HIDDY

Despite sitting on a nice amount of miles I have refused to book any DC redemptions over the last year. More a case of not having firm travel dates than anything else.

Everyone else seems to have gone redemption crazy.

colmc

Nope. I had an nice business class award booked (I would have been flying tomorrow, ironically) but had to cancel it due to other things happening, and not having firm dates for future travel. I'll move my DC miles over to Avios when the time comes and see what I want to do from there.

Traveloguy

We are ironically flying on an F TG award at the moment, but the only recent redemption was an AMM booking ironically on BD.

I'm fairly relaxed about the move to Avios. Very much looking forward to using my Amex 2-4-1 vouchers which can actually be more cost effective compared to a BD M&C award. DC was fun whilst it lasted and actually for a while I was actually primarily flying BD metal.

For the future however, BA is looking good. I love the extra miles you earn in Y (yes, I am actually flying Y again at the moment!) and now that my QF days are pretty much over (I have three flights left to credit before I bin the card), I'm ready to concentrate on actually crediting to BA and not just flying them.

I'm curious however to see what happens next. Will it be possible to earn status miles in DC or is today really the last day before the programme is officially in life support?

Onwards and upwards.

Kevincm

I burned a load last year. I still have a pile of miles that I'm happy to Avois at the moment.

I could had booked another trip, but would have had trouble sorting hotels and other fiscal issues. I therefore held back.

Well done to those who booked and got it ticketed.

colmc

You could still earn status miles on BD coded flights (what's left!)

thegoderic

I did look at a quick trip to Jordan in the autumn but there was no availability showing. I guess they didn't load any reward flights where they weren't sure if the route was operating.

So I've been left with a bunch of miles to ship over to BA next month as well. The transfer will get my Avios balance into 7 figures which will be a first for me.

Like HIDDY, I'm miles rich and time poor.

Tiger_lily

Nope, nada here. Next planned trip is to West Coast US Easter 2013. Can't wait for the transfer to Avios to get MFU's

G_G

Same for me and it's better because it won't be possible to change a *Alliance booking

Globaliser

The same for me. I'd never actively participated in DC, but that good credit card deal got me started. I then topped up to exactly enough for a pair of C&M tickets to one of our usual and frequent destinations, but we haven't been able to match potential travel dates to availability. So now those miles will go to shore up our stash of Avios (in relation to which we usually have the same availability problems).

jbfield

I booked, but the way I saw it, it presented an opportunity: if I can time the BD->BA conversion right I won't have to worry about retaining Gold for the next 12 months, meaning I can focus on redeeming some miles for a change.
It's been a very tricky balancing act of time and money to get enough revenue flights throughout the year to retain Gold, thereby often leaving no room for redemptions. This year is different...although I have run out of annual leave; hence the need to wait until Easter 2013 to book the next redemption. Mind you, off on a revenue flight this weekend.

lhr baby

I've switched everything I needed in long haul business to award bookings, mainly because I had no clue in which FFP it was best to accumulate miles. Had I known the final arrangements a lot sooner, I might have carried on booking revenue flights on *A but se la vie. At least I didn't waste miles on anything I didn't want and very soon I'll be sitting on a nice stash of half a million Avios as well has having 12 months worth of *A redemptions queued up.

Richelieu

Not necessarily, but if you had redemptions to do for the next 12 months at a leisurely rhythm, why not lump them over the last month instead of abandonning them? In the worst case, it's cancellation and booking to avios. My travel dates are set for next year (and I have a list of places I want to travel to for fun)... so I did them. And usually, I mixed redemption with paid trips to maintain status... This year, thanks to 23 month of BA status and unexpiring A3 status, I won't have this need, so it was 100% redeemed flight until next Jan.

It wasn't a flight out of Avios: I'll probably buy 24,000 BMI miles for each of my family members as a gift before June 30th --- I find they have value when priced at BMI+20% offer.

HIDDY

I had thought of booking a trip to the US but the chances of having to cancel were going to be high.
Although more Avios AA taxes/charges from EZE are very low compared to flying UA using DC so I didn't really feel the need to book a redemption before the deadline. If we were still Europe based in normal jobs with holidays more certain then yes I would have booked.

NickB

One of my redemptions is semi-speculative as some dates could shift but I reasoned that, at a cost of £25 for a cancellation, it would not be the end of the world if I needed to cancel it a few months down the line for an itinerary which would cost me much more with Avios, even if I were to find availability for it.

rankourabu

I spent most of mine for summer 2012 travel a few months ago.

About 50k is going to Avios, will match before my BD*S expires in December.