Avios is the mileage "currency" that you redeem. Tier points are what you acquire for status. Do you mean tier points?

BA will no longer interline bags on two separate BA-only(!) bookings, which appears to be much tougher than other OW airlines interpretation of this "OW policy"

Isn't CX's intepretation of the policy that they will interline CX-CX, CX-KA, and KA-CX on separate bookings? Seems reasonable. BA, less so.

Not true for QF. A QF business.first class ticket will get you into a QF domestic or international departure lounge. Otherwise with QF OW lounge access rules determine access, including for Admirals Club.

The BA program is actually very easy to obtain status with. Especially for those on multi-segment premium cabin tickets, one could be BA Gold/Emerald with Admirals Club and Flagship Lounge access on all oneworld itineraries much easier than being EXP. By my calculations I would already easily have made BA Silver/Sapphire this year with my limited travel on AA, had I started crediting to Executive Club in January.

Exactly. I simply cannot believe how absurd a policy it is to not even connect a bag onto your own airline! Just insane.

Just as shocking is that AA - AA(!!!) has chosen to continue interlining bags and protecting pax ... for now. Obviously no guarantee that they'll continue but that buys a ton of goodwill with pax like my wife and I. Now granted we're just lowly PLTs who earn status from personal flying and not from being on corporate expense accounts so AA probably couldn't give two poops about us, but still.

Avios is the redeemable points currency. Status is earned by tier points.

Roundtrip PHL-LAX in paid F on AA, as no-status BAEC member would earn 420 tier points, which is about 2/3 of the way to 600 needed for BAEC Silver / OW Sapphire.

This.

BA Bronze / OW Ruby = 300
BA Silver / OW Sapphire = 600
BA Gold / OW Emerald = 1500

The Tier points can be very lucrative in Domestic F on AA as a BA customer . For the above route if I added a connection either side of that route say DCA - PHL - LAX - LAS as a quick example that would let me hit 540 and that is just shy of Sapphire you get the idea.

Also AA do sale fares and fare types that allow multiple additional connections each side of a route without an extra cost and the minimum in Domestic F you would get is 60 so can easily begin racking up.

Avios (Miles) get a 50% additonal bonus on Sapphire and 100% bonus on Emerald so the miles / avios can go up too.

Again though the downsides with BA is

- The interlining between tickets.
- The minimum of 4 BA Flights a year to keep any status (Code Share flights count though as long as booked as BA)
- You no longer get Upgrade Stickers / Eligibility for upgrades on AA (Only AA's on elites get this)

Main additional positives for BA:

- As soon as you hit Emerald for that year you get it for the rest of that collection year, the whole of the next year then even if you have no flights at all you drop to OW Sapphire instead of to nothing.
- OW Sapphire / Emerald gets you lounge access at any OW Lounge / Admirals club / Flagship lounge regardless of ticketed travel and by status alone.
- Free additional baggage same as AA Elites on AA flights
- Priority Boarding on AA
- First Business Check In on AA
- Free selection of Main Cabin Extra and Preferred seating in Economy
- The free snack in Y (lol)

There is plus sides and negatives but even if I lived in the USA I would still credit to BA.

I am a primarily leisure traveller and I take Runs in the US to build up the status really quickly and cheaply and then enjoy all the benefits for the 1.5 full years and then a full year at Sapphire after that. Again all depends what you are looking for.

That's pretty attractive. Since i have no problem reaching Exec Plat, my trade-off will be to either go for additional systemwide upgrades or BA Silver (OW Sapphire) for free Admirals Club and BA lounge in the US.

That depends heavily on your travel patterns I suppose. For me, I don't travel frequently on AA specifically anymore. Maybe 10-12 trips/year on AA these days, however, I'm mostly in paid (albeit as cheap as possible) domestic F. I also don't feel particularly inclined to pay for lounge access when traveling paid F so BA is the obvious place to credit my AA flights now. Heck if you get all the way to BA Gold you can get in the FL on domestic flights. Really doesn't seem too difficult to get 1500 tier points.

I'll just go for the 600 tier points and the BA lounges in the US where available and where I go (PHL, LAX) and the Admirals clubs elsewhere. BA lounges are pretty close to the AA Flagship Lounges anyways.

Very valid point. Now that I've burned the vast majority of my AAdvantage account balance and no longer retain elite status on AA, I see no detriments to crediting to BA.

Thanks, everyone. I think that as soon as I hit EXP this year, I'm crediting to BA to try hit Gold in 2017.

I don't have any experience redeeming Avios (nor do I plan on starting) but good luck if you do. Just as an example I'm teaching a friend how to set up a BA account to search oneworld award space. We were looking for J awards back from their honeymoon in the Maldives. Sure enough 2 J seats are open on QR. Just for the hell of it I click through to see the avios price - 375K avios plus $600. LMAO - avios are even more worthless than skypesos or marriott. And we thought the AA deval was bad? The same itin with AA miles should be 140K miles plus minimal fees on QR. So go to BA at your own risk.

Domestic Avios redemptions actually seem better than AAdvantage.

So here's a question then - the famous PTY business/first MR that people do (I'm doing it in August)... how many Avios would that earn roughly?

I'm doing YVR-PHX-JFK-MIA-PTY-MIA-BOS-PHL-PHX-YVR - 5 legs in "First" and 4 in Business.

Seems like a very quick way to move up the ladder with BA? Once I hit EXP maybe I'll do that run again? Any idea if BA will challenge/match? Do that run and enjoy BA status.