lsed

Is there a timeline for other bonuses like Virgin Elevate / AC / other airline miles?

I have some MR points and would like to plan ahead.

mia

You can redeem BA points for travel on flights operated by American Airlines. Please scroll back to read discussion of this earlier in the thread, and spend some time reading this thread:

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

You do not want to transfer Membership Rewards points to Starwood Preferred Guest. The transfer ratio is 3:1.

No. When a promotion become predictable it loses it's effectiveness and becomes the norm.

jmw2323

no timeline and no guarantee there will ever be a bonus again. I don't recall there being an AC bonus recently for USA based Amex

KennyBSAT

82,000 x 1.35 for the bonus will get you 24 one way tickets DFW-STL. Short domestic flights are one of the best uses of Avios, and living in Dallas you can take advantage of that anywhere in the midwest or south. Spend some time in the British Airways forum, and check some of the blogs on maximizing Avios.

jmw2323

exactly. use my avios for short hop US (2for1 also) and my AA miles for asia and Oz

bluerunningsocks

I am wondering this too.. I want to transfer a boatload of points and the extra 15% would be nice. I was expecting 50 this time but maybe this is how the other times have been??

lwildernorva

No bonus has worked this way; whatever the percentage was at the beginning of the promo, the percentage remained the same until the end date for the announced promo. There have been transfer promos over the past couple of years during separate times that have varied from about 20% to 50%. It's speculative that BA/Amex will offer a higher bonus than 35% this year. They might; they might not. No one knows.

It is clear, though, that BA has become a go-to for Amex since DL bonuses have been absent for quite some time. BA wants to increase its market share in the US so transfer bonuses with Amex create some buzz for BA. At the same time, Amex needs transfer bonuses to compete with Chase's UR program. Trying to guess at the dynamics of the timing or amount of any future BA transfer bonuses is like trying to time the stock market: impossible to do and generally costly to the person who thinks they're smart enough to do the timing.

The best advice for MR transfers remains to make the transfer if you have solid plans to use the points you transfer. The flexibility of MR (as with UR) remains their strongest point--transfers are one way only so once you transfer, you lose that strength. Nothing wrong with transferring, but if you don't have solid plans to use Avios, why make the transfer now?

g8trgr8t

like clockwork, I transferred 45k three days back and said the new bonus would start this week. just my luck.

good news is that I got tix for family of 5 from Miami to Grand Cayman for 45k avios that would have costs 150k AA miles.

any hope of getting the bonus applied retro 3 days?

eknock007

Just in the nick of time for me. Have 90K+ MR's and my AF is coming up next month. Was planning on closing my CC and was hoping for any kind of bonus from BA before I call to cancel my account. 35% is better than 0%.

billybayswater

Avios are perfect for me. I split a lot of time between ORD/DTW and NYC, and just booked ORD-LGA for 12,000 MR (with transfer bonus) points while the flight was like $400. If I was coming from DTW it would have been even less (like 7,000 MR points?)! Definitely the best way I've seen to redeem short-medium domestic economy.

unknown786

Based on previous years, is this usually replicated for UK cardholders? (apologies - new to Amex rewards!)

PWMTrav

If BA wants to increase its US marketshare, how about NOT routing me through LHR and charging the commensurate taxes? It gets fairly ridiculous when an award flight can add up to basically 75% of a coach ticket in fees/taxes.

Best bet is to check for availability that doesn't route through LHR unless you are going to the UK. Remember that Iberia is a partner and you can route through MAD/BCN. Aer Lingus is as well, but I have trouble finding any availability BOS-DUB.

diclemeg

wow, I didnt know that.... thank you. what are the implications/charges of changing a domestic flight? say i booked LGA to MIA for 7500 miles on an early morning flight and that I wanted to fly a later flight that is also the milessaver low 7500 miles.. can I do it without charge?

lwildernorva

Essentially because BA's main hub is LHR. BA may want to increase its market share in the US, but it's not likely to change its business model that makes London the center of their little universe. As a result, it's crazy to fly BA from the West Coast to Asia or Australia as you still have to go through London.

Their business model makes redemption for economy or premium economy tickets on BA a poor use of Avios. As you've noted, there are some options with partners that avoid LHR. And, of course, domestic use for short-haul flights can be great.

For use on BA itself, I've found the sweet spot to be an upgrade to business class travel in Club World; however, that avenue of redemption means keeping a close eye on sales in the WT+ class and using discounts on fares, such as the 10% Chase BA card discount or the AARP discount. Done this way and even without status, you can fly CW to LHR for about the cost of an economy ticket and a net use of 10K Avios; with Silver status, I essentially break even on most trips to LHR and lose at most about 15K if I go fairly far in Europe since I earn about 20K Avios for my flights.

PWMTrav

This is great advice. Do you have any tips on shopping WT+ fares? I've noticed that premium economy doesn't always show up correctly on ITA Matrix. I'm actually looking at booking with cash and upgrading with Avios and noticed it's a decent redemption option.

I wasn't aware of a discount using the BA card, either. That's a great tip, especially because I'm right now looking to book a trip commencing on 12/31/2013 - the date the current promotion ends:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...0/public/en_us

Any idea if the 10% discount applies when buying a ticket and upgrading with avios (meaning 10% off the base paid fare)?

I may need to get this card. It's a shame the 100k bonus isn't out there still. Thanks for the advice!