Originally Posted by
oscietra
You don't have to redeem in the same cabin both ways, which makes sense if you're short of miles.
Take the direct flight ATL-LHR (or is it LGW?) using
www.newclubworld.com overnight and return on the day flight in economy or premium economy (though you'll miss out on the BA lounges, which would be shame).
It's worth familiarising yourself with the BA product; sure, it costs a little more, but you get quite a bit more bang for your buck than the carriers on which you've been used to flying.
This was the approach I took on my recent trip to Scotland. Flying east to LHR, I took CW; flying back to the US, I took WT+. Since I was able to take advantage of the 50% off BA miles sale for the WT+ flight, I used only 68,750 miles, but since I'm on the East Coast, that set of flights will only be 70K when the Avios program begins. I think that's a tremendous value, even with about $700 in taxes and fees. I've flown DL, US, and AA to the UK for $1000 in economy during the summer months--for $300 less this year, I had a much more enjoyable and relaxing trip with BA.
Just using miles in that way could be enough (and I have about 170K left with plans in 2012 to do the spending for a 2-for-1 ticket), but MFU from WT+ is the next step. As
bernardd points out, there has been a significant difference between the cost of WT and WT+ at times this summer. I think the idea is to time your purchases of WT+ to occur during sales. I just haven't followed BA long enough to get a good feeling for either what a "good" sale price is or the rough windows when sales might occur. Of course, there's never any assurance that sales will be predictable, either in timing or cost, but that's research I'll start doing because BA's service on my trip to Scotland has convinced me the effort is worthwhile.