BA SYD-BKK-SYD: Trip Advice.
Discuss BA SYD-BKK-SYD: Trip Advice, on the General Airline Loyalty Program Discussion forum of FrequentFlyer.com.au, the home of frequent flyers.
Welcome to Australia's leading independent Frequent Flyers resource! We hope you find the information useful and decide to join our online community. Its free to join, simply click on the register link. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Flight Recovery - Jetlag Resistance
The Cruise Log: Line to refund $20M in fuel surcharges
I will be making a trip to India. I *think* the tickets are Class V. (Should I not be expecting much from the upcoming trip)
SYD-BKK - British Airways
BKK-DEL - Air India
DEL-BKK - AI
BKK-SYD - BA
I have 12,990 Krisflyer miles from a previous trip with Singapore Airlines expiring March 2006.
After experiencing the benefits of being a FF member with SA, I'd like to become a member on BA and AI. Problem is though, neither have a program downunder. BA recommends paying $82.50 for a QANTAS membership. Is it worth it?
Any suggestions as to how to maximise any possible benefits (current or future) from the above info? Any other relevant suggestions are welcome.
Sponsored Links
Registered Users have the option of
removing this and all other advertisements.
More
You can join the QF scheme and avoid the $82.50 fine by giving a non Australia/New Zealand address when joining. If you have any overseas friends then use their address
I would suggest the AA frequent flyer scheme over the Qantas one; you will only earn 50% miles for the SYD-BKK-SYD flights, however the points are worth more than QF points ( e.g. 20k points gives a r/t eceonomy ticket from australia to anywhere in australia or new zealand. ) plus you will not get stung for large fuel surcharges when redeeming awards. The AA scheme is free to join and you can enrol at www.aa.com
If you are taking any other OW airline flights within 3 months, then enrol for the AA Gold Lack-Of-Challenge and you'll get OW Ruby status after your next flight ( even CBR-SYD would do )
I would recommend also enrolling for the challenge if you can take another flight of any distance within 3 months; get business class check in and 25% mileage bonus through till end of feb 2007
The Gold and Platinum challenges are un-official, so there is no info on the offical AA website. All information is from forums such as this. I recently enrolled in the Plat Chalg and and have since gained AA Plat/OW Saph until Mar '07 (and thanks again to all who helped me with that!).
Enrol in AAvdvantage online at AA.com, print out your membership card. After a couple of days to allow for processing, phone the AAdvantage customer service desk on (0011) 1800 421 0600. You will need to phone early in the morning SYD time to match up the time zones. Give them your AA number and ask to be enrolled on the Gold Challenge. You will need to specify a start date. You can nominate the 1st or 16th (I think) of any month, and then get 90 days from that date to complete 5000 qualifying points (on discount tickets sometimes only 0.5 Q-points per mile flown). For example, if your trip departs 10 Nov, you would nominate 1 Nov start date, if your trip starts 20th Nov, nominate 16th Nov start date.
There is lots of info if you use the search function, but this is the basics and should get you started.
By the way, as the challenge is some what un-official, you may get a CSA that doesn't understand what you are talking about. It didn't happen to me, but has to others, who simply recomend thanking them for their time, hanging up, and phoning again, in the hope of getting another agent who is familia with the scheme. I rung once to enrol, and again a couple of weeks later to confirm, and didn't have any troubles.
According to Mile Markers' website (your mileage may vary), SYD/BKK is 4,680 miles (one-way); thus 9,360 miles in total.
But as earning on BA's V class is 25% of actual flown mileage and 50% EQP's on mileage earned; then you should earn 2,340 miles in the AA program and 1,170 EQP's (or 12.5% of actual mileage flown). This is insufficient for the Gold Challenge requirement of 5,000 EQP's...so as Dave Noble commented above, do you have any more flying in the 90 day period...
Of course, if you could change to the QF codeshare flight number, V class would earn you 50% mileage and 100% of mileage EQP's (thus giving you 4,680 miles and the same number of Q-points, still short but a domestic flights could push you over - would be better taken prior to your trip and making you Challenge have to start earlier).
Even better would be the possibility of changing to the AA codeshare, which would give you 100% mileage and EQP's, easily meeting the Gold Challenge and being 640 short of the Platinum Challenge level (10,000 EQP's)...if you fly some domestic QF flights prior to your trip having already enrolled for the Challenge, that would push you over by the time you return (and give you a 100% mileage bonus on the BKK/SYD flight). If you are able (assuming it's cost effective to change the flight numbers), I'd enrol for the Plat Challenge.
__________________ FF Programs: QFF Gold (OW Sapphire) QC Life, LTSilver & 57.5% to LTG, AAdv (24.35% to LTG), NW. Hotel: PC Plat, Hyatt GP Gold, HHonors Gold, SPG, Marriott Rewards, PriorityGUEST. Car Rental: Avis Pref, Hertz No 1 Cards: Amex Plat, Visa Plat.
Flown 585 sectors totalling 821,765 miles since March 03, 1988 (ba97.com)
I feel guilty if I dont give something back. It's not fair that the same 3 or 4 peopls keep retyping the same info so I though I would take up some slack. How did I do? Did I get it all right?
Even better would be the possibility of changing to the AA codeshare, which would give you 100% mileage and EQP's, easily meeting the Gold Challenge and being 640 short of the Platinum Challenge level (10,000 EQP's)...if you fly some domestic QF flights prior to your trip having already enrolled for the Challenge, that would push you over by the time you return (and give you a 100% mileage bonus on the BKK/SYD flight). If you are able (assuming it's cost effective to change the flight numbers), I'd enrol for the Plat Challenge.
I didn't think that AA codeshared on the Roo routes however. When I replied my brain just decided that he was travelling on QF rather than absorbing the BA bit so thought that he'd be sorted for a Gold challenge
Linear Mode
