Questions and Answers

Hello,

I seek your wisdom on quite a trivial issue.

Due to renewed business focus, I’ve got absolutely tons of full-fare 1st class (or where flights don’t have F cabins, business class) travel ahead of me on revenue tickets. It will all be on Oneworld carriers.

The likely volume will be such that any program I choose to credit the (Oneworld) travel to, even starting at the most basic level, in the next 8-12 months would reach Emerald by the end of the itinerary.

I already have GGL (Emerald) status on BA so it’s a waste from my standpoint to credit these miles to BA simply for status.

For the above upcoming travel, I was thinking of

(i) crediting the travel to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles to retain Diamond (Emerald) status on that program OR
(ii) credit the travel to American Airlines Advantage where I have an ancient account with no status at all (not even Oneworld Ruby) but likely, by the end of the trip, would be AA Executive Platinum.

So my questions really is:

(A) Does it make sense effectively to abandon Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Oneworld Emerald status in “exchange” for American Airlines Oneworld Emerald Status

I am very nomadic, so this FF account I choose to ramp up could be at an address based in the US, EU or Asia.

Most of my travel is long-haul. Advice and comments most welcome!

Thanks!

KI

Each program has its own perks that are best used when flying that particular airline. Considering that you already have oneworld Emerald, what you need to consider is whether you can make use of the airline-specific perks of each program and what you would like to do with the rewards.

So if you fly American often enough to make use of the perks of being EXP, credit it there and if you fly Cathay often enough to make use of Marco Polo Diamond perks, go there instead.

Each award program has their own pros and cons. With Cathay, they still have round-the-world oneworld awards whereas BA and AA dont. AA’s reward program is region based and can be better suited for some awards. They also partner with Etihad, if that interests you.

Remember BA is the only program that offers lifetime OW Emerald, so if getting there is realistic (or even to lifetime OW Sapphire), might still be worth crediting to BA.

Interesting, was just posting a similar question about where to put my Oneworld loyalty. In your particular case, IMO, I would stick with BA. 1) You still get even more elite benefits above 3000 tier points, 2) you will have more points in your bucket for flight redemptions, and 3) you are well on your way to lifetime gold (Oneworld Emerald).

In fact, if I could guarantee that I would be flying four BA segments a year, I would take this strategy too. But being based in Asia, that’s something I would have to work on every year.