Switching to AA
 

Hey guys,

I am thinking about switching from QFF to AA since I'm moving to Canada for work and the points are worth way more anyway. I have about 20k QFF points left which I am planning on burning to upgrade Y to J for a couple of upcoming MEL-PER trips.

My question is this: is there any way for me to use my QFF points for the upgrades whilst collecting AA miles for the flights?

I am thinking something along the lines of booking/upgrading via the QF site and then asking a rep to change the FF# at check-in. Is there a snowball's chance in hell of this working?

If not, is there some convoluted way I can convert QF points to AA via points.com etc?

PS, anyone care to comment on the wisdom of actually switching programs?

You can use your QFF points to fly on AA when you're in Nth America

It is wise to change! (IMHO) I live in Perth, but stopped accruing to QFF some years ago - all my miles from flying go into my AA account
(and if there was an Australian credit card that accrues to AA I would get that - my c/c spend goes to QFF but the earn/burn ratio is crappy)

Diners iirc transfers to SPG at 2 for 1
AMEX transfers to SPG at 100 for 33

Transferring from SPG to AA is at 1 for 1
If transferring 20,000 then there is a 5000 bonus

This makes an effective exchange of
1000 AMEX --> 412.5 points ( 41.25% )
1000 DC -> 625 points

Not as good as transferring AMEX at 1 : 1 to Qantas but has a similar effective value as direct to QF but helps top up the AA account

Dave

Thanks for that Dave

Please excuse my ignorance - but what is SPG?

Ooops. AA points can be transferred to Starwood Preferred Guest

Also , if you have purchased max points for year from AA direct, you can actually purchase some SPG points and transfer them across to boost ya purchasing potential ( if interested in miles purchases )

Dave

Oops, Dave! SPG can be transferred to AA but NOT vice-versa!

Interesting discussion here.

There's no question that Qantas Frequent Flyer is one of the world's worst programs for redemptions and upgrades, AA is heaps better. Examples: a biz class award SYD-PER is 17,500 AA miles but 36,000 QF miles for the exact same QF seat. For an award SYD-LAX in F, yes there's an occasional seat available, it's 144,000 QF miles but the same seat is 72,500 AA miles.

As for (international) upgrades, QF really only do op-ups - a sort of lottery on the day. Whereas AA on their own metal will confirm an upgrade in advance, and high-status pax get 8 systemwide upgrade vouchers a year. [And similarly UA and AC.]

Looking at upgrading a QF flight with QFF points and trying to credit the miles to AA, you actually can't credit normal Qantas economy fares to AA. Regular Qantas economy flights earn zero when credited to AA (and AA returns the compliment.) You could pay more (approximately double) to get into a higher economy class, and then get the GA to change the earning-FF-number and maybe earn some AA miles that way, but you would probably be better off just buying AA miles outright.

The other problem is there's no creditcard offering AA miles in Australia, doubtless due to Qantas' influence with the financial institutions.

So the interesting part is how to earn AA miles indirectly by getting a 'general' Amex or Diners card and crediting to SPG (Starwood/Sheraton) then transferring the miles.

There's a catch, unless you have high status with Sheraton/Starwood you can't transfer small amounts of miles. And you have to move 20,000 to get the 5,000 bonus to make it worthwhile.

So if you have exactly 60,003 Amex membership reward points you can move these into 20,000 SPG points and then convert these into 25,000 AA miles giving an exchange rate of 60,000 Amex => 25,000 AA, ONLY IF you have at least 60,000 with Amex.

Of course if you stay at a few Sheraton hotels you can earn some SPG points that way, and as Dave mentioned you could just buy the 20,000 SPG points outright and move them into AA, useful after you've bought your annual quota of AA miles at a sale.

In your position I'd be looking closely at the benefits of the AC and UA programs, confirmed upgrades, realistic redemption-costs, lie-flat seats etc - forget about Qantas for international travel and just keep earning a few QF points on a CC for domestic upgrades.

pretty much any class ( all?) that is eligable to upgrade using Qantas FF points is eligable for mileage accrual to AA

All of Y,B,H,K,L,M,V,G,O and S economy classes are eligable for AA miles earning

It does not require paying double

Dave

Thanks, apologies yes if you're saving miles for an award you only get 50% miles* crediting to AA for the normal QF economy classes of V,L,M,G and O (and nothing on Q and N class) tickets.

What's worse, on Qantas you can't see what class you're buying except perhaps by searching the HTML source code of the fare-display page.

*Still, 50% miles in your AA account is probably as good as 100% in the QF account.

In the opposite direction a normal economy fare on AA will almost certainly be in N, O or Q class and earn zero if credited to QF.

They aren't the normal fares, they are discounted fares.

Dave

More factually inaccurate information. N class on AA does credit to Qantas, though Q doesnt and O isn't a commonly used booking class domestically

GLMNSV - earn 50%
BHKY - earn 100%

Not all routes even have Q

Taking LAX-ORD r/t as the 1st random route I checked, the order of fares in ascending order is N,S,G,V,W,L,M,K,H,B . The only ineligable fare to Qantas is one of the more expensive ones of W class

On DFW-LGA r/t , the lowest is Q but after that , they go up as per LAX-ORD with N being $15 r/t more expensive

I have written a Greasemonkey script that can be used with Firefox or Chrome to present these fare classes on the 'review' page - before completing and paying for the booking:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qanta...l#post17622939

It's still a pain, but I seems it is Qantas' policy not to present the class.

Question???
If AA is so much cheaper on redemptions, can we compare what you actually get on board?
Last time l flew AA was over 10 years ago, over the pond and in Y.

How good is AA's Domestic F/J ?
Would it be fare to compare AA F to QF J?
QF SYD-PER (A330)
AA's JFK-LAX (B762)

How good is AA's International?
AA F (777) to QF F/J (A380/A330)

The quality of AA's product is fairly irrelevent on where to collect points. You can collect points on AAdvantage without ever travelling on AA and can redeem on other airlines such as CX and QF ( and without paying fuel surcharges )

Comparing an international configuration Qantas flight with a domestic configured AA flight is unreasonable. Generally AA's 1st class domestic product is similar in standard to QF domestic except that meals ( where they exist on AA ) can be better than QF but QF more likely to have a meal

The hard product of AA international 1st is, I think better than the hard product of QF on a 747 ( not that I think either are that good ) the menu on AA is not as good as the menu on QF in 1st

Personally I would choose another carrier to either

Dave

Well I enjoy AA longhaul F on their 777s more than QF F on the 747s and that is hard product,service and menu.Wine list is all I would give to QF.