Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky!
I have Emerald status from BA EC.
Mostly I travel from Europe to USA in busniss class.

I wonder how you concider AA miles VS BA avios?

And the use of miles VS avios for an award ticket in business class?

I feel AA has a much better way to order award tickets. I bougth some AA miles a wile ago and when I searchig for award tkt with AA its much more easy to find ticket in business with AA then BA, even if BA si the carrier. Do You know anyting about that?

Welcome [USER=2027]@Bjoern H Bjoerseth[/USER] – to see how Lucky values AA vs. BA miles you can go to the top of this page, click on Start Here and then click on Value of Miles & Points. You’ll see that he values AA miles at 1.5 cents (USD) per point and BA miles at 1.3 cents. But each have their own best uses.

BA miles (Avios) are terrific for non-stop flights, especially short-haul flights as their award chart is distance-based and each segment is charged separately. So to find the total charge for an award you’d check the distance between each of the stopping points and add up the total miles required for each leg. Avios are not usually all that great for international flights in premium cabins because they impose fuel surcharges and that can mean hundreds of dollars (or Euros) for your “free” award ticket.

AA does not impose fuel surcharges except when flying BA metal. But they often limit availability on their own planes across oceans, so it’s a bit of a trade-off.

Virgin Atlantic (whose miles are valued at 1.0 cents each) also imposes fuel surcharges. VS miles can also be used on Delta flights though I am not certain whether or not fuel surcharges are applied in that situation.

One thing to note about flights out of London is that there is an expensive passenger fee that is based on how far you’re flying. So if your trans-Atlantic leg departs from London, that fee will be fairly high. You can avoid that fee and lower your fuel surcharges (usually) if you use the Avios on Iberia flights. Of course AA miles can be used on Iberia too, so if you use the BA website and see availability, AA should have access to those seats.