Airport Lounges

Two years of AA Flagship Lounge and Admirals Club access with one trip

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You want bubbly and great food every time you fly? Peep this.

American’s Flagship Lounges are dope. They offer great food, bubbly, and are truly worth visiting. The problem? Accessing them on domestic trips is basically impossible unless you’re a Concierge Key which, rumor has it, requires spending $50k on AA.  Not happening. HOWEVER, there is a great way to use the rules to your benefit. How you ask? Simply qualify for One World Sapphire status with partner airline. Sound too complex? Lemme show you how I’m going to take just one trip, and I’ll be kickin’ it in lounges for TWO YEARS.

To use the rules, we must know the rules. Here’s the Admirals Club/Flagship Lounge access policy when traveling domestically.

At first glance you may think you have access because you carry AA Platinum status or higher. But…if you follow the **  you’ll find that Emeralds and Sapphires have access, but only if you qualify with a partner airline.

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Now let’s work the $%8! out of those rules. I.E.

British Airways loyalty program accumulates two different currencies: Executive Club points and Tier Points. For this post we’re focusing on Tier Points because they are what we need to qualify for elite status. Their mid-tier, Silver status will grant you One World Sapphire status = LOUNGE ACCESS every time you fly. Even if it’s just LAX to SFO – doesn’t matter, you’re in

We need 600 Tier points for British Airways Silver Status.

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You also need to fly on 4 British Airways Flights.

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Tier Points are based on your membership year, not calendar year. This is huge for me.

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Ok, so we need 4 flights on BA, 600 tier points, and we want to qualify as soon as the membership year turns over. Enter: Europe to S.E. Asia in discount business class.

The cheap business class I’m looking at would originate in either Helsinki or Stockholm and go to Bangkok. I’ll position there from Manchester, UK routing through London ( this will pick up 4 flights in one r/t). If I choose to fly on Qatar Airways, I’ll not only have an amazing business class, but I’ll hit Silver status on just the one trip. Qatar’s discount business usually books into R which earns 560 tier points on that r/t alone. I’ll need just 40 tier points to hit Silver, which I’ll pick up routing to Helsinki.

I’ll fly 4 BA flights and earn exactly 600 tier points: MAN-LHR-HEL-DOH-BKK

I will qualify, not only for 2018/19 Silver status, but also 2019-2020. Meaning…come say hi to Miles and I until May 2020. BYAH!

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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14 Comments

  • […] in the year I wrote about the advantages of having British Airways status while living in the United States. The long and short is if you credit your US AA flights to BA, […]

  • Scott April 10, 2018

    Could you describe how you get two years of lounge access via this method?

    • Miles April 10, 2018

      If your One World Status is with an airline other than AA, domestic flights allow entry, as they’re technically international flights for the loyalist. BA status is based on your membership year, so if you were to take a similar itin as I described above…you’d qualify within a couple weeks of your membership year. Membership would give you status for the qualifying year, as well as the next = 2 years.

  • Aleks March 16, 2018

    Can you get tier points for award flights on ba and partners?

    • Miles March 16, 2018

      Aleks – unfortunately no

  • Enjoy Fine Food March 16, 2018

    Your post “AFFORDING BUSINESS CLASS IS AS EASY AS ABC. 3 SIMPLE TIPS” was the intro lesson — creating excitement with the payoffs that make this hobby worthwhile and introducing the basic steps to get it going. Today’s post is the PhD in miles and points. Beautiful work this week, Miles.

    • Miles March 16, 2018

      Thank you so much! Very kind words and much appreciated 🙂

  • Cliff March 16, 2018

    Doesn’t that also mean you have to credit your flights to BA in the future? Or do you just show your BA Silver card?

    • smitty06 March 16, 2018

      Nope. Just show your Silver card. I usually credit to AA.

    • Miles March 16, 2018

      Showing your card should work fine. I flew BA, credited to Alaska, and showed my AA exec Plat card to gain access to First Class lounges

  • John March 16, 2018

    How do you find when your membership year starts?

    • Miles March 16, 2018

      Log in to your account – should be on your account details

  • Daniel March 16, 2018

    TEACH ME!!!!!

  • smitty06 March 16, 2018

    My home airport is ORD. I got sapphire status through BA and have happily said goodbye to the Admirals club for at least the next 2 years.

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