Originally Posted by
ajnaro
In the case of a BA flight bought with BA miles, you have to take into account that you will have to pay fuel surcharges and that can be quite expensive. Of course, you could use AA (except to UK from US) or LAN or perhaps other BA partners. But if you have to pay fuel surcharges, most of the apparent value of the 'free' ticket is gone.
You make an excellent point here that many people miss. There is almost always fees and/or surcharges associated with redeeming miles. It devalues the miles you earn. I wrote a blog post recently going extensively over the various costs and
fees charged when redeeming miles.
Hotel redemptions on the other hand are almost always for free. There is an argument there saying that hotel redemptions are worth more than airline redemptions. I think it all depends upon what you need.