My husband and I each had the Chase BA cards - I got mine in late 2009 and his in 2010. We earned a companion pass on my card in 2010 and then used his card exclusively last year to earn another companion pass. With my companion pass I took my mom to Paris and London in F for a once in a lifetime trip (for HER, because she'll probably never go back). I believe the surcharges at that time were around $650 per ticket.... they have gone up since then.

So now my husband's companion pass expires Oct. 7 2013 (two years from date of issue) and for a r/t ticket to London in F it would cost us $2,330.48. Then I look at AA, where for the same days, in F, it would be only $598.60 for the two of us. Yeah AA's F isn't nearly as nice as BA's F, but to save almost two grand I'd deal.

We are probably going to end up not using this companion certificate, which makes me sad, but I am not going to use it just to use it. I look at it as, we still got the 130,000 BA miles out of the spend even if we let the certificate "go to waste." If this was a once in a lifetime trip I'd use it and splurge, but we have been going to Europe almost every year in business or first class, so it's not that big of a loss.

I guess my point is, as long as you are comfortable with paying the fuel surcharges then go for it. Otherwise there are lots of other ways to get to Europe for "cheaper."

Now would I get the BA card just to get 100,000 Avios? Absolutely. Because they're like gold for domestic AA flights. Like sending my husband to Knoxville for a weekend to see a Tennessee football game with his buddies. Only 9000 Avios r/t but would have been almost a $300 ticket.