mia

Yes, but the UK promotional schedule is completely unrelated to the USA schedule.

EDIflyer

and so far I think has just consisted of one offer a couple of years back!

GoGreen

Can I use advance points to make the transfer, and get the 40% bonus? I only have 5K MR points. I got these last month and the CSR actually manually input them in advance of the normal posting date, "since I had paid the bill." Now I have earned another 5K via spend plus 75K bonus, neither of which has posted. I messaged them to ask to post the 75K but the offshore rep said I have to wait 6 - 8 weeks. I have the Business Gold card, so apparently the points advance is limited to 15K. Also I will call on a weekday and try to get them to expedite the bonus, or at least the other 5K -- has anyone had luck getting them to post the bonus quickly?

goAsia

I believe accounts have to be a minimum of 6 months old before you can advance points. mia probably could tell you for sure.

As far as when the bonus points post, mine usually post much quicker than 6-8 weeks, often within a few days of the statement closing.

GoGreen

Good point about the six months. Unfortunately my next statement won't close until October 2. I tried to get them to change it to September 15 but they said they could only make the next statement be October 15. Oh well, I don't have a compelling need to transfer them to BA, just thought it would be a good idea while the opportunity was there. Actually I'll be planning a trip to Morocco during the next couple of weeks, and maybe I'll need to transfer them somewhere else.

JohnAx

I know nothing but would guess that BA is making the offer, not Amex.

BA made a 50% offer a month before re-defining their program and I kick myself for jumping at it. Some folks do find value in the Avios program (others call it "adios") and it doesn't take too much of a cynic to realize that businesses restructure their offerings to their own advantage.

pantanal

I did hate the initial avios change for the long legs. However, I have been able to redeem a lot of BA points on short legs that were amazing. SFO-LAX one way 4500 miles. Delhi-BKK 10k one way. There are some amazing deals on short legs that are way less than half of any other alliance so the BA points are very useful for me for short legs and this amex transfer makes it so much better

Music4u

Interesting that MIA locked my post regarding the benefits of this offer.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...nvitation.html
I'm still asking what are the benefits and drawbacks of being a part of
BA executive club and transferring MR points. Most of the post in this thread is
about weather people got the offer or not. Perhaps someone could provide
more information to newer posters.

Thanks

asdf1223

It's something better learnt in the BA forum but I'll summarize it. Avios is great for short haul flights as its distance based. West coast- HNL, intra asia trips are some examples for great redemptions. It's a valuable secondary program and great for positioning flights and completing awards (use it for the final leg that is a short haul) but if your only use is US-Europe its a waste of miles(and MR rewards) because of high fuel surcharges. Upgrading using Avios(UuA) is also a better use of Avios if you move from Premium Economy to Business.

mia

Correct, BAEC Iis one if 16 frequent flyer programs to which USA cardholders can transfer points. Each program has its own forum. The bonus is available to all USA cardholders. Once the points are transferred to BAEC American Express is not involved. I suggest this thread as a starting point:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...vios-beta.html

GoGreen

I just received my 75K bonus MR points one week after meeting the 10K spend! The billing cycle hasn't closed, and I did not receive the 5K points from the regular spend, no biggie. Now I can xfer to BA! I did not even try calling, it just happened automatically.

mia

You will receive the points for the spend a few days after the second closing date.

Music4u

Thanks for the link.

JohnAx

At the moment SFO-LAX can be had for $59 a/i, so 4500 (plus a few dollars?) is just a bit better than a penny a mile - a redemption level that wouldn't have interested me in 'the good old days'. I have taken note that other carriers' programs are even less of a bargain, small solace.

lwildernorva

I always check the cash price before using points, just because of this possibility. If I can do a route for $59, I'll pay cash and earn a few miles and flight segments.

For many short-hauls on less competitive routes, however, the 4500 Avios option is a great bargain. I booked 3 RTs ORF-JFK in November for 27K overall--in other words, just slightly more than one normal domestic RT award cost.

I just checked, and the cheapest I can do that route for the same dates, even if I were willing to use one airport for arrival and another for departure, would be $292 each. And those flights would require a connection rather than the nonstop AA flight that takes about 90 minutes.

Although I don't consider this to be the true value of the flight, since I can find a cheaper RT nonstop option with Delta, the cash price to take the same AA flight that we'll take to JFK is $364 each.

There is no question that the short-haul option works best if you are based in one of AA's cornerstone cities or are flying to one of them. As soon as a connection is necessary, most of the reason to use Avios disappears.

By the way, another good thread in the BA forum regarding the use of Avios for various routes, although originally intended for those who got their Avios through Chase cards, is this one.