EXPLAT

Booked tickets on BA.com in WT+. As a lifetime AA Platinum who will not make Executive Platinum this year, should I go for AVIOS or AA FF miles? Which are more valuable?

Looks like if I upgrade with $'s to CW that I will get bonus status miles for CW. On AA, upgrades dont earn additional bonus miles.

How many US-UK RT flights in CW or WT+ to get BA Gold?

cornishsimon

Do you fly domestically within the US ?

Would I be correct in thinking that you as an AA top tier card holder dont have access to domestic lounges within the US when flying AA ?

If I'm correct why not credit to a new BA account and try and direct some OW flights into your BA account to gain silver status which will give you decent USA benefits on AA ?


cs

David-A

Erm, if you pay cash to upgrade, you will be in a cash fare code in the higher cabin. AA should give you exactly the same earning as someone who bought a cash fare in the higher cabin originally.
[They should see no difference.]

More valuable? Personal question. Do you have any use for Avios? I'd expect even if US based you would earn enough to be useful.

The number of Tier Points you earn depends upon where in the US you are flying to from London, use the calculator on BA.com to confirm.

With talk of going for Gold, are you considering switching further travel over then?

Schultzois

I can only make a guess as to exactly what OP meant, but mention of "bonus status miles" makes me perhaps think the OP refers to the added Tier Points in BAEC on a CW vs. a WTP booking.

American uses Elite Status Miles and Elite Status Points, both of which are calculated as a multiple of flight distance, and multiple never exceeds 150% (which for a BA itinerary would apply for all the following FA JCDRI WET YB), so it's quite correct to say that AAdvantage doesn't give you a "status earning" advantage for moving from WTP to CW, whereas BAEC certainly does.

FWIW I used to maintain status in both programs. I now only bother with BAEC, as it's easier for me to reach status using the paid premium fares I tend to buy, and the status is more useful as it gets me lounge access on AA flights where no CoS will permit lounge entry on its own (North American flights).

As for using miles, utility of one program over the other is very route dependent. On the whole, since Avios changes came into effect, AA is still better for longhaul (especially multi-flight) redemptions, whilst BA is better for short redemptions. YMMV of course.

David-A

Ah, the working of AAs scheme are a bit off topic for this section - I don't know the details of how it works. Without knowledge of it I thought the OP was concerned that AA would be able to tell he had upgraded.

[I was wondering if they did not increase what you recieved if you had upgraded - which they could be able to tell with their own bookings, but would be oblivous to here]

What you have posted with knowledge of the AA scheme sounds more likely! [And seems very stingy on AAs part!]

EXPLAT

Thanks or all of your answers. I have lounge access via my Amex card and Priority Pass. That is a good point though that other one world flyers are able to access the AA Clubs on USA flights. A reason to gain status on BA.

With 3MM+ on AA, I have lifetime Platinum status. I could earn the miles on AVIOS without ever losing my AA status.

The one thing that I thought of afterwards is that I receive double FF miles as a Platinum on AA. Since I only have Blue status on BA, I would loose the double miles.

Schultzois

That is certainly correct - you would need to reach BA Silver in order to have the same bonus... which would take 600 tier points. If there were a connecting flight or so on each roundtrip, this would happen in two CW roundtrips, or three in WTP. You get 140 tier points on each long haul CW segment, and 40 on each short haul segment in Club.

To answer one of your original questions (how many trips it takes to get BAEC Gold), in CW it would take 4-5 roundtrips assuming you had a few connecting short haul flights in there somewhere.

If you're already getting lounge access everywhere you need it, then unless you end up doing a lot of BA flying in the long run, I would expect you'd be better off sticking with AAdvantage...

EXPLAT

Thanks for your answers. Since I can xfer points in from Amex or BA CC to AVIOS for upgrades and then earn miles in AAdvantage, that should be ok. The only thing I give up is the earning bonuses for traveling in a higher class is service. On AA you only earn at the level of the paid ticket, not the class of service traveled.

David-A

The same is true in BAEC.

pianoamit

You misunderstand, methinks...

If I understand correctly, I believe the OP is referring to the fact that on BA you earn more TPs for travelling in a higher cabin, even if you previously purchased a lower ticket and upgraded it with cash. On AA, despite the upgrade, you still earn EQMs based on what you paid for your original ticket.