Originally Posted by
Thunderroad
Good of you to post this, OP. But anyone who isn't familiar with the BA program should be aware that it charges very high fees for award redemptions that involve flying to or especially connecting through LHR. My wife and I used this deal, including the companion ticket to fly SFO-LHR-DXB a few years ago, with a stopover in LHR. IIRC, cost us over well over $3,000 plus the points. Of course, you can view that as using the miles for a de facto economy ticket, but it nevertheless adds up to the BA awards costing more than almost any other program.
Redemption cost$ for partner airlines not going through LHR are not as bad, with using Avios to Latin American being very low. But of course you only way you can used the companion ticket is on BA, which means you'll pay through the nose to avail of the companion ticket option.
Yep. All that is known, or should be, but thanks for bringing it up for the un-initiated.
I tend nowadays to use Avios on the BOS-DUB run (25K/50K Y/J) which is a great deal, and domestic AA trips can be had for as little as 4500 Avios OW.
Also, of course, the same 4500 Avios redemption rates ex-London to quite a bit of Europe is also a good deal.
Long haul (e,g., ORD/SFO/LAX/SEA/etc. - LHR) is still killed with the YQ. OTOH, from where I live, YYZ-LHR is available 40K/80K/120K Y/J/F so, if I can scrape up the YQ, it can be a pretty good deal to Europe, riding up front.
YMMV, as usual.