Originally Posted by
Jonesdds
My main reason for collecting Avios by signing up for the BA visa was the use for one of my typical routes SBA to SLC via PHX. When I started to research there did seem to be quite a bit of availability to use, albeit higher than a year ago. Still undercut AA miles used for same route. After getting the card summer last year and getting the bonus of 50k I've been unable to use. I've been looking into Oct and November this year, only seems to show first class available at crazy redemptions.
Is there a sweet spot to use these in this type of redemption? Am I dead in the water for this now? It's over 500 miles, maybe I'm better with two redemptions each leg? Fortunately I ended up booking a London trip so used for bus class LHR to VEN for the rest of the trip, that was 12.5k vs the above at 36k!
Not a frequent visitor so don't anticipate using in Europe in the near future after that trip...
I'm also USA-based and using the Chase card. It's good for me as Ms. G is British so we're making reasonably frequent trips from here to LHR (on the way to GCI), as in once or twice a year. Having the Avios and 2for1's gets us J bookings most of the time for those trips. From my point of view, it's worth it.
If you're mostly US domestic, it's possible to book some AA flights using Avios, but they've got to be sAAver Fares, and you can't book upgrades using Avios. That means that you're racking up points as Avios that you may not be able to use as well as you could if you credit to their program.
For me, once I get to Gold (yay, trip booked for May 2nd), I'll start crediting my US flights to AAnother AAirline as there's no chance I'll make GGL before my TP year ends in November. Might as well get some credits there for the domestic flights so I have something useful for AA upgrades. On the other hand, it's already been helpful being OWS on AA, at least for boarding.