As a US resident, I have finally bit the bullet and opened an AA Advantage account. It just seems that the BA Avios deal gets worse and worse for US residents, so even at my late age there is no point in continuing with it. Next time we travel to the UK I will look for Avios bookings but as has previously been written, there is no benefit to using Avios points because the charges are often more than the cash booking (in my experience).