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Booking Domestic Connecting (Positioning) Flights Close in to Departure

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JFK –> LCA emirates

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Miles and More problem

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SIN-TYO with UA miles?

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Struggle With Turkish Airlines Schedule Change

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Partner airline PlusPoint Upgrade Site Down?

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PIT to BER UA F/J redemption?

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Expiring Plus Points

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Booking New JAL A350 with AA miles

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Answers (2)

Avios or AAdvantage?

Avios or AAdvantage?

  1. Anonymous Guest

    Hi,

    I am a long time FF member, first time poster on the forum, and would really appreciate your help!!

    I have two main questions:
    1. I would like to know whether it makes more sense for me to credit my miles to the AAdvantage program instead of BA Executive Club? Avios work really well for European short haul redemptions, but seem to be terrible for upgrading to business class on medium-long haul flights.

    2. Can you advise on the best way to utilise my current Avios balance (140k miles) for business class travel from the UK to either Mexico, Mozambique or Japan? The biggest issue I have is that most redemptions available originating from the UK are with BA which has very high tax & surcharge costs.

    Below are all my details.

    [B](1) What is most important to you in a FFP?[/B]
    I am most interested in being able to upgrade long haul flights from economy to business (good award upgrade availability) and being able to buy short haul award flights in Europe (good award redemption)

    [B](2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?[/B]
    I fly about 45k-75k miles a year.
    35-45k miles (12-14 flights) in business, 10-30k miles a year in economy (12 flights). About 25 flights in total

    [B](3) What types of fares do you usually buy?[/B]
    I buy all work-related flights in business (12-14 flights) and all personal travel I will buy in economy (12 flights) and upgrade with points if it is long haul and available (not very often).

    [B](4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?[/B]
    I need to buy the cheapest direct route for business but can choose my airlines for personal travel. I travel for work and pleasure, but earn the majority of my miles with work travel.

    [B](5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?[/B]
    I fly UK-US mostly for business. For personal travel I will fly mostly in Europe and to South America or Australia once a year.

    [B](6) What is your home airport?[/B]
    LHR

    [B](7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?[/B]
    I am a BA silver member with 140k household avios. I am also a Delta Skymiles member (30k miles) and a United MileagePlus member (20k miles).

    [B](8) Preferred Airlines?[/B] [B]Most common Airlines flown on?[/B]
    I like BA/AA for UK-US flights, Qantas/Singapore for travel to Australia (I know Singapore is not OW).

    My wife and I also have BA Premium Plus AMEX cards which we spend at least £20,000 on each year and so we normally receive two companion vouchers a year. We currently have one companion voucher.

  2. No Name Member

    Welcome Luiz, have you considered signing up for an account on the Ask Lucky page?

    Question 1: I would advise you to wait and see a bit until before making a decision on that since AA is currently changing their FF program
    [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/11/06/2016-aadvantage-changes/[/URL]
    By late December or early next year the details will probably emerge and you should probably know more.

    PS! Don’t forget you can also credit flights on AA, BA and Qantas to Alaska Airlines.

    Question 2. Have you consider connecting elsewhere in Europe to another Oneworld carrier like Air Berlin or Finnair to avoid most of the high tax & surcharge costs? You would still have to pay BA taxes on the EU flight, but it should end up costing less.

    About upgrading to J from Y cabin; sadly AA is not much better there.
    On AA flights you can upgrade to J from Y, but the cost in miles end up as half the cost of a outright J award for cheap tickets.
    [URL]https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/mileage-upgrade-chart.jsp[/URL]
    [URL]https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/american-airlines-award-chart.jsp[/URL]
    And on flight with BA and IB you need to be in Y+ to upgrade to J, and can only upgrade full price Y to Y+
    [URL]https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/jba-upgrade-award-reservations.jsp[/URL]

    [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] Wrote an article about upgrading with BA avios a while back, have you read it?
    [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/09/20/upgrade-british-airways-avios/[/URL]

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