Am I reading this right? (AA redemption transpac)

[Cyclogenesis]

http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/aadvantageAllPartnerChart.jsp
only 72.5K to do Aus-USA in F??

Anyone used AApoints to do this? Any idea what availability is like? Fees?

Seems to good to be true (I have no hope of ever being able to afford to pay to fly F, but I am only a few K short in terms of AAmiles and that has been by entirely flying Y!)
(Thanks!)

 

[anat0l]

Hmmm....seems kosher here. :shock:

serfty, Lindsay Wilson, Dave Noble or wandering_fred should know the answer.

If only I didn't need to bark up QF to have oneworld status....

Of course, I could do the Amex MR -> SPG -> AA thing, or buy the points, but both are fairly non-economical.

EDIT: Some quick math reveals that to get 72,500 points for a F award through MR->SPG->AA, this requires:

• 72,500 AA points requires the transfer of 60,000 SPG points (i.e. 1:1 ratio with 5,000 bonus points per 20,000 SPG points transferred)
• To get 60,000 SPG points at the Australian Amex MR ratio of 1,000 MR points = 330 SPG points, you would need to redeem just over 181,000 MR points

A QF F Classic Award covering the same distance is 144,000 QFF points. Of course, you can't transfer MR points to QFF unless you're with QF direct, but still.

Of course, if you have been consistently crediting mileage to AA, then the MR math doesn't really matter.

 

[Cyclogenesis]

Yep all AA points here... thanks to taking the advice of the clever people on this forum I did the Platinum challenge earlier this year so the MEL-LAX-ORD-LAX-MEL commute has been giving me ~40K points per trip...

It will all calm down a bit when I am actually living in Chicago (from June) but by then I should almost have enough for a return...

I wonder what the availability is like on the A380, might be classed separate to F as they are suites... Or F availability might just end up being a huge issue

 

[Dave Noble]

http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/aadvantageAllPartnerChart.jsp
only 72.5K to do Aus-USA in F??

Anyone used AApoints to do this? Any idea what availability is like? Fees?

Seems to good to be true (I have no hope of ever being able to afford to pay to fly F, but I am only a few K short in terms of AAmiles and that has been by entirely flying Y!)
(Thanks!)

72,500 is the cost of a one way 1st award

You will have to pay taxes ( but NO fuel surcharge )

Availability is no different than it would be for Qantas members ( and I have actually seen it better where QF shows no availability for a non-status member but does actually have P availability in the system )

Check on Expert Flyer for availability and then call AA to book. If they say they cannot see it , make sure that they are looking for P

Dave

 

[Cyclogenesis]

Great... now I have a target..

Thanks Dave, shows how good a value AAdvantage is when you are plat (with the x2 bonus) 144K for the equivalent on QF... of course looking at availability on the QF site there pretty much is not any, so the same may count for AA

 

[anat0l]

Great... now I have a target..

Thanks Dave, shows how good a value AAdvantage is when you are plat (with the x2 bonus) 144K for the equivalent on QF... of course looking at availability on the QF site there pretty much is not any, so the same may count for AA

Hard enough - period - for a WP to find F availability, although it is surprisingly easier with a bit of status.

WPs have a better chance coughing up an extra 2,500 points or $50 to put in a request to yield management.

 

[Dave Noble]

Great... now I have a target..

Thanks Dave, shows how good a value AAdvantage is when you are plat (with the x2 bonus) 144K for the equivalent on QF... of course looking at availability on the QF site there pretty much is not any, so the same may count for AA

If you want to use Qantas points to go between Chicago and Sydney it would actually cost 168,000 qantas points since it would be in the 8401-9600 range.

If you had to detour to find availability ( e.g. having to do something like ORD-MIA-LAX-SYD ) it would jump to 192,000 qantas points

Regardless of where in Australia you go from and where in the US you wish to go to, it will still cost 72,500 AA points plus of course you will avoid the $110 surcharge each way that QF would charge if you used a QF award

Dave

 

[auriga]

Does AA allow routing via HKG to the US?

 

[futaris]

No, via pacific only, i.e. via Fiji or Tahiti or similar.

If you want to fly via HKG, you will need to redeem a Oneworld award, or:

South Pacific - Asia 2 (45k in First)
and a
Asia 2 - North America (67.5k in First)
award.

 

[IainF]

I have done it last year..
BNE-SYD in J QF
SYD-LAX in F QF
LAX-JFK in F AA
JFK-YYZ in Y AA
YYZ-JFK in Y AA
JFK-SYD in F QF
SYD-BNE in J QF

145,000 points and about $140 in taxes.
Awesome Value.
I even found the exact flights on the exact day I wanted to go travel, GFC and all of that may have helped though...

Bearing in mind, you can buy 40,000 points for US$1000 and be gifted 40,000 miles for another $1,000, that gives you at least one way from anywhere in Australia to anywhere in USA in F, one way.
Not bad for a US$2000 (Australian $2200) outlay....

Now if one were to have two AA accounts........$4000 return in F aint bad.....
Me, I got my points from BIS miles.....

 

[Maca44]

If you want to use Qantas points to go between Chicago and Sydney it would actually cost 168,000 qantas points since it would be in the 8401-9600 range.
Dave

I had first booked a J award SYD-SFO (96K pts) because QF were not offering F awards (140K pts) in August, but then after booking the J seat (and I should have checked beforehand) I checked an award F class from SYD-ORD, which went via LAX and came out at what Dave indicated 168K, so for an extra 28K pts you travel F LAX-ORD. Cost me the extra pts to reticket, but worth it.

 

[MelUser]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the most miles that one can legitimately acquire buy buying and having shared to is 55000 per calendar year.

One can buy 40K miles and then receive by sharing another 15K. (of course from time to time there are bonuses but these wouldn't get a nonAA flight earner many points).

Does anyone know if the following would work - in order to get a points upgrade with Qantas, one has to enter one's qantas frequent flyer number and if a platinum, this puts you ahead of the queue (leaving chairmans lounge, fare class etc to one side).

Once the upgrade is processed, is it then possible to have one's qantas FF number deleted from the reservation and an AA FFlyer number inserted so as to earn points (in the original booking class of course!) on the AA program?

 

[wandering_fred]

Maybe it's my location but buying (and maintaining) a simple return SIN-PER-SIN makes finding (award or purchased) seats to the USA a great deal simpler for me. Plus the award costs are marginally less than from Australia with a much larger number of flight options (well as long a JAL stays in OW). And in the case of purchased tickets you also get the choice of going east or west. But at the end of the northern summer I am at the moment finding no bargains SEAsia or Oz to USA..... anywhere.

I have successfully had an international upgrade on QF (SIN-PER) with the original flight credited to AA. I called QF and asked rather than changing the FF number online. I seem to recall doing an ODU SYD-ADL crediting to AA as well

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[NM]

Does anyone know if the following would work - in order to get a points upgrade with Qantas, one has to enter one's qantas frequent flyer number and if a platinum, this puts you ahead of the queue (leaving chairmans lounge, fare class etc to one side).

Once the upgrade is processed, is it then possible to have one's qantas FF number deleted from the reservation and an AA FFlyer number inserted so as to earn points (in the original booking class of course!) on the AA program?

There is no need to have your QF FF number in the flight booking. Any QF FF member can request an upgrade for an eligible family member, so just go to the QF web site, log in with your QFF membership details and go to Your Bookings. On that page you will see "Upgrade a family member". Enter the booking reference and last name and select a suitable relationship. Note the system does not have "Self" as an eligible family member. I normally select Father when upgrading myself (as I am a Father ).

This preserves your AA details in the booking and in my experience provides upgrade priority of the account making the upgrade request (i.e. Gold in my case).

I have used this on many occasions and never had any problems with my QF FF number finding its way into the flight reservation.

 

[MelUser]

Although this approach risks other Qantas Platinums being ahead of you.

If you are an AA Exec Plat then as far as the qantas computer is concerned you are a QF Plat but in my case I am an AA member and QF Plat so I would want to have it both ways - use the benefit of QF status to upgrade and then earn points to AA!

 

[NM]

Although this approach risks other Qantas Platinums being ahead of you.

I don't follow your logic. My QFF status is Gold, so of course Platinum has higher priority. But if the member's status is Platinum, then they are the same as any other QFF Platinum member.

If you are an AA Exec Plat then as far as the qantas computer is concerned you are a QF Plat but in my case I am an AA member and QF Plat so I would want to have it both ways - use the benefit of QF status to upgrade and then earn points to AA!

Are you certain about that? Do you have inside knowledge as to how the QFF computer system works? The Qantas FF terms and conditions make no reference to OneWorld status when it comes to upgrade waitlist priorities. They only reference Qantas FF status. It has been my understanding that only Qantas FF status is used to determine QFF upgrade waitlist status. If you have evidence or knowledge indicating my understanding is incorrect, please provide some details.

 

[MelUser]

This is what I know about the Qantas system:

(1) When the QF reservations staff look at a flight they see who has had an upgrade requested BUT they see it by priority of the upgrader.

EG: If you are a silver and your upgrade has been requested by a Plat then they see a Plat request

(2) Qantas have stated publicly (via the terms and conditions) that upgrades are processed based on the passenger's status. If a group booking then that of the highest level passenger in the booking.

(3) When upgrades are processed, the first 80-90% are done automatically by the computer system which follows (2).

(4) The final 10-20% of upgrades are done manually which is (my supposition) where the staff see the status of the upgrader and apply this to the upgradee - for the majority of bookings this is one and the same so it is pointlesss to create more work for staff having cross check two priorities.

(5) A qantas upgrade (for example) to business is really a waitlist into Business (U). Under the oneworld alliance agreement, carriers are obliged to waitlist passengers across the group based on their oneworld status so (my supposition) an AA Exec Plat waitlist for a booking class is on par with a Qantas Plat - they are both Emeralds.

(6) Whenever I have phoned AA to have AA mileage upgrades processed, my qantas FF number (QF platinum status) is in the booking. The AA staff have referred to my AA status as Exec Plat which it is not, but that is the level that my requests are prioritised by AA. I simply have an AA Frequent Flyer account but purchase miles which I then apply to AA upgrades.

 

[NM]

This is what I know about the Qantas system:

Hmm, some interesting concepts. Do you know these as facts or making assumptions based on your own experiences?

(2) Qantas have stated publicly (via the terms and conditions) that upgrades are processed based on the passenger's status. If a group booking then that of the highest level passenger in the booking.

Yes, I have read what is published in the terms and conditions, but my personal experience implies otherwise to me. But all I have to go on is my experience with 100% success rate in obtaining waitlisted upgrades via the method I outlined previously, even when I know there are very few upgrade opportunities (i.e. J or F cabin already very full).

(3) When upgrades are processed, the first 80-90% are done automatically by the computer system which follows (2).

(4) The final 10-20% of upgrades are done manually which is (my supposition) where the staff see the status of the upgrader and apply this to the upgradee - for the majority of bookings this is one and the same so it is pointlesss to create more work for staff having cross check two priorities.

Interesting. So if there is only one upgrade seat available, is it going to be by the 80-90% method or the 10-20% method?

(5) A qantas upgrade (for example) to business is really a waitlist into Business (U). Under the oneworld alliance agreement, carriers are obliged to waitlist passengers across the group based on their oneworld status so (my supposition) an AA Exec Plat waitlist for a booking class is on par with a Qantas Plat - they are both Emeralds.

Not sure I follow the logic here. Note that U seats may well be available at the time of someone waitlisting for an upgrade (as a business class award), but obviously a waitlisted upgrade does not clear into the available U inventory. Is you theory a known fact or an assumption based on upgrades being waitlisted and ending up in U inventory?

I have not expected the OneWorld Priority waitlisting policy to apply to waitlisted FF upgrades. But I no working knowledge of QF's computer systems and the logic applied.

 

[MelUser]

My statements are based on what QF staff have told me other than where I say "I suppose" or similar.

Interestingly, I attempted to upgrade a bronze family member from Economy to Premium Economy and the upgrade failed - my first international upgrade failure.

Now this was on QF 9 and only half the journey - SIN-MEL. I have a suspicion that upgrades which cover the whole route - in this example LHR-MEL are given priority over part of the route.

When I rang the premium desk the staff member said that of course my plat status would have been considered but that there was simply not a seat for an upgradee.

Perhaps my example into (U) was not a good one. I understand that at the time of upgrade most unsold business seats become (U) seats but if this example causes conceptual problems then assume that it is a full flight and a number of passengers are waitlisted into Economy (Y) by way of a paid revenue ticket.

Qantas's Amadeus Altea software prioritises these pax according to their oneworld status. There is no reason to suggest that Altea would be reconfigured for upgrade waitlists - they are all processed through the Altea inventory management system (in my view) in exactly the same way EXCEPT when it is down to the last few manual interventions (hence to 80-90%) which are done out a Mascot by a human.

I once had an international upgrade which did not go through so I rang Qantas on the morning of travel and the reservations staff processed the upgrade. I suppose there was a computer failure of some sort.

My sole interest of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program is upgrades so any opportunity I get to speak with Qantas staff I throw in a by the way and then ask questions. Most of the Premium Desk are happy to talk about their experiences and in this way I absorb information.

Having said that, if AA flew on its own metal to Australia I would probably run travel through their program!

 

[NM]

Interestingly, I attempted to upgrade a bronze family member from Economy to Premium Economy and the upgrade failed - my first international upgrade failure.

One speculation thought is that the passenger's QF FF status defined the priority (as stated in the terms and conditions), but if the passenger has no QF FF status then the status of the account form which the request was made will determine the priority. Such speculation would confirm my personal experience.

Unfortunately, QFF phone agents are unlikely to know the real details of how it works. Its probably only the people who built the logic into the computer programs than really know.