bagelx

So i was hoping to use BA points to book Cathay pacific or JAL tickets from YVR to HKG. There were a good deal at 50000 points. So has there been a confirmation of how much it will cost now with the new changes?

If it has gone up significantly, is there any other alternative?
I have Royal bank RBC points that I haven't converted to BA yet, waiting for the 1 to 1.5 promotion (Heard maybe in late November).
Or I can convert to American airlines (30% bonus right now), good deal?

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

You should also take into account the fact that BA assesses fuel surcharges on CX/JL redemptions. There are no fuel surcharges when redeeming AA miles on CX/JL.

bagelx

OH, that's good to know. But AA takes more points to redeem to fly to Asia/HK.

And so how's the new BA changes?

Cap'n Benj

Its not been confirmed as yet. People are assuming its not going to be pretty though

Happy

Just a bit more miles using AA but you would be out of a lot of cash using BA.

You can test it on BA website to find out the YQ on your intended itinerary.

I paid $80.90 for an AA award MIA-ORD-HKG-YYZ-MIA, J outbound F inbound, total miles 55K + 67.5K for a total of 125.5K

If it is done on BA, first of all I cannot add MIA on both end as it would make it a whole lot more miles since it is no longer SINGLE partner award.

So, it would be ORD-HKG-YYZ same J outbound F inbound, total miles 50K + 75K for a total of 125K, but the taxes and fees jumped to over $400. AND I still have to bridge the MIA-ORD, as well as YYZ-MIA segment.

For 5K less miles using BA program you are paying a whopping $320 extra fee, assuming you can depart from a CX gateway without additional travel. If not, you would incur MORE charges to get yourself to the gateway as BA Single Partner award chart does not cover that part.

Does 5K miles worth $320, even if you can depart from CX gateway?

So you be the judge whether you think transfer your RBC pts to BA program is a good deal or not, if you have the option to transfer them to AA program. Looks like you may need to do some more research in order to make an educated decision.

bagelx

I thought it's BA 50k points round trip, vs AA 35k x 2 =70K points (from All airline chart).
So 20k difference, plus the conversion from RBC points is different. 1.5 when BA have promo, 1.3 right now for AA.
But this is before the BA program changes.

Happy

Hadn't thought about you may be talking about coach award which is almost universally regarded as a very poor use of BA miles due to the high fee.

In this case you are paying $320 for 20K miles. If this looks reasonable to you...

In my book BA miles worth at the most just 0.01 a mile - or even less, due to the high cash cost associated with using it. I would not "pay" more than 0.01 per mile to "acquire" BA miles. On the other hand I would "pay" up to 0.014 or 0.015 to "acquire" AA miles but of course YMMV.

metromuppet

I have just been looking at more of the upcoming changes-
I see that collecting tier points will change slightly, which seems for the better, that tier points will not be reset once a new status has been reached. However, my question is, if one was to go from blue to silver after the change, and the membership year was not up until next April, do any tier points become lost then after flights have been taken?

Globaliser

If, after 16 November 2011, you go from Blue to Bronze (which will the be the next tier up), you will not have your tier points or your year end reset.

If you then earn enough for Silver before your year end, you will become Silver and again you will not have your tier points or your year end reset.

But when you reach your year end, the tier points will clear as usual and you will start the new membership year from zero, as in pretty much all other schemes.

glocklt4

Is this the date that we should book flights before if we are planning to do so before the partner award changes (which have yet to be released...)?

Globaliser

Well, I think it's fair to say that if you book before 16 November 2011, you're guaranteed to have the current award rates.

If you book after 16 November 2011, that is no longer guaranteed and it may well be at the new rates, whatever they may be.

(Before someone points out that I have missed out booking on 16 November 2011, I predict that this is the day that the world will end when the immoveable force meets the irresistible object, or something like that.)

glocklt4

Haha, ok. Thanks. We have been trying to figure out how to get to the caribbean for some diving with BA points and figure it's best to use them with what we know now if we can. Will still have about 170k left over after that though...

ricedion

Booked my flight on Nov 15, the phone line is jammed. There’s a recording message advising us to call back later, without a chance to wait in line. Kept calling, eventually I was able to be put on the waitlist. Waited for almost half an hour, and finally be connected to an agent. Since I needed to do a stopover, so I had to call. Asked if the booking fee (CAD$20) would be waived, the agent said they no longer waived the fee for my situation (this is my 3rd try, I called twice before this call, and got the same response). The agent mentioned that the fee will go up to CAD$25 as of Nov 16, 2011.

lavag

I spent over an hour on the phone as well. After my call was not even answered the first few times. But I was able to change my JFK-HKG-HAN CX F flights for $75 redeposit fee and $194 (one way) fees.

Word of caution - I initially had a round trip booked, which I wanted to change to one way, dropping the return leg. They told me the only way to do this was to cancel the trip and rebook it. So those of you who know what your changes are may want to tough it out on the phone today to be safe.

T8191

Had you not heard?

The BAEC US Call Center closes permanently at 0001 GMT tomorrow