ojg100

After a few years of BAEC Silver with a fair bit of European travel from Heathrow, I've now arrived in Charlotte, NC for a few years.

Question is: Stay with BAEC and earn Avios for lots of flights with AA / US Airways, or switch to Aadvatage?

Sure there's an existing thread on this somewhere, but damned if I can find it...

olybeast

Avios are great for domestic US flights.

AA miles are better for international travel (more choice of airlines, less surcharges, less miles)

So I guess it depends on what you want to redeem for

Tafflyer

BA Silver will give you lounge access in the U.S. when flying domestic. AA status will not. However, if you fly discount Y, the new regime will give you a massive 5 tier points per sector unless over 2000 miles. I would do a TP run to get BA silver cheap but credit all Y flights to AA. You'd get bugger all Avios for them at BAEC anyway.

wanderingtheearth

It's really a question of which is more important to you: lounge access or a shot at a complimentary upgrade. Keep in mind that if you're "only" Silver equivalent on AA, your chances of said upgrade tend not to be great anymore.
Avios can also be preferable to Aadvantage miles if you take short flights (e.g., BOS-JFK/LGA), at 4500 Avios + $5 a pop.

windowontheAside

If you're flying a lot, I'd switch to AA and buy an Admiral's Club membership.

Cymro

BA Silver beats AA Plat.
Because of the upgrades, I'd suggest that AA EXP beats BA Gold.
Lots of economy travel - AA.
Lots of premium cabins - BA.
International redemptions - AA.
Domestic redemptions, particularly one-ways - BA.

So it all depends - what will your travel patterns look like?

rather_be_on_a_griffin

Remember you'll need 4 BA operated/marketed to keep status. As others have said I think BA is great if you're in First but for discounted Y it's pretty dire. Short point to point avios redemptions are great value.

Mwenenzi

Is a few years 2 or 5 or maybe for ever?
What do want from a ffp?
Where will you be flying to while in USA?

Several BA vs AA threads here
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

ojg100

Thanks all for the advice.

2 years or forever - that's the $64M question! Guessing it will be 5 or so years before kids and schooling pull us back to the UK.

Think I'll be able to hold on to BAEC Silver through 4-5 premium economy trips each year back to Europe - I hadn't appreciated AA status wouldn't get you lounge access!

After that, my internal flying will be LA / Phoenix / Chicago / Connecticut / Seattle but mostly economy so it sounds like using Aadvantage for those is best.

ojg

fiddlerkrt

I agree with others that flying in discount Y, it's best to credit to AAdvantage. Instead of the 4-5 premium economy trips to maintain BA status, it's easier to just fit in 4 BA segments in a year and earn the bulk of the tier points by flying AA/US F on a domestic flight over 2,000 miles since each of them earns 210 tier points. This is easily accomplished by flying on a trans-con and they cost around $500 each.

Blueboys999

I agree.

I think the value of lounge access with BA Silver is much overstated. If it's important to you then Admirals Club membership is purchasable for cash and/or miles and if you fly a lot represents good value.

Tafflyer

Likewise. However, if the OP uses his BA silver to status match/challenge his way to AA PLT, he will immediately benefit from increased AA earning (tier bonus still 100%) while enjoying free lounge access with his BA status. Having his cake and eating it.

Then, OP can decide later whether maintaining BA status is worth it. Crediting his PE trips to the UK would earn 210% on AA as a PLT or 150% on BA as silver, but having some Avios for RFS or s/h redemptions is never bad.

Jagboi

Compared to the BA lounges at T5 I think the Admirals clubs are fairly dire. It's a nice waiting room, but not much else.

Blueboys999

I wouldn't disagree with that but if the OP is flying mostly domestic in the US that's what BA Silver will provide.

VSLover

i live in NYC and switched this year from 10yrs at AA Ex Plat to now BA gold. mostly it was becuase in the US i am flying paid J and F about 95% of the time so the upgrades did not matter (not that i got them often on the transcons anyhow which is a bulk of my flying) and swapped to BA for the lounge access and honestly to spend less time in the airplane. i successfully made gold in three months at a fraction of the miles it took me to keep my Exec Plat status all those years.

i have found that europe avios redemptions have been both easy and seriously cheap. and with the new avios scheme, redeeming the WT JFK-LHR route is only 13k avios vs 30k on aa.

so i guess for me--it has happened to work out better than i anticipated than AA could. plus i just know AA will change their program eventually to match all other american carriers.