It was $30k when I first heard about the 100k BA sign-up bonus some years ago. While it's possible that it may have been lower for the companion award at some point, I don't recall seeing it lower than that.

Ironically, most of the companion awards my family and friends got for reaching $30k in spend in a calendar year did not use the companion awards -- instead we mostly have used the BA miles for intra-Americas AA and LA flights or AB flights. Companion awards are only applicable for roundtrips on BA metal with its very high "fuel" scam surcharges, so don't find them as useful as I had anticipated at some point.

Single-segment domestic/intra-Americas flights are a good use of BA miles for my circle of friends and family.

International award tickets in premium cabins where a lap-child infant is involved is also a very good use of BA miles for my circle of friends and family given it's just 10% of the adult miles + taxes/fees/surcharges.

Given there are no last-minute award redemption surcharges when using BA miles, that is also something that helps out BA award redemption customers who don't have elite status-based waivers for sub-21-day bookings in other programs.

Another upside of BA redemptions is cancellation penalties for domestic US or US-originating itineraries can be very low if cancelled more than 24-hours in advance.

The 4,500 mile and 7,500 mile one-way BA award ticket for AA flights is my staple reward as of late. The upside for some on such redemptions is that AA seems to be handing out some elite status benefits such as Priority Access status to such bookings even to those who have no airline/partner elite status.

BA miles are also good for AS flights, right?