The other thing to consider is how do you fly. BA is great if you fly in J/F, or even W, on a regular basis as you can earn status quite quickly and the avios start to roll in. It is also a distance based reward scheme so if you think you will be spending more of your miles on trips to Europe versus back to North America it has a lot of like. If most of your redemptions will be back to North America then the fees associated with using those miles are lower than BA.