LeeFromNC

Hi folks -
I'm new here, but not new to the forum world. So I looked for similar posts before I started a new thread - forgive me if I'm duplicating effort…

I spend 80% of my time in the UK, the rest in the US. I've decided to focus all my mileage acquisition on OneWorld carriers, specifically AA and BA. I'm Gold on AA and Silver on US Air, but just ordinary old Blue on BA. Here's the question:

I need to carry both USD and GBP denominated credit cards to for accounting and reduced conversion costs. I currently carry the US Air Mastercard, but plan to switch to the Citi AA card for US purchases. Should I try to find a UK-based AA reward card, or collect Avios with a UK-based BA card?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Regards, Lee

guv1976

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I believe that the U.S.-issued Chase/BA Visa card has no forex fee, and earns 1.25 Avios per $1 charged, and double that for BA purchases.

But as to whether you're better off with AA miles or BA Avios, a lot depends on your intended redemptions. The two redemption schemes are very different.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

And welcome to FT!

dtremit

Just in case you missed it, it's worth pointing out that the Barclays US card is not being discontinued -- details here.

tyr

I'm in a similar position to yourself (mostly UK based, PLT on AA, nothing on BA). I have a UK AA card (issued by MBNA) A few things you might want to consider:

* The UK AA card gives 1.5 miles per £1 if you use the Amex card, or 1.5 miles per £2 if you use the Visa card (you get one of each). There's 5000 miles for your first transaction. There's no annual fee. They have, however, started charging forex fees.

* Redeeming AA miles for BA travel incurs a 'carrier surcharge' from BA. So if you want BA reward travel it may be beneficial to earn Avois instead.

* And on the same topic, and as mentioned by guv1976 the redemption policies are totally different. I recently booked MAN->LHR->LAX->HNL in F for just 60,000 on AA, which would have been way more on Avois. However there are plenty of cases when the opposite is also true.

LeeFromNC

Thank you - just the sort of info I was looking for. I expect virtually 100% of the redemption to be airline tickets. I'm not picky about cabin - I've got sleeping in coach on transatlantic flights down to a science.

My current plan is the 50K Citi Executive card for AA. It's $450/year, but the Admiral's Club access might save me near that in airport food and WiFi.

Yeah, I probably need to do more homework, but maybe you can help. I live in IOM, so gateway cities are DUB/MAN/LHR. LHR is the least preferable choice because IOM flights go to LGW. Basically, I need to figure out whether BA or American will be most useful getting across the Pond (CLT/IAD/PHL being the most reasonable targets). Once I know that, I guess I should concentrate all spending on a single carrier rather than split between the two.

Thanks all for your welcome and assistance.

Regards, Lee

tyr

Glad it helped. I'm most familiar with MAN. Your US bound options from there are either AA55 to ORD or AA211 to JFK. US Airways fly direct to PHL so that might be useful.

Both AA55 and AA211 tend to be 757's. 55 has been a 767 a couple of times I've flown it, I'm not sure why it changes. They are both offered as BA code shares too.

dylanks

I'm facing a similar question, but I'm based in PHX (used to split time between London and PHX). I'm currently BA Gold and US Gold, though I'll drop down to US Silver in March. At one point I had been US CP and BA Gold.

Once the merger was announced, I started finding more AA flights to credit towards BA. I chose BA over AA because I tend to book into international business or domestic F most of the time, and BA seems to get status faster than AA. While the AA SWU upgrades are nice, I find myself flying to many destinations that AA doesn't serve internationally.

I have a slightly different issue to sort out... my BA year ends April 8th, and I have a trip in J on CX planned for the week before. I've already met the 1500 tier point target for BA, but I'm too far from 2500 or lifetime gold to really value that much. Unfortunately, the trip starts while US is still *A and ends after they've switched to OW. I have no status at all with AA. So I'll probably credit these points to BA towards lifetime gold, but it's somewhat of a waste on status.

Microwave

I would say that the US-based card that includes Admirals Club access is probably a waste for someone who spends so little time in the USA, as AA Platinum (oneworld Sapphire) will get lounge access at Admirals Clubs when flying on international itineraries (which will probably be most of your travel), and you'll always get lounge access when on other itineraries (such as when flying BA to the continent, etc.). Paying US$450 a year for the privilege of accessing a club the few times you're not on an international flight on the same day wouldn't be worth it IMO. If you credit all your flying to AAdvantage, Platinum should be well within reach.

I'll also suggest against Balkanising your miles between programmes. Stick to AAdvantage and use the UK-issued MBNA card. I'd also suggest you may want to consider opening a Citigold Current Account based in the UK (assuming you meet one of the qualifications to avoid the monthly recurring charge) and they'll allow you a US Dollar denominated account free. You can then switch the debit card online to spend from either account, and you can convert money between the accounts without paying a fee (just using Citi's exchange rate that day). If you have a Citi Checking account in the US it's also easy to transfer money between them, and they say they can give me a US Dollar checkbook, though I've not tried that myself yet (I don't write many checks in the US and I never write cheques in the UK ). Good luck!

--------------------

As AAdvantage is still operating as a distinct programme, this question is being moved over to the pre-merger American Airlines forum.

Please note the sticky at the top of the consolidated thread which is titled Welcome to the New American Airlines Forum! PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING. With all of the changes about, it is important to know where to post, and reading that thread before posting (as the title suggests ) will help get you in the right place.

~Moderator

LeeFromNC

Thank you for this. I went ahead and got the Citi Executive AA card, but that's because I have Balkanized my carrier choice over the past few years, always using Expedia (or equivalent) to find the best price for that itinerary. My (extremely non-scientific) thinking was that whatever single-carrier benefits I could accrue would be outweighed by (e.g.) paying $800 rather than $1K for a LHR-CLT-SFO-LHR trip. Is that (1) true, (2) hard to quantify, or (3) patently untrue?

I hear and obey. I've applied for the MBNA AA card over here.

On that topic, my U.S. Airways Mastercard has just come up for renewal ($89 for the year). With the merger, is there any value in keeping that card (maybe threatening them with leaving unless they waive the fee?), or should I shift all my purchasing to the AA Citi card?

Yeah. I'm currently paying £17/month to send a wire from my UK-based HSBC account to my credit union in the U.S. (to pay U.S. bills). There is a large "laziness" component there. I should at least get a US-based HSBC account and probably be able to transfer for whatever their exchange rate is that day, which is what I pay anyway, but not have the wire fee. Then I can ship the money into my credit union here (I hate U.S. commercial banks and do all my banking with a credit union, but that's a rant for a different forum).

Thank you so much for the advice and for lighting a fire under me to clean this stuff up.

Regards, Lee

hillrider

It is all rather specific to yourself, based on (1) what level elite non-Balkanization would get you, (2) how much you value the soft-benefits of elite (3) how much is a mile worth to you and (4) a bunch of other stuff.

If non-Balkanization gets you to EXP, for example, and you value being able to be given the best possible reroute available and/or be put at the top of the waitlist when your flights are disrupted, plus the 8 systemwide upgrades, then this may make up for the extra $$. Also, if you value your miles a lot, and non-Balkanization get you to an elite status where you earn 2x redeemable miles per flight, this would also enter into the equation.

In general, if you can reach top-tier level by non-Balkanazing, and the costs are not excessive (in both $ and routing), it's worth it.

lhrsfo

Just came across this thread - I'm in a similar position, but focusing on UA instead. I'm so often tempted to Balkanise my earning but when I do I usually regret it. The essential point for the OP is that US-based airlines are far more generous to Economy passengers in their mileage programs than either BA or VS. It's not much of a stretch to get EXP or 1K, with which the benefits are worth a large sum (I'd value them at c£150 per return trip to SFO, and that excludes SWUs). The same travel in Economy with BA does not get you top tier status, gets you generally less valuable miles, does not get you MCE, does not get you any possibility of upgrades to Business or any free upgrades even to PE, and I could go on.

For me, if AA had done another EXP status match recently, after I'd got my MM status on UA, I would have switched even though they don't fly n/s to SFO which is my US destination.

billgrates3

+1
BA= night, AA= day (at least for economy flyers)

Several years ago, as I was flying both AA & BA frequently, I compared the AA & BA programs. That year I flew ~108k miles, all on discount economy fares. Here's the difference with what I earned on AA vs. would have happened had i credited to BAEC:
AA-> I became EXP (yay!) BA-> zero status
RDM earned: AA= 216k BA= 54k
upgraded to J internationally: AA= 95% BA= never!
upgraded to J or F domestic: AA= 100% BA= never!
access to lounges internationally: AA= always BA= never!

The BAEC Avios earning rate is better now, but then there's the YQ that has made Avios redemption generally a very bad deal.
Frankly, I believe the BAEC program derives from the British traditional class society, i.e. it only rewards the big spenders who fly paid J and F, and ignores the ordinary traveler.