QFeuro

Hi,

Mrs QFeuro to be, and I, are taking our honeymoon in Dec-Jan. I have booked a reward ticket, and she has a normal ticket.

My question is what are the best options for making the most out of this in terms of mileage, status etc. So far I'm thinking the AA Plat challenge, but maybe there are better options. A combo of sorts? QF, AA or BA.

She has no status with any airlines now. We use BA and QF mostly.

The flights are:

OSL-LHR BA D class
LHR-HKG QF D
HKG-SYD QF D
SYD-LAX QF D
LAX-SFO AA L
SFO-LAX AA L
LAX-LAS AAe L
LAS-DFW AA L
DFW-MEX AA D
MEX-MIA AA D
MIA-JFK AA A
JFK-LHR AA D
LHR-OSL BA D

I think she would complete the Plat. Chall. after arriving in SYD. Would it be wise to continue crediting to AA, or switch over to QF or BA? There is 5 week gap between arriving and leaving syd. hopefully aa would be able to send the Plat. pack in that time?

Any advice/tips for the trip would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Qfeuro

number_6

If you do the plat challenge then best to credit all flights to AA. The whole point of that is to get the 100% status bonus -- which you would not get if crediting to anything but AA. Receiving the AA platinum package is irrelevant -- the status is in the computer, but reservations pick up the status at the time of booking and aren't refreshed automatically. AA does have an office in North Sydney so you could get a letter from them showing platinum status, if feeling that you need something.

What a strange fare! Are you sure that it books into L? Normally D books into Y for one-class planes (and it did book into first class, A, for the MIA-JFK segment). It doesn't matter for AA but does matter for other plans (though those are such short segments).

StevePER

I believe this office is closing in July, so you might need to get the letter from their Indian call centre instead. Good luck.

QFeuro

thanks number_6, i think the booking codes were the result of matching the itin to an award itin. not sure why L and not Y has been used. i know there was no award avail. in bus (aa first) for the other legs.

i agree that the plat pack is not worth the trouble, as long as the system recognises the new status, everthing should be fine.

NM

I am part way through a DONE4 ATW fare now, all crediting to AA. My Platinum Challenge completed on my second flight (MEL-LHR) and was posted to my AA account in 2 days. So my boarding pass today on AA showes Platinum status.

By the time I complete this DONE4 in mid June, I will have enough EQP to requalify Platinum until Feb 2008, and almost enough AA miles for 5 return Aus/NZ award trips (with no fuel fines to be paid). Just need to top-up with a few car rental and hotel stays.

If I had credit this same itineraty to QF, I would have earned 1480 Status Credits (hence Platinum/Emerald status) and 77,000 QF FF points, which would only be enough for 3 one-way BNE-PER or 4 one-way BNE-AKL awards (these two example are the awards I am most likely to use).

So for me, the better miles earning and better value awards outweighed the renewal of QF Platinum status. And if I do another DONE4 later in the year I can easily qualify Exec Platinum.

If the person on the paid fare is starting with no status, then AA is going to get them status fastest and can then take advantage of the benefits for the rest of the trip. If they already have QF status, then requalifying that by the end of the trip may be useful.

number_6

On AA status earning gets reset on Dec 31. So the flights in Jan count for 2007 status, while Dec flights count for 2006 status. By contrast QF has a membership year for status (so 8% chance of Dec/Jan being in different years for QFF). For the OP this Dec 31 split doesn't matter, the plat challenge is satisfied either before or after, and the result is identical.

A great example by NM of the differences in the 2 plans, even for premium travel. QF earns higher status (Emerald vs. Sapphire) but roughly half the award travel compared to AA (actually AA is better than that as the Aus-NZ award travel includes PER-AKL for the same cost).