AA Plat Challange and QF upgrades?

[CarolynG]

Hi there,

I am planning a trip to the US in late Oct 2008, and have been reading about the AA Gold/Platinum challenges on this site (wow, what a find! ). I have a cruise booked departing from Florida (Ft Lauderdale) on Oct 24, and will be travelling there from BNE. From previous posts, i think I will be able to obtain Platinum status from flying BNE/LAX/MIA, then back to Las Vegas (won't quite make it from the first lot of flights).

I think I have to book these on AA to get the qpoints (unless I can book on a no-so discounted QF flight?), however I am really keen to then try and upgrade my flight home to BNE from at least LAX to business class. I have sufficient QFF points for this (with CC points accrued), however will I need to make sure I book at QF flight for the return trip to be able to try for an upgrade (hoping the additional OW status will bump me to the top of the queue). I am in Qantas Club, however still a lowly Bronze FF so business class upgrade is going to be a bit of a pipedream I think unless I can get my status up a bit.

Any advice? I haven't booked any flights yet, so am open to suggestions.
Many thanks in advance for your help!
Carolyn

 

[alect]

IN order to use QF points to upgrade you must be booked on the QF flight #

 

[drron]

The question is what do you want from platinum status on AA?If it is to increase your chances of an upgrade on QF from LAX-BNE I would forget it.Just look at the number of regulars on this forum from BNE who are QFF platinum.If just one of those is on that flight wanting to upgrade their family you have lost.
If you get AA plat in October it would last until Feb 2010 so will you be doing more travel before then to take advantage of your status?If not there is little to be gained.You already have lounge access because of your QP status and at most you will have around 30000 miles.Enough to get you a return flight anywhere in Australia or NZ.For 35000 it could be in business class.
If you are going to be doing more international travel then it certainly could be worth it.Remember you can get extra points with hotel stays,car rentals etc.If you had booked your cruise through Aa you could have obtained miles for that.
If considering the plat challenge might be worth considering the Circle pacific 22000 fare booked through AA.It costs $3289 at present and I see QF have a special to MIA until near the end of the year for $2799 but with the differences in fuel fines you will find the total costs about the same.
You could fly BNE-NRT on JL/QF then AA or AA codeshare on JL for the challenge.Buying the ticket through AA they will calculate the mileage as a direct flight not adding up the extra for a necessary connection.That will be around 6400 if via ORD or 6700 if via LAX,DFW or JFK.To get to the 10000 points the direct MIA-LAS flight would just fail so you could go MIA-ORD-LAS which gets you there plus elite bonus on ORD-LAS.Then back home on QF from LAX.
So first work out what you want from your plat status on AA.

 

[NM]

The issue about using AA flight numbers is only related to the challenge. Once the challenge is completed and you have AA Platinum status, you will still earn qpoints and AA miles on QF flight numbers, but the earning rate may be less than what it would have been with an AA flight number.

If you fly BNE-LAX-MIA-DFW-LAS all using AA flight numbers, you will earn enough q-points to complete the AA Platinum Challenge. From that point on you will be able to earn 100% status bonus miles when flying on AA and QF flight numbers.

So you could book a combination of flights using the AA flight number for the BNE-LAX and the QF flight number for the return LAX-BNE. The risk is that the fare may cost a little more due to the combination of carriers (depends on the specific fare rules for the fare purchased), you may earn less AA miles due to using a discounted QF flight number, or the last flight may end up crediting to you QF FF account instead of your AA account.

Remember that chances of the upgrade being successfully cleared in based on your QF FF status, so if that is not Gold or Platinum then the chances are very low for a trans-Pacific flight where you are competing against lots of Gold and Platinum members.

 

[CarolynG]

Thank you everyone for your replies. The main reason for status is that, after doing some reading, I realised that although I have enough QFF points for upgrade (for both me and hubby), I have a snowball's chance in hell of securing an upgrade due to my current status. It was a real bummer to find that out. I guess I was originally hoping that QP membership would 'help', but I now know it doesn't.

I don't do a lot of OS travel (only holidays, all my work travel is short hops domestically mostly on Qantaslink), and this is mine and hubby's big trip this year (his 40th b'day as well as our 10th wedding anniversary). Was looking for ways to maybe swing an upgrade in there for a treat for both of us, since we have the points. We are looking to do another US trip in the near future, so I guess having the status would help on that one.

Hmm, a few things to think about. Maybe it's just better to stick with my old QP mship and use my points for domestic flights at this stage.
Thanks again everyone,
Carolyn

 

[Maca44]

When you consider the cost of domestic tix I would not be using FF points for any domestic flights, and even though it would appear QF will most likely make significant changes to the program this year I think it would still be better value to save them, book at the earliest time and get two J fares for a holiday. I booked 350 days out 2 years ago and got two J class seats to USA, so they are available, you just have to book asap.