My WP status pales into insignificance in comparion.

[Simo]

AA used their own metal in the 70s but gave it to Pan Am, in the early 90s they were back, operating[SIZE=-1] DFW-HNL-SYD for two years from 2nd February 1990 until 29th February 1992. DC10s were used.

Dallas/Fort Worth – Honolulu – Sydney (effective 2nd February 1990)
AA91 DFW 1630 HNL 2041arr/2225dep SYD 0525
AA90 SYD 0800 HNL 2045arr/2245dep DFW 1000[/SIZE]

I am in awe of you guys who can find a flight schedule from over 20 years ago.

 

[markis10]

That came from Airliners.net BTW!

 

[serfty]

Such an interesting concept, but at the end of the day, as someone else mentioned, you are still flying AA. Would be one of my last choices of airline to fly weekly on! ...

Personally, I'd be quite happy to be flying weekly in AA first class ...

 

[simongr]

How many people decrying AA F have flown their intercontinental F class? The suites are great - comfy and spacious. The food is OK but not great (mind you I wasnt blown away by QF F food).

If I was earning points and flying F whenever I wanted I would be very happy.

DOM F is not that much worse than QF (again the food is less than sparkling).

I am in two minds on these guys. Sure they were in theory just using what they were entitled to but things like booking a seat for your bag seem a bit self involved.

Just thinking you could also have credited to QF as well...

 

[docjames]

It's an interesting one - bought legitimately, not an "error" fare, and entitled to use without restriction.

Will be interesting to see how this scheme washes out post bankruptcy - but given it's LOTFAP it'll be court-bound no doubt......

 

[drewbles]

Exactly. You couldn't pay me $350,000 to fly 30 million miles on AA!!

Feel free to pay me to fly it then (as long as it's all in F). Those 30,000,000 miles will give me around 207 return flights from AU to the USA on Qantas in F (plus around $70 in taxes each flight).

 

[djfuzz]

Personally, I'd be quite happy to be flying weekly in AA first class ...

How many people decrying AA F have flown their intercontinental F class? The suites are great - comfy and spacious. The food is OK but not great (mind you I wasnt blown away by QF F food).

If I was earning points and flying F whenever I wanted I would be very happy.

DOM F is not that much worse than QF (again the food is less than sparkling).

I am in two minds on these guys. Sure they were in theory just using what they were entitled to but things like booking a seat for your bag seem a bit self involved.

Just thinking you could also have credited to QF as well...

Agreed. AA Int F is nothing to sneeze at, and Dom F is more than passable. Far from the worst thing in the world, rather quite pleasant. And the ancillary benefits of the FF miles makes it the most effective way to status run imaginable, with all of the OW airlines and AA partner airlines open to you - all you need to do is fly a bit more on AA (at no further cost).

USD 300,000 in 1980 is worth AUD 835,000 in today's dollars - something like the price of a small house in the suburbs of Melbourne. Would it have been worth taking out a mortgage to finance the purchase of one of these things?

 

[simongr]

You would only need to actually have flown around 12 million miles or less to earn those 30M miles. In fact if you flew DFW-AUS-DFW 15,000 times you could have earned that 30,000,000 and only flown 2,850,000 Miles.

 

[simongr]

USD 300,000 in 1980 is worth AUD 835,000 in today's dollars - something like the price of a small house in the suburbs of Melbourne. Would it have been worth taking out a mortgage to finance the purchase of one of these things?

it is actually hard to measure the value as you can't rally base it on the amount that they would have paid for the travel they actually took as they probably flew more because it was free. You also can't base it on how they would have flown because again they might have flown differently if they hadn't had a pass.

 

[ajca]

You would only need to actually have flown around 12 million miles or less to earn those 30M miles. In fact if you flew DFW-AUS-DFW 15,000 times you could have earned that 30,000,000 and only flown 2,850,000 Miles.

Are you sure about the maths behind 15,000 times? Not saying its wrong but 15,000 DFW-AUS-DFWs x 30 hours = 450,000 flying hours = 18,750 days = 51 years. Unless I am missing something, which is entirely possible.

In any case what is the opportunity cost of spending 51 years of your life on a plane without internet access?

PLUS: Again you would have to ask yourself whether making yourself into a long-term multi-hundred thousand dollar unsecured creditor to an airline that is almost certainly going to file for bankruptcy sometime in the following decade or two really puts you on the right side of the risk / reward curve

 

[simongr]

I don't think the return flight DFW-AUS-DFW which is 190 miles would take 30 hours maybe three... So 5.1 years... Not great but just proving that you don't need to fly 30 million miles to earn 30 million points...

 

[ajca]

I don't think the return flight DFW-AUS-DFW which is 190 miles would take 30 hours maybe three... So 5.1 years... Not great but just proving that you don't need to fly 30 million miles to earn 30 million points...

Arrghhh my bad. That would only be 3.4 years of your life, not including delays and time spent in the terminal.

 

[baggers89]

The holy grail

Airline's fury as travellers live it up in first class, for life | News.com.au

And this, my fellow dear members of Australian Frequent Flyer, could (partially) explain why AA is in so much trouble at the moment

 

[drewbles]

Re: The holy grail

Currently already being discussed over here http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/travel-news/my-wp-status-pales-into-39220.html

 

[Deleted member]

Passed and made law 6th March


Members of Parliament (Life Gold Pass) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 – Parliament of Australia

Missed that one then

 

[Flashback]

Such an interesting concept, but at the end of the day, as someone else mentioned, you are still flying AA. Would be one of my last choices of airline to fly weekly on!

Imagine if QF or SQ offered this - you could make it a challenge to fly to every single one of their international destinations in a calendar year!

If taking the challenge on QF... you could almost easily do it in a week

 

[infinity]

Imagine buying one of these passes from Ansett

Now that would be a collectors item!

 

[Flashback]

Imagine buying one of these passes from Ansett

Now that would be a collectors item!

And a worthless one at that!

 

[infinity]

And a worthless one at that!

Touche! hee hee

 

[Warks]

I see the SMH finally found this story.
Airline's ticket to trouble: how a man called Vroom got unlimited first class flights for life