Questions and Answers

Still a bit confused how to maximize miles earned and the new AA spending requirement. For example, one of my largest planned travel expenses for 2017 will be flying on a paid (probably discounted) business class fare from New York to Melbourne, Australia. I have the option of flying/purchasing as AA or Qantas flights. Assuming a similar price for both (around $8000), should I book through AA or Qantas? How would the miles earned/spending requirement differ between the 2 options? I am currently a AA Executive Platinum member

I would purchase as AA without a doubt. The new revenue based system actually rewards flyers who spend a significant amount on tickets. In your example, you would earn 75,000 redeemable miles (American caps the limit earned on any ticket at 75K). You would also get 40% of the way to requalifying for ExPlat on that one trip. For elite qualifying dollars you’d earn the $8000 obviously.

Purchasing as a Qantas ticket, you’d hit about $5000 for the dollars (25% of mileage flown), about 30,000 redeemable and about 25,000 elite qualifying (25% for the way to ExPlat.

Numbers are rough estimates based on assuming you’d fly New York to LAX to Melbourne, but almost any routing should be similar. Hope that helps!

There shouldn’t be any reason to get capped. If you find that your itinerary is producing mileage over the 75k limit, I’d book the outward and return separately.

@Guarav can’t speak from experience but see here for the cap at 75K

[URL]https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/partner-airlines/american-airlines.jsp[/URL]

[USER=1436]@rickyw[/USER], that is accurate. What I was saying was that if the R/T ticket is more than $6818, it should be split into two or more so that each leg can maximize earnings.

Ah gotcha, I see what you meant. Good call.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 20956, member: 79″][USER=1436]@rickyw[/USER], that is accurate. What I was saying was that if the R/T ticket is more than $6818, it should be split into two or more so that each leg can maximize earnings.[/QUOTE]