Welcome to FT missellison2007!
The BAEC program (or, programme
) has its pros and cons just like any airline FF program. Actually redeeming their miles for BA flights may not be the best use of their miles due to the fuel surcharges - though some folks have found the premium cabin awards to be a good option for them. A lot depends on your needs and where you want to go.
Partner airline redemptions, particularly using the "one partner only" are one of the better values.
Check out Thepointsguy.com website - he had a very thorough and easy to understand rundown of the different BA redemption options, and their pros/cons (I'd paste a direct link but am blocked from his site at work - however I believe there is a search function that should find it for you easily)
I think BAEC is a very useful FF program - the wife and I have redeemed 150K miles so far with only about $25-$30 in taxes per ticket, for N.America-Asia trip and plan to redeem some more soon for a similar small fee. Good luck and enjoy!