Originally Posted by
Dave Noble
Miles earned from hotels et al are only bonus miles and do not count towards status qualification
You only need to qualify on EQP or EQM, so if you can get the 50k EQP you have AA Platinum status
There can be some difference with connection vs direct since nost routes with a connection will be slightly higher mileage, but not a huge difference
It is still nicer in 1st than economy
Looking then at the comment from Passmethesickbag:
I think you should also look at the redemption rates rather than just the earning rates; I do not know where you wish to redeem on, but the AA redemption rates can be significantly better value than BA's
If you are flying on Y/B fares in economy to USA, to upgrade from economy to business class is 15k points one way ( which would include the domestic sector upgrade too )
A one way business class ticket award from Europe to North America is 50k points one way and 1st class is 62.5k
Going from Europe to South Asia ( e.g. Hong Kong or Singapore ) is 52.5k business and 70k 1st
and Europe to Australia/New Zealand is 60k business and 80k 1st
As long as you avoid redeeming for travel on BA you can avoid paying high surcharges. ( e.g. for a one way from US - London the taxes are $5.60 redeemed on AA )
I am not sure exactly where in USA you travel too, so just picking Chicago as an example
LHR-ORD is 3953 miles. As a Platinum member this would earn 7906 miles vs BA's 5930 miles each way for a r/t eatning of 15812 vs 11860 so 33% more
Comparing that against redemption costs
for redemption for a 1st class seat to Australia , on AA you will have eaned 19.765% of the 1 way requirement vs 6.97% of an off peak BA award (170k) or 5.93% of a Peak Award (200k) plus there would be several hundred pounds surcharge to pay with BA
For redemption to Asia such as Hong Kong , which is zone 7
BA redemption cost in business is 75k off peak or 90k peak and in 1st is 102k off peak or 120k peak ( plus surcharges to pay too )
AA redemption cost is 52.5k business and 70k 1st
The AA redemption cost for 1st class is lower than BA's off peak business class
There are cases where AA won't come out ahead; if you wanted to redeem for travel to Chicago, there wouldn't be a great difference in redemption costs just the surcharges and for redemption for travel within Europe the 10k AA award may be not that amazing
No they cannot.
A challenge can be used to fast track you to Platinum status but that is all. One round trip in a 1.5 EQP earning fare to the USA will get you to Platinum status though
Thanks again Dave.
This means Emerald is out of my range with EQM. With EQP:
100k EQP / 1.5 P/M cabin = 66,667 miles
My typical US trip is LHR-ORD/DFW and then connecting on AA.
On the short side, LHR-ORD at 3953 + 450 = 4400
On the long side, LHR-DFW at 4747 + 1200 = 6000
That's 8 return trips on the short side, 6 on the long side.
With Avios, the distances are irrelevant. It's always 90TP for the TATL on WTP, and either 10 or 20 Avios for the connection depending on ticket, so ballpark 200 Avios for a return trip which matches the 8 trip requirement with AA if doing shorter distance trips. I do 5-6 trips a year, but not always the long ones so would be unlikely to make it.
The reason Emerald with BA is more likely for me are the occasional Business cabin trips to the West coast and Asia, which the AA program does not sufficiently value on EQP. It's x1.5 whether full Eco or First. The years I've had BA Gold have been due to an additional 300 or so points (1.5-2 US trip equivalent) from a CW trip to Asia. With my current and forseable flying pattern, I would put the probability of BA Gold at 15%, not an important enough reason to persist with BAEC.
I've looked at redemptions. My redemption preference is to minimize cash (tax,fees, etc.) requirement on flights. I'm currently sitting on a mountain of unused Avios.
I'm generally not interested in cabin upgrades, prefer cheapest Eco seat. I had a quick look at hotels, both AA and BAEC seem similar and poor value use of Avios/Miles.
I am UK based and use LHR, from what I see:
For UK domestic and European/short-haul, use BAEC with Avios with the flat 35 fee return. The miles required with AA are similar to the Avios but AA fees are generally around 60. Using 10-15k on such a return ticket is better than a US domestic upgrade for me.
For flights within the US, use BAEC. The fees are similar (low, usually around 10) but AA charges a minimum of 25k which is almost always higher than the BAEC Avios required. The differences aren't too important but why waste, right?
For long-haul and transcon, using BAEC Avios is poor value unless in premium cabin given high fees. For Eco, AA's fees are always lower. Is this true? (I'm mostly interested in USA and Far East from LHR) I ran through a few examples, and even on AA metal the fees were never $5.60, more like 200.
Other use of Avios (theater tickets, etc.) seem the worst value.
I think in my case it may make sense to switch to AA to start collecting miles I can use on long-haul (avoiding BA metal to reduce cost) to see the world on the cheap. On earning, I could continue the same itinerary (BA WTP + AA Eco) and quality for Sapphire with the EQP method.
I would lose access to lounges in US when not connecting internationally - not a problem for me.
I would gain those domestic upgrades - don't really care about these.
The biggest gain would be continuing to receive tier 100% bonus whereas BA is dropping to 50%. Of course, anybody's guess when AA change their scheme.
One point to note, AA has an 18 month activity requirement compared to BA's 36. Anything else I'm missing?
PS. Regarding your LHR-ORD calculation:
With BA Silver on WTP W, I got 3953 + 3953 tier bonus (100%) + 988 cabin bonus (25%) = 8894 on my last flight. With the upcomming changes, the tier bonus will reduce from 100% to 50% but the cabin bonus will increase from 25% to 50% so it should become: 3953 + 1976 tier bonus (50%) + 1976 cabin bonus (50%) = 7905.
With AA, it's a 100% tier bonus + 10% cabin bonus so 3953 + 3953 + 395 = 8301. So the difference for me is 10% on the total trip, only about 800 miles which is something but not a game changer.
PPS. I've already qualified for BA Silver with 4 months to go, so I'll have Sapphire until May 2016 even if I don't earn another Avios, so the AA fast track challenge isn't necessary. I am however booking some US trips this week and would want to avoid crediting to BAEC if I'm moving to AA. Unlike BA, the AA program always seems to start in Jan for all which makes it good timing for a switch.