Originally Posted by
Seph87
Thanks for all this info - very helpful. The intention is for the move to be permanent but obviously things can change as parents age and kids go to university. I'd guess at a minimum we'll be there for 10 years or so. We will be moving to SW London so LHR will be the most convenient airport for us - probably not much travel out of LGW, STN or LTN unless the fares are significantly different / more convenient.
I suppose I misspoke when I said 'free' business class - I understand there will be fees but my intention is to use miles/avios to get my family in business class at a significantly reduced price. On UA for example we would buy PE fares and use miles to upgrade into business class which generally worked pretty well (though not always guaranteed). I did have a look at random dates for LHR-LAX on both AA and BA, and BA's website was saying 'no availability' while AA was showing business class availability for ~230k miles. That seems like a win for the AA program?
As for CC spend, my intention was to continue using a US based credit card with zero foreign transaction fees since the rewards are much better. I can use my parents' US address to keep the card. Currently I have a UA card but I'm open to switching to an AA card or maybe CSR or Amex Platinum if the value is there. In SoCal our current natural spend is around $30k/year so I'd guess it will be similar in London but hard to say for sure given all the differences in cost of living.
Thanks this is a good shout, I have UA Gold status so might as well get free BA Silver. In terms of value of points - that's good to know thanks. I am fine using other airlines besides BA for my personal travel. My main goal is to extract as much value out of the ~$7-10k of spend I will be doing for my work trips which will most likely be on BA flights (except maybe MIA) since our corporate travel program forces non-stop when available.
A few observations:
1. If using a dollar-denominated, no foreign-transaction-fee credit card overseas, you need to be vigilant to ensure that merchants process the charge in foreign currency (GBP in the UK), and do not process the charge in USD, using "dynamic currency conversion." Details here:
https://www.investopedia.com/dynamic...rency%20(CPC).
("Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC): What It Is and How to Avoid It")
2. The benefit of using AAdvantage miles on trans-Atlantic award flights
on AA metal is that you avoid the high cash surcharges that would be charged if you used Avios on trans-Atlantic flights operated by AA or BA, or if you used AAdvantage miles on trans-Atlantic flights operated by BA. But AA often charges a lot of miles for premium-cabin trans-Atlantic flights on AA metal, as AAdvantage awards on AA metal are now dynamically-priced. So in a sense you have to pick your poison: more AA miles but less cash to fly AA; fewer AA miles but more cash to fly BA; or fewer BA miles (Avios) and more cash to fly. (You will not often find AA premium-cabin trans-Atlantic award seats available with Avios.)
3. If you do decide to collect AAdvantage miles rather than Avios, one of the ways that you can sometimes get better value when flying between Europe and the U.S. is by starting or ending your trip in a city other than London, and then connecting in London. That avoids the high U.K. APD when heading to the U.S., and could cost fewer AAdvantage miles too, since any award itinerary which involves at least one flight on a partner carrier prices as a fixed-price "partner" award with AAdvantage. But with young children, starting or ending in a city other than London might be difficult -- unless you wanted to visit the other city for a few days anyway.
4. If you plan to book AA flights through a travel agent and hope to earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points from those flights, make sure that the agent is one which AA will recognize for AAdvantage earnings. Details here:
https://thepointsguy.com/news/americ...ooking-direct/
("Big changes to American Airlines program delayed, but still coming: AA wants you booking direct")
5. Finally, if you do decide to credit to BA instead of AA, you can still earn Avios and BA Tier Points toward BAEC elite status on AA flights. But to keep BAEC Silver (or Gold) status, you must fly at least four "qualifying flights" in an earnings period, in addition to the Tier Points earned. Flights on AA metal can be qualifying flights if and only if they are purchased with a BA codeshare flight number (i.e., BA XXXX, operated as AA YYYY).
Good luck!