HofstraJet

Are Avios points worth significantly more than AAdvantage miles?

Can book a flight for 16,500 Avios or 22,000 AAdvantage. Assuming they’re relatively close in value, the answer is obvious. New to Avios so wanted to ask. Thank you.

36902BRF

Absolutely going to depend on your specific usage. I will say Avios are generally easier to collect. In certain situations one will have the advantage (no pun) over the other.

S80

It depends on what you want to book. AA has less value per point on AA, and the same for BA, but the airlines allow a lot more booking with their own currency, instead of requiring a fare bucket to be available for partner bookings.

Furby

It depends upon the flight, sometimes Avios are the best deal and sometimes AA miles are best. Avios are fixed prices but increase with distance whereas AA miles are dynamic, and (usually) not related to distance. Select a longer distance flight and the Avios required will increase significantly, whereas the same flight on AA miles will likely change both up and down randomly over time. With Avios you have to pay for each flight in a connecting itinerary, whereas all segments are included with AA miles.

BA makes all award seats open to booking with AA miles, whereas AA can be quite stingy making award seats available to Avios. BA charges huge fees on transatlantic awards whether booked by AA miles or Avios but fewer miles whichever program is used. AA charges much lower fees but (usually) much higher mileage amounts when booking with AA miles although there are occasionally bargains to be had. AA allows last minute cancellations at no charge, whereas Avios have no refund whatsoever of miles or cash when cancelling with less than 24 hours notice.

So, it depends upon your travel patterns and primarily what distance your flights are, whether there are non stops or not, if you have a need for last minute cancellations, if you value miles over cash on transatlantic flights, if you are looking to predominately fly on AA or BA and a host of other factors. Availability of AA flights using BA miles can be a real problem. If you can do it, it’s best to have miles in both programs because sometimes AA works out best and sometimes Avios.

Antarius

Avios are a lot easier to collect and the program is a transfer partner for Amex and others. I usually wait till theres a nice transfer bonus on Amex MR and use the points there.

Unless there's a money advantage (i.e this avios booking has much higher taxes and fees), use the avios to book it.

guv1976

What route and class of service?

Note that there is no fee to cancel an AAdvantage award booking for a full refund. BA charges a fee to cancel, although it could be as little as $5.60 for a domestic, one-way nonstop on AA.

Note, also, that BA charges for each flight flown, whereas connections are included with AAdvantage awards.

For domestic (U.S.) travel in Coach, one can sometimes find exceptional value with AAdvantage miles that Avios cannot touch.

HofstraJet

Thanks, everyone. It’s a domestic flight in F. Not many seats so it’s pricier than it should be but just a touch over Y.

I have Avios from a cancelled flight and was trying to find ways to use them. This looks like the perfect opportunity as the cash portion is just the $5.60.

nk15

AA miles are more expensive, worth more, and are also more flexible. In the OP's case Avios is a no brainer because there are 6k fewer, and the cancel/redeposit fee is minimal ($6).

You can pretty much buy Avios at 1.1 cent per Avio, so 16k is about $175 that you are paying for the ticket.