Originally Posted by
jmj9905
I know there are a lot of legitimate complaints about AA. Especially since the merger. However, I leave in about six weeks for south africa. My wife and I are flying iad/doh/cpt in business and returning jnb/lhr/iad in F on BA. I am doing this with aa miles. I don't know any low cost airlines that I could do that with their miles.
It has been YEARS you do NOT need to fly AA in order to have oodles of AA miles to do exactly what you do.
The ONLY pay AA flights we have flown in the past 3 years were 3 or 4 domestic one-ways and 1 YYZ-MIA coming up in Sept. That is it.
Yet, we have done what you now about to do, 2 times already! 2 RTW trips including South Africa in the mix - 1 in 2015, 1 in 2016. Note: They were RTWs, not just a simple round trip between US and South Africa. Therefore the miles needed would be more than a simple R/T.... Would be ultra hard to earn those by flying!
Coming up, one-way MIA-DOH-CPT on AA miles, return JNB-HKG//HKG-USA on AS miles in CX J and F. I am sure there is no argument CX F is superior than BA F which is dubbed as the best business class in the industry... Plus, never have to pay the BA scam fee which I am sure you would have to pay on your inbound BA F, an inferior F product to say the least. But to each their own.
Originally Posted by
Dave Noble
If you were saving $315 on such trips, the cash saving will be worth more than the miles earned
$550 would give 2750 miles as a base member or $6050 max as an EP member. With a $315 saving on a trip , would be able to buy the required miles from an airline scheme and still have plenty leftover - or just use some of the money saved to buy a business class ticket
Exactly! The days to earn miles by flying has long gone now all the major airlines go on revenue scheme. With the business class fares are very competitive in certain markets, the cash saved over time definitely would enable one to buy business class ticket which would earn 100% miles versus the crappy ratio on an economy. That is another way to look at it too.
The airlines go for revenue-based schemes, SO AS THE CUSTOMERS!
The argument on "I fly AA because of its international partners" is sooooo out of date. Keep the AA FFP, earn the AA miles from so many other ways, just not from flying. When actually need to pay cash to fly, shop for the best prices / schedules to suit one's need. No reason to stay "loyal" to a particular FFP just because you need an international award.
Besides, there are many other FFPs out there that are better than AAdvantage, from both the alliance network stand point to the utmost important aspect of a program - the award availability, plus sweet spots on the programs ... No reason to just stay "loyal" to a particular program, especially nowadays flying to earn miles does not work the same as in the past.
Can't believe in this days and age there are still people think they have to fly a certain airline in order for them to earn enough miles to redeem international awad.... So outdated.