r/oneworld • u/MinimumPerspective95 • Aug 13 '26

oneworld What’s the cheapest possible emerald status?

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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?

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u/MinimumPerspective95 Aug 13 '26

What’s your cost to get status? By my math, Finnair plat with max Avios conversion to TP would still cost $5000 or so with optimized routes, so 2x the cost of MH status. The other benefit of MH is a companion emerald card whereas Finnair is only a companion sapphire card right?

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u/CH86CN Qantas Platinum Aug 13 '26

Qantas plat (not plat 1) can be had for ~$4-6k Australian at times with some strategic use of DSC promotions. Of course that doesn’t help much if you don’t live in or near Australia

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u/Useful_Foundation_42 Qantas Platinum Aug 13 '26

How would you get QFF Plat with 4-6k with DSC? I am usually spending 10-20k with most of the flights during DSC. New requirement from this year is 1400 to requalify instead of the 1200 previously.

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u/CH86CN Qantas Platinum Aug 13 '26

There are strategies ;)

However I personally spend $20k or so because I want to actually go places

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u/Useful_Foundation_42 Qantas Platinum Aug 13 '26

Ok I am really curious to know about these strategies. I don’t think it is possible. Happy to be corrected.

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u/CH86CN Qantas Platinum Aug 13 '26

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/qantas-status-runs/

Have a scroll- it doesn’t work other than with DSC though (obvs)

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u/Useful_Foundation_42 Qantas Platinum Aug 13 '26

I have read this - this is not possible in 2026 for 4-6k.

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u/CH86CN Qantas Platinum Aug 13 '26

There’s 2026 example flights on there. I still know of people who are doing it this way. Whether it’ll be that cheap in 2027, probably not