<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by whmere:
Thanks everyone. I was leaning towards the BA Gold anyway - not going to live in the US forever. The challenge is really easy so I'll get the Platinum (thx for the advice on domestic upgrades), but then start loading onto BA. Apart from the 100 hour upgrades, is EXP actually any better than Platinum? If you have the BA Gold you get lounge access anyway.</font>
You would get 8 * 1 way upgrades valid internationally and the price to purchase domestic upgrades is slightly less than for platinums. If your travel is going to be in 1st class , I would suggest keeping your BA account based in the UK for a while and getting the 3x mileage for flights and transfer it across to the US when you are wanting to use the points since the redemption costs are lower in the US ( e.g. US - Australia in 1st for 125,000 pts ).
Dave