Reached QF WP / OW Emerald; Where to frome here - Jump ship to *A?

[david870mdg]

HI AFF'ers and Educated Flyers;

I recently attained QF WP status, and my membership year doesnt expire until the end of October.

I still plan on doing a fair bit of travelling before then, and have already booked:
MEL-HKG-TPE in CX J (April).
HKG-SIN-MEL in SQ J (its an award bkg so no mileage / status accrual)

My plans from there are to travel HKG-CDG-LHR-BCN-CDG-HKG or thereabouts (anywhere from $900 to $1.6K depending on the carrier); or
HKG-JFK ($1.2K) in CX and then JFK to the above cities with IB, AA, or BA; ($800 - $1300)
or
MEL-LAX-SFO-JFK-LAX-MEL or similar (~$1.7K at this stage).

Any time before October.

I've done some little research about changing to another O/W miles program, and it seems either CX or LAN (can throw in a US - Sth. US for the 4 qualifiers) are the best options (based on my flying plans) because of the restrictive earning with certain cariers when travelling discounted economy (if I earn 0.25% miles I may as well go for QF WP + PG from status credits which would be wasted on me and IMHO LTS is not even worth considering).


I'm also considering the above travel ex HKG or MEL in a *a carrier.
I'm already SQ Krisflyer nothing but need 40K miles to qualify for Gold there. Plus QF allows anytime access to QP for WPs so this helps.
Skyteam is not an option due to minimal options from Aus.

The other thing i'd like to know more about is the double EQM promos for carriers in the states and whether these should factor into my decision?

Im not fussed about earning miles (eg Asia miles) only for flight redemptions; just those that count towards status.

Thanks in adavnace for your answers, look forward to some advice from those of you who are in the know.

Regards

David

[serfty]

Do you have:

1. A Partner?
2. If, so does that partner travel?
3. If the answer to both of thos is to the affirmative, doeas you partner already have status with Qantas of SG or more?

or, to put it another way; Is partner Gold an option.

Also, how are your Lifetime SC's looking?

[david870mdg]

Do you have:

1. A Partner?
2. If, so does that partner travel?
3. If the answer to both of thos is to the affirmative, doeas you partner already have status with Qantas of SG or more?

or, to put it another way; Is partner Gold an option.

Also, how are your Lifetime SC's looking?

Nope, nope and nope [forgot to mention this in the OP, now looking for other options] hence PG is wasted on me.

LTSCs currently at 2.75k

[Lindsay Wilson]

I recently attained QF WP status, and my membership year doesnt expire until the end of October

I'm already SQ Krisflyer nothing but need 40K miles to qualify for Gold there...Skyteam is not an option due to minimal options from Aus.

So QF is the only program where you have elite status at present from my reading of your post.

I still plan on doing a fair bit of travelling before then, and have already booked:
MEL-HKG-TPE in CX J (April).
HKG-SIN-MEL in SQ J (its an award bkg so no mileage / status accrual)

Are they two separate return bookings, or one booking outbound and the other inbound? Decent SC accrual whether one way or return - but if one way, then makes sense to credit to QF (notwithstanding any other flying). As an aside - I have found (and I know others as well here) that CX lik QF WP's.

My plans from there are to travel HKG-CDG-LHR-BCN-CDG-HKG or thereabouts (anywhere from $900 to $1.6K depending on the carrier); or
HKG-JFK ($1.2K) in CX and then JFK to the above cities with IB, AA, or BA; ($800 - $1300)
or
MEL-LAX-SFO-JFK-LAX-MEL or similar (~$1.7K at this stage).

Any time before October.

The commencing of the first two itineraries in HKG is confusing to me, when you are based in MEL...or am I missing something?

As these appear to be in Y, then depending on your fare classes within or leaving/coming to USA (particularly on AA), then it starts to look attractive, but I agree, any deep discount fares on CX won't give particularly good value when crediting to AA.

I've done some little research about changing to another O/W miles program, and it seems either CX or LAN (can throw in a US - Sth. US for the 4 qualifiers) are the best options (based on my flying plans) because of the restrictive earning with certain cariers when travelling discounted economy (if I earn 0.25% miles I may as well go for QF WP + PG from status credits which would be wasted on me and IMHO LTS is not even worth considering).

Agreed, alas I have no experience with either program, so willl leave that for others to advise you.

I'm also considering the above travel ex HKG or MEL in a *a carrier.

Definitely can't help you there....

The other thing i'd like to know more about is the double EQM promos for carriers in the states and whether these should factor into my decision?

If there are current ones when you are travelling, than they may influence your decision at least marginally

[david870mdg]

Thanks Lindsay.

As I already have booked and paid for the MEL-HKG on CX and HKG-MEL on SQ (these are two seperate bookings) I plan to fly either HKG-Europe or the US using HKG as the base and flying in WhY - or QF Y+ to LHR.
If not HKG to the US then later in the year will fly there from Australia, hence maybe the confusion.

Regards

David

[Lindsay Wilson]

As I already have booked and paid for the MEL-HKG on CX and HKG-MEL on SQ (these are two seperate bookings)

Understand. Don't understand why you haven't mentioned the -TPE sector though (maybe I'm just too pedantic - what, who - me?)

I plan to fly either HKG-Europe or the US using HKG as the base and flying in WhY - or QF Y+ to LHR.

If not HKG to the US then later in the year will fly there from Australia, hence maybe the confusion.

No, my confusion (which persists) is that you haven't mentioned how you get from MEL (the end of your first set of flights) back to HKG (the beginning of your next flights). Sorry if I'm a bit slow on the uptake. However, commencing from MEL on your last set of flights is understandable.

[david870mdg]

The TPE flight is the last leg of a ticket then I have to fly back to HKG.
RE HKG as the base I plan a few weeks overseas, hence the gap MEL-HKG return and HKG-EU/USA.
ie MEL-HKG-TPE-HKG-(Insert Destiantion/s)-HKG-MEL is the plan.
David

[dajop]

I'm not going to offer advice on how to get there - perhaps worth investigating bmi as well. However, star gold is certainly worthwhile investing in once WP. I've had both for the last 3 or 4 years- and really opens a lot of options that doesn't necessarily tie you into one alliance, or put it this way faced with a fare that's more convenient and cheaper on star vs oneworld, the decision is made a lot easier if you are star gold. Certainly rather have star gold and oneworld emerald than one world status on two different oneworld programs.

And as for skyteam, think you are right to avoid at this stage, but if all the rumours surrounding that alliance eventuate over the next 2 years - in addition to Korean, Delta & China Southern, you could find that JAL, Garuda, Vietnam Airlines and maybe even the Virgin Blue group of airlines would mean Skyteam servicing Australia quite well.

[Lindsay Wilson]

I think I'll give up now on trying to work out your flying

What other destinations you might have (particularly when you are flying to/from), will be material towards any discussion here. To me, more clarity on your flying might help, but my initial comments stand