Originally Posted by
cazic99
Hi, I been pricing that route on BA.com, the chart says that trip should take 100k Miles on Business per person. But it seems like if I use Outbound Cathay and Inbound Japan airlines, that miles cost goes to 180k? I have heard people say the good thing about BA is we can mix and match partners, but if it takes extra 80k miles , that is not such a good idea!? IF I call in, will the deal be better?
You got it totally mixed up. It is the AA that is the good thing you heard about. BA is the exact opposite. You pay a ton more when you go outside SINGLE Partner.
Apparently you have not read the BA Award Charts. No it would not make any difference if you call to book.
Only the SINGLE partner chart would be 100K r/t.
Two partners make the award to become a DISTANCE-BASED OneWorld type award and is much more expensive using BA miles than AA miles.
What you should do is to book it in TWO one-way awards and each would cost 50K miles - outbound on CX and inbounc on JL - if you could not find the return in CX.
One of the advices the BA folks would give is to always book TWO one-ways instead of a r/t because BA only allows (fee-based) change of any kind, up to T-24 of the FIRST flight of the WHOLE itinerary. There is no if or but, not even with medical emergency supported by doctor's note... A not so trivial restriction in using BA miles if you ask me and a very important factor to keep in mind.
Of course if you book it as TWO one-way instead of ONE round trip, you also would face 2 x cancellation fee in case you need to cancel. However, to many people preserving the flexibility to change on the return, even just the date, outweighs the possible extra cancellation fee. YMMV.
You may want to really read up BAEC program rules found under the BAEC T&Cs because it occurs to me you have not studied up the BACE rules and that would cost you dearly in the future after you ticketed - BAEC rules are very different from the US-based airline programs. There are lots of Sob stories by the faux pas committed by us Americans who got their BA miles thru the Chase cards and not spent time and effort to understand how BAEC program works.