British Airways
In the case of Oneworld the cheapest status is obtained with British Airways through their Executive Club. The requirements to have mid-tier or one-world Sapphire status can easily be obtained and at an economical rate using American Airlines First class flights. This status which would require the equivalent of 50,000 Loyalty Points with American Airlines can be obtained depending on the routing from as little as 800 GBP if based in the UK to $413 on the West Coast from San Jose to Los Angeles or vice-versa with the addition of four British Airways flights. Here is an example from the East Coast from New York/Washington to Raleigh earning tons of Tier Points.
There are many affordable paid business and first class tickets available right now especially when one is able to be flexible and arbitrage both routings and origin destination cities this allows you to travel for instance from Las Vegas to Los Angeles or San Jose in the Bay Area in First class for just $80 around each way and this will usually be a short one hour flight can be leveraged to have three flight segments which would give you 1/5 of the way of the required status with British Airways which is what we call travel arbitrage or travel hacking in effect obtaining status at the lowest possible cost for you.
BA status does not give you upgrades on American Airlines which is one common goal for flyers but it does grant lounge access and priority boarding.
Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines joined Oneworld in 2021 presenting an opportunity for US-based flyers to join a very lucrative mileage program that is not based upon spend but instead on the traditional format of mileage flown.
Alaska has four levels MVP MVP Gold , MVP Gold 75K and MVP Gold 100K these map over to Oneworld Ruby (MVP), Sapphire (MVP Gold) and Emerald status (MVP Gold 75/100K).
One of the best opportunities is that mileage is earned on flown miles and even the most discounted economy Fair will earn 100% miles.
For instance we have seen round trip tickets in economy:
JFK-SEA-ANC for $248 or 7738 miles
These book into X class Saver (basic economy), which means no upgrades nor Preferential seats and assigned seats at the gate even as an Elite...
If we asume 7738 miles per RT so:
- MVP in 3 RTs or USD 744
- MVP Gold in 6 RTs and some change USD 1488
- MVP 75 in 18 RTs USD 2480
Now of course, that’s in Economy and can take a long time to complete so it’s best to look for Business Class fares as they earn at least 150%
American Airlines
More details coming soon regarding Loyalty Points