Why I booked a Finnair flight to assist me attain American Airlines elite standing

Before turning into a TPG reporter, I knew little or no about airline elite standing, and had by no means given a lot thought to incomes it myself.

This is basically as a result of I grew up primarily flying Southwest Airlines — and its two-tiered standing program would not provide the normal perks of airline elite standing, like class upgrades or lounge entry.

All of that modified as soon as I joined The Points Guy and realized the advantages that would come from incomes airline elite standing, together with complimentary seat and flight upgrades, free checked baggage, precedence boarding and lounge entry. I’ve skilled a few of these advantages as an American Airlines AAdvantage Gold member for the previous 10 months.

However, since I’ve had entry-level AA standing, I knew routine flight upgrades could be few and much between. Also, the one approach I might entry an Admirals Club free of charge is by having a qualifying flight or being Concierge Key, which is AA’s top-tier standing.

As with many flyers, the opportunity of being upgraded to a greater cabin, comparable to enterprise or top notch, is a precedence to me, so I made a decision to kick my standing quest into excessive gear about midway by means of the yr.

To achieve this, I mapped out some journey plans to assist meet the subsequent standing threshold, which is why I took a 66-hour and 15-minute round-trip flight on Finnair final month.

Here’s why and the way I did that — and the way this helped set me as much as attain Platinum for 2023.

One method to shortly and effectively additional your standing targets on any airline is by finishing a mileage run. This sometimes includes flying from level A to level B and again to level A, typically with out leaving the airport on the vacation spot, merely for the sake of flying a certain quantity of miles or reaching the spending thresholds essential to earn or requalify for standing.

This will be notably helpful for AAdvantage standing targets since AA’s standing foreign money, Loyalty Points, are earned primarily based on distance, spending and fare class flown.

Generally talking, one base mile earned equates to 1 Loyalty Point. These are earned everytime you fly an AA-operated or Oneworld associate flight, use a cobranded American Airlines bank card or earn eligible base miles that rely as Loyalty Points, together with by buying on-line by way of the AA buying portal and SimplyMiles portal or consuming at taking part eating places within the eating rewards program AAdvantage Dining.

However, since I do not at the moment have a cobranded bank card, I knew the quickest method to attain the 75,000-Loyalty-Point threshold required for AAdvantage Platinum was to ebook a long-haul flight in a premium cabin, on both American or a Oneworld associate.

You earn bonus miles that qualify towards your Loyalty Points stability while you fly a premium cabin, particularly premium economic system, enterprise or top notch. Because you get extra Loyalty Points for flying in a premium cabin, I knew I wished to fly premium economic system at a minimal.

Also, since flights on associate airways additionally qualify for Loyalty Points, I selected to ebook a premium economic system fare sort on Finnair, primarily based on its availability out of my dwelling airport — Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD).

Read extra: Comparing the Finnair premium economic system flight expertise on the A330 versus the A350

While this determination was largely a standing run, I additionally picked this flight as a result of I wished to go to Singapore for the primary time.

To facilitate this, I discovered a round-trip flight from ORD to Singapore’s Changi Airport (SIN), with a protracted layover every approach at Helsinki Airport (HEL). In whole, I spent 66 hours and quarter-hour in transit over 5 days throughout 20,372 miles.

Thanks to a 40% elite-status bonus as a Gold member, I earned 28,554 Loyalty Points and American Airlines redeemable award miles on this one journey.

Thanks to this journey, I now have practically 69,000 Loyalty Points, simply 6,371 factors wanting Platinum standing for 2023. This yr, I’ve till the top of February to get Platinum for the reason that qualification interval runs from March 1, 2022, by means of February 2023.

When I take into consideration my technique for the remainder of the yr and the way I’ll purchase these remaining Loyalty Points, I plan to take the next journeys:

• O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to LaGuardia Airport (LGA): Base fare of $437.21 for a complete of three,060 Loyalty Points and award miles.
• ORD to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA): Base fare of $229.77 for a complete of 1,608 Loyalty Points and award miles.
• ORD to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA): Base fare of $255.81 for a complete of 1,790 Loyalty Points and award miles.

Those three journeys would put me roughly 2,000 Loyalty Points above what’s crucial for Platinum. Additionally, I’ll earn 1 AAdvantage mile for each eligible $1 I spend from staying at World of Hyatt resorts on every journey, due to the businesses’ ongoing partnership.

Related: There is a few debate about whether or not an airline’s elite standing remains to be “price it.”

Before becoming a member of TPG, I might not have thought of pursuing airline standing. However, as I’ve seen, even with entry-level standing you can begin having fun with additional perks.

As an AA Gold member to this point, I’ve obtained one flight improve to enterprise class on a regional flight from ORD to St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL). I routinely choose complimentary extra-legroom seats when checking in for my flights — both most popular seats or Main Cabin Extra primarily based on availability. Though I have never wanted it to this point, I like having the choice of checking a bag free of charge ought to I so select.

All of this has helped me come one step nearer to my finish objective — complimentary lounge entry and extra frequent flight upgrades, which might be extraordinarily precious to me on long-haul flights particularly. This is why I’m chasing Platinum and can proceed doing so.