LX First / NZ business versus BA First
 

Myself and my partner are going to the US in the summer on a redemption and while I was able to book SQ going out, I was not able to get anything remotely decent through DC for the return leg.

I have therefore booked 2 seats on F with BA coming back from SFO to LHR, for a total of 150,000 avios and £600 odd.

However I still have about 50,000 DC miles, so should two seats in Air New Zealand C or Swiss F come up, would I be stupid not to book those instead?

Assuming any unused DC miles are going to get converted to Avios at 1:1, this means my DC miles will get converted to 50,000 avios. Therefore in the long run I would save 100,000 avios by cancelling my BA booking and booking with Swiss or Air New Zealand.

I guess my question is, is BA F worth paying 3 times the miles for over the alternatives or would I be completely dumb not to try and book an alternative and save 2/3rds of my miles.

I think most people here would say use the DC miles up if you can find an acceptable way to use them, Their future value is uncertain. From the cognoscenti wonderful phrases like " DC miles being swopped for Avios inches" are being used. Why not get rid of an asset which may decline suddenly and will never appreciate?

If you can find a first seat on LX or a J on NZ then I would say book them to utilise the BMI miles rather than worrying about the service comparisson

You can always cancel the BA flight which you might not be able to vice versa with a BMI booking

At a minimum though you should add on a UK domestic leg to your BA SFO return they are more of less free !

Both Swiss and NZ have excellent service and I would switch for either though I think it is unlikely you will find two seats before BMI folds diamond club (~14 days?), but if you did then definately a worthwhile switch - you can save the Avios for another day as BA isn't closing as quickly as poor old BD

I agree, unlikely I'm going to get anything by then. The only thing I think I can find is United F and even that would be via ORD. Is United F with a connection a better use of miles than keeping my BA F booking?

I don't understand, I live in London. Why would I want a domestic leg?

Why 14 days? Has something been said?

No,just speculation that the deal will close before the end of March, or sooner, in the usual thread now that the OFT has said its fine;
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/bmi-d...ompletion.html

As for UA F with a connection... hmm... personally I wouldn't unless I was going to stopover in ORD - reason being I dislike internal US flights and its quite a way from ORD to SFO (plus the hassle of a transfer), unless you're on one of the planes that continues an international route domestically. I'd swap it for a ps (premium service) NYC-SFO, followed by a LHR-NYC though.

Having said that... what are your BD miles going to be worth in a few weeks/months, and how much have you spent getting them - so you may want to get some gaurenteed value frm them. Individual choice I suppose.

Is UA F internationally pretty crap or is it OK? I guess it wont be BA standard but given the situation its still better value that keeping the DC miles that I will lose otherwise.

The new UA seat is actually decent. Service however will be better on BA. Food IMHO however will actually be better on UA than BA, although I would prefer the drinks trolley on BA.

FWIW, I think the NZ J seat plus soft product actually beats BA F. There is really little in it in respect to seat, and food and service on NZ is first rate (better than BA).

I hated UA F, the food was disgusting but it's obviously down to personal preferences (I don't think much to BA's food offerings either!). I do all I can to avoid flying UA F but with BMI miles to burn I would choose to burn on UA F over using my own Avios because of the situation.

I flew last year on UA First from Washington DC to Brussels (with Eva Longoria might i add), very poor product, I would say most airlines Biz Class is better. SQ, VS much better in J.

This flight had a 1-2-1 config fully flat bed etc, but not the new latest product that they advertise.

Interestingly I have a booking for UA First in June to SFO from Frankfurt on 747, dont know whether I should try this out or go for a seat in F out and back in J as part of BA Sale.

Given most of the discussion so far is about which alternative is the best use of miles, then in terms of service I would say:

Food NZ > LX > BA

Wine NZ > BA > LX

Seat BA > NZ > LX

TV/Movie BA > NZ > LX

Lounge BA > NZ > LX

Service NZ > BA > LX

Overall BA > NZ > LX

In all above cases I'm referring to BA-F, NZ-C and LX-F class. That said I'd probably use the DC miles given the choice.

new LX F is the best product out there... go with it

I've never flown NZ in C but I have flown LX in F and I find it hard to believe that this is a better seat than this. But choose for yourself.

What are the DC award ticket change fees? If they're small I'd recommend using your DC points for whatever is available now (UA in C/F for ex) and then change your flights at a later date when better flights open up (hopefully LX in C/F).

^ completely agree