Hello All,
I had a search through the oneworld forum for "avion point conversion" but only one thread came up and it didn't really apply to my question(s). Hopefully someone can answer directly, or direct me to an appropriate thread.
I have a bunch of RBC Avion points. Right now, until December 17, there's a 50% bonus for conversion to British Airways (BA) Avios points. As some of you might know, RBC Avion can also convert to American Airlines AAdvantage miles or Cathay Pacific Asia Miles at 1:1. As a treat, and because I'm 6'2" that doesn't fit into Economy seats very well, my girlfriend and I want to use the points for one way business class travel from London, UK to Thailand mid-January. A search on BA.com reveals there aren't any BA reward flights available for that period, but there is one with BA/Qatar Airways on the 12th. The online system can't handle that and I need to call.
I am questioning if converting to Avios is a good choice because my research seems to say that Avios are best for short-haul direct flights instead of long-haul flights, mostly because the Avios redemption is based on distance for each individual flight. For example, if I got a direct flight from LHR to BKK I would need to use 75,000 Avios, plus taxes and fees, and I think those are pretty hefty based on what I've read online. The same flight would be 75,000 AAdvantage points and 70,000 Asia Miles.
My question:
Since I'm going to be getting 50% more points by converting to Avios, is there a way to use them on other airlines in the OneWorld alliance? I'm particularly looking to avoid the high surcharge that BA charges vs other partners.
Thanks in advance for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.