-ORD-PIT-DFW-PHL-MIA-LAX-LHR-CPH-LHR-DXB-LHR-FRA-SYD-ADL-PER-ADL

Lots of other variations, but that should give you some ideas about the possibilities.

The ADL-PER-ADL can be done any time up to 12 months after the first flight. This gives you a flight to PER (or somewhere else in Oz) for a little extra $ for charges-taxs. The base LONE4 fare is the same

Is it possible to book a 1W RTW using AA codeshare? I was under the impression that a 1W RTW using AA won't give much miles.

1. Any AA codeshare on OW metal can be used with a OW RTW.

2. You were misinformed.

More importantly it earns 1.5 EQMs! ;)

Gladly stand corrected. So I assume that in order to get the AA flight# one would have to book in advance a codeshare has only a few seats allocated.