[isdoo]

Hi,

I am due to embark on a 35K+ journey on Qantas - currently I only have a AA card, and can do a platinum challange on my first leg. The entire journey will be mostly first & business with some economy.

Is it worth me to build up my AA points total - or start a QF and put points on that?

My journey is...

London - Singapore (first)
Singapore - Perth (club)
Perth - Cains (club)
Cains -Brisbane (Econ)
Sydney - Hobart (Econ)
Hobart - Sydney (Econ)
Sydney - Hong Kong (first)
Hong Kong - London (first)

Sorry if this is a basic question - but I am not sure if any of these trips would earn me any real benefit with Qantas (although I do plan to fly with Qantas more often)

Many thanks.

[Dave Noble]

I would recommend putting them to AA since you will (a) earn more points thanks to the candy stealing and (b) the points will have a higher value. Your 1st flight will give you platinum and ensure that you get 100% bonus for all sectors

You will earn 24045 base miles plus 24045 platinum bonus plus 8670 bonus for 1st class sectors plus 640 for business class sectors giving 57,360 points plus 4000 if you convert earned upgrades to miles giving 61,360 points. 40,000 points will give you a r/t from UK-USA during winter for example ( 60k during summer ).

Crediting to QF you would reach Silver status at CNS and would earn 25% bonus from there on giving a Status bonus of 2860 vs the 24,045 you would get from AA so you would earn approx 37,000 points if credited to Qantas.

Dave

[isdoo]

Thank you.

What do you mean by 'plus 4000 if you convert earned upgrades to miles'?

Confused

[Dave Noble]

Originally Posted by isdoo

Thank you.

What do you mean by 'plus 4000 if you convert earned upgrades to miles'?

Confused

As an AA platinum member, you earn 4 electronic upgrade credits for every 10,000 miles flown. Your trip is > 20,000 miles so you will earn 2 * 4 Upgrade credits. These can be exchanged for miles at a rate of 4 UCs gives 2,000 miles

Dave

[Skyring]

Originally Posted by isdoo

Sorry if this is a basic question - but I am not sure if any of these trips would earn me any real benefit with Qantas (although I do plan to fly with Qantas more often)

Two schools of thought on this. From a strictly earn and burn outlook, AA seems to be far superior. However, having reasonable status with Qantas gives you benefits on Qantas flights, help with bookings, better choice of seats, extremely useful if flying within Australia. Equivalent oneWorld status is nice, but not quite the same thing.

My own strategy in years to come is to do enough flying using QFF to make WP, and anything after that will go to AAdvantage. Same travel, just different buckets for points. Anything that generates airmiles but not Status Credits, such as hotel or car hire reward programs, can be channeled to AA if at all possible.

Incidentally, while longhaul Qantas flights in J and F are nice, I'd be inclined to book Cathay Pacific, because their level of service in equivalent classes is superior, especially with the new cabin fitouts coming up, which look to be a great deal better than anything Qantas is going to be able to install for a while.