thetravelabstract

That is a good point. But if you are willing to find a positioning flight they are worth it. IMHO.

I think they are just as valuable as AAdvantage. But I have a unique set of flight routing that utilize the International Strength of the Avios program.

If you are looking to donate some let me know.

thetravelabstract

I was thinking it would compliment my Ink Bold application because the $5k would tie-up a lot of my spending. This way I get 50k after first purchase and I am done for 3 months.

Then if I think I can hit $10k, or I am going to Europe, I can use it again.

LAX_Esq

Is there any chance that those of us who opened one of these cards last May can score again?

I would say that this isn't an *amazing* year for cards. Chase BA giving 100K for basically 10x the spending requirement of last year. Citi AA offers are way worse than they were previously (i.e., the 75K x 3 = 225K trio). Diddley squat from Amex since the matching targeted promotions strategy was shut down, and 75K personal and 100K business gold last year.

Kirrabob

I fell for the 100K deal last year. Have found the the BA awards have killer fees, and generally "the computer says no" when you call in for partner awards. Ended up using the Adios points for hotels stays instead. Have dumped the card since.

sun_aa

AA has good domestic availability. That and awards to South America on AA/LAN should have very low fees.

sun_aa

I doubt it since its the same card. Churning doesn't work with Chase.

sun_aa

We are only disappointed because it was 50k after first purchase and 50k after 2500 in spending last year.

lkar

There have been some good threads about whether it's ever a good idea to pay taxes with a credit card. I think for anyone that pays estimated taxes and has $30k worth in a year, this is a great option.

For $30,000 in tax payments, you pay $600. For that, you get 50,000 bonus miles, plus the companion pass, plus the $30,000 miles on the spending.

Or, put another way, for a total outlay of $600 plus the $95 annual fee, you get 130,000 Avios plus a companion pass.

leftpinky

Just got to Hawaii a couple hours ago for 25k avios each for two people from the west coast, gotta say it's a great deal for us since every other airline is aound 40-45k per person!

jasonz9238

How much was the taxes, fuel surcharges?

longhorn11

There are no fuel surcharges for domestic and other North/South American travel. I bet the taxes for leftpinky's trip were probably $25 a piece. I can understand why some think Avios are not the greatest, but for someone like myself I can go to HNL from LAX for 25k, to Vancouver for 15k, from DFW to Mexico for 15k, etc.

I think we all agree that redeeming Avios for economy flights to Europe from the U.S. is not the best idea. Once you add in the companion certificate and 100k miles, you have 2 biz class tickets to Europe for approx. 1.5k.

amolkold

Only fees on a domestic ticket are $2.50 per segment per passenger. For 2 people to fly roundtrip non-stop LAX to Hawaii would be 50K Avios + $10 ^

leftpinky

No feul surchages, but taxes were $10 per segment, so $20 RT per person. When I used avios from SF to SMF/SFO, it is $2.50 in taxes and only 4500 avios. I've gotten around 450-500k avios over the past year and absolutely love them. Redeemed about 300k for family and friends to peru/easter island/chile at about 40k per person and now this.

Also have another trip to HNL over new years at 25k per person. Great value since that is only about 17k MR with the 50% bonus. Seriously, though, if you dont have the BA card, get it and spend the 20k. That's basically five trips to hawaii from the west coast or many flights, up to 25 one ways of less than 650 miles, within the US. That's worth close to 5k to me, maybe more since last minute tickets from SFo t LAX are often around $225.

A great benefit of avios is there is no close up award fee, so you can book one day before the flight and get for 4500 avios + $2.50.

The way I use avios, I think they may be more valuable than SPG points, but perhaps not as versatile.

Another somewhat hidden benefit is that you get priority access and boarding if you use avios on AA. You can use the F/J security line and board early (or skip straight to the front if you want to wait a bit). One thing, though, is that even though you get priortiy access, you dont get free checked bags. With the new benefits from the citi AA card, that should not be an issue anymore

leftpinky

I also used a total of 33k avios for a flight from vic falls, zambia (LVI airport) to cape town for two people (valued at a minimum of $362 per person as of 2 mins ago) and from cape town to JNB. Would have been less avios, but had to stop in JNB since no direct flights from LVI to CPT. total cost would have been at least $900. Subtract taxes and you're looking at about 2.5 cents per mile, great deals.

Avios are so useful because BA and its partners have such extensive route maps, so you can basically fly any short distances in the world for dirt cheap.

Compare to 33k Delta/UA/AA miles where you might get a value of $400 and you could argue that avios are more valuable if used properly.

GUWonder

The banks are desperate to get in the biggest card spenders who are most credit-worthy and correspondingly least likely to default on the amounts charged. Apparently they must be of the mind that the cost of buying the (substantially discounted) miles is worth the cost of acquiring and/or retaining such customers with the ability to run up lots of charges on the cards while improving the bank's ratio of performing assets to non-performing assets.

From a customer-perspective BA points are either worth a lot or not worth very much at all -- for those who use them on short-haul trips or to upgrade, they may be considered a good value; but otherwise they are not that great a value when it comes to flights.

Given the high fuel surcharges involved when using such miles for tickets on BA flights, I would expect that BA and Chase would have to be at least somewhat more "generous" in nominal amount of miles granted for "sign-up".