In the comments section of my post today about American offering United flyers status matches, FBKSan left (in part) the following comment:

I was surprised not to see more discussion of using miles, however. I get that the post is primarily about AA and its policies, but the ability to use miles is pretty central. I continue to be underwhelmed by the thought of what my AA miles could do. I realize *A availability has waned somewhat lately, but the sheer number of star partners still really appeals to me. Moreover, BA’s prominent position in OneWorld makes me gun-shy (those surcharges!) I’ve seen you and Gary comment positively about AA award availability and flight experiences, but their hard product in C is a real drag. I’ve come to really value the seat, especially when I’m flying a domestic carrier, so for me UA trumps AA.

For a long time I’ve considered United miles to be the most valuable mileage currency out there by far, given the liberal routing and stopover rules, reasonable award costs, and excellent partners. That being said, everyday the value of American miles is creeping up, in my opinion, while the value of United miles continues to slowly decrease.

Over the past few years we’ve seen the following happen with Star Alliance award availability for United flyers:

• Swiss has completely stopped releasing first class award space to/from the US more than 24 hours in advance
• Singapore has more or less stopped releasing award space in first and business class
• Lufthansa has stopped releasing first class award space more than a week or two before departure (this was the biggest blow, since they were the backbone of Star Alliance transatlantic first class award space)
• Air New Zealand has become even more stingy with releasing premium cabin award space out of North America
• ANA is hardly releasing first class award space anymore, even in the winter months when they previously were pretty generous

Of course these are all just trends. Meanwhile, using American miles, we’ve seen the following over the past couple of years:

• Cathay Pacific has continued to release more and more award space, often two first class award seats per flight
• American added Etihad as a partner, which has excellent award availability and a very nice first class suite
• After a long anti-trust agreement, American miles could once again be used for transatlantic travel on British Airways, though with very hefty fuel surcharges

But when you break it down by destination, American miles look more and more compelling (keep in mind I’m talking specifically about premium cabin award redemptions):

Asia — American

American miles are hands down more valuable than United miles for premium cabin redemptions to Asia. American releases plenty of first class award space on their own flights, as does Cathay Pacific and JAL. Meanwhile using United miles, only Asiana, Air China, and United release award space in first class between the US and Asia, none of which have nearly as much space as American or Cathay Pacific.

South America — American

Okay, this one’s not even close. American has one of the most extensive route networks to South America (they fly to at least a dozen places down there that I’ve never heard of), and they also partner with LAN, which has the most extensive route network in South America.

Australia — American

In the past Air New Zealand used to be a great way to get to Australia using United miles, but I’ve just about written them off because I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen a premium cabin award seat on them. Compare that to American, which partners with Qantas. While Qantas is stingy with award space, they do occasionally release space, and it’s even possible to redeem for Airbus 380 first class with them. Furthermore, American partners with Air Pacific, Air Tahiti Nui and Hawaiian, which also serve Australia/New Zealand.

Middle East — American

American partners with Etihad, El Al, and Royal Jordanian. Etihad is especially generous with releasing award space and they have a fully flat first and business class product, so you really can’t beat that for getting to the Middle East.

Europe — United

Believe it or not, I consider this one to be at only a slight margin. Why? Because the only first class product you can book between the US and Europe in advance is United first class. In the past you could redeem on Lufthansa and Swiss in advance, in which case I’d say United won by a long shot.

But with American you can also redeem for first class on their own flights with relative ease, with the added option of redeeming on British Airways with very high fuel surcharges. It’s not ideal, but at least you have the option of essentially paying a premium to fly a foreign carrier.

But United does still have the edge thanks to how many partners they have in Europe, including Austrian, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS, and TAP. The only issue is that for the most part they’re not very generous with releasing transatlantic award space. Still, it’s better than what American offers.

Africa — United

United partners with both South African Airways and Ethiopian Airways, so has a much more extensive route network to and around Africa.

But there are two major caveats I should emphasize. If you can wait till the last minute to book, United miles are very valuable, since Lufthansa, Swiss, and often even ANA do open up award space close to departure. Second, United does have very liberal routing rules which American doesn’t. So in many of the above instances if you’re willing to travel “the long way” you’ll have better luck with United than American. For example, with United you can travel to Australia via Asia, or to Asia via Europe.

But the average person doesn’t want to fly the long way and doesn’t want to wait till a few days before departure to finalize their trip. So which points currency is more valuable really comes down to your travel needs and flexibility. I think one thing is clear, though — the value of American miles has been on the rise over the past couple of years, in both absolute terms (thanks to their new partnerships) and relative terms (thanks to the decreasing value of miles with other programs).

What do you guys think?

Per this FlyerTalk thread, it appears as if American is offering United customers “no strings attached” status matches. The email people are getting after requesting the status match reads as follows:

Thanks for speaking with me about a special opportunity to obtain American Airlines AAdvantage® elite status without meeting the standard qualification requirements. In order to proceed, please provide us with documentation reflecting the Premier level that you hold with United Airlines.
Please send us the following documentation. Simply “Reply” to this message, and for prompt service, do not change the subject line:
• A copy of your dated elite membership card reflecting your name and Premier status level for the 2012 Membership Year (.pdf, .tif, .jpeg, .bmp formats, not to exceed 1MB)
• Alternatively, you could send a copy or screen shot of your most recent account summary, reflecting your name and Premier status level (.pdf, .tif, .jpeg, .bmp formats, not to exceed 1MB)
• Your AAdvantage number and phone number
Alternatively, you may FAX copies of your documentation to (817)963-7882. Be sure to include your AAdvantage number and phone number and the Subject Line: Requesting AAdvantage Elite Status. Please do not send both an email and a FAX.
Once your documentation is accepted, you will receive an email within10 days confirming your new AAdvantage elite status, which will be valid through February 28, 2013. Your credentials will follow in 3-5 weeks. Please note the following status equivalents:
• AAdvantage Gold® membership for Premier Silver
• AAdvantage Platinum® membership for Premier Gold or Premier Platinum
• AAdvantage Executive Platinum® membership for Premier 1K
We look forward to welcoming you aboard your next American Airlines flight and await your reply.

Regards,

AAdvantage Customer Service

As you can see, they’re offering status matches all the way up to Executive Platinum status with no fees or “challenges” (whereby you have to fly a certain amount in a specified period of time). In the past American protected their “top tier” status level more than just about any airline, and didn’t even offer any sort of challenges or matches. Then last January they offered an Executive Platinum challenge for a short period of time whereby United 1Ks received Platinum status upfront and had to earn 25,000 elite qualifying points within 90 days to earn and maintain Executive Platinum.

But this is the first time I’ve ever seen them offer a public “no strings attached” match. To request your status match you just have to call AAdvantage customer service, which is open between 7:30AM and 9PM CT on weekdays (with more limited hours over the weekend), at (800) 882-8880.

But before you make the decision to status match, there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all, if you get a status match now it will be valid through February 2013. That means that you’d have until December 31 of this year to earn either 100,000 elite qualifying miles, 100,000 elite qualifying points, or 100 segments. It’s nothing impossible, but it’s just worth keeping in mind. Typically matched/challenged status is only valid for the entire following year if it’s done in June or later. I highly doubt the promo will still be around in June, so keep that in mind when making your decision.

Second, keep in mind that status matching now would likely preclude you from doing so in the future if they ran a similar promotion. There’s no guarantee they will, but it’s not completely a case of “well, there’s nothing to lose.”

Lastly, it’s not entirely clear to me whether you get eight systemwide upgrades for the status match. Typically when “earning” Executive Platinum status you get eight, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they automatically post, though at the same time that would be far too generous. So I certainly wouldn’t count on them, unless we hear otherwise from people that have matched (if anyone calls and asks about systemwide upgrades, please let us know what they say!).

With that out of the way, I figured I’d provide a quick rundown of Executive Platinum status, since I’ve been really pleased with American, their frequent flyer program, and how they treat their customers.

Qualifying for Executive Platinum status

American Executive Platinum status is actually among the toughest top tier status levels to achieve, since they have three qualifying metrics — segments, points, and miles. You can qualify for Executive Platinum status on either 100,000 miles, 100,000 points, or 100 segments.

While the segments threshold is lower than at United, the miles and points distinction is an important one to make. For every revenue mile you fly on American you earn one elite qualifying mile, though you earn anywhere from 0.5 to 1.5 elite qualifying points per revenue mile flown, based on the following chart:

What this means is that if you fly a mix of “premium” fares and “discounted” fares it’ll be tougher to qualify for top tier status with American than with United.

For those of you that have no clue what I’m talking about, let me put it in terms of an example. With United you need 100,00 elite qualifying miles to achieve Premier 1K status. If you flew ~34,000 miles in paid first class that would earn you ~50,000 elite qualifying miles (since you earn 150% of base miles). Then you could fly another 50,000 miles in coach and qualify for Premier 1K.

With American those paid first class segments would earn you a 50% bonus of elite qualifying points, but not a 50% bonus on elite qualifying miles. So with the same amount of travel as above you’d be sitting at 34,000 elite qualifying miles and ~50,000 elite qualifying points. To achieve Executive Platinum status from there you’d either need to earn another 66,000 elite qualifying miles (actual paid, butt-in-seat miles) or 50,000 elite qualifying points (as little as 34,000 flown miles in paid first class or as much as 100,000 flown miles in discounted coach). Hopefully that makes sense…

Domestic upgrades

American offers Executive Platinum members unlimited domestic upgrades, which start clearing at the 100 hour window. Upgrades clear by status level and are prioritized by the time added to the waitlist. The only exception is that within each status level those on full fare tickets clear before those on discounted tickets (but unlike at other airlines, lower elites on a full fare ticket don’t clear ahead of higher elites on a discounted ticket).

American’s first class cabins are large, with 16 first class seats on the 737 and MD-80, and 22-24 first class seats on the 757s. As a result, as an Executive Platinum you’ll almost always clear your upgrades, much more regularly than at United. I have missed a few transcon upgrades, but only because of booking last minute.

It’s worth keeping in mind, however, that American doesn’t offer complimentary companion upgrades. Instead you have to support your upgrade either with miles, eVIPs, or 500 mile upgrade certificates. 500 mile upgrade certificates (known as “stickers”) can be purchased for $30 each, so while you have to pay to upgrade companions, they do clear at your window.

International upgrades

Quite possibly the biggest selling point of Executive Platinum status for me are the international upgrades. As an Executive Platinum member you get eight systemwide upgrades per year, which can be used to confirm upgrades at the time of booking, upgrade availability permitting. But what sets American’s systemwide upgrades apart from United’s is that there are no fare restrictions. As long as you book a revenue ticket it can be upgraded.

Since I’ve been an Executive Platinum I’ve used 12 systemwide upgrades, all of which cleared. While American’s current business class product is still angled flat, you can’t beat the value of paying a discounted coach fare and upgrading to business class. Furthermore, keep in mind that American will be introducing a new business class product on their 777-300ERs later this year.

There are a couple of other things worth noting about American’s systemwide upgrades. First of all, they can also be used to upgrade from discounted business class fares to first class. For example, last year American had $1,600 business class fares to Europe, so I booked a business class ticket and upgraded to first class. That’s an incredible deal for international first class.

Second of all, what’s also interesting about American’s sytemwide upgrades (and mileage upgrades, for that matter) is that the upgrade “bucket” for domestic flights is actually the same as discounted first class. That means as long as American is selling discounted first class (the “A” bucket), you can immediately confirm an upgrade using miles or a systemwide upgrade. There’s no other airline that has such a liberal confirmable upgrade policy for domestic flights.

Take Miami to Los Angeles, for example, which has to be one of the toughest routes in the American system for upgrades:

Almost every flight has “7″ confirmable upgrade seats, which is the highest inventory American will ever show.

Lounge access

As an Executive Platinum member you get Emerald status in the OneWorld alliance, which gets you access to first class lounges when traveling internationally. This means that the lounge access policy is a step up from what the Star Alliance offers, since as an Executive Platinum in international coach or business class you can access the international first class lounges of American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, JAL, Qantas, etc.

Phone service

This is one area where American is literally the best in the industry. Period. Their Executive Platinum phone agents are actually empowered to apply logic to situations, which I can’t say about the phone agents at many other airlines.

Executive Platinum is top tier

At United, Premier 1K is basically a mid-tier status level, since there are so many Global Services members. You really don’t feel like you’re a top tier elite. At American that’s not the case, however. While they have an invitation only level (Concierge Key), I’ve not once felt like I’m “only an Executive Platinum member.”

Onboard product

While the in-flight entertainment on American is lagging behind the competition, American has wifi on all their 767-200s and a majority of their 737 and MD-80 fleet. After getting so used to in-flight wifi, I don’t know how I used to live without it…

But despite bankruptcy protection American’s service upfront, especially domestically, is a step up from the competition. For one, on transcon flights they have “real” duvets and pillows. But beyond that the meal service is also great, with menus, hot nuts, an appetizer, salad, a main course, and an ice cream sundae, and cookies prior to landing. See here for a review I wrote of American’s service between Miami and San Francisco.

American policies that frustrate me

For all the other ways in which American is ahead, there are two policies that really irk me. First, they don’t waive the confirmed same day change fee for Executive Platinum members, which virtually all other airlines do for their top tier elites. Second, when ticketing award reservations they waive the ticketing/change fee if you’re booking an award ticket for yourself out of your Executive Platinum account, but not if you’re booking an award for someone else out of your account, which virtually every other airlines does for their top tier elites. That being said, that’s a small price to pay for the otherwise great experiences I have with American.

Anyway, American rocks, and there’s never been a better promotion for switching over than this. That being said, I’d think twice before making the match just for one or two trips, since you could be giving up a similar opportunity in the future.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know!

A while back American promised they’d add the functionality to book partner award space on their website, and they’re slowly following through on that promise.

They already added the ability to search Alaska Airlines award space on aa.com several months ago, and now they added the ability to search and book British Airways and Hawaiian Airlines award space on aa.com as well.

This is awesome for a few reasons, including:

• It’s now possible to avoid the $25 American phone ticketing fee for reservations on these partner airlines
• American’s search tool (as I’ll explain below) is much easier to use than British Airways’ and Hawaiian’s
• American imposes hefty fuel surcharges for award travel on British Airways, so being able to know the total taxes and fees upfront is awesome

Let’s break it down by airline:

British Airways

British Airways has a downright awful award search tool, so I’ll be using American’s website first every chance I get. When you start your award search, just be sure that the box reading “AA + AAdvantage Participating Airlines” is checked, assuming you want to see award space for Alaska, British Airways, and Hawaiian.

On the next page you can search by preferred cabin, but the other cool option is that you can select your number of stops by selecting either “No Preference” or “Non-stop only.” For routes that are only served by British Airways and not American, you know all your results will be British Airways if you choose the “Non-stop only” option, so if you’re flexible with dates that may be the way to go.

And as you’ll see, award space on British Airways is very good (not as good as it used to be, but still very good). It’s interesting to note that while American imposes hefty fuel surcharges for travel on American, they’re not quite as bad as what British Airways charges directly. For example, taking the same flight from Newark to London, here are the costs when booking through American:

And here are the costs when booking through British Airways:

So as you can see, they are still a bit less. As a reminder, British Airways’ USA destinations include Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington.

Hawaiian Airlines

I’ve always wanted to fly Hawaiian Airlines since they seem to be a cut above the competition when it comes to their service on routes to Hawaii, so being able to search their availability on aa.com is great as well.

The same trick above applies regarding searching for nonstop flights. For example, if you live in Portland and know you want to fly Hawaiian nonstop to Honolulu, just select “Non-stop only” in the dropdown menu.

And as you can see, the first option will be a Hawaiian Airlines option nonstop:

Hawaiian Airlines’ lower-48 destinations include Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Las Vegas, New York, Portland, and Seattle.

I’m also quite intrigued by how American is pricing some of these awards, like this one:

For this much:

Hmm….

Apparently you don’t get wiser with the years. I did something yesterday for the first time in my flying career. I’ll let my AAdvantage account summary do the talking:

How… how could I?

British Airways structures their Avios award chart such that business class costs twice as many points as coach, while first class costs three times as many points as coach.

What’s frustrating about this is that they determine the cabin based on how the airline markets their product, and not whether it’s actually a two cabin or three cabin aircraft. This means that business class on American’s Flagship Service between New York and Los Angeles only costs double as many miles as coach, while first class on a two cabin aircraft costs triple as many miles. That’s despite the fact that business class on a three cabin aircraft is almost always better than first class on a two cabin product, and American charges the same mileage for both.

Even more confusing is that the same first class seat on the same 737 sometimes costs double points and sometimes costs triple points. American markets the forward cabin on international flights as “business class.” So if you fly Dallas to Toronto you pay double miles for “business” class, while if you fly Dallas to New York (on the same plane) you pay triple miles for the same seat. You’ve gotta love the logic…

But that’s not really the point of this post. As of a couple of weeks ago I’ve noticed a change on the British Airways website which is rather frustrating. At first I thought it was a glitch, but I’m starting to think they have an ulterior motive. As a default, the British Airways award search tool looks like this:

But as soon as you enter a route only served by domestic, two cabin aircraft, the drop down menu looks like this:

So what does this mean? You can’t book domestic first class American flights online anymore, at least for routes only operated by two cabin aircraft. That means you have to call to book an American Airlines domestic first class award, which incurs a $25 ticketing fee.

Why is this happening?

Trusting Lucky says: “Relax guys, it’s an IT glitch and the kind folks at British Airways will fix it in the next decade soon.”

Cynical Lucky says: “These phonies, this change didn’t occur as a result of inaction, but rather as a result of action, so someone schemed this. American domestic first class is readily available and people actually redeem Avios points for it, and it’s costing British Airways money. By not displaying first class award space online they’re convincing 90% of people that it’s not available, and the other 10% have to pay $25 to redeem for an award. No soup clotted cream and scones for you!”

What say you, wise friends?

Update: Iain points out that after you do the initial search (just select economy or business class), the next page will let you redo the search at the bottom left and specify first class. I’m still not convinced it’s a glitch, though.

American is offering double AAdvantage redeemable miles for travel on the following Alaska Airlines routes through June 30, 2012:

• Burbank, CA – Portland, OR
• Honolulu, HI – Oakland, CA
• Honolulu, HI – San Jose, CA
• Kansas City, MO – Seattle, WA
• Los Angeles, CA – Mammoth Lakes, CA
• Oakland, CA – Portland, OR
• Ontario, CA – Portland, OR
• Portland, OR – San Francisco, CA

The promotion is valid for both American codeshares as well as Alaska marketed flights. Registration is required prior to travel using promotion code ASD12. Anyway, it’s not the most exciting promotion ever, though American has a weak presence on the west coast so if you’re a loyal American flyer this is a nice little incentive to fly Alaska Airlines.

A couple of months ago I shared some videos by former American purser Gailen David, who made videos expressing his frustration with American management under the name “Aluminum Lady.”

In the end he got fired, and the reason given wasn’t his videos, but rather that he violated American’s social media policy regarding his website (which seemed to have generic ads for competing airlines).

Anyway, while I certainly don’t agree with everything he says, I see where he’s coming from, and his opinions are definitely worth a read.

Most interesting has to be his AAdvantage Aluminum program, which works as follows:

Benefits of the AAdvantage Aluminum program may be accessed by any American Airlines passenger. Simply mention the code word, Aluminum, and your crew will instantly recognize you as one of the special passengers that appreciates all that the front-line workers do to make the experience an exceptional one!

Here are the steps once again:

• Mention the code word “Aluminum” to your flight crew and if you’ve suffered any inconvenience during your trip allow us the opportunity to make it up to you!
• Receive the Rock Star treatment and amenities you deserve!
• Enjoy!

Now, I suspect this will end up being counterproductive, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Apparently American flight attendants have the ability to comp a drink if you’ve been inconvenienced, so by saying “Aluminum” and mentioning a way you’ve been inconvenienced they can do so. There are only three issues with that:

• Do flight attendants really want to hear complaints from passengers? I can’t imagine any flight attendant would be delighted to hear “you lost my bag two months ago, now can I have a free drink? ALUMINUM!”
• I’m curious just how many flight attendants know about this. I’ve gotta give Gailen a lot of credit for how widespread he’s been able to make his message.
• At the end of the day while this is a way to take a jab at American’s management short term, I suspect the impact of this could be that flight attendants no longer have the ability to comp drinks.

Has anyone here “enjoyed” AAdvantage Aluminum status? Not something I necessarily suggest you do, but at least figured I’d pass it on and see if anyone’s had an experience.

A few days ago I posted about some of the great business class fares American and United were offering between select cities in the US (Dallas, St. Louis, and Miami in particular) and China (Shanghai/Beijing). I shared my reasoning for why I’m very tempted by the fares in the previous post, so check it out.

I figured the fare would be pulled in no time, but that’s not the case. Instead, not only has Delta matched the fares, but they’ve been extended to include Tokyo, all for about $2,100 including tax.

As you can see here, several airlines are competing between Miami and Shanghai:

United, Delta, and American are all in!

As a reminder, these fares are good for travel through May 15, with a seven day advance purchase, as well as three day minimum stay and 30 day maximum stay.

Delta and American have a similar fare between Miami and Tokyo, except there’s not even a minimum stay requirement on the Delta fare (though there is a three day minimum stay requirement on the American fare):

So based on the research I’ve done, I see ~$2,100 fares for the following city/airline pairs:

Out of Miami:

• American and Delta to Tokyo
• American, Delta, and United to Shanghai
• American, Delta, and United to Beijing

Out of St. Louis:

• Delta to Tokyo
• American, Delta, and United to Shanghai
• American, Delta, and United to Beijing

Out of Dallas:

• Delta to Tokyo
• Delta and United to Shanghai
• Delta and United to Beijing

If anyone comes across others, please let me know in the comments below!

American and United have both launched $2,100 all-in roundtrip business class fares between select markets in the US (like Miami) and Shanghai/Beijing.

American business fare

United business fare

This seems to be a legitimate fare sale/war, and not a mistake. That being said, I suspect it won’t stick around for long, so if you’re interested I’d get in on this fast. As you can see on ExpertFlyer, the base fare is $1,500 roundtrip, plus taxes and fuel surcharges. The fare is good for travel between April 4 and May 15, 2012, though there’s a seven day advance purchase requirement, as well as a three day minimum stay and 30 day maximum stay.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a roundtrip business class fare to China this low. This is actually what I would consider an amazing business class fare between the east coast of the US and western Europe, but I’ve never seen this to Asia.

Keep in mind that United has fully flat beds in business class on most of their China routes, while American has angled flat seats. I actually flew American to Shanghai in January, so you can see a review of their business class product here.

But here’s what makes the American deal so awesome — American lets you upgrade all revenue fares to the next class of service, meaning that even though this is a discounted business class ticket, you can upgrade it to first class using a systemwide upgrade (which Executive Platinum members get eight of per year). While American doesn’t have the best first class product in the world, I’d say it’s pretty unbeatable for $2,100.

United, on the other hand, doesn’t let you upgrade discounted business class tickets with systemwide upgrades, though does let you use miles and a co-pay. That would cost 30,000 miles plus $600 per direction, which probably isn’t worth it to most.

So on one hand I feel crazy for even considering this. But here’s the thing — I can easily squeeze 20,000 actual “butt-in-seat” miles out of the itinerary. As an Executive Platinum member I’d earn a 100% mileage bonus, putting me up to 40,000 earned redeemable miles. Beyond that I’d be earning a 25% mileage bonus for being booked in paid business class, bringing me up to 45,000 redeemable miles.

That in and of itself doesn’t justify a business class ticket. But the thing that might is the fact that American’s 2012 Elite Rewards are based on elite qualifying points and not elite qualifying miles. While virtually all other airlines just use elite qualifying miles to calculate status (which is a combination of elite qualifying miles and elite qualifying points), American calculates elite qualifying points separately. With American you earn one elite qualifying mile for every mile you fly, and anywhere between 0.5 and 1.5 elite qualifying points depending on how high your fare is.

American earnings chart

This itinerary would earn me 30,000+ elite qualifying points. Based on forecasting my travel for the year, that would be the difference between achieving the 125,000 point level in the Elite Rewards program. Reaching that threshold would earn me an additional 70,000 AAdvantage miles, meaning I’d essentially earn 115,000 redeemable miles for taking this trip.

That means I’d be earning miles through this trip at a rate of 1.8 cents per redeemable mile, which is very close to what I value them at. And that doesn’t even factor in that this would be a trip in first class to China, especially since I’ve been wanting to visit the Park Hyatt Ningbo for a long time now. Besides, I already have a Chinese visa.

Anyone else planning on taking advantage of this offer? Would you take advantage of it if you were in my shoes?

American is offering double elite qualifying miles for roundtrip nonstop flights between Dallas and Boston through June 30, 2012. Registration is required prior to travel using promotion code BOSEQ.

What I find rather strange is how they define roundtrip travel:

For the purpose of this promotion, round-trip travel is defined as travel in the same booking class for both the departure and return flight segments.

Seriously? So if one direction prices out higher than the other, it’s no longer considered roundtrip travel?

Anyway, the thing to keep in mind is that you don’t exclusively have to be flying between Boston and Dallas. Instead, you just need a roundtrip journey that includes segments between Dallas and Boston in both directions. In other words, if you fly roundtrip from Boston to Los Angeles via Dallas both ways you should earn double elite qualifying miles between Boston and Dallas.

Of course this promotion is just a friendly way for American to tell JetBlue how they feel about them entering their market in May.

(Tip of the hat to AAdvantage Geek)