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On Tuesday I wrote about a very good British Airways Economy Class fare that’s currently on offer for travel between Düsseldorf and Los Angeles ($383 roundtrip) and yesterday I wrote a guide showing how to calculate the number of Elite Qualifying Dollars you’ll earn from a trip credited to American Airlines AAdvantage.
Today I’m going to use that fare to show why there are times when AAdvantage members should book fares through American’s partners and not American itself…… even when the cost through both is the same.
If you’re unclear on what AAdvantage Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQD) are or how they work then you should start off reading the guide from yesterday (here)
The whole premise of my point surrounds the difference between how EQDs are calculated for flights booked through American and how EQDs are calculated for flights booked through partner airlines.
A Reminder
The number of Elite qualifying dollars you’ll earn by booking through American Airlines can be calculated using the following simple formula…..
Fare Paid – Taxes & Non-airline fees = EQD earned
….and what this means is that you don’t get credit for all the money you spend on your flights – all the taxes and non-airline fees are excluded – so this can make it all the more difficult to hit the EQD targets for the various status tiers.
For partner airlines EQD is calculated using the following formula:
Distance traveled x a percentage based on fare code = EQD
This latter method of calculating EQD is much more traveler friendly when the fare being booked is a cheap one….and here’s an example of what I mean.
British Airways or American Airlines?
The fare I was discussing on Tuesday is an Economy Class fare between Düsseldorf and Los Angeles and is available both through British Airways and American Airlines.
Here are the full trip details:
EQD Earned When Booking Through British Airways
Per BA.com the fare codes for this trip are as follows (here’s a link to a guide showing you how to find the fare codes on BA.com):
- DUS – LHR – Fare Code S
- LHR – LAX – Fare Code O
- LAX – LHR – Fare Code O
- LHR – DUS – Fare Code S
Per the British Airways’ earnings chart published by American Airlines…….
………Fare Code “S” earns EQD at the rate of 10% of distance traveled and Fare Code “O” earns EQD at a rate of 5% of distance traveled.
The total EQD earned from this fare & trip is:
(313 x 10%) + (5,456 x 5%) + (5,456 x 5%) + (313 x 10%) = 608 EQD (allowing for rounding)
Booking this fare through British Airways would earn a traveler 608 EQD if it was credited to AAdvantage.
EQD Earned When Booking Through American Airlines
American Airlines and British airways are very close bedfellows – they revenue share on transatlantic routes – so it’s very common to find American Airlines offering very similar (if not identical fees to British Airways).
In this case that’s almost exactly the case. American Airlines will happily sell you the same itinerary, on the same dates (with a small difference in flights taken) for exactly the same price……
….but now take a look at how many EQDs American Airlines says a traveler will earn if they book the flights through them:
Booking the fare through American Airlines earns a traveler just 248 EQD when the same fare earns over double that when booked through British Airways.
Note: There is a downside to booking with British Airways if you’re an American Airlines AAdvantage member – you cannot use Systemwide upgrades or AAdvantage miles to upgrade flights booked through British Airways even if those flights are flown on American Airlines aircraft (there is an exception to this but it will almost certainly not apply to most readers of this blog as it involves booking full fare tickets).
Bottom Line
If you’re looking to take a trip that can be booked through American Airlines or one of its partners you should always work out what your AAdvantage earnings will be (EQM, RDM & EQD) for each method of booking – the chances are that the less you pay for your fare the better it will be for you if you book through a partner airline rather than American.
