Thanks so much everyone!

@BA1907 - Thank you for the detailed reply; really appreciate it.

I'd say since I'm a student, my main travel options will be Y, H and L. Also, my primary goal with the frequent flyer program is to collect more miles in order to be able to get discounts on flights / get free flights, and less to achieve status or upgrade my class.

I realize all US <-> UK/Europe flights on BA will carry a fuel surcharge in cash, but do flights from UK <-> India also carry the surcharge? Further, if I were to use my BA Avios points on a domestic AA flight within the US, will I still be charged a surcharge?

Seeing as BA is my best option in terms of airlines to fly to India, I'm going to have to fly with them anyway. As a result, the fuel surcharge seems inevitable too if I use points. As long as the other benefits (such as redemption on AA and partner airlines) are good, I'm probably going to stick with BA.

Any advice is appreciated, and once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH everybody!

P.S. Perhaps I should mention, I'm also going towards a substantial investment into Star Alliance over the next few months through United. I'm applying for a few credit cards and will be accruing ~50k points on Star Alliance. It's possible Air India completes it's joining into the alliance by July, in which case a new airline is open to me beyond BA and Emirates, although only from NYC and not Boston. My next journey to India is in December, but flight tickets are cheaper by about $400 on BA than on Air India. Would it make sense to shell out more on Air India for points, or take the cheaper flight on BA and collect points on both alliances?