MilesBuzz! - Trip BWI - London, February 2013

I am looking to take a short trip over to London next February. I will be flying out of BWI on 2/14 and returning into any airport in the DC region (preferably BWI) on 2/18. Unfortunately, due to work, my travel dates are not flexible. I am also looking for the cheapest flight possible so I will be flying economy.

I have the following amounts of points:

3k AA
20k SPG
5k Sapphire
20k United
22k BA
45k Hawaiian

After doing a bit of research, I think the best way to go is by flying United. The flights on United will cost about 60,000 miles but are only subject to $180 in fees whereas flights on American (BA metal) cost 40,000 miles but are subject to over $600 in fees. For my particular dates USAir will cost 90k points. Am I right about United being the best option?

Also, what is the best way to quickly get 40k United miles. Should I apply for the MileagePlus Explorer card? I was thinking about going for the Ink Bold card, but I have had trouble getting a business credit card in the past (citi AA card) and I don't think I'd be able to hit the 10k spend in 3 months.

I too am planning a trip to London later this year, my understanding some of the fees can be avoided by a EU stopover?

I believe that you can avoid the high fees using AA miles if you fly on AA itself or on a partner like Iberian. During the winter, you need only 40k miles on AA for an award. You would have to fly from BWI to another city (probably BOS, JFK, ORD) to reach your transatlantic flight, but it might be worth it if you can pick up the necessary miles through an AA credit card offer. (Some credit card offers give a $100 rebate toward AA ticket purchases.)

After posting the above paragraph, I checked on AA to see what award travel would be available on AA itself on the dates you indicated. I found BWI--JFK--LHR on Feb 14 leaving at 2:45 PM and arriving at 7:40 AM the next day (AA 3964/AA 138). For the return on Feb 18, LHR--RDU--DCA leaving at 11:40 AM and arriving at 10:10 PM (AA 173/AA 4536). These flights are 40k round-trip + $180.60 in fees. This is only an example. There are numerous other possibilities in both directions at 40k on AA, but I did not check on the fees involved. If you would like me to check other possibilities, please let me know and I will be pleased to do so. It appears that some sections of the AA website can only be reached by those with enough miles to book award travel.

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I am looking to take a short trip over to London next February. I will be flying out of BWI on 2/14 and returning into any airport in the DC region (preferably BWI) on 2/18. Unfortunately, due to work, my travel dates are not flexible. I am also looking for the cheapest flight possible so I will be flying economy.

I have the following amounts of points:

3k AA
20k SPG
5k Sapphire
20k United
22k BA
45k Hawaiian

After doing a bit of research, I think the best way to go is by flying United. The flights on United will cost about 60,000 miles but are only subject to $180 in fees whereas flights on American (BA metal) cost 40,000 miles but are subject to over $600 in fees. For my particular dates USAir will cost 90k points. Am I right about United being the best option?

Also, what is the best way to quickly get 40k United miles. Should I apply for the MileagePlus Explorer card? I was thinking about going for the Ink Bold card, but I have had trouble getting a business credit card in the past (citi AA card) and I don't think I'd be able to hit the 10k spend in 3 months.

If you are willing to connect somewhere (and if there is availability), you don't necessarily have to fly on BA metal when redeeming AAdvantage miles.

And, of course, you can redeem AA miles in one direction, and UA miles in the other.

I am not much of an expert on which airline to fly, but you can get a nice chunk of United miles if you do it the right way.

The general offer for the United Explorer card is 25K signup, 5K for adding an additional user, and up to 10K for balance transfers, but the transfers have a 3% fee, so it's quite an expensive way to get points. However, if you have a MP account with a positive balance, if you log into your MP account, you should see a link for a more generous offer. (I'm assuming you haven't gotten the associated bonus on this card yet; I think it's one-time-per-person.) If you don't see the offer, you can search some of the threads on FT or some of the blogs that will explain how to do it. I did it recently, but I think I had to try twice before getting the right link.