But there has to be a BA flight in order to join BAEC; if a future one, and you cancel and then refund the ticket, BA will just close the BAEC account and you lose the miles. So it doesn't help the OP, who has no qualifying BA flight planned. He would have to arrange for an extra trip on BA, and it cannot be on one of the cheap BA ex-Germany fares (except for the I fares). BAEC would be worth more than QFF but QFF is easier to join. AAdvantage doesn't have awards for 10K miles.