How would you dispose of 56K Exec Club Miles?
 

So I've got 56K miles and figured I'd use them for a trip (LON <-> DXB, IAH or SIN). When I come to book a ticket using miles, I discover I that the amount I pay in "taxes and fees" adds up to about 1/3 - 1/2 of just buying the same ticket on Expedia.

I earned these points the hard way...my butt in a BA seat and I've used them in the past for free/low cost travel. The current fees kill the benefit and if I book the same itinerary with CO I pay 1/2 the taxes and fees (LHR<->IAH) that BA wants.

I can't see myself choosing BA in the near future to use an upgrade but I hate the idea of losing the points. So I ask this question: What would you do with these points?

I'd love to get them into a hotel program or Membership Rewards or something that doesn't require me to pay a fee to claim them.

Any ideas?

Why not buy a WT+ ticket in the current sale and upgrade to Club using the miles?

I'm looking for minimal cash outlay...

Has to be the way to go to get the best value out of them. No way of transferring them to another programme anyway.

Give them to me!!!! :) ^ :D ;)

Personally, I'd buy another 4000 miles from BA and then redeem them all for an F trip to TLV.

Agreed, but as the OP already mentioned, she doesn't want to bear much cost and not only will she have to spend £75 to buy the miles, will then have around £300 of taxes to pay...
Out of which just about £30 of that would be TLV departure tax and the rest UK!

try jfk-nrt in Y on AA. Fees only £29.20. Good availability, and you could redeem it for a 'friend'. A good $1000 worth of flight, and 50,000 miles for this is a very fair rate considering the UK equivalent, LHR-SIN would cost 80,000 miles.....

There are other US options (redeem on AA, not JAL or CX):

ord, dfw, lax - nrt
ord - pvg
ord - pek (from may)
ord - del

The other option is LAN.

MAD-LCL is only 27.20 in taxes (250 on Iberia), but you don't have enough miles and would need to position at MAD, so it won't be worth it.

Consequently, you might be better off redeeming for two Y, or one J, redemption within S America. 25/50k miles, and minimal taxes. If you can find SCL-IPC availability, that would probably be best......

http://www.lan.com/info_viajes/clase...ess-en-un.html - full flat bed, 74" seat pitch, 15.4" TVs - looks like a great deal to me.

Israel is (just) in Band B, and the departure tax is £90 in WT+/CW/F. The rest is BA fees.

You totally beat me to the punch! :eek:;)

I would just save the miles then until a time when you can justify buying a WTP ticket and upgrade to CW or a CW ticket and upgrade to F.

I figured this would be the very first suggestion :D

meester69's suggestion of using a partner airline and a different origin for a better deal seems like the way to go. Of course, I have to get myself to a different origin first...

Thanks everyone.