Made some great BA redemptions on intra-south America flights. Lima to Cusco (9k RT) and AEP to MDZ in Argentina (9k RT). Taxes were low for LIM to CUZ but appx. 125 pp on the Argentina routing. However the cost would have been almost 450 pp otherwise.
The key with Skypence and Skypesos is to not fly on the home airline.
1) I fly Delta domestically (revenue tickets) as it it is easy to get to their hub (LGA) from where I live, they go most places I want to fly, and their planes/service are good
2) British Airways flights to Europe look pretty cheap in coach
The best is to accumulate revenue miles via these airlines and redeem rewards on their partners (Avios miles also work well on Cathay)
Is BA availability on AA closing up? I'm trying to find seats for three (or even one or two) on AA from IAD/DCA-ORD in June and find nothing. Very little on that route at all. I'm going through BA's website. What's the problem here?
Is BA availability on AA closing up? I'm trying to find seats for three (or even one or two) on AA from IAD/DCA-ORD in June and find nothing. Very little on that route at all. I'm going through BA's website. What's the problem here?
Are you seeing the flights as available for sAAver redemption on AA.com? I usually like to search AA.com for the 30 day calendar functionality and then "searching" for the flights I want via BA.com.
Is BA availability on AA closing up? I'm trying to find seats for three (or even one or two) on AA from IAD/DCA-ORD in June and find nothing. Very little on that route at all. I'm going through BA's website. What's the problem here?
Is aa.com showing MileSAAver award availability for your desired dates of travel?
Programs: AA Gold 1MM, A3 Blue (* Silver), MR/SPG/PC Gold, HH Diamond, Nat ExecElite
Posts: 28,616
It's not BA's fault: AA has gone from being roughly on par with United in terms of availability on most "normal" routes (e.g., not max-demand award routes) to being more akin to US or DL. I can't even get MCI-ORD on a random Saturday morning 5 months from now to connect to my TATL flight.
I would hope that post-bankruptcy, AA will improve. Just two years ago, they had generally fair availability. Booking months in advance, you'd find some choices on WAS-ORD.
Actually, you all are correct - AA availability is the problem. Not having used their program for years, I was shocked. Awful. Maybe it'll be better closer in.
2) British Airways flights to Europe look pretty cheap in coach
The best is to accumulate revenue miles via these airlines and redeem rewards on their partners (Avios miles also work well on Cathay)
Using Avios on BA to Europe is NOT cheap after all the fees and surcharges.
I once found RT tixs to europe that cost less using online search engines than all the fees BA charged for a "free tix".
Have not used Avios miles to Asia (from NYC) but I believe they charge much more in miles than other air programs.
Using Avios on BA to Europe is NOT cheap after all the fees and surcharges.
I once found RT tixs to europe that cost less using online search engines than all the fees BA charged for a "free tix".
Have not used Avios miles to Asia (from NYC) but I believe they charge much more in miles than other air programs.
I meant purchasing tickets on BA to Europe in coach is pretty cheap - meaning that BA is a decent option to actually accumulate miles through flying
Redeeming Avios on Cathay seems to cost minimal fees and look comparable to Cathay's own program:
I checked recently and DL offered flights to Asia in C for 120K + $1xx during the summer, so DL is still useful to me. Last time I checked on a long-haul using BA miles (not on BA metal), it was ridiculous, so I spent the 50K I had on a few days in a riverfront hotel in Singapore. I have just enough left for a 4500-mile flight in Japan, so I'll consider using the rest on that -- thanks to those who mentioned it.
I don't go looking for either kind of miles much, but I've cut back considerably on flying (from 125K+/yr to @30K/yr), so I'm not in a position to worry about which is better.
Programs: AA Gold 1MM, A3 Blue (* Silver), MR/SPG/PC Gold, HH Diamond, Nat ExecElite
Posts: 28,616
Is Cathay better (from a BA fees perspective) when redeeming intra-Asia? I believe this is the case with JAL. Long-haul has lots of junk fees. Short-haul has none or little.
I recently booked CNX (Chiang Mai)-HKG on KA and HKG-HND on CX for $52.61 and $44.58 in taxes/fuel surcharges respectively. I can't get ba.com to spit out the breakdown for already-purchased itineraries, but I seem to remember airport taxes making up over half of the first segment and the fuel surcharge being the same for the second. Given that these routes are double the miles plus a $25 phone booking fee for me to get them using AA miles, it seemed like a no-brainer to burn Avios instead.
Avios also worked great in Australia. I could fly around from city to city and only dish out a couple thousand avios each time, with fees less than $10. Also work great for last minute flights, ie. I got offered tickets to the Superbowl the day before. Flights were all booked or thousands of dollars, but was able to get me and a friend there for just 60k Avios total RT. Love that the award price doesn't change based on demand.
