Originally Posted by
broncob
As I understand it, BA miles can be used on AA metal, but why are they 'better' than AA miles? I know this may be a matter of option, but being stuck in snowtown has given us tunnel (snow tunnel) vision for DL. So kindly enlighten me.
It's probably best if you look at both award charts side by side, but here's the short of it (between the US and China; Japan is cheaper on AA, but not BA):
-Y is 25k each way on BA v. 35k on AA
-C is 50k each way on BA v. 55k on AA
-F is 75k each on BA v. 67.5k on AA
Also of relevance:
-in order to get those prices on BA, you can only use one airline (i.e. can't combine AS with JL/CX/AA)
-AA charges a close-in fee to non elites that is around $100 (varies by how close in)
-BA charges for YQ/YR on almost all partners
except for AA; AA doesn't do this at all
-BA allows stopovers; AA does not. To put this in perspective, let's say you book HKG to YVR on CX; you can tack on a YVR-JFK segment that's valid for one year (I'm not sure about date changes).