Aadvantage or BA Avios?
 

Perhaps a newbie question, but going to ask anyways.

I'm Canadian, so not as many options for awesome deals, but currently have a bunch of RBC Rewards points ( not avion ). There are currently to transfer promos running:

1:1.25 for Aadvantage
1:1.50 for Avios

I currently have no immediate travel plans, but Europe is on the radar for 2013/2014.

Where would the seasoned pros move the points to?

Depends on what you want to use the miles for. Long distance premium travel, AA. Short distance Y hops within North America, BA.

Are you kidding? :D

Since the vast devaluation of BA miles I have avoided them. :td:

An AA mile is worth a whole lot more than a BA mile.

True, BA miles are, in theory, good for short flights in North America (on AA, Alaska etc.) but availability is not good, IMHO.

Tried a couple of weeks ago to get something SEA-BUR using BA miles (of which I have a pile). No go.

Easier to buy a ticket than go around with BA--and, you have to call BA, no net booking for AA, Alaska etc. and deal with their very limited hours.

Phooey!

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"you have to call BA, no net booking for AA, Alaska etc."

You have to call BA to book AS (or EI); you can book award travel on all oneworld carriers (including AA) on ba.com. The ba.com website sometimes has difficulty displaying award availability on itineraries involving connecting flights on AA; in those situations, if you find SAAver availability on aa.com, you can then attempt to book each leg individually on ba.com, or call BAEC to have the entire itinerary booked on a single PNR.

Back to the OP: for award travel between North America and Europe, using AA miles is almost always the better deal. AA uses a zone-based award system, so you will pay the same number of miles even if you have to connect somewhere. And AA will not assess any fuel-type surcharges on an award ticket except for flights on BA or IB.

Thanks for the advice. After trying to locate some flights that I may want to take through the Avios calculator, it does seem the availability isn't all that great. Think I will go with the AA miles for now and reevaluate for the next conversion.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Unless you are willing to pay AA's much-higher AAnytime award rate, availability should be exactly the same, whether you are redeeming AAdvantage miles or BA Avios. The differences will be in fees, exact number of miles/Avios required, etc.

A search on aa.com for SAAver availability will show award space on AA, AB, AS, AY, BA, HA, and QF, all of which are BA partners, except for HA.

BA Avios can be very good if you want to travel to Ireland, as EI is a BA partner, and fuel surcharges on EI trans-Atlantic redemptions are minuscule; but you would have to pay additional Avios to get to an EI gateway, like BOS, ORD, or JFK on AA.

You cannot see EI award-seat availability on ba.com; you must either call BAEC, or check availability at united.com. (EI is a United partner, too.)

Avios are great for S. America, direct short hauls within US/Caribbean, and Ireland from ORD/BOS. Any AASaver award can be booked with Avios. I value both very highly and can find great redemption options, but it all depends where you want to go. I am using avios for ORD-RNO 20k RT and ORD-MSY 9k RT (over $300 tickets almost always) in the next few months.

Wow - I didn't know you could transfer RBC points to AAdvantage. That provides another great choice for a future cc churn! :)