The Best Programs for Earning Oneworld Status

When you have status with one Oneworld airline, you’ll get to enjoy reciprocal benefits with all of the other Oneworld alliance airlines.

For example, Qantas Gold frequent flyers enjoy lounge access, priority boarding and lots more benefits when flying with all 13 Oneworld airlines, thanks to reciprocal Oneworld Sapphire recognition. Qantas Platinum members get recognised as Oneworld Emerald flyers, giving even more alliance-wide benefits like international First Class lounge access.

Many Australians collect points and status credits with Qantas, almost by default. Indeed, using Qantas Frequent Flyer as your main Oneworld program probably makes sense if you do most of your flying with Qantas. But it’s not your only option!

You can still enjoy many of the same benefits with Qantas and across the alliance by earning status with a different Oneworld airline. In some cases, you might even find it easier to earn status through another Oneworld program.

As a reminder, the following airlines are part of the Oneworld alliance (with Oman Air also joining later this year):

Let’s have a look at the best Oneworld frequent flyer status options for Australian frequent flyers…

Qantas Frequent Flyer

If you’re a regular Australian Frequent Flyer reader, you’re probably already familiar with the Qantas Frequent Flyer program.

To earn Qantas Frequent Flyer status, you would need to fly at least four Qantas marketed flights. You also need to earn a minimum amount of status credits during your membership year:

The number of status credits you’ll earn for a flight depends on:

• Marketing airline of your flight (Qantas flights often earn more status credits than Oneworld partner airlines)
• Route
• Cabin
• Fare class

As an example, you would earn 10 status credits for a one-way Qantas Economy Red e-Deal booking from Melbourne to Sydney. Business Class on the same route earns 40 status credits. Flying Qantas from Sydney to Dallas/Fort Worth in Premium Economy would net you between 100 and 115 status credits each way, depending on the exact fare category.

Annoyingly, Qantas awards status credits at different rates when you fly on partner airlines. On some partners, such as Malaysia Airlines, Qantas even issues status credits for Business Class flights at Economy rates. The airline earning tables on the Qantas website show what you can expect to earn.

Read our guide to earning Qantas status for more details, including some of the tricks to earn Qantas status faster.

British Airways Executive Club

British Airways (BA) uses Tier Points to determine your status. These work similarly to status credits, but the earn rates are slightly different.

BA awards a lot more Tier Points on flights over 2,000 miles in distance, compared to shorter flights. In addition, Executive Club does not issue Tier Points at reduced rates when you fly on partner airlines. You’ll earn at the same rates whether you’re flying British Airways or any Oneworld partner.

You can alternatively earn Bronze or Silver status based on BA sectors. Here’s what you’d need to earn during a single membership year, which from 2025 will start from 1 April every year:

See our guide to earning British Airways Executive Club status for more information.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club

Qatar Airways is unique in that it partners with both Qantas (through the Oneworld alliance) and Virgin Australia. So, you can enjoy the benefits of Qatar Airways status when flying on both of our major local airlines.

With Qatar Airways Privilege Club, you earn status based on Qpoints:

In general, the amount of Qpoints you would earn for a given flight is less than the number of Qantas status credits or British Airways Tier Points you would earn. However, the number of Qpoints needed to earn or retain status is also lower.

You can also buy a limited number of Qpoints each year in order to retain your existing tier.

If you do a lot of Qantas domestic flying, note that Qantas won’t let you earn Qpoints on Qantas domestic routes that are also served by Virgin Australia.

It might be difficult to earn meaningful status through Privilege Club if you mainly fly domestic within Australia. But if you fly Qatar Airways to Doha (or beyond) a few times per year in a premium cabin, that could be enough to secure status benefits that you can then enjoy while flying in Australia.

Also see our Qatar Airways Privilege Club status guide.

American Airlines AAdvantage

American Airlines uses a completely different system for awarding status. Your tier in its AAdvantage program is not directly linked to how much you fly, but rather, how many AAdvantage miles you earn.

For every AAdvantage mile you earn from flying, credit cards or eligible partners, you’ll also earn 1 Loyalty Point. These Loyalty Points count towards your AAdvantage status:

American Airlines AAdvantage uses a fixed membership year from March until February.

Cathay

Cathay uses Status Points (similar to status credits) to determine your status tier. In addition, you must take at least one Cathay Pacific flight each year to upgrade or renew your status.

If you earn 300 Status Points during any 12-month period, you’ll upgrade to Silver status and your membership year will instantly reset. From that point on, you’ll have 12 months to either renew Silver, or upgrade to Gold by earning a further 600 Status Points.

Here are the Status Point thresholds:

As well as from flying, Hong Kong residents can earn Cathay Status Points through credit card spend.

Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer

Royal Air Maroc (AT) joined the Oneworld alliance in 2020. Its Safar Flyer loyalty program is not well-known in Australia. But it’s an interesting one because there’s a loophole to earn status with only relatively little flying on Royal Air Maroc.

You can earn Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer status by either earning enough Status Miles or Status Flights (sectors) during your membership year. A certain amount needs to be earned on Royal Air Maroc, but the remainder can be on Oneworld partner airlines.

Here’s the kicker: You can earn lots of Status Miles relatively easily by purchasing a Status Miles Booster subscription. For a fee, this lets you earn double or triple Status Miles on all Royal Air Maroc flights!

Here are the requirements for earning Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer status:

By the way, if you wanted to qualify based on sectors flown, Royal Jordanian’s Royal Club program has similarly low sector requirements for earning status.

Other Oneworld frequent flyer programs

Note that the above list is not exhaustive. Other Oneworld frequent flyer programs include:

• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
• Finnair Plus
• Iberia Plus
• Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
• Malaysia Airlines Enrich
• SriLankan FlySmiLes

Which is the easiest program to earn Oneworld status?

There’s unfortunately no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. It depends on a range of factors like where you live, your flying and spending patterns, and the types of tickets and airlines you fly.

For example, Qantas Frequent Flyer probably makes little sense for someone who lives in Europe or South America.

But if you live in Australia, earn enough Qantas points to get Points Club and regularly fly Qantas on Classic Reward tickets, Qantas Frequent Flyer may well be the best program for you. (As an exception, Qantas Points Club members can earn status credits on Qantas-marketed reward flights.) If you can take good advantage of Qantas’ double status credit offers, that could also be a good reason to stick with Qantas.

Oneworld status with American Airlines doesn’t require flying

If you’re able to easily earn lots of American Airlines AAdvantage miles, for example with a US credit card, then American Airlines AAdvantage might be the best option.

American Airlines also sells Instant Status Passes.

British Airways is good for regular international travellers

If you fly overseas a lot and regularly fly with Oneworld airlines other than Qantas, then British Airways Executive Club might be the best option.

You do need to fly a minimum amount on British Airways marketed flights each year. But even if you live in Australia, flying two British Airways sectors (for Bronze status) each year is as simple as flying from Sydney to Singapore on the airline’s fifth-freedom route. To get in four sectors (for Silver or Gold status), you could book British Airways from Brisbane or Melbourne to Singapore via Sydney, using BA codeshares on the Qantas-operated domestic legs.

British Airways doesn’t penalise you for flying Oneworld partner airlines. So, it would be faster to earn status through Executive Club than through Qantas Frequent Flyer when flying on airlines other than Qantas.

For example, let’s say you fly twice a year in Business Class from Sydney to Edinburgh, with one trip on British Airways and the other flying Qatar Airways (on a Business Classic fare). This is what you’d earn with various Oneworld programs:

• Cathay: 460 Status Points (enough to earn Oneworld Ruby with 1 additional CX sector)
• Qantas Frequent Flyer: 640 status credits (enough for Oneworld Ruby with 4 additional QF sectors, but not quite enough to earn Oneworld Sapphire)
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club: 314 Qpoints (just enough to earn Oneworld Sapphire)
• British Airways Executive Club: 1,160 Tier Points (enough for Oneworld Sapphire and well on the way to Oneworld Emerald)

The Oneworld status shortcut via Royal Air Maroc

If you’re able to do a bit of flying on Royal Air Maroc and take advantage of the Status Miles Booster for triple Status Miles, this is probably the easiest way to earn Oneworld Emerald status from flying! But you would need to travel to Morocco.

For example, you could purchase a Status Booster X3 for 90 days for €198 (~AU$322) and fly Royal Air Maroc Business Class from Cairo to Washington DC via Casablanca for around $4,144 round-trip:

This trip would normally earn you 25,516 Status Miles. But with triple Status Miles your earnings increase to 76,548 Status Miles – enough for Platinum status with Royal Air Maroc.

Which Oneworld airlines offer lifetime status?

If you plan to do a lot of flying over the coming decades, then lifetime status may also be a consideration for you.

The following Oneworld airlines offer lifetime status based on the flying you’ve done since joining the program:

• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
• American Airlines AAdvantage
• British Airways Executive Club
• Finnair Plus
• Iberia Plus
• Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
• Qantas Frequent Flyer

Requiring 14,000 lifetime status credits, Qantas’ lifetime Gold (Oneworld Sapphire) tier is a popular target. But if you’d like to aim for Oneworld Emerald for life, the best option could be British Airways Executive Club. You can get lifetime BA Gold status for 35,000 lifetime Tier Points.

Things to consider before switching from Qantas Frequent Flyer

If you currently hold status with Qantas Frequent Flyer, there are some benefits you wouldn’t get holding status with other Oneworld programs. For example, other Oneworld programs don’t give you lounge access when flying Jetstar or Emirates.

Qantas Platinum status also gets you access to Qantas domestic lounges on arrival at your destination, priority when calling Qantas and priority on the upgrade list for Qantas international flights.

If flying on Qantas Classic Reward bookings, you won’t earn status credits if crediting to a program other than Qantas Frequent Flyer – even if you’re in Points Club. Qantas’ cheapest Economy airfares in “E” class are also ineligible to earn anything with partner airlines. Since Qantas’ website doesn’t tell you which fare class you’re booking, this could easily catch you out if you’re not careful.

That said, each of the other Oneworld programs have their own unique benefits and quirks. For example, if you have AAdvantage status you can get complimentary upgrades when flying American Airlines. So, for some people, the trade-off could be worth it.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.