Which FF program?

[LuisT]

Hi All,
Just arrived back in Australia from Canada, and because I was with Aeroplan (was Elite), I now need to start again in terms of a frequent flyer program and earning status.
Pretty much all of my flying will be done in Australia, with the occasional (maybe 1/year) trip OS.
My question is, what should I do to earn status the fastest, and which program should I join? I had a look at the AA Plaatinum Challenge, but I don't think I'll be flying on an AA flight number any time soon. I've already joined QFF, and have about 130 status credits so far (from one trip). Should I stick with them, or should I convert to AA anyway (since I beleive they are better for redemption)?
I've considered joing the Qantas Club, but I expect to earn status this year, so wouldn't need it after that (if there wasn't a joining fee I'd do it for sure).
Also, I assume I can I join the club, and accrue miles against an AA account?
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!
Merry Christmas to everyone!
Luis

 

[littl_flier]

Hi LuisT, welcome back to Oz and welcome to AFF.

If you think the majority of your travel will be on Qantas and not Virgin Blue, then going for status with Qantas is probably the way to go. Am I correct in saying that you must travel in full economy or business to earn 130 SC's in one trip? Asuming this, then earning Gold should be realtively easy after a few trips. If you're pretty certain on making status then I wouldn't bother with the QP either but take some small short term pain for a long time gain. If you do decide however, AFF does have a corporate program in place for those members that are Gold Subscribers ($50) and this is at a significant discount to an individual membership.

AA will be virtually impossible to gain status on if you can't steal some candy so I would give that one the flick. Without status, points will take a while to accrue so the easier redemption may be fruitless!?

Also, I assume I can I join the club, and accrue miles against an AA account?

Absoultely, but for best measure, I would ensure your QP FF number are in your Qantas bookings so you get priority seating etc and then manually change this to AA on checkin for each flight.

 

[Dave Noble]

AA will be virtually impossible to gain status on if you can't steal some candy so I would give that one the flick. Without status, points will take a while to accrue so the easier redemption may be fruitless!?.

I don't see how such an assertion can be made. Depending on the O/S trip and the level of domestic travel, getting status on AA may well be quite reasonable.

It may well be worth accruing to AA , but more information would be needed on typical travel plans and frequency

In regards to the OP question, it is quite possible to join the Qantas Club yet accrue points to AA and may well up with better value points in accrual to AA

Dave

 

[littl_flier]

Dave, I'm no AA expert like you but if the OP isn't going to travel on an AA flight until the O/S trip (and assuming it's to the US), how can they earn AA status?

Member must fly at least four segments on American Airlines, American Eagle or AmericanConnection to qualify for AAdvantage Executive Platinum, AAdvantage Platinum or AAdvantage Gold status within the qualifying year.

Also, wouldn't the OP need to accrue 50,000 points or 60 sectors to make AA Platinum? (QF Gold with no domestic lounge access)

But I do agree that if you join the QP and credit to AA you may well be better off (even without AA status) depending on your travel details and particularly the booking classes you normally travel in. Also, are you normally on flights like MEL-SYD where the minimum mileage guarantee helps?

Here is the AA earning table for travel on Qantas which will give you an indication of how many points you will earn.

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[Dave Noble]

Dave, I'm no AA expert like you but if the OP isn't going to travel on an AA flight until the O/S trip (and assuming it's to the US), how can they earn AA status?

Through the normal method of 30/60/100 sectors or 25k/50k/100k qpoints or qmiles. The Challenge is only a fastpath to status, not the only method

Also, wouldn't the OP need to accrue 50,000 points or 60 sectors to make AA Platinum? (QF Gold with no domestic lounge access)

That is no domestic lounge access in the US; domestic lounge access would be available anywhere else, including Australia. 50k qmiles or qpoints ; flying on sectors such as SYD-MEL will earn 500 per sector vs 10 or 20 SCs when credited to QF. At 10SCs on a cheap economy ticket, that would require 70 sectors to get QF Gold vs 60 to AA; on more expensive economy fares (K and higher) then it drops to 35 to get QF Gold

On the short runs, then QF earns 1000 and 500 as basic to AA. At 50% earning then AA can still be better value than QF when looking at redemption rates; should PLT status on AA be attained then the earnings on the short runs become identical even on cheapie tickets and the value of the AA scheme becomes far better

Having QF Club membership would be worth considering getting and , of course, if joining anew, then worth taking out AFF Gold membership and getting the discounted membership rate ( unless having a corp deal from elsewhere )

Dave

 

[littl_flier]

Thanks Dave, good logic!

Does one have to travel four segments on AA (similar to QF) to attain status?

 

[Dave Noble]

Thanks Dave, good logic!

Does one have to travel four segments on AA (similar to QF) to attain status?

AA does not currently enforce such a rule; they could obviously do so sometime in the future, but currently all is fine in AAland

Dave

 

[LuisT]

Hi Littl_Flyer, Dave,

Thanks for the responses. I guess I should have included a few more details on my travel. I'm currently based in Canberra:

- Once per month to Brisbane
- Once per quarter to North Queensland (multiple destinations, last trip was 12 legs, but some on Macair which don't appear to have earned miles?)
- Once per quarter to WA
- Once per year overseas (probably North America)
- Once per year to NZ

As i said, I'd like to get status, mainly for the perks (quicker checkin, lounge access etc...).

Sounds like club and AA is the way to go.

By the way, and slightly ot, but I read somewhere the club membership can be either (or both) tax deductible and salary sacrificed. Anyone confirm this?

Thanks again for the responses!

Luis

 

[Dave Noble]

Hi Littl_Flyer, Dave,

Thanks for the responses. I guess I should have included a few more details on my travel. I'm currently based in Canberra:

- Once per month to Brisbane
- Once per quarter to North Queensland (multiple destinations, last trip was 12 legs, but some on Macair which don't appear to have earned miles?)
- Once per quarter to WA
- Once per year overseas (probably North America)
- Once per year to NZ

As i said, I'd like to get status, mainly for the perks (quicker checkin, lounge access etc...).

Sounds like club and AA is the way to go.

By the way, and slightly ot, but I read somewhere the club membership can be either (or both) tax deductible and salary sacrificed. Anyone confirm this?

Thanks again for the responses!

Luis

As far as fast track to status , when you do your 1 trip to N America, book using AA flight numbers and that will enable you to get the status via the challenge, plus will count quite well ( at least 15000 miles and could be 20,000 depending on where you go) towards annual status. The 12 trips to Brisbane will get you 12,000 - 14200 points towards status if you take the nonstops and 24000 if you go via SYD. If you can go via SYD then Platinum is easily maintainable and still doable if you do go directly

Do you know what class you will be travelling in and where in North America?

My understanding is that Qantas Club membership can be deductible , but best check exactly with accountant on how much of the membership fee that you can claim

I think that Qantas Club plus AA accrual may well be a good choice If you take QC membership, then you will have the main perks of status .... travelling on QF you will have priority check in plus the lounge access from QP membership; when you do your US trip, then you can jump through to status and ya laughing

Dave

 

[LuisT]

As far as fast track to status , when you do your 1 trip to N America, book using AA flight numbers and that will enable you to get the status via the challenge, plus will count quite well ( at least 15000 miles and could be 20,000 depending on where you go) towards annual status. The 12 trips to Brisbane will get you 12,000 - 14200 points towards status if you take the nonstops and 24000 if you go via SYD. If you can go via SYD then Platinum is easily maintainable and still doable if you do go directly

Do you know what class you will be travelling in and where in North America?

My understanding is that Qantas Club membership can be deductible , but best check exactly with accountant on how much of the membership fee that you can claim

Dave

Hi Dave,

I usually travel discount economy, and assume this will be the same my trip to N/A. I'll definitely be going to YUL, and probably BOS and WAS as well (and possibly other places). I'll make sure it's all on AA flights to make sure I maximise my miles.

At one point I was considering trying to keep my AC E (since it's only 35K), but I think I'll just put it all in AA...

Btw, can you start the platinum challenge at any time? I.e. can I accrue miles, and just before I go to N/A ring up and start it, or does it have to be when you start your membership?

Thanks,

Luis

 

[Dave Noble]

Btw, can you start the platinum challenge at any time? I.e. can I accrue miles, and just before I go to N/A ring up and start it, or does it have to be when you start your membership?

You can sign up for the challenge at any time; can start on the 1st or 16th of any month, so just wait until you are about to go to the USA and set the start date for just before you set off. There is more info on the challenge on the Aadvantage forum on this board.

No probs to start accruing and then starting a challenge later

assuming a trip of YUL and BOS, taking a direct routing of SYD-LAX-YUL-lga-bos-lax-syd, that would be 20,569 miles and no issue getting the challenge and also pretty much ensure that you maintain some status


Dave

 

[drron]

To do the plat challenge you do not even have to ring.We have had 8 successful candy thieves in our family this year and all enrolled by email.Just go to aa.com/contact us/aadvantage/customer service and click on the email link.You will get an email back confirming the challenge.
Enjoy.

 

[serfty]

One thing to remember if crediting QF flights to AA is to AVOID N class fares (& Q for that matter).

Domestically, N class is the more expensive of the red e-deal type fares. O class is the less expensive of these and will earn/credit on/to AAdvantage.

e.g. At the moment, red e-deals can be purchased for CBR-SYD on Dash-8's for $93, $110 and $125.

The first 2 are O class fares with $93 being the Million seat "Sale" price and the $110 is standard O fare.

The $125 is N class and will not credit to AAdvantage.

 

[LuisT]

One thing to remember if crediting QF flights to AA is to AVOID N class fares (& Q for that matter).

Domestically, N class is the more expensive of the red e-deal type fares. O class is the less expensive of these and will earn/credit on/to AAdvantage.

e.g. At the moment, red e-deals can be purchased for CBR-SYD on Dash-8's for $93, $110 and $125.

The first 2 are O class fares with $93 being the Million seat "Sale" price and the $110 is standard O fare.

The $125 is N class and will not credit to AAdvantage.

Thanks serfty, that's good to know. It's interesting that the more expensive fare doesn't accumulate points.

Another question - if I get gold membership at aff, how long does it take for the club membership to go through? I'm flying on the 13th, and would like it before then...

Thanks

Luis

 

[jakeseven7]

Thanks serfty, that's good to know. It's interesting that the more expensive fare doesn't accumulate points.

Just be really careful of this - people on here have made some mistakes!

I'm not sure how you book your airfares but if you are doing them online yourself and flying discount economy/red deals it is pretty difficult (/impossible on the QF site) to see what fare bucket you are falling into... The cheapest for a certain flight may not always credit if the fare buckets around it have sold out for example.

I'm sure some of the gurus will recommend ways of checking you are booking a correct fare type (online) or you could incur the extra cost of an agent or calling QF to book to be sure.

 

[littl_flier]

...recommend ways of checking you are booking a correct fare type (online) or you could incur the extra cost of an agent or calling QF to book to be sure.

I can think of a couple way that will give an indication.

The O class flights on domestics are always the base Red E Deals so if you go to the specials page on the QF website (Bookings - Flights - Domestic Specials - Australia) and the fare is the same as listed on this page, then it will be O class.

If the fare doesn't appear the same and is marginally more expensive, you could use SeatCounter - The Booking Class Availability Machine and enter the flight details you're after. This will show the booking classes that are left. If O shows as zero but N or Q are showing 1 + then the fare is booking into N or Q class and won't be eligible to accrue on AA.

There might be a more simple way but I remember reading that QF took away the ease of checking booking codes recently.

 

[Dave Noble]

I'm sure some of the gurus will recommend ways of checking you are booking a correct fare type (online) or you could incur the extra cost of an agent or calling QF to book to be sure.

If you have routes that you do commonly, will soon recognise the N fare I find

Where I am not sure, I tend to do a flexible date search and find which is the highest red-e-deal fare on the route. Just be aware that if the route is operated by mainline QF as well as QFlink that the QFlink equivalent fare is about $2 different.

Dave

 

[serfty]

Just be really careful of this - people on here have made some mistakes!
...

I'm sure some of the gurus will recommend ways of checking you are booking a correct fare type (online) or you could incur the extra cost of an agent or calling QF to book to be sure.

The advice given is true and current of how to avoid N class fares when using qantas.com to book domestic red e-deals.

-In the example I gave, there are bot Jets and Dash-8's scheduled with slightly different fares, so that why I was specific.