nineohnine

I moved to the US last year (live Miami, an AA hub). Regular travel across US and transatlantic and been a BA Silver member for 6+ years.

Wondering whether to keep my BA silver (given how easy it is to get this status when compared to AA platinum) or go all in on AA.

BA silver advantages - Flagship lounge access on AA, avios, seat choice, luggage, main cabin extra access when booking AA flights.

BUT I find BA far more difficult than AA if I need to move or cancel a flight. With AA trip credits are instant and their flexibility is fantastic. Plus much more likely to be upgraded from PE to J from what I hear.

Wondering if anyone else made the switch from BA silver/ gold to AA and if it worked out better?

Geordie405

I would agree that you get more flexibility with AA and I have found their chat function (which, unlike BA, includes secure payment options) to be really effective and efficient when it comes to making changes. Flagship Lounge access is a definite perk too. I also find AA can be more competitive when it comes to pricing and that their booking engine gives more options (but that really isn't a factor in terms of FFP membership).

In terms of upgrades, complimentary upgrades are only available on domestic US flights. This would include PE to J where PE is offered as a cabin, but that is a very limited number of flights. If memory serves it was only Hawaii and Anchorage as it needs a widebody aircraft for the PE cabin. International upgrades from PE to J require miles and a copay. There may be operational upgrades (same as BA) but in general you're either using a SWU or miles and you're dependent upon availability.

Domestic upgrades can be easy to come by on certain routes but - for example - on my PHX - LAS flight on Tuesday there were 55 people on the upgrade list. Two cleared.

Would you meet the 75,000 loyalty points requirement with AA to get Platinum / Sapphire status? Would getting 600 TPs be easier?

I have lived in the USA for 9 years and I have retained Gold with BA during that time. I don't believe I would have qualified as EXP with AA and I prefer the BAEC benefits over the likelihood of an upgrade!

River in Sight

I live in the US and have had BA silver or gold for several years.. I switched to BA from AA probably ten years ago. It’s so much easier for me to qualify for (at least with my travel patterns) and I prefer the benefits (upgrades are virtually impossible on AA; I’d rather have the lounge access BA status confers).

90% of my travel is AA or AS. I take a handful of BA flights per year. Operationally AA and AS are much more flexible and easier to deal with than BA. But I still prefer crediting to BA for status purposes.

AJA_

I find AA's scheme difficult to understand but I think BA is slowly moving in a similar direction with the recent changes to Avios earning on flights. Whether they will do something similar to AA with status and TP earning is open to debate but is a possibility.

Also how long do you plan to stay in the US? Also how interested are you in lifetime TP with BA, indeed how close are you to 35,000 TP? Switching schemes basically puts that on hold on BA.

I think I might be inclined to stick with BA if you don't plan to be in the USA long term. Otherwise it might make sense to switch.

wrp96

Nothing says you can't keep your status with BA for those benefits (if they are better for you and it sounds like they are) while booking your flights through AA for AA's booking flexibility. I wouldn't switch to AA solely for the possibility of upgrades on domestic flights, when you would lose all the other things you benefit from.

Cw novice

Worth noting if you are in MIA BAEC silver equals flagship lounge access, AA status won't.

Edited to add apologies I see you've covered this.

guv1976

How important to you is lounge access when flying domestically?

With a few exceptions, AA miles are more valuable than Avios.

If lounge access trumps all for you, you should be able to attain oneworld Sapphire status pretty quickly by crediting to Iberia Plus without ever setting foot on an Iberia plane -- especially if you're booking PE on AA for your trans-Atlantic trips.

GM1985

No direct experience, but I have a number of colleagues - past and present - who relocated to the US. Some chose to retain BA status, others chose to switch to a US carrier’s program.

The ones who chose to retain BA status did so because they valued the better ground experience such as lounge access for US trips, Avios redemptions for trips home, and a certain sense of nostalgia/tie back home.

Those who switched to AA did so either because they were close to an AA hub such as DFW, or because they valued the chance of upgrades on AA flights because or their anticipated US domestic travel patterns.

What aspects do you most value? How often do you plan to return to the UK? What do you expect your US domestic flying pattern to be from MIA? If 1-2 hour hops, I’d be tempted to stick with BA. If you’re looking at regular cross-country hops, a switch to AA might make more sense to increase the chance of upgrades.

scubadu

In the new world of AA, if you are a AA Platinum (Oneworld Sapphire) located at/near a hub (e.g. DFW or in the OPs case, MIA) your odds of getting an upgrade are exceedingly low. Even EXPs (Oneworld Emerald) are seeing upgrade chances decline. AA is pricing the pointy end reasonably in many cases so more folks just buy business if they want business and AA has joined the club of offering paid upgrades (often quite reasonable) to those booked in coach. My wife and I have been on many AA flights were the upgrade lists are 30-40+ names long (for a cabin with say, 8 seats). Obviously, some of this depends where one is flying to, which days one is flying, etc. but on the whole, if AA Platinum is as high as you can go you really need to reset your upgrade expectations or you are likely to be very, very disappointed (and again, even PPro/EXP is not always getting upgraded)

Regards

nineohnine

thanks all for your responses. The Flagship access in Miami via BAEC silver is a huge perk even when flying domestic economy on AA. Its always quiet and the food isn't terrible.

A friend of mine has ExecPlat on AA and often books premium economy and regularly co-pays 300USD to get into business (not sure what is hack is but it works), but to get and keep ExecPlatinum on AA seems to involve spending a third of your life in the air to say the least.

One thing I've noticed with AA is when putting in a BAEC account on an AA flight is you have to phone them to change the ticket (wait times are long), whereas AA members get in-app flexibility and much more convenience. Changing intl flights last minute in J on AA is also far more convenient and far less expensive than on BA, in my experience (often 150-200 USD to change, if any fare at all) whereas changing anything on BA once a flight is booked is both tiresome and expensive.

But all that being said, keeping sapphire through BA is probably for me the bigger draw - flagship lounge, main cabin extra seats etc.

scubadu

Those specific upgrades are often (usually) wait listed, particularly on popular routes. The wait list is ranked by elite status and rolling 12 month spend ($). There is a big, huge, voluminous gap between Platinum and EXP. The wait list for those awards would have other, higher spending Platinums, all Platinum Pros, all EXPs, and all CKs in front of you on the wait list. If Platinum is all you will make it to, you should not extrapolate an EXPs experience to your own. It will be very, very different (source: previously EXP and wife was many year EXP until recently)

Regards

GM1985

Yes, I’ve noticed this myself when flying domestically in the US and questioned the wisdom of switching to AAdvantage for the seemingly tiny chance of an upgrade, but to each their own…

Geordie405

I agree 100% on this. As I mentioned above, my PHX - LAS flight on Tuesday morning had 55 people on the upgrade list and this was for an A321 with 20 first class seats. The only two passengers to clear were those listed 1 and 2 on the list. I also agree that AA now seems to want to sell seats in First rather than give them away as complimentary upgrades. The paid upgrades can be very reasonable (I have had some for $25 per sector; most recently $65 for LAS - LAX and $70 for LAS - PHX) and will earn TPs at the higher cabin's rate too.

The co-pay most likely isn't a hack but rather the published amount for an upgrade from PE to J when using miles. Take a look at https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...with-miles.jsp where you'll see it's $350 plus 25,000 miles to upgrade from PE to J when flying from the USA to the UK.

I have never had any issues with my BAEC number being in any AA bookings. It certainly hasn't stopped me from modifying or cancelling a booking online. I have had the odd booking where I've had to phone up but I just ring the EXP number and usually get through to an agent in a matter of minutes. As I said above, the chat function within the AA app is also very useful and - outside of IRROPS - there's also very little wait to speak with someone. If you're making a change that involves a payment then you can use a secure web form for this. That's a definite bonus over BA's chat function. Obviously I don't log in to the AA app with my AA credentials but rather just use it as a guest user. It shows all my bookings and I can manage them within the app or online at aa.com

bennos

While I agree with the sentiment, one can book AA and credit to BA and still take advantage of AA's more flexible policies. (Indeed, they're even generous by US standards as the travel credit is valid for a year from issuance, not a year from original ticketing like some other carriers.) I find AA also recognizes my BA status pretty seamlessly. As mentioned already, the major downside of keeping BAEC for status is no access to complimentary upgrades, but those are getting fewer and fewer across all the US airlines as they get better at upselling. The major upside is lounge access on wholly domestic itineraries.

bennos

Is this an actual published benefit? I waited over an hour to change one itinerary that the website wouldn't reprice correctly...