I do not travel that much, but I am flying from YYZ to SYD on Quantas via LAX. The YYZ LAX leg is via American Airlines and given the huge amount of miles available I want to collect the miles to put towards a domestic flight. Wondering if I could get some advice on whether I should sign of for AA Advantage or Quantas' frequest flier program?

Also, I will traving with my 3 year old son that I have bought a ticket for at 75% of the regular ticket price. Can I accumulate points for for him, or can he accumulate his own points?

Thanks!

Firstly, it is QANTAS (without the U).

To answer that question we will need a know a little more about you, i.e. which country/city you live in, etc.

I have a feeling that you live in Toronto, therefore your probably better off with joining the AA programme. Also with the Platinum challenger(do a search on FT for this one) I am sure that will make it easy for you to get status quickly. I am sure Dave Noble will be able to provide more information.

Not sure if AA have an affinity card available in Canada for you to collect miles, but if they do, it would probably be worth going for.

Finally, do you you know what fare class you are booked in for the LAX-SYD sector?

I would go for AA as well given the assumption you are based in TO.

AA does have a CC partnership with RBC which you could look into. See this page on the AA site

Check out this thread for information about signing up for an AA Challenge

You haven't said what class you are flying in and on some of the discounted Y booking classes you do not earn full status points and will earn less mileage as well.


See this page for details of earning AA miles and points on QF flights.

This link is the equivalent page from the QF website.

From experience it seems there is good availability of AA award travel for domestic flights. I am not sure how easy it is to book awards on AA flights with QF miles.
Perhaps someone on this forum could help you out here.

BTW - QANTAS is an acronym hence no U. It stands for Queensland And Nothern Territory Aerial Services

Technically it isn't an acronym since the airline is called Qantas Airways

In relation to the original question, I would suggest that the AA scheme would likely be a better bet

Dave

Yes but the word stems from an acronym, and that's the important point, even if it no longer functions as an acronym.

Traveloguy, you quite rightly corrected the spelling of Qantas but then spelled "you're" wrong a couple of lines down.....

To the OP: No you cannot accrue miles for your son.. it has to be under him himself. So start him up on a programme.

For miles, best to see what booking class you are booked on QF. Most QF fares get only 70% miles on AA whereas you get 100% miles on QF's programme.

These days, most eligable QF fares earn 50% rather than 70% to AA, however

(1) the number of miles earned can be increased by the judicious use of one of the Candy Thief challenges

(2) the value of AA miles vs QF miles in their redemption use is almost 2 times

Dave

1. As one who watches sales ex YYZ on QF and AA, while milligan940 is correct re the metal of the planes (AA to LAX and QF from there), there is a good chance the entire ticket is either QF or AA. Knowing which, as well as the fare class the flights are in, might affect the advice given. So perhaps milligan940 could note what his ticket says re the flight numbers: are they on AA, QF or some of each, as well as the fare class?

2. While as Dave Noble says, each passenger must collect his/her own miles, QF do allow transferring miles within a family, so after the trip he could effectively consolidate the son's miles with his on QF. Not sure about AA.

The point is that some fare classes on AA tickets do not collect points with QFF, and some fare classes on QF tickets do not collect points with AAdvantage.

If you live in north america it is a no brainer.Join the AA program.You will need a lot less miles for a decent award,pay less taxes when you do get an award and having booked oneworld awards on both qantas and AA for this year my experience was the AA staff were much more helpful probably because they are allowed to use more initiative.

You might like to delay your plans and consider the just announced Air Canada service YYZ-LAX-SYD service with their 777's due for delivery in 1st 1/4 2007.
Herald Article

It isn't a no brainer since it depending on the booking class, there might be zero mileage accrual if applied to AA; if its an eligable booking class, then it is probably better to accue to AA... However, if the OP v rarely travels, then the QF scheme might be better since all the points can be merged into a single account and may give enough points for something useful rather than having points in 3 schemes which may not be of much use

Dave