Overview of Oneworld Emerald Status
 

BlondeBomber has done a great job with his Star Alliance Comparison Chart. In the past there had been a similar comparison with the oneworld airlines, but I did not find it anymore in the web. So I have done - also as a result of my Star Silver overview - a comparison of the oneworld FFP programs.

It took a couple of days and the highest tier (Emerald) is now completed and I have uploaded the chart on my homepage (Click here).

The layout it similar to the one BlondeBomber uses in his chart, but I have changed a few things, since the FFP's of OneWorld and StarAlliance differ in some points (e.g. no luggage benefits as part of status on all airlines etc).

If you have any suggestion or if you find anything wrong, feel free to post is. I am looking especially for data on Malev and Royal Jordanian, since the information available on their webpages are not the most informative ones. But any form of feedback is highly appreciated since I am only Blue with BA.

I am also open for suggestion of points I should change or highlight in the overview.

I hope to finish the overview of Sapphire and Ruby in the next days.

Thanks FLYGVA ^

yhpm about QF

Couple of things on BA:

A gold travelling Club earn 200% miles (50% tier bonus, 50% cos), and 250% in F. The SWU at 2500 is the equivilent of 4 AA SWU's, allowing you and a companion to be upgrade round trip.

I have changed the wording on the page to make the round trip and the +1 person clearer.

Thanks. This is a good start. There are a few things I noticed:
* The COS bonuses in the first two rows are bonuses plus base miles.
* CX requires 4 Club Sectors to requalify Green, but nothing to requalify Silver, Gold and Diamond. Notes:
- Club Sectors can be on any qualified OW, not just CX/KA, marketed and operated flights (multiplied by whatever the factor is for the corresponding booking class/airline).
- It is impossible to have lower than four Club Sectors to get to any elite level anyway.
* CX upgrade - the range is for one-way upgrade only.
* AA lounge access (it is not just Admirals Club, and there are additional flight qualifications for lounge access) - probably too complicated to be put in a box.
* CX lounge access - Business lounge on non-OW airlines, F lounge for OW airlines.
* AA membership year - It is from the qualification/requalification point to Feb 28/29 the year after next.
* CX - will expire regardless of activity 36-48 months (to the end of month of the Asia Miles anniversary that year).

Also on CX you can't go straight from nothing to Diamond/Emerald for 120K/80seg. You need to work your way up through the other tiers, meaning a minimum of 210K/140segs.

Great comparison chart FLYGVA, thanks.

One note, QF are enforcing the 4 QF flights rule now, otherwise you lose status.

AA
I thought EXPs don't earn 500 mile upgrades? They don't need them, unless they lose EXP.

You and all others are right, this is not clear. I will change is to clarify is. Not sure in the moment, if I will write down only the bonus or the earning all together.
Well, I summed this up, i.e. meaning you have to have four flights on CX. The "4 CX / DA flights" should indicate this.

All miles in this sector should be for one way / one class upgrade. This sometimes mean only from Economy to Premium Economy. I will consider to clarify this in the first column.

If I understand the rules, you have fo fly international to get into an Admirals Club in the US. Does this mean, you can access any other OW lounge in the US with AA Executive Platinum without an international flight (if possible to get to the location?

I will clarify this, thanks ^

Okay, I will update this, too.

Many thanks for your feedback and input.

Thanks, I will update this.

A general comment about the updates, I will try to update as soon as possible, which will take a couple of hours, since I sometiems have a regular job to do.

Hm, I think after rereading the t&c some more times, you might be right. It seems, that I misunderstand it. It seems you can upgrade yourself and a companion for or less for free. I had the impression, you need the certs to upgrade your companion.

I would like to express my appreciation. It is really nice for you to put this comparison chart together.

Dragonair is actually KA (not DA), but Club Sectors are not necessarily on CX/KA. We can earn Club Sectors on other OneWorld flights. (In other words, it does not matter. It is impossble to get to or maintain the Diamond level with fewer than four qualified OW flights anyway.)

An AA EXP must fly "international" (as defined by AA) to have lounge access. When flying international, AA EXPs can access any OW first or business lounges, including Flagship lounges and Admirals Clubs.

Thanks FLYGVA, great work!

Here a few things to add to QF:

QF uses Points, not miles (for upgrades etc).
QF Platinums have access to QF J lounges (intl) and QF Pubs (dom) even when not flying QF or OW.
QF Platinums can request J award seats for domestic flights.

BA Gold also get J lounge access when flying non-OW airlines, but only BA branded lounges, not third party. BA/QF joint lounges are a grey area.

For Others:
CX: Extra baggage 20kg or 1PC
JL: Extra baggage 20kg or 2PC

Upgrade dometic:
JL: 14 certs(Diamond)/10 certs(JGC) (applicable for domestic J only, not for domestic F)
(Until 31.Mar.2009)

Upgrade international
JL: 4SWU(Diamond)/3SWU(JGC)
(Until 31 Mar.2009)

After 1.Apr.2009
Common upgrade points for domestic/international
Base 40 pts(Diamond)/30 pts(JGC)
2 pts per every 10kFOP over 100kFOP(Diamond)/80kFOP(JGC)
ex.
2 pts required for domestic upgrade for one segment (J only, not for F)
12 pts required for longhaul international(N.A/S.A/Europe) upgrade for one segment

FWIW, QF/BA lounges seem to allow both QFWPs and BAGolds when not travelling on OW carriers.

EXP upgrade benefit on flights in NA/CA allows the EXP to upgrade for free, not the companion. For purposes of upgrade priority if the companion is on the same PNR or linked to the EXP's PNR then the companion's priority for being upgrade is elevated to that of the EXP with whom they are traveling.

Additional information on upgrades, but note these are general rules for 500 mile upgrades and is not an EXP benefit so probably does not need to be detailed in your spreadsheet for that reason and since it is rather wordy. The companion can upgrade using 500 mile certs which can be taken from either the companion's upgrade account or from the friends account with whom they are traveling. 500 mile upgrade certs can be purchased with cash by any traveler at a price of $30 per certificate if purchased in advance, or $35 if purchased at time of travel at the airport; or with miles by any AAdvantage member at a price of 35000 miles for 8 500 mile upgrade certficates. Also, Gold and Plat AAdvantage members earn 4 500 mile upgrades for every 10000 miles flown.

I hopefully have updated the most of the points.

Most important, I have changed the COS bonus for Business and First Class to the real meaning of the word "Bonus", so only the additional miles / points / km and not the whole amount one earns. I hopefully have calculated it corretc.

I have also mentioned the lounge access for non OW flights.

The change in the earning of SWU on JAL starting next year is below the overview with a mark.

Great chart FLYGVA, a very useful reference source ^

A couple of things to adjust on the Other section of the QF bit :-

a) You have written "Gold card for partner @ 2100 TP", but it should be '2100 SC' of course !

b) Re. "request J seat for dom flights", in the case of award inventory you can as a WP (as a Platinum) actually request international J award seats as well (as can QF Golds, btw, I understand) - if no seats available on a flight a WP speaks to QF Premium and they put in a request for a J seat. System sometimes gives an immediate yes, and if it does not they then put in a request which is evaluated somewhere and a decision is made within a day or two. You can request once per flight, but can request it for as many flights as you like. (And in my experience if all this does not work they will put in an F seat request then too). You however cannot request a Y seat if one has not been released into award inventory.

Oh, and as a WP you get an additional 15kg luggage allowance (but only on QF) on international flights (or 1 more bag on flights to and from USA), and two more bags on Australian domestic flights.

QF's own status comparison chart on this btw is here - http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/...atusPrivileges, and BAs list of Gold benefits is here http://www.britishairways.com/travel...d/public/en_gb if anyone wants full specifcs on these particular progs.

.

Oh, and another big issue that is worthy of mention for each airline : soft or hard landing.

If you don't step on a flight after qualifying for WP, QF give you a status soft landing (assuming they don't comp. you the status, which they sometimes do !), dropping you one level a year - so from earning WP it will be at least 3 years before you are a bronze again, with a year as Gold and then one as Silver in between.

Other OW carriers (AA ? Little idea personally about others !) I understand will drop you straight from top-tier to bottom-tier.

Very useful info for e.g. for a person who may have one big flying year but know that in subsequent years they won't be flying much, and wants to maximise status from this big year and wants to pick the right prog. to join accordingly.

Good point. AA also has a soft landing policy.

Thansk.
I wrote
"2 pts required for domestic upgrade for one segment (J only, not for F) 12 pts required for longhaul international(N.A/S.A/Europe) upgrade for one segment"
as reference for new structure. These are common to all tiers.
So, we need better description than I wrote.

By the way, extra baggage allowance for CX/KA and JL are reversed.
CX 20kg/1PC
JL 20kg/2PC



Thanks.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320) Opera 8.60 [en])

To mention a soft landing seems a good idea.

I will update this and the rest later today.

Thank you for the input.

American Airlines
AAdvanteage Executive Platinum

Paid Business COS Bonus
25%

Miles / KM / points need for status [Year / 12 Month] and Miles / KM / Points need for requalification
100K Mls, 100K Pts, or 100 Seg

BA offers soft landing..and may also offer a free extension of status to really valuable customers (i.e. miss Gold renewal but get another year anyhow).

Do you want to mention extensions of top tier status i.e Concierge Key and Gold Guest List?

On soft landing my experience is that both AA and CX soft land, but my impression is that at AA it is more or less policy whereas at CX it is more case by case.

I have updated the overview.

A question concerning the soft landing: Is this guaranteed like e.g. Lufthansa, who published the soft landing or is this somehow on a goodwill base of the airlines?

Regarding JAL, I have summarised the "Introduction of new Upgrade Points system" section on the homepage.

In the moment I would mention this only in the "others" section. I will see, what's the best way to work this into the chart.

Great point... At AA there's nothing official about soft landing, meaning no guarantee it'll be there next January.

Cheers.

QF soft landing is official, but the extension of status on case by case basis is an unofficial benefit.
QF also has a higher invitation tier, Chairman's Lounge, which is also OW emerald.

Yep, and if you are going to have a section on this VIP status FLYGVA (that is to do with you being a CIP !:) / controller of big firm travel budget etc, etc]) - that is offered beyond regular, earned Emerald - it is important to differentiate between what can be earned and what can't/what is given.

Gold Guest List (on BA) is a part of Gold status, that is earned once you pass a certain number of TPs - 3,000+ ? - that BA say in the invite letters is an "exclusive service designed for our highest value Gold Executive Club members". (QF equiv. is that Partner Gold benefit after 2,100 SCs that you already have in the chart)...

BA also however have a VIP status that is given to those it deems worthy of it, but that cannot be earned via TPs/by a set amount of flying - BA Premier.

QF's equiv., as KF posted, is CL - both get lots of benefits, inc. access to (BA) Concorde and (QF) CL lounges even when flying in Y. (QF also tend not to leave CLs in Y, even if they have only paid a cheap Y fare, and think BA have a similar approach/policy for its Premiers).

If what I have read on the AA board is correct, the nearest equiv. in AA is Concierge Key - again its a VIP not a fly-a-lot status. (Does AA have a special lounge for them, and does it get you into Concorde and CL lounges when flying BA and QF ? I myself don't know).

Guessing some or all of the other OW carriers must have equivs. too.
.

Life Status
 

Another thought... Though it could be argued that Life Status does not directly relate to Emerald status, it does relate to what happens after having Emerald for a few years - maybe thus have a comment or section on that too FLYGVA ? If I was a person looking at the chart deciding which prog. to attempt to get Emerald in, knowing which prog. gets me Life status (of what ever type/level) after a few years of Emerald status and which ones don't would be very useful information.

And it certainly is worth mentioning if any OW carriers give you Emerald for life - AA and QF for e.g. only offer OW Sapphire equiv. Life status (AA Life Platinum / QF Life Gold) : do any OW carriers offer an option of earning Emerald for life I wonder ? (Maybe OW rules don't let any of the airlines do it !)

(You regretting taking on this project yet FLYGVA ?!? ;) ).

Great work!
Although I generally do not fly AY, I have to comment. First of all, it is called Platinum, not Diamond. You get 12 complimentary upgrades intra-Europe, or 4 Intercontinental upgrades, etc etc. There is quite a lot of information on their webpage. Have a look!

That's a good point. I will see, how I can get this into the chart the best way. In the moment I think about a line with liftetime neede miles and lifetime status.

Well, not yet - ask me in a month again :D

Thanks, off course you're right.

I have looked into it and noticed, that I put this information in the wrong chart (and ask myself why I did not notice it earlier). I try to add / change this information as soon as possible.

Nice work Flygva.

Would just change the QF upgrade explanations:

Upgrade Domestic: unconfirmed STANDBY only, miles only, requires high fare-class, about 12000 dep on dist

Upgrade International: unconfirmed STANDBY only, miles only, about 56000 dep on dist


QF upgrades are all standby (pls don't use QF's weasel-words "on departure"). They are also very expensive eg to standby for an upgrade each way LHR-SIN-LHR would cost 112,000 miles, more than the J-award-for the route on most FF programs.

QF miles for one-way upgrade
zone 1 to 600mi 8,000
zone 2 to 1200mi 12,000
zone 3 to 2400mi 16,000 eg SYD-PER
zone 4 to 3600mi 24,000
zone 5 to 4800mi 40,000
zone 6 to 5800mi 48,000
zone 7 to 7000mi 56,000 eg LHR-SIN
zone 8 to 8400mi 72,000 eg SYD-LAX
zone 9 to 9600mi 80,000
zone 10 any 96,000

Good idea. In QF its based on Life SCs : 7,000 for Life Silver (OW Ruby), 14,000 for Life Gold (OW Sapphire).

And you could even list it if you like (the nature of the chart as it is) specifically related to Emerald earning levels : e.g. in QF it will take an absolute maximum of 5 2/3 years of Emerald status to earn Life Silver and 11 1/2 years to earn Life Gold. (Life Silver : 1400 to earn in first year, plus 4 2/3 years re-earning at exactly the 1200 required = 7,100 SCs; Life Gold : 1400 to earn in first year, plus 10 1/2 years re-earning at exactly the 1200 required = exactly the 14,000 SCs needed).

If Life Status is earned much quicker/easier or longer/harder in other progs. (i.e. when judged by how many years of minimum Emerald earn and rearn it would take to achieve it) that would be great to be able to see clearly in such a chart.

Uber J and F flyers of course will earn Life Status in just a year or two, no matter which of the progs. they are in !

^:D Keep up the good work !

Those are not maximum times to earn lifetime status for QF emeralds. Many people get comped requalification. Further Chairman's Lounge pax are also QF emerald and may not fly at all.

Sure, but I'm sure you see the point I was making KF : how long does it take a flyer who each year earns Emerald, and who isn't ever going to be given CL etc, to earn Life Status ? If the answer is very different on different OW carriers, then being able to compare in such a chart would be most useful.

The bit I wrote just gives a guide to how long it can take in QF, using the longest way (a person earning Emerald each year) can get there as a marker - how does the equiv. 'longest way' compare on AA for e.g. ? (I.e. if a person in the AA scheme re-earns EXP each year by reaching exactly the miles etc needed to do so, how many years will it take them to get to Life status ?)

Seems to me the obvious way to compare, and links the comparison with the Emerald nature of the chart.

Though working this all out may just be too complicated/not worth the time - but that's for FLYGVA to decide I guess ! ;)

I have changed it, but I have limited space, so I could not write down the whole table with the miles needed for a standbyupgrade.

I have put a special line for lifetime status. While AA is an unpublished benefit (according to http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index...ifetime_Status) QF has published it.

Are there really no other oneworld airlines offerings lifetime status? I have done a quick search, but did not get any specific information.