Just making the move to Melbourne from North America, where I have Exec Plat (Emerald) status for 2008. Obviously much more of my flying with be on QF than AA for at least several years -- so should I swap from AA to QF program? Argument against switching is that I'm told that QF treats partner Emerald members as well as their own; but is that really true, eg. for courtesy upgrades, preferred seating, etc.? And if there are advantages to swapping into QF program, any sense of whether QF will honour Emerald status in first year in its program?

Many thanks for this -- and any other! -- transitional advice.

QF does not treat AA Emeralds like their own. Its slightly better than BA who often don't follow OW written rules but expect no favors or upgrades.

Aadvantage is a better program but I've always felt it better to join the program of the airline that you fly most often.

As QF does not really offer anything more than the published benefits to its own members, and op-ups are extremely rare (QF is the industry master at yield management) there is almost no difference between the treatment a QF Emerald will get over an AA Emerald.

The key advantage to QF is that you can use QF miles to upgrade on QF services and QF Platinums get anytime lounge access (although this is only for J lounges as of next year). The only other benefit is that if you get an Australian issued credit card, you will earn QF miles - there are cards in Australia that earn up to 1.5 miles per $AUD spent which is almost unheard of and possibly the most generous in the world. Be aware however that you require far more QF miles than AA miles for the same award.

IMHO AA is definitely the programme to go for if based in Australia as long as QF and AA keep their cosy relationship.

I would recommend sticking with AA. QF v rarely would give a courtesy upgrade since they are pretty good at yield management and so involuntary upgrades are rare.

QF will almost certainly not give you complimentary membership to Platinum so you would have to start from scratch and earn the 1400 SCs

Also, Qf awards are typically a lot more expensive than using AA points

Dave

My real advice is that if upgrades are important then you should choose the local program. Otherwise AA has the best F program.

I can't comment on how well QF treats its own Emeralds. I can say that it does not provide OW Emeralds with any special treatment.

As for upgrades on QF, I have seen over and over QF J class cabins go out with empty seats rather than with upgraded passengers.

Flights with empty J seats go out even when pax have requested an upgrade with points. Its happened to me more than once as a QF Plat.

Several QFF's have moved to AA for the better earn-burn ratio. The only advantage for top tier QF FF'ers is the seat preference and better access to awards. But awards in C are hard to get anyway
Stay with AA

Qantas will NOT upgrade people just because they an empty seat up front. There are only two ways people will receive an upgrade on Qantas:

• Operational Upgrade due to paid cabin being 100% filled and they desire to get someone else on board. These are rare even for Qantas Platinum members. I had been QF Plat (and Gold before they had Plat status) since the start of tiers. They used to be good with comp upgrades, but their policy changed about 4 or 5 years ago and since then I an count on one hand the number of operational upgrades I have had (and still have three fingers uncounted).
• Use QF FF points to upgrade. To do this you need to have QF FF points obviously. For international upgrades, they are all waitlisted and not confirmed until less than 24 hours before departure. Waitlists are serviced by status priority. For domestic flights, anyone with Qantas Club access can request an On-Departure-Upgrade and those are services in order of request which can only be made in the Qantas Club. Again a stock of Qantas FF points is required for ODU.

My advice is not to make an FF program decision based on hoping for operational upgrades when QF is involved. They are really rare. If you travel back to the USA regularly, you will have better upgrade options with AA than with QF.

If redeeming miles for award flights is your aim, then definitely stick with AA. Far better burn rate, especially for premium cabin awards, and no fuel fines added to the cost of the redemption.

I also suggest you hold off your decision until Qantas announce their next round of enhancements which they have said will be implemented around the middle of 2008, which means stand-by for an announcement 6 months earlier meaning sometime in the next 4 months.

and thats exactly how it should be

Dave

Since nobody has done this so far: welcome to FT and the QF board melbourneflyinglawyer and congratulations on your move to MEL. Certainly a great place to move to.

As with everything, the answer is: it depends. The main question is, what do you want to get out of your FF program?
If you want award seats in Y then I would 100% go with AA because of the dramatically better earn / burn ratio. QFs earn / burn ration is horrible and only when you are a Platinum will it change from horrible to bad.
If you want award seats in premium cabins, require waitlist priority and want to be able to upgrade on QF then I would switch to QF.
Traveloguy mentioned this before: If you will be able to put a lot of money onto credit card through your personal lifestyle or business then consider QF as well because of the ability to earn QFF points through many cards here in Australia.

If you happen to have CO miles as well, keep them because they can be used quite nicely for award flights between Australia and the US.

If your flying is confined to short domestic trips in Y the 1000 point minimum award offered by QF might be an important consideration.

There seem to be a few other situations where upgrades occur, but they are infrequent.

As an AA EXP/PLT member the min earning is still 1000 ( 500 base min plus 100% status bonus ) , however 1000 AA miles is normally worth more than 1000 QF miles

Also, if travelling out of AU, AA offers the 100% bonus on most OW carriers

Dave

delet: double post

Thanks, perhaps I should change.

Well I would join QFF whilst you are still in USA as it is free there. I do not know if you then come to live here whether QF will charge you something.Other FFers will know.

You could then choose when to accrue points to QF or AA.

If you do not have a cc earning good points to AA then when you arrive apply for an amex that earns 1.5 points per dollar. Now the Victorian Law Society may have a similar arrangement to the Queensland Law Society whereby you can have a gold amex law society card without any yearly fee and other benefits such as free supp cards. Any Victorian Lawyers on this site will know.

These points go to QF which can then be used for upgrades which should be readily available except on those full flights