bmpeers

i have to say overall this is brilliant news. i'd never use my awards on BA to start with. as a UK based AA PLT, I only fly BA inside the EU, what really annoyed me was earning 25% miles deep discount econnomy tickets. the change to 100%, then plus my status bonus is awesome

hillrider

More on the same trend of devaluing the EXISTING miles you've already paid for and throwing in a bone for it (see thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-aa-miles.html). Incidentally, this is not a "new" benefit, but the (partial) reinstatement of one that was recently removed and that is available without the exclusion for GLD on all other oneworld partners.

Bottom line is that AA/BA/IB got "metal neutrality" in the market, which means that flights that used to be operated by AA may be operated by BA in the future, and also got pricing collusion (as soon as they work out the mechanics), meaning that the prices will be identical on all three airlines. However, from an award redemption perspective (prepaid tickets) they are not forced to do the same -- some redemptions will be more expensive depending on where your route falls in the metal neutrality roulette.

Real life example:

• Today one LAX-LHR flight daily is operated by AA: on award redemptions you pay only some taxes, probably $50 or so.
• Tomorrow AA/BA/IB decide for operational reasons (larger 747s, AA needs the 777 for another route, etc.) to make all LAX-LHR flights operated by BA: now on all award redemptions you have to pay the "fuel" fine of $250 in addition for a total of $300 or so.

You have no choice on the matter!! That's what metal neutrality is about.

This part of the ATI/JBA seems pretty unbalanced and unfair, especially since the "fuel" fines are nothing but an invention pulled out of thin air to begin with, and which don't even have any correlation with the price of fuel (not that they would be justified if they had, but still, they're getting pretty bold with their lying).

GUWonder

That's just a return to what used to be the case for AA elites flying BA. Only this time, it came back without being applicable to AA Golds.

This increasingly sounds like the DL way of treating DL SkyMiles customers.

GUWonder

If I were in your situation, I'd realize that the chances of avoiding the fuel "fine" surcharge are falling in lock step with the (declining) value of the AA miles.

This inevitably creates situations where, at the extreme, wanting to use miles will result in a higher cost of travel between a set of city pairs than buying just a regular paid ticket not using miles. Seen it with AF-KL, AS, DL, BA, LH and soon to be AA too.

GUWonder

Here are the current ones (at least when redeeming with BA miles on BA flights): http://www.britishairways.com/travel...e/public/en_us

Mark_T

The trade-off though is that although there is no co-pay, you have to purchase full fare economy which may well cost you a lot more than the co-pay on AA flights.

Petrus

Who redeems in coach?!
Seriously, very few informed BA elites redeem intra-europe (e.g. US Domestic) or on TATL/Long-haul coach. It is awful value for your miles.

GUWonder

The plurality of award tickets are almost certainly still issued for coach award travel. That almost certainly still holds true even for award ticket redemptions by the majority of AA elites.

And most redemption tickets have historically been for and probably still are for non-long-haul trips.

There are many instances where redeeming for coach travel, long-haul or short-haul, has provided great value for highly informed elites. Even for this AA EXP-BA Gold that was holding true even as of yesterday, particularly so when using AA miles rather than BA miles.

Efrem

And pay a fee (unless you're EXP) for doing something in the only way you can do it. I understand the phone fee for booking tickets that could be booked online, but assessing it for tickets that cannot possibly be bought any other way is, IMHO, unethical.

Make that some elites. Golds, at least as far as this is concerned, get zip. AA blames BA for that. Doesn't affect me personally, but it seems petty. They only get 25% anyhow.

All in all, since we have new options and nobody forces us to use them if we don't want to, I think we're better off that we were before. The only downside seems to be non-AA folks taking up AA award seats that would otherwise sit empty until AA flyers want them, but I see that as minor compared to what we get. There are things we might ask for that we didn't get, such as a BA PE award for between Y and J mileage, but all in all they don't bother me that much.

Jenbel

And those of us who realise what an error it is are grateful for those who do it, as it a) uses up miles more cheaply for the airlines we fly and b) leaves us more room in the pointy end.

Very occasionally, it can be better value to do a short-haul or Y redemption, usually if the plane is nearly full and prices are approaching full-fare Y. But it doesn't happen often, particularly when you consider that about 80% of ticket price on a cheap short-haul flight is made up of taxes and charges which you need to pay on an award flight as well - a case in point, my recent £39 flight EDI-LHR. Ticket price (which I could have paid in miles) £5, taxes, charges and fees £34.

BTW, just as a data point, the typical 'cost' of a long-haul J redemption on BA is about £300 - £400. While AA redeemers might not need to pay all the taxes and charges that BA redeemers do, it must be said that YQ and departuare taxes make up the majority of those costs. Changes in departure tax may mean that this increases on longer routes as well

3544quebec

I wonder if this will also change the anachronism whereby BA's flight EZE-GRU is not available for redemption on AA's All Partner awards, although I have read elsewhere that BA will be recommencing non-stop flights between LON and EZE perhaps making that moot

GUWonder

Things could be worse, just give it time. In the mean time, I look forward to using ever more of my BA miles for last-minute coach award tickets on AA flights and a litany of business class awards on flights not operated by BA.

JJeffrey

I have a RDU-LHR-JFK-RDU J award on hold now for November. Taxes on this, with the increased APD for the 'pleasure' of flying from LHR, are already $249.

If I'm understanding correctly, switching to BA would add YQ of $314 (under 9 hrs.) or $410 (over 9 hrs.).

So from the east coast, $563 for a 'free' ticket. Even more of a joke from the west coast, $659. Depending on the time of the year, you could easily buy a Y ticket for that.

Rest easy BA FF's, I'm another AA flyer that won't be redeeming miles for BA longhaul anytime soon.

rfrost

But those are only off full-fare tickets, which to me is the bigger issue.
I am hoping this is not a signal that BA is going to restrict BAEC MFU's to CW to full fare Premium Economy tickets.

circuslights

With my flying pattern, I'm very pleased with these changes.

I'll earn redeemable miles faster, and I'll hit EXP much faster (I'm going to get there, for the first time, at the end of November this year, but had BA been awarding miles at these rates all year, I'd have got there in June.)

The award changes don't impact me that much - I typically redeem miles once a year, for two business class tickets to Australia (ex UK) so these changes will make the tickets very slightly more expensive.

It still looks like it's easier for a economy flying UK based person, it's much easier to get to EXP than BA Gold. But, it now looks like a non-UK flyer will get BA Gold much faster than AA EXP. For us UK based flyers, BA Executive Club only makes sense if you fly in premium cabins.