Originally Posted by ricktoronto

You get the card and spend and get bonuses to earn AA miles. You can book online for an AA award and can find the awards on AA.com easily (well it is easy to look for them, whether they have any is another question.) You do not have to call anyone and you pay when you buy the ticket, the longer from travel the more likely you may actually find a ticket. Booking online miles takes a few minutes and is free (other than within 21 days of travel).

No need to the BA site to look for awards (not required) and probably no help talking to him about BA Avios (not accruing). He wants an AA card to get AA points and redeem on AA. LAN flies non stop from JFK. We all know when the dust settles they are not going to be giving away business awards for a fraction of AA awards. But worth looking at their program and a USA credit card. For that matter look at United and redeem on Copa or Avianca. Though at the end of the day will one airline program be 1/2 the miles than another? No. 75% doubtful. LAN seems to be worth a look if only for non stop JFK flights. AA has a codeshare JFK GYE on the LAN flight as well.

Here's the bottom line - for AA redemptions in business class from the USA/Canada to Central America there will be either limited or zero cheap (SAAver) awards let alone two of them. And SAAver awards often have multiple connections if they exist at all. Even in coach the selection is lamentable.

So the OP can expect to use 100,000 - 120,000 miles per ticket (50 or 60,000 miles each way) for AAnytime awards almost assuredly if he wants two at once. I fly a lot from North to Central America. Every SAAver award offered is three legs and often, overnight connections. Miraculously AAnytime awards have same day single connections and unless the flight has no J at all, they are always available. I don't even do more than glance at the SAAver list.

The Miles Up card is just a fee free AA card. The bonus is 10,000 miles. Earning at AA and "soon" grocery stores, 2 miles per $1. Everything else $1=1 mile. So earning the 190,000+++ miles will take a lot of spending - like $190,000 to $230,000.