Hi, I'm flashpacking around the world, doing a DONE4 starting in JNB in November. My home base is MEL.

I have always been leaning towards the PLT challenge with AA, seeming I hear a lot about how hard it is to use Qantas points, but with the new BA rules from March affecting AA it's balanced it out for me.

I might do another LONE4 after the DONE4, but I just want to get status to earn more bonus miles, I will lose it in a few years when I go back to work.

With this route, I need some advice if I should join Qantas program or AAdvantage. I have listed out the routes, status credits, actual miles, then biz class miles including any applicable status bonuses, keeping in mind Qantas not applicable for CX or JL and AA not applicable for BA or JL.

I think my calculations are correct so here we go:

jnb-hkg-del-nrt-pek-hkg-sfo-jfk-sju-dfw-sea-ord-mia-mad-ist//cai-bud-hel-lhr-mru-jnb

Congratulations!! Valid itinerary!!! - (50588 miles)
Route

• JNB-HKG 160SC 6639 miles (8299)
• HKG-DEL 80SC 2330 miles (2913) CX
• DEL-NRT 120SC 3675 miles (Reach Silver Qantas, 25% bonus) (4593) JL
• NRT-PEK 80SC 1327 miles (1659) JL
• PEK-HKG 80SC 1238 miles (1548) CX
  
• HKG-SFO 160SC 6922 miles (Reach Platinum on AA PLT challenge or Gold with Qantas if I fly MEL-SYD) (This leg 15575 miles on AA or 10383 miles on Qantas unless you instantly get 50% on qualifying flight which makes it 12114 miles)
  
• SFO-JFK-SJU-DFW-SEA-ORD-MIA-MAD 620SC 15348 miles (34533 on AA PLT or 26859 miles on Qantas Gold
  
• MAD-IST 80SC 1687 miles (Reach Platinum on Qantas) (3795 miles if instant or 2952 if not) (BA metal no bonus on AA so just 2109)
  
• CAI-BUD-HEL-LHR-MRU-JNB 11422 miles (PLT Qantas is 25700) (BA metal no bonus on AA so just 14278)

So if my calculations are correct if I go the Qantas route with instant qualifying (?) I would end up with 87,480 Qantas miles or 85,507 miles with AAdavantage.

The Qantas site says you get 5000 free miles for every 450 SC's so if that's true I would get 20,000 extra miles which would give Qantas a big lead, however apparently AA miles are more useful I believe and you don't need to use as many miles for long international trips with multi-stopovers (which I'm inclined to use my points for)

Whew! So what now?

And here is a curly one, can I nominate Qantas for my first five flights and get 520SC, then switch over to AA from HKG-MAD to get PLT, then switch back to Qantas from MAD-JNB to get another 520SC then being 75% of the way to PLT on Qantas? That crazy idea would give me 42k (+10k bonus) with Qantas and 50k with AA.

Btw I have another thread in general about my trip going on flyertalk in the oneworld section, with questions if you can help me: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=820307

Thanks in advance!

It's NOT hard to use Qantas points, it is only hard to use Qantas points on Qantas. VERY easy to use Qantas points on BA, AA, JL, CX, etc.

Dave

But the burn rate is dramatically different between QFF and AA -- the miles are worth radically different amounts. How different depends on the award you want to redeem. Occasionally QFF is cheaper (e.g. for short one-way awards -- AA has no one-ways so you pay for the RT); but for J or F awards it generally takes 2-3x as many QFF points as AA! Which is optimal really depends upon what awards you redeem. I have found QFF excellent at times -- but these times are increasingly rare, and 99% of the time AA is more valuable, and often more than 100% difference between the 2 (when including the whole earn/burn cycle, with promotions, but excluding the value of VIP on AA). So there really isn't a simple answer; but be glad of this, most of the arbitrage opportunities exist due to the quirks in the various plans. Over time they are all degrading to be equally bad -- so plan to spend your points quickly!!!!!

Which oneworld airline are you flying MRU-JNB?

Do you have to fly 4 QF segments to qualify or just to maintain?

Comair, BA subsidiary. Allowed on xONEx.

I believe it is both. So, unless the OP already has some eligible QF flights before the start of the DONE4, status will not be attained until later in the trip.

zan5hin - it seems you don't expect sufficiently large amounts of travel that makes earning in 2 programs worthwhile. Thus to me it boils down to what you would value more. A higher status with QF, or more redemption possibilities with AA.

Personally in your situation I would probably go with AA. The difference in benefits between OW sapphire and OW emerald is not that large, and if not expecting to be travelling that much in future the extra benefits of OW emerald are not worth a lot. OTOH if I could get a lot of QFF points through credit card spend, that might tip the balance. But it would need to be at least 30,000 a year to offset the worse redemption rates (+ higher "taxes") with QFF.

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