texasfight2

Hi Everyone,

I'm moving to Dallas from Houston where I was a United loyalist. I currently have a Chase Sapphire Card and I am debating whether or not it's worth keeping it or switching to something else. Dallas is a hub for AA and Southwest, of which only SW is a transfer partner with my UR points. However, British Airways Avios points are a partner, and I've heard I can potentially book AA flights using Avios.

However, I'm wondering how much value I'd get out of using Avios to book flights on AA/OneWorld metal vs just accruing straight AA miles. I could ditch my sapphire card and just get a Citi AAdvantage card to use in conjunction with my Starwood SPG card to rack up a ton of AA miles. That said, I do really like Chase's customer service and the fact that I can convert my UR points to cash or use them to book travel anyway at an inflated value, so I'm torn about ditching it.

Is Avios useful at all for booking either coach domestic or premium economy international flights on AA/OneWorld? Based on my knowledge, Avios is distance-based and a lot of my travel will be either east coast or west coast domestically. Is it efficient or should I bite the bullet and ditch chase?

Thanks!

3Cforme

Look at the Avios break points for redemption vs. the distances of the routes you anticipate flying non-stop.

Great Circle Mapper

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?

Centurion

Long ago this was extremely good for short distance with savings of over 15,000 miles/avios points each way. Now they are on par with each other as in they are almost equal. There still are some advantages (pun) to use Avios versus aadvantage for American flights so it is worth while to compare. You can also save money on last minute aka close in booking fee.

brettsir

Avios used to have an advantage (no pun intended) for short haul domestic economy, but after the most recent devaluation that was diluted slightly. From DFW most of the routes to either coast are over 1,150 miles which is the cutoff for 7.5k redemptions using Avios. You would be looking at 20k roundtrip for most major coastal destinations other than MIA which is a 5k savings over using AAdvantage. (All assuming you can fly nonstop) That said, Avios tends to have poor redemption value for premium cabin travel (2x for W, 3x for J, 4x for F).

If it were me I would just book revenue tickets and credit to AA, but if your CC spend can cover the Avios cost of the tickets you want to book, then hey, free flights!

FWIW: AmEx customer service for me has been just as good as Chase.

SpammersAreScum

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

Since Avios redemption is based on distance bands and is per-segment, you really need to look at the specific destinations and routes you'd be using it on. With the right ones, it can be very "efficient" as in requiring much less Avios than AA award miles. The tables provided here are very helpful in determining that.

An econ MileSAAver award within the contiguous US states is nominally 12,500 miles but often ends up 25,000 instead, regardless of distance or segments. A corresponding Avios award could be as little as 7500 (used to be 4500!) or as much an utterly ridiculous amount.

Coach to Europe is 22,500 or 30,000 (off-peak vs peak) AA; 30,000 Avios. AA doesn't offer PE yet, so can't compare that. Business to Europe is 57,5000 AA; vs 60,000 Avios for, say, NYC-LON/CDG and more for longer. Note that the Avios numbers are all for flying non-BA/IB; at the econ level at least flights to Europe on BA/IB require less Avios (but often add sizeable fuel surcharges).

One other advantage of booking with Avios is the much lower penalty for cancelling -- you just forfeit the taxes. On a simple US trip, that's a whopping $5.60 each way.

guv1976

Avios are only redeemable for "SAAver" award seats on AA metal. Nonstops from DFW to places like PHX and LAS would cost 7,500 Avios one way. Nonstops to CA, OR, or WA on AA (or AS, which is also a BA partner) would cost 10,000 Avios, as would nonstops from DFW to destinations in the Northeast U.S. But sometimes cash fares out of DFW to the East and West coast can be very low -- especially with advance purchase.

As noted, BAEC -- unlike AAdvantage -- does not charge a close-in award-booking fee. And cancelling a domestic award on AA/AS booked with Avios only costs $5.60: you merely forfeit the cash component that you paid when you booked the award.