pauleeepaul

Hahaha good luck with that

eponymous_coward

I, like others, think it's unwise to prioritize loyalty for lifetime benefits when you're a decade+ out. There's more than enough time for you to be completely hosed in your choice, whichever way you turn. So why force a decision that has reasonable odds to be the wrong one anyway?

I'm prioritizing what works for the here and now (and like you I'm over a decade away from retiring). What works for me IS acquiring a lot lifetime miles on AS, but I'd walk away in a heartbeat if things changed...

flatlander

Remember that BAEC is heavily aimed at premium class travellers - always has been, always will be (I expect). It used to be, a decade or two ago, that you couldn't even join BAEC if you hadn't travelled on a full fare Y or premium cabin ticket at the time you joined. Their recent changes only further sharpens their previous weighting towards premium cabins. You can get OWS on BAEC with a couple of long-haul J/F flights, you need to travel a lot more on AA to get OWS on AAdvantage. You'll be spending a lot longer in the cheap seats to get OWS on BA than on AA.

So unless that spend on travel is all in premium OneWorld cabins, don't go for BA. AA gives relatively more credit on cheaper bookings classes.

Even if you do go for BA, as Prospero points out, lifetime BA Gold is going to need over 20 longhaul J flights each year - does that match your travel pattern?

AlreadyThere

Well, for now I'm fortunate in that. After all, just one round-trip per month would produce 24 of those flights, and I generally do more than one. On occasion, I can cadge a few flights in F (esp. when I deem the trip unnecessary, but the client insists ).

But once I retire, and the gravy train stops, I'd like to be in the best position possible. So I have to consider lifetime status versus remaining mileage value. Although I know things will change and for the worse, I'm assuming that in the "race to the bottom", the programs will remain in roughly the same relative position to each other. (Big assumption, I know.)

But there are things I'm not sure about. As a BA OWE, would I be ahead of a OWS on, say, a CX waitlist? Or for access to an AA award seat? Or as a "non-native" OWE, do I only get access to the FCL and the FC check-in counter?

Dave Noble

If you are looking for a paid ticket on a fare which allows waitlisting, being OWE would be higher on a waitlist than OWS . If thinking of award travel, then no waitlisting would be available
Access to AA award seat - No extra benefit