In Miles & More and Flying Blue, a cheap business ticket earns exactly what an expensive one earns. In The British Airways Club and Qatar Privilege Club it earns less. Which programme is on the booking is therefore worth more than which airline is.
Every programme counts status in a currency of its own, separate from the miles you spend on reward flights: XP at Flying Blue, short for Experience Points, Tier Points at British Airways, Qpoints at Qatar, and at Miles & More both Points and Qualifying Points.
Miles & More and Flying Blue count the cabin
Miles & More counts two things: the cabin you sat in, and whether the flight was continental or intercontinental. The fare class, the single letter on your ticket that says which price bucket inside the cabin you bought, is not an input. An intercontinental business flight earns 200 Points whether the ticket cost 1,800 francs or 6,000, and an intercontinental first class flight earns 400 either way.
Flying Blue counts the cabin and the distance band. Business under 2,000 miles earns 15 XP per segment, and over 5,000 miles, 36. The fare type enters at the bottom of economy and nowhere else, where a Basic fare earns 2 XP whatever the distance.
The British Airways Club and Qatar count the money
The British Airways Club counts pounds: one Tier Point per pound of base fare plus carrier surcharges, plus a fixed bonus per segment by cabin, haul and fare type, the bigger bonus going to the flexible fare. A cheap business fare earns proportionally fewer Tier Points by design. Gold is 20,000 Tier Points, and discounted fares do not get you there.
Qatar Privilege Club awards Qpoints by the booking class of the marketing carrier, the airline whose code is on the ticket: a deeply discounted business class booking earns less than a full-fare one. Qatar publishes no Qpoints table, only a calculator, so run the itinerary through that.
| Programme | What it counts | Is a cheap premium fare good for status? |
|---|---|---|
| Miles & More | Cabin, continental or intercontinental | Yes, identical to an expensive one |
| Flying Blue | Cabin and distance band | Yes in premium cabins |
| The British Airways Club | Money spent on BA-marketed flights | No, proportionally less |
| Qatar Privilege Club | Booking class of the marketing carrier | Partly, and check the calculator |
Does the country you bought it in matter? No
Neither cabin-based system looks at the country. The same SWISS business seat earns 200 Qualifying Points bought in Zurich or in Milan, and the same Air France business seat earns its XP bought in Paris or in Madrid. In Miles & More the cheaper ticket is therefore strictly the better deal: save 300 francs on an intercontinental business fare and you have bought the same status for 300 francs less.
What can still go wrong
The operating airline. Miles & More Qualifying Points accrue only on its own carriers: Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways, Air Dolomiti, Croatia Airlines, Discover Airlines, Eurowings, LOT and Luxair. A cheap business fare on a Star Alliance partner earns Points and no Qualifying Points, filling one half of the requirement for Senator, the Miles & More tier that carries a Star Alliance Gold card, and never the other.
A fare class that earns nothing. Tour-package fares, some award tickets and some staff-rate or consolidator fares earn nothing at all, in every programme. Rare on published fares, but read the fare rules when a price is unusually low.
Where to credit the flight
Put the credit where the counting favours you: premium flying bought on price into a programme that counts cabins, employer-paid flying concentrated on one airline into one that counts money. The detail of each programme is in the three alliance guides: Star Alliance, oneworld and SkyTeam.