Folks, is there a consensus on whether the annual fee can be waived for the first year? I tried searching this thread and have been following much of it, but the annual fee waiver is only sparsely discussed.

Also, are there any particular BA awards where it is better to use BA miles than AA miles (i.e., somewhere BA and AA define the zones differently)? I've got lots of unused AA miles, and I don't really want to spend ~$100 unless I have a reason to use these BA miles over AA miles.

Thanks.