The price of a SC can be measured based on the total SCs and the ticket price. There are several ways to gain cheap status credits (
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....gram/best-status-run-options-quick-35258.html). But the
value of a SC is highly subjective and personal to your circumstances. For me personally, WP is not a fleeting desire but a MUST every year. This may seem shallow or pretentious to some, but as I’ve tried to describe below, this is not driven by an egotistical urge to flash my WP card around... (although it’s nice to have a WP card in wallet!)
It all started several years ago when I contracted a seemingly common disease on (and partly from) AFF called ‘the travel bug’. My symptoms are that I always manage to find my way around the world every year in some shape or form. Coincidentally, my travels just so happen to ensure that I visit the LOTFAP and this just happens to coincide with my annual QFF membership anniversary dates for requalification. Like many others here, I take advantage of crediting AA status runs to QF while complimenting any personal and domestic work travel until I hit the magic 1200 requalification mark for my anniversary year. Excess status credits are siphoned off to AA
IMHO, the price or value of a status credit is based on the QF status you are seeking to achieve and therefore the respective status tier benefits. In the case of WP status and AA status runs, let me state the perceived subjective value to me:
- Creature comforts of AA First Class Cabin (shudders at the thought of AA ‘coach’)
- WP/OWE benefits including (some are also a benefit of flying AA First):
- Access to MEL/SYD FCL for all International and some domestic
travel. I could almost post a $ value to this if I go with the intention of getting slaughtered over a 7 course meal and a 45 minute massage but that’s another story,
- Access to OW FCLs around the world,
- Priority check-in/luggage tagging (not that QF ground crew give a rats for my vibrant yellow First luggage sticker anyway),
- Priority boarding,
- WP Premium Desk,
- Better chance of award availability (still far too limited as a WP but that’s another story),
- WP yield management request to open up premium award inventory (unpublished bennie),
- Greater chance of successful upgrade requests,
- Greater chance of op-up,
- Seat selection in front row of economy for short haul domestic (although P1s have significantly diminished this bennie),
- Better treatment by FAs in-flight (eg. Meals/drinks/earphones from higher cabin etc)
- Very generous luggage allowance for that one rare occasion I really do need to check several/heavy pieces which may or may not include a conspicuous boogie bag
- QF and OW carriers generally look after you a lot better when things take a turn for the worse.
To measure the tangible/quantifiable value of a SC, most of it comes down to QFF points which I value at 1.5c per point (I can explain my science behind this but that’s another lengthy post... and
Medhead, I also have a complex spreadsheet that calculates all sorts of price/value indicators for various fare types from XONEX/QFZ10 Award/FASA etc. Sad eh).
So the key quantifiable metrics that I can see are:
- WP status bonus (100% extra base miles on QF/AA/BA flights and codeshares),
- 8K points loyalty bonus every 500 status credits
- QP Lounge for up to 3 years from WP qualification due to SG soft landing QP entitlement.
So if I am requalifying for WP (1200 status credits) purely via AA Status runs, my costs and assumptions are:
- Positioning flights to/from USA are not a $ cost to me since I am travelling around the world annually anyway. I would have spent the $ getting to the USA regardless of undertaking a status run or not because I want to go there in the first place,
- I can hit 1200 status credits for about $1,500 USD (and sometimes even less) using the AA multi-city tool or some sweet one-way awards in combination with ITA Matrix software lending a hand,
- I will travel at least 4 domestic QF sectors with work or personally in any given year (despite the probability of XONEX or ASA positioning fares meeting that requirement anyway),
- There is a cost to a 12 segment multi-city run; the overnight airport hotels that add no value to me. So a 4 or 5* Priceline airport hotel is roughly $50/night depending on the city. Let’s assume two of these per itinerary, so $100.
- The cost of accommodation/seeing a destination along my status run is not a cost to me, because it’s something I want to do and would have paid for anyway,
- The average or mean total base miles of a multi-city or several one-way status runs to achieve 1200 status credits is 20,000.
- Ultimately, you could argue that since I want to see most of the places along a multi-city status run its not actually a cost to me since I would have paid to see it anyway, but that’s a another story yet again.
The total cost of the status run is $1,600 USD and therefore
the price is ~$1.33 per status credit to me ($1,600/1,200).
Using these assumptions, I can then calculate the quantifiable benefits as follows (remembering I value 1 QFF point at 1.5c):
- 20,000 base miles = $300,
- 20,000 status bonus miles = $300 (assumes I am already WP before I start the status run),
- 10,000 cabin bonus miles = $150,
- 20,000 loyalty bonus miles = $300 ((1200 / 500 = 2.4) * 8000) = 19,200
- Up to 3 years worth of QP membership which I would have paid for otherwise via a corporate scheme = $750 (3 x $250 per year).
The total value of all the tangible and quantifiable benefits is therefore $1,800.
Conclusion: The quantifiable benefits of achieving status credits (WP) that I can measure outweigh the underlying cost ($1,600 cost, $1,800 value). Then there’s the subjective and intangible benefits listed above which one could easily value at over $1K or $10K+++ per annum depending on your circumstances. So for me, you can see how WP status is an economically viable and beneficial MUST every year.
