Thanks everyone for all of your feedback!
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by whmere:
Missing two things:
1) your miles are now worth more on other airlines than they are on BA and
2) by the time you're done, your credit will be lousy</font>
whmere - 1) the value of miles depends what you need to use them for. Since I can't use United miles to fly to Cameroon, I am not loosing value by transfering them to an airline I can use them on. I was told USA-Cameroon is 80,000 on BA - for comparison purposes USA-Cameroon is 80,000 on Delta, 80,000 on Brussels Airlines, 120,000 on Swiss, and 75,000 on American (was 95,000). My BA miles are only worth slightly less since awards are not changeable (but discount economy tickets usually aren't). I would much prefer use American miles for this award but can't dream up a way to earn enough without a major cash outlay.
2) Will my credit be lousy if I apply for a total of six credit cards over the period of ten months? I would spread out the applications a little...
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ScottC:
Do you already have a BA Executive Club account?</font>
ScottC -
No, I do not have a BA Executive Club account yet. Does this make a difference?
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by BigKing:
How much would an economy ticket cost if you paid for it? It seems like you are going to spend an awful lot of time on this, spend $405 and reduce your credit rating for an economy ticket which can't be that expensive.</font>
BigKing: A discount consolidaror economy ticet during the summer months (date is flexible) would generally cost between $1500 and $2000. This is a relatively expensive route. Closer to $2000 if I include a stopover each way (does BA still allow this on awards?)
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by fbgdavidson:
What amazes me about FT is the amount of spare time some people seem to have to dream up convuleted schemes to earn miles, but this one seems to go to another level of convulutedness
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Fbgdavidson: What makes my plan to save myself aprox $1200 so convoluted????
And lastly, I need to reply to my own question: "Am I missing something?"
Yes, I was missing something - when I add up the miles I should have 95,000 - not 85,000!
20,000 UA + 10,000 CO + 10,000 AA + 20,000 UA + 20,000 DC + 15,000 BA = 95,000 miles!
I can't believe nobody saw this - that is a whopping 10,000 miles I was missing!!!