luvflying1975

Hello All,

Thank you in advance for helping me with this. I don't have the 100K miles yet, so I'm unable to figure out what my out of pocket will be for redeeming it for a RT tix from NA to Far East.

Can someone please do a dummy booking for PHL to BLR on Jan 12th (RT tix returning on Mar 8th). From my reading of the BA site and calling their rep's it is my understanding that I need 90,000 miles for this trip on BA metal. I will also be responsible for Fuel surcharge, taxes and fees. Calculating that amount though is tricky. Based on my calculation from their website I thought it comes to around $300-350. But the phone rep said it will be around $550-600.

I can get a economy RT directly from an agent for around $1000. So I'm trying to see if redeeming my 100K miles on BA metal to BLR makes sense or should I save it for AA travel (domestic/Hawaii etc) instead. If I only save $400 on a RT to Asia, it is not worth as much of the savings.

Thanks again!

largeeyes

Got same response. Please let us know if you are successful.

Happy

Does the 50K show up on your statement at all? Or it is not showing in your BA account?

erik1868

90,000 BA Miles
plus
$ 488.60

Happy

The marketing spin has to pick the most obvious so to catch the highest number of eyeballs.

The most obvious for BA, needless to say, would be "to Europe".

I am just amazed by how many newbies have been brought out from the woodwork on this offer. They are immediately being thrown at the much more sophisticated level of the art of award redemption if they want to use their miles more cost-efficiently. A good portion of these folks never have a mileage-earning account before, nor redeeming any award ticket of any airline... Mercy to them!

abcx

Neither.

flightmedic

I obtained the card and the plan is to get the 100k miles and then spend the $30k to get the companion ticket. With a few miles that I have on BA from a trip to Kenya I am trying for two business class tickets from JFK to South Africa. 180,000 miles for one ticket, the second for the companion should be free. The lowest business class prices I see from JFK route through Atlanta (that is fine) but cost almost $5k each. Looks to me like I get $10k worth of airfare for little $$ except for the taxes and fees?

Happy

Now you start seeing the argument why redeeming award on BA metal is NOT the most cost-efficient way to use your miles.

$500 plus using 90K miles, on economy.

$1000 without touching your mileage account, on economy.

The choice is so obvious....

To Asia, you should NOT head East via Europe. It has discussed at least 50 or more times that one should get to the "Gateway Cities" on one's own dime - then use the ONE partner award to fly to Asia. A Y ticket is 2 x 25K on One Partner - you can use AA, JL or CX - One, not mixed - on a single direction. Because BA award can be booked as 2 x One-Way, instead of a R/T, you have more options. It is 25K One-Way in Y from North America to Far East. But you need to know HOW to get there.

AA flies to NRT from ORD, DFW & LAX, just off the top of my head.

JL flies to NRT from SFO, LAX & YVR, and then onto China, HKG & SE Asia.

CX flies to HKG from JFK, YYZ, LAX, SFO & YVR, and then onto China and SE Asia.

The possibilities are there as long as you KNOW the rules and stick by that.

The most obvious mistake I see people make, is to always think from their home airport. Get yourself a positioning ticket to the Gateway Cities - the positioning ticket can be an award on other program, or a pay ticket. Domestic flights especially coast to coast between hub cities are cheap, esp when you catch the ever-so-frequent sales.

The next most obvious mistake people make is they cannot think of it as a 2 x One-Way. You dont need to book a r/t - take advantage of the one-way mechanism, and think about that you can return from a different city, by paying for the transport between 2 Asian cities - low cost carrier flights intra Asia are just as cheap as those in Europe. You can take advantage of such and visit far more places with reasonable added costs.

nabeelj

BAEC redemption for the same trip in Economy is 90K + CAD521.92.

EDIT: http://matrix.itasoftware.com shows the taxes/fees on that same trip to be CAD561.20 - I find that to be a good way to estimate the taxes and see a breakdown.

Happy

It makes sense because you are going to Africa, and in premium cabin.

Check the YQ to see how much cold hard cash you need to shell out on the 2 tickets though.

You can do a dummy revenue booking on BA site to see how much is the taxes and fees - they are the same for both pay ticket and award ticket.

My guess is it would run you close to $900 per ticket on the taxes and fees side.

Happy

But you were not using BA award on that flight, were you?

You cannot apply other program's rules to BA's program rule and vice versa.

luvflying1975

Erik, Happy and Nabeel,

Thank you for the responses and the information provided. Yeah I had a feeling redeeming these on BA metal would not have been as lucrative. The numbers you provided confirm my suspicion. I will be better off buying these tix from an agent for around $950-1000 and save my miles on AA for redemption (for domestic redemption on AA even assuming each RT domestic is around $200-250, that gives me a $800-1000 value for my 100K miles, as against only $500 value on BA).

I may do Hawaii on AA, I think that is 35K RT, so for 105K I should be able to score 3 RT Hawaii tix. Sounds good :-)

Thank you again folks!

nabeelj

YQ on BA is absurdly high. Try redeeming your BAEC miles for AA/LA (no fuel surcharge) or other partners who have a low fuel surcharge.

EDIT: BA is still worth it for premium cabin redemptions and/or using the Chase/BA 2-for-1 award certificates.

Happy

Ah Oh...

Have you ever sent a secured email to verify the Plat card qualifies as well? I seem to recall some posters who got the Plat cards have done that and got positive information.

abcx

No, I hadn't. But the response I got confirmed that the Plat card was also eligible and that I should simply wait 6-8 weeks. Humbug.