Thanks for the response and info
colerc! Much appreciated!
Originally Posted by
colerc
Don't write off BA completely though; they can be very valuable for short-haul redemptions thanks to awards starting as low as a few thousand miles on short routes, and though they do charge high fuel surcharges, those vary by market and are not always as painful as they are in the US-Europe market.
I have heard this as well - however since we have a lot of UA miles, we would plan to redeem on LH for trips in Europe. Also I think if using BA would have to connect through London each time, not the end of the world but that would mean almost always flying somewhat out of the way to get to most of Europe (we are Munich based right now)
Originally Posted by
colerc
It's also worth thinking about whether oneworld is an absolute must for you -- you don't say what you're thinking of redeeming for, but there may be other options that are equally good. For example if you want to redeem for Cathay Pacific, you could consider instead transferring MR points to Singapore and redeeming for a similarly luxurious trip on SQ (and, SQ does not give its partners access to its long-haul premium class awards, so your UA miles would not help there).
OneWorld is not an absolute, more of a desire to see how green the grass is in the OneWorld "World".
That is a good point that Singapore does not let UA MP members book their premium cabins. An option to do that, but would certainly burn up most of the point balance.
Originally Posted by
colerc
(Not clear what country your MR account is in, but if it's a US account then the transfer to SPG is 3:1; I believe in some other countries you do get 2:1.)
Very good point! I checked back and it is 3:1 for me as I have a US account. I think earlier I had pulled up a generic page which listed as 2:1. With this updated ratio I am not so convinced about my earlier plan, for better or worse.
Maybe I will hold on for the time being and see if another MR bonus transfer option will come up, though these seem to be few and far between these days...
Steve