Questions and Answers

Lucky,

In the midst of an AA platinum challenge and will make the 10k eqp requirement. I also will be getting the SW companion pass and hopefully matching to Alaska’s 75k top tier. For 2016, where should I focus my flight mileage credits to, Alaska or AA? Which program has better award redemption for premium travel?

-Brice

[USER=787]@Brice Nzeukou[/USER] – where do you want to travel? That can make a difference in the answer.

Most of my travel is domestic for work, and I want to fly as comfortably as possible. I also want to do international travel at least twice in 2016 to London and Africa.

[USER=787]@Brice Nzeukou[/USER] – the folks at Travel Is Free have a great post from May summarizing [URL=’http://travelisfree.com/2015/05/26/cheapest-miles-to-africa/’]the best ways to get to Africa on miles[/URL]. Based on that – and the fact that it’s easy to get to London with either airline – I’d say Alaska is your best bet. Using AA miles to Africa if you route via London you’ve got massive fuel surcharges or you can route via Doha on Qatar.

But on Alaska, as the post points out, you can route 4 different ways:
[LIST]
[*]Air France = 80k/140k/na
[*]British Airways = 100k/140k/160k (+ big fuel surcharges)
[*]Cathay = 100k/125k/140k
[*]Emirates = 95k/155k/200k
[/LIST]
So you could even route via Asia on Cathay, with a stopover there each way, if you want.

I’m not an expert in elite status so the next thing to consider is if you status match and most of your domestic flights are NOT on Alaska, does that do you any good as far as domestic upgrades? Will need someone else to chime in here. [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] [USER=4]@Lucky[/USER]

[USER=787]@Brice Nzeukou[/USER] — Welcome! It really does depend on where you’re going to be traveling. I’m not sure of the benefit of status matching to Alaska if you’re not actually going to be flying Alaska, for example.

But both programs have redemption sweet spots, so you have to decide whether domestic perks or redeemable miles are of greater interest to you. I gave up my Alaska status in order to more easily maintain AA EXP, and accrue Alaska miles through credit cards. Others will prefer the opposite, so it comes down to preferences and your personal situation.

Thanks [USER=184]@MidSouth Skier[/USER] and [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] for the responses. I think I’m going forward with Alaska given that their partnership with American and Delta affords a bit more flexibility for domestic travel. I don’t do enough travel for top tier elite qualification so I’m definitely taking advantage of the SW Companion Pass status match to Alaska.