Originally Posted by
Cphil1
Mostly short haul from yul to fll(Mia) or for one long haul to Europe.
How can I get aa via rbc rewards? There's no aa card. Ba is there though, would I really want ba? I'm not so sure...
I heard about the atrocities ba puts u through to find and book tickets with partner airlines. Not sure I want to go that route.
You can
convert RBC Rewards points to American Airlines AAdvantage or British Airways Executive Club. Both programs allow you to book AA flights.
RBC sometimes offers a 50% bonus when converting points to BA Avios. Last one was in May-June this year.
BA's award chart is distance-based, whereas AA's one is zone-based.
For instance, YUL-MIA is 1400 miles long.
Using AA miles to book this flight will require
25,000 AAdvantage miles per economy
roundtrip award ticket. (
AA award chart)
Using BA points to book this will require
20,000 avios per economy
roundtrip award ticket. (
Your guide to spending avios)
It's very easy to book online at ba.com, and you can redeposit the miles for almost free if you need to cancel (you just forfeit the amount of taxes paid — usually a few $)
For Europe, it's probably better to transfer to AA, and redeem your AA miles on
oneworld airlines (except BA and —to a lesser extent— IB, which incur high Fuel Surcharges). A
one-way from North America to Europe is 20k (Off-peak Economy), 30k (Peak Economy), 50k (Business) and 62.5k (First). See
AAdvantage oneworld and other airlines award chart