As I mentioned previously, over the coming days and weeks you’ll see the occasional post from a fellow reader who has applied to write for OMAAT on an ongoing basis. It’s possible that posts will still be in the publication queue after we’ve announced our decision, so we’ll be publishing these anonymously. We hope you…
Continue reading: Is British Airways’ Multi-Carrier Award Chart A Good Deal?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Nobody calls it "Malaysia Enrich". And it's Malaysia Airlines, not Malaysian. For an aspiring mileage expert these mistakes are especially glaring.
With Asiamiles you have to come back to your origin country, but with BA multi carrier you don't have to, which is more flexible.
absolutely brilliant and I urge you in the comments section to have some type of contact info. I would gladly pay you a fee to help me book this exact award.
Well done.
This is a great article, clearly written and summarized on something complex and that has eluded by understanding for a while. Genuinely impressive first post, not too detailed and so I'm with @Michael on this. Little points like Malaysian / Malaysia Airlines, who cares when the content is really valuable!
Writing: 8/10 (good)
Content: 6/10 (sorry for being harsh. If this article is on a comparison of different oneworld award charts from various members of the alliance, or a mathematical comparison between a short haul redemption vs a very long haul one, it would make more sense. This article simply points towards the existent of such a chart within BA, and it is not because it is well hidden, but because it is practically useless. If you have a lot of starpoints to transfer, and you want an OW award chart, u really do not dump it into BA. Their OW partners fare much better. So its a long article with limited relevancy - yes, we may have a few BA butt in seat miles folks who do not redeem upgrade award/companion award/short haul premium awards, and have lots of BA avios to do these. But those transferring starpoints or cc points can do much better for long haul awards, elsewhere. Ie., in asia miles.)
It's odd i'd never heard of this reward chart before and now within the space of a few days read two virtually identical articles on it.
http://monkeymiles.boardingarea.com/asia-miles-multipartner-award/#
Yes, please, more of this kind of analysis is needed. As somebody who has tried to make sense of which chart applies where... this is useful, even if I have no avois to burn. Comparison to other carriers is very good too, having this in one place requires about a week of digging through various websites. Appreciated.
From recent experience, I can confirm that BAEC allows multi-class itineraries, but you are charged the highest class booked for the entire itinerary. So even if one sector is in First and the rest in Business, you will be charged First for the entire trip.
Also know as Oneworld RTW fare bookable as cash or points. QANTAS only allow 5 stops if on points . From 5 stops for cash.
This is my vote for best guest post yet. More obscure/unknown topic that’s extremely useful pretty good writing. Some of the others have had more interesting/entertaining writing but this was definitely the most informative.
Nice article I think you have done a good job with a decent amount of
research so don’t take any above criticism too personally it’s good that you have the chance to have a go.
The Qantas RTW award fares on points are good although limited a bit in terms of options, For Aussies like myself Qantas points can be earnt very easily, So that program is more relative to me
KrisFlyer also has a pretty good RTW award fares for Star Alliance flights also which is also relative to me as I can earn virgin Australia points easily to convert to KrisFlyer miles.
Depends what part of the world your in and what points/miles currencies we all use.
For clarity, I'm not sure this is true:
"You must use at least two OneWorld carriers
No British Airways flights are allowed"
The rule as I understand it (and heaven knows this is complex and most BA agents don't understand it either) is:
"You must use at least two oneworld (sic) carriers excluding British Airways"
These two statements are not the same .... BA flights are allowed I think.
Wow, that was impressive! Thanks! He's definitely hit the top prize for Guest articles up til now!
@Raffles: that's interesting. I fly ex-LON so would be glad to know. Could always use QF codeshare on EK to SYD otherwise (and why not!?) but for the return leg from the US, it would be handy.
We did Avios Redemption ORD-NRT-HKG-DPS-KUL-BKK-DOH-(MLE-AUH-LHR)-YYZ in multi class, half F and half in J. Also included one flight on BA metal, 7 segments and one open jaw (started in ORD and ended in YYZ). Segment from MLE-LHR was an AA award on a separate ticket.
I ended up cancelling Malaysia flight KUL-BKK in favour of cash purchase and was refunded 120k Avios even though it was only priced at 20k individually.
I'm not sure about what band our total miles fell into but it only cost 680k for 2 people when i was expecting over 720k. Im curious about why we got such a big refund for succh a short segment being dropped.
I love Avios because when transferring from RBC points (Royal Bank of Canada) to BA Avios there is a twice per year promotion that grants a 50% bonus. This is on top of earning 1.25 points per dollar on everyday spend with the RBC Visa Avion Infinite Privilage. Effectively making 1.85 Avios per dollar on everything with no limits. 1.5M Avios earned for $800k in annual spend. No sign up bonuses.
This route allowed us to experience the best of one world (and Etihad) all in one trip.
I am guessing multi-class is prorated.
Also found availability for all segments which was over new years in T-18. Many city pairs available with OW if your flexible.
My mind just got blown. I have been reading here for years and never commented before. I’ve booked some amazing and complex award bookings and this guy killed it with this post. I loved the writer who posted about her China Eastern mishap trip and her article WAS great and her writing style was witty and jokes probably better BUT aside from Lucky or Dan on Dan’s Deals, I’m not sure I’ve ever read a single, stand alone post that was this informative. Not only did he bring out the sweet spot of this BA chart clearly, his graph with the comparison of all the partners was so detailed, well researched and helpful. But he didn’t stop there and added the layer about originating in a country that outlawed YQ, which I had never heard about. He packed a minimum of 3 articles into this one and you could get tons more offshoots from it. Now I want to know details of how exactly to maximize a similar Asia Miles redemption. And what about JAl? Would a JAL booking like this, including Emirates, be better total value than trying to use them for an Emirates flight? Or Quantas asks for the same miles as BA but could I then include EL AL segments if I booked with them? Or what would be the difference in other airlines award booking YQ costs when orginating in Hong Kong vs. let’s say Singapore or Australia. A great writer not only tells a story but leaves you wanting to read more and waiting impatiently for the next installment, and this writer hands-down accomplished that more than anyone else guest posting AND 95% of writers in the whole travel blogosphere. Kudos to the guest writer and I hope to hear so much more from you!
Fantastic article. I never knew this but is great to find out.
Also the business class would be best on all these airlines than BA anyway
Once again, random thoughts on the Guest article . . .
1) From a "writing perspective," it is a well-written piece.
2) From an "editing perspective," it leaves a lot to be desired. A good editor would/should catch things like "British Airways Executive Club and it’s [sic] currency, Avios"; "Malaysian [sic] Airlines"; or "The 'usual' British Airways chart..." (you mean the British Airways chart, don't you?).
>>> NOTE TO "K": "Malaysia Enrich" is the name of their mileage program, just as Iberia Plus and Asia Miles are the names of Iberia's and Cathay Pacific's programs, respectively. There is no error here.
3) From a CONTENT-driven perspective, it needs a lot of help. As examples, let me suggest a few things:
a) The author says that ALL of these charts are difficult to find on the various carriers websites (e.g.: "These delicate charts, vastly different from the standard ‘By Zone’ or ‘By Region’ redemption charts we’re more familiar with, are typically buried just above the Terms and Conditions [find Iberia’s in under 10 minutes though and you win]"). So you couldn't provide any links? The vast majority of links are to other OMAAT articles, except links to BA telephone numbers across the world and the JAL Distance Checker.
b) The author explains that to use BA Avios, the flights are booked through BA and governed by BA's rules, but that you cannot fly on BA metal. So far, so good. But if one looks at the routing, the RTW flight begins and ends in Chicago, and the "rules chart" included in the article CLEARLY states "Same Start and Stop Location: NO" for BA. Is this a writing error, and editing error, or a content error? It has to be (at least) one of these.
Etc., etc., etc.
Although the topic isn't very interesting (IMO), the information content is highly impressive. Great research comparing the different programs.
My vote for Best guest post so far.