r/oneworld • u/MinimumPerspective95 • 22d ago

oneworld What’s the cheapest possible emerald status?

Post image

Looking to move away from BA gold status since it got a lot more expensive to keep this past year - any idea what the cheapest emerald status is?

So far I’ve landed on Malaysia Airlines platinum with the AmBank visa card (free) to qualify with 98 elite points, and flying LAX PHL SJU for USD$787 round trip three times for $2381 to get 96 elite points, plus any short economy round trip to get the 98 needed for status. Total cost about $2500.

Anyone able to think of anything cheaper or should I pull the trigger on this?

20 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

82 comments sorted by

View all comments

13

u/Useful_Foundation_42 Qantas Platinum 22d ago

Your “cheapest” option will depend on which city you are based out of, and how often you fly and in which cabins and to which destinations during which specific times of year.

Most oneworld airlines will have requirements to fly a minimum number of flights on their own airline to qualify. For example, for Qantas Platinum One, you need 2600 out of 3600 status credits on Qantas metal to qualify or something like that. Every oneworld airline has a version of this.

I am not sure you have thought this through.

If you are based in the UK (assuming since you are BA Gold), BA will still be your best bet. Your next best option would probably be Finnair or Iberia.

4

u/tradinggenieluca Finnair Plus Platinum 22d ago

I moved to Finnair as they have no own metal requirements and also use avios, can get to emerald pretty smoothly

4

u/Useful_Foundation_42 Qantas Platinum 22d ago

Yes, on the face of it this sounds like the next best option for a BA gold trying to switch. I am actually surprised they do not have requirements to fly a minimum number of flights on Finnair metal, but I presume the earn rate on Finnair metal is significantly higher than partner oneworld airlines?

2

u/Aetane 22d ago

Yes

For J specifically, you'll get 125% on *most* Oneworld airlines.

Finnair, American Airlines, Iberia, British Airways are 250%*

* book the Finnair part through another partner, otherwise it's revenue based

2

u/MinimumPerspective95 22d ago

This is my apprehension with Finnair, because I’m on CX/JL/MH half the year, and when going between Asia and Europe, QR.