Status Credits? Surely miles is where it's at?

[PapaRubbery]

Hi all,

I'm a little confused by the obsession with SC's. I understand that they are easier to accrue to get into higher classes of FF programs - but at least you can redeem miles for flights/upgrades in the future?

For instance, we are currently with Etihad and am trying to maximize our return with them. This involves at least a yearly family flight to the UK.

If we accrue ~80,000 points, that's an Economy to Business class upgrade.

Once you hit Silver for Etihad Guest you get access to business lounges, regardless of travel class. So once we are all silver, we could use the Melb and London business lounges pre hypothetical economy flight. And this converts to Virgin's lounges in Australia.

Surely it's very difficult to obtain SC's with an international airline?

Cheers,

Alex

 

[simongr]

For me it is very easy to earn SCs on pretty much any airline I want to - I just divert flights to airline partners. That is currently QF for status and OW for all flights.

For some people it is not all about earning points - I do not want to fly in economy - esp. long haul so any award I want is going to be expensive (750K next year for a return to the UK for three). What is more important to me is access to F lounges and domestic J lounges plus other benefits. A key one for my domestic flying is better seat selection. I do maybe 50/60 DOM flights per and I would rather not be stuck in 87Q...

 

[PapaRubbery]

For some people it is not all about earning points - I do not want to fly in economy - esp. long haul so any award I want is going to be expensive (750K next year for a return to the UK for three). What is more important to me is access to F lounges and domestic J lounges plus other benefits. A key one for my domestic flying is better seat selection. I do maybe 50/60 DOM flights per and I would rather not be stuck in 87Q...

Oh agreed!

We are lucky enough to be in a position of using my old man as an ex-QANTAS staff, so I've become accustomed to travelling J. However, during peak season I've had to buy economy long haul back to a QANTAS hub before getting home. Last July I spent $1300 to fly Singapore to Heathrow in Economy as I just had to be in London the next day - after getting bumped off a QANTAS J seat to Singapore!

So I don't want to fly economy unless I have to, so we've been attempting to maximise miles in a bid to make last-minute-economy-seat-buying upgrade-able to Business.

 

[harvyk]

Status has several advantages, including giving a higher points earning rate, choice of better seats as not all seats in the same class are equal, lounge access even if you are not flying a class entitled to use that lounge and higher chances of upgrades and that ever elusive op-up.

A healthy FF balance doesn't hurt, but to the airline that simply represents the sort of liability they have to you, SC's on the other hand represent how important you are to them, and they will usually treat you accordingly.

 

[PapaRubbery]

Harvyk - however, earning SC on an international airline isn't as simple as earning on a domestic airline, and seeing how SC aren't transferable - at least for me - any advantage in earning SC on Virgin would make no difference to Etihad - and so not worth it, in my case?

Interesting; SC are more of a value than FF miles?

 

[drewbles]

Harvyk - however, earning SC on an international airline isn't as simple as earning on a domestic airline, and seeing how SC aren't transferable - at least for me - any advantage in earning SC on Virgin would make no difference to Etihad - and so not worth it, in my case?

Interesting; SC are more of a value than FF miles?

Earning SC's on Oneworld airlines for QF is dead simple. There are a few caveats.

In fact, it's far far easier to earn SC's on AA in specific situations than it is on QF.

The whole idea of an alliance is to encourage spend on specific airlines, so they all have reciprocal agreements for their status. I fly QF, BA and AA regularly, and the last few years, probably 65%+ of my SC's come from AA (not so this year, most from BA and QF).

As harvyk also mentioned, status has its advantages. Especially on QF. If you want to have any chance of bagging that upgrade on an international segment, you really need to be Gold or higher. Remember, QF do not have confirmed upgrades for International, they're all wait listed, and the higher your QFF status (only attainable by earning SC's) the more likely your upgrade is to clear.

I would not fly again without status. I took a UA flight as *A Silver a few weeks ago, and it was a harrowing experience. In fact, *A is inferior for elite status IMHO (but far superior for its consistent alliance wide luggage rules; something OW needs to address).

Earning SC's on Etihad for DJ is simple. I know many people who fly to Europe regularly with VA to AUH and then EY on to Europe. The SC's are just fine and work a treat.

The only time SC's are relevant to your home airline is if you're going for something like Qantas Platinum One, which has a very high SC requirement (3400) and at least 2700 of those have to be on QF codes. Even then, the P1 benefits will only be seen on QF anyway. The rest of the Oneworld alliance will see you as Oneworld Emerald, and bestow such privileges on you.

 

[PapaRubbery]

Earning SC's on Etihad for DJ is simple. I know many people who fly to Europe regularly with VA to AUH and then EY on to Europe. The SC's are just fine and work a treat.

The only time SC's are relevant to your home airline is if you're going for something like Qantas Platinum One, which has a very high SC requirement (3400) and at least 2700 of those have to be on QF codes. Even then, the P1 benefits will only be seen on QF anyway. The rest of the Oneworld alliance will see you as Oneworld Emerald, and bestow such privileges on you.

I don't understand using DJ to fly to AUH for the status credits? Wouldn't I be better off flying Etihad the entire way? I'm confused. If the SC's are non-transferable, I'd be better off earning them entirely with Etihad, surely?

Thanks for the help so far everyone, sorry if my questions are annoying, I'm just trying to make sense of this myself

 

[yohy?!]

Points are great but what do you do when all the upgrades or J/F seats you want have been snapped up by other members with higher status than yours

 

[drewbles]

I don't understand using DJ to fly to AUH for the status credits? Wouldn't I be better off flying Etihad the entire way? I'm confused. If the SC's are non-transferable, I'd be better off earning them entirely with Etihad, surely?

Thanks for the help so far everyone, sorry if my questions are annoying, I'm just trying to make sense of this myself

]

IMHO, VA provide a superior product to EY long haul in Economy (and EY offer no Premium Economy at all). I would rather fly VA Premium to AUH then the shorter hop in Economy to Europe.

Why would you want to fly EY and credit to VA? If your home airline flys the route, and has a good product, i'd be doing that.

I'm not quite sure where your confusion about status credits is coming from. SC's and Points/Miles are really very separate things in the AU FF world (not quite so clear cut in the USA where they use BIS miles for status and multipliers of them based on cabin class and other promos for determining status, as well as EQP's and actual flight segment numbers).

SC's are used solely to determine your FF status, nothing more. If you want status with an say QF or VA, you want to get the SC's. How you get them is up to you of course. VA makes it a little tougher not being part of any alliance, where you do need to see what you earn when you fly with specific partners. Star Alliance and Oneworld are a lot more clear cut of course.

 

[harvyk]

I don't understand using DJ to fly to AUH for the status credits? Wouldn't I be better off flying Etihad the entire way? I'm confused. If the SC's are non-transferable, I'd be better off earning them entirely with Etihad, surely?

Thanks for the help so far everyone, sorry if my questions are annoying, I'm just trying to make sense of this myself

That's one of the advantages of the various types of agreements airlines have between themselves. The actual aircraft (metal) you fly on can have very little to do with who you make the booking through, and who you make the booking through can have very little to do with who you credit the points \ SC's to.

The trick is to mix and match, first sign up to the FF program which you will find most useful to you, where you know you'll meet the minimum flight requirements, and whom you know you'll be able to credit the majority of your flights. Then when you make your bookings do so in a way that links your chosen airline with your FF program.

Thanks to the many code sharing and other FF program agreements out there you no longer need to fly that airline to credit points to their program.

I hope this makes sense, just because you are signed up with one airlines FF program, does not prevent you from flying a competing airline on that same route and yet still getting the points for that.

Edit: It should probably be pointed out that airlines don't really make earn and burn overly easy to understand, in the hope that you either credit to an account without using it, or fail to credit to an account full stop, all you need to do is look at airline \ class earning tables to see that.

 

[PapaRubbery]

Drewbles - Assuming that any EY flight is flown in Business (Economy + miles upgrade), and all other flights (domestic and international) are QF-staff then I should be just focusing on crediting miles to EY by flying EY flights, correct? Any DJ flights in Australia (on the rare occurrence) flown should have their miles credited to EY or transferred from Velocity to Etihad Guest, correct?

Harvyk - Thanks for your post. The airlines make it tough sometimes - this whole thing is new to me, as I'm so used to flying QF-staff so it's a case of getting my ahead around programs and what converts to what.

What's probably really needed is a diagram that shows the interlinking between airlines. That'd be so much less of a headache!

Thanks again all for your help, much appreciated!

Cheers,

Alex

 

[drewbles]

Drewbles - Assuming that any EY flight is flown in Business (Economy + miles upgrade), and all other flights (domestic and international) are QF-staff then I should be just focusing on crediting miles to EY by flying EY flights, correct? Any DJ flights in Australia (on the rare occurrence) flown should have their miles credited to EY or transferred from Velocity to Etihad Guest, correct?

What's probably really needed is a diagram that shows the interlinking between airlines. That'd be so much less of a headache!

Thanks again all for your help, much appreciated!

Cheers,

Alex

I can't see the logic in splitting your earn amongst airlines, unless you're going to fly enough to earn status on both.

EY reciprocate VA's FF status (Elites get Lounge access etc). Same for VA with EY's.

Why would you not just credit everything to either VA or EY depending on who's program you found more beneficial to your situation?

Home - oneworld and www.staralliance.com will give you a good run down of who's who in each alliance. VA also clearly list all their partners, earn and mileage rates here Earn Points with Airline Partners | Velocity Frequent Flyer and you can see the status credit earn table here Earning Status Credits | Velocity Frequent Flyer

Shouldn't need a diagram (trust me that would be a headache in itself; You can fly AF on a QF code, and earn QF points even though AF are a part of SkyTeam and QF are Oneworld, and then there's AS which are not part of any alliance but you can earn AA or QF miles, and they recognise AA elites on AS).

The industry is one complex web. That's why websites like this exist

*edit*

In addition, it makes sense to pool your points/miles into one account too. Most programs don't allow transfer out once the miles are in, so you're best off determining what is going to work for you. Programs have different earn/burn rates for miles and different earn rates for elite status. Splitting your miles up is not generally going to work in your favour as you'll have balances in two accounts, and not be able to use them for awards. The exception to that is if you split your flying around over say 2 of the three main alliances (Star/Oneworld/Skyteam) you'd be have a greater reach come award redemption time. This method is typically only viable if you do sufficient travel to earn elite status in two programs though.

 

[PapaRubbery]

Thanks again for the informative posting, Drewbles!

From what you've said I think what I will do is pool the family accounts from Etihad and Virgin. Then any miles that get accrued through Virgin will get transferred into Etihad, and used to upgrade from Business to Economy.

Applied for the Amex Plat Edge and thinking of switching the NAB card from Platinum to Velocity Gold Mastercard. We have HSBC Premier cards which earn Asia miles, but that card doesn't get used that frequently. Miles can then be dumped into the Etihad account when needed.

We don't really fly around Australia unless we are flying QF-staff, so earning Velocity Silver is actually going to be more difficult than earning Etihad Silver!

Thanks again mate

 

[11sjw]

upgrade from Business to Economy.

Is it just me or did that hurt to even read let alone experience?

 

[markis10]

Interesting; SC are more of a value than FF miles?

Miles can be obtained by non flying activity at very low cost, its much harder to do so with status credits.

 

[drewbles]

Thanks again for the informative posting, Drewbles!

From what you've said I think what I will do is pool the family accounts from Etihad and Virgin. Then any miles that get accrued through Virgin will get transferred into Etihad, and used to upgrade from Business to Economy.

You can't pool two FF programs together though. You can pool VA family points and status credits, but when flying EY you will still need to put your VA FF number into the booking. If you credit to EY, the points and SC's will stay with EY.

Its one program or the other. VA and EY just have reciprocal earning, not ff programs

 

[Duffa]

Miles can be obtained by non flying activity at very low cost, its much harder to do so with status credits.

I have 600k QF points and am bronze. I am really struggling to find any availability to anywhere in Europe on J or F. Am wondering if members have ever done a live comparison of availability ie A gold or plat member and I log in at the same time, search the same route etc etc and see if higher status displays more flights. I know QF promise it but how can one prove that they actually deliver?

 

[Deleted member]

I have 600k QF points and am bronze. I am really struggling to find any availability to anywhere in Europe on J or F. Am wondering if members have ever done a live comparison of availability ie A gold or plat member and I log in at the same time, search the same route etc etc and see if higher status displays more flights. I know QF promise it but how can one prove that they actually deliver?

I believe it gets better with status. I also believe that it helps if you book a long way out, not only will you find more seats , but there are often more specials, so a JASA booked 12 months out may cost a fraction of one you book next month.

 

[11sjw]

I have 600k QF points and am bronze. I am really struggling to find any availability to anywhere in Europe on J or F. Am wondering if members have ever done a live comparison of availability ie A gold or plat member and I log in at the same time, search the same route etc etc and see if higher status displays more flights. I know QF promise it but how can one prove that they actually deliver?

Ring and pay the 5k booking fee. Much easier for them to do the search. As long as you're flexible they should be able to find you something.

 

[PapaRubbery]

You can't pool two FF programs together though. You can pool VA family points and status credits, but when flying EY you will still need to put your VA FF number into the booking. If you credit to EY, the points and SC's will stay with EY.

Its one program or the other. VA and EY just have reciprocal earning, not ff programs

But VA miles can be transferred to EY, though? So I'd be better off sticking to the EY as much as possible, yeah?