same here....i still have about 300k points with them that i have been trying to get rid of for a while....hopefully now i should be able to redeem on kingfisher flights....

you can now redeem them on AA TATL routes also if need be

i only fly aa when i go to the US for work so redemption doesn't make sense since my client pays for my trip....

good man...no need to fly AA otherwise...and i say that even though i fly it every week...i think you can do a CX redemption though...but its bloody hard to use BA miles anywhere...

like i said before, hopefully i should be able to use them to redeem flights on kingfisher....

I have got some 250k on BA. Impossible to redeem. Used to buy a WT + ticket to upgrade to Biz but that too now is 82k r/t to the UK! BA availability sucks and I need to make changes quite often so the family account just keeps on building up those miles.

I too am looking forward to KingFisher.

Where are you getting 82k from? It's 25k to upgrade from WT+ to CW. I've just tried a dummy booking in both directions and it quotes 25k miles.

I find BA's availability to India to be pretty good.

What I meant was that the cost of the WT + fare is now 82,000 INR. It used to be around 52k to 72k INR a year or so ago.

I find their First cabin to have plenty or seats available but Biz is harder to get. I travel every other month on this route and really find this to be true.

Aha! I agree that First is much easier to find that CW. CW is particularly difficult around the weekend.

The next time you're in the U.S., you can use BA miles to fly LAN to South America. Imho, LAN have the best hardproduct J cabin, specifically the seat and IFE, in OneWorld. A roundtrip from JFK to Easter Island in J, with free enroute stopovers (i.e. Santiago and Lima) costs 80k BAEC miles, minimal taxes (no fuel fines) and there's generally very good availability. The only downside is that any BAEC itinerary with stopovers requires a phone call to your local BAEC office (and associated telephone booking fees).

This is an excellent excellent suggestion. I'm just completing such an itinerary - waiting in the LAN lounge at LIM right now to get back to SFO. No YQ only taxes + 25USD phone booking fee. LAN has a pretty good 180-flat hard product (haven't flown any other OW carrier in J so can't compare) but their service is very hit or miss. And their vegetarian food just flat out sucks.

BTW, you can do free stopovers at Santiago, Lima AND Buenos Aires (both directions) on an itinerary to Easter Island.

I think LAN also flies out of Europe so saad doesn't have to go all the way to the US for such an award. More miles will probably be required though ex-Europe.

Would agree with most of the comments on here, definitely rate CX first as by far the best way to fly IMHO.

On the 9W vs. BA debate - 9W wins for the most part. However, where it falters are

1) Lounges - even in BOM, BA has superior lounge facilities
2) Catering - Its the same as Premiere on different plates (unless that's changed back again recently)

As far as the cabin crew, it is definitely more consistent and hospitable, but I have had some outstanding BA crews, who are far more efficient and experienced. On a night departure EX BOM or DEL when you want to get a snack and get to sleep - they will have your bed turned down in 45 minutes.
9W crew will fuss over your meal, take forever to serve you etc etc. Honestly, my favourite mix would be 9W on a day flight or a longer flight where I wanted to relax and BA on a short overnight hop.

BA baggage is a different story all together....

jet will have a fantastic lounge in delhi in a couple of months....

i've always found more choice in f....

you can say that again....

Good to hear, which I know applies to the question on this thread - but at a slight tangent - where is their Mumbai lounge? For a hub the fact that EK, LH, BA have all managed to get their own lounges and pretty substantial ones at that (the new BA galleries in Mumbai is great, with oberoi catering more extensive than the clipper lounge)... and BOM still gets the clipper lounge with a rope sectioned off for first class passengers... 9W really need a BOM lounge if they want to encourage transits through BOM which is their hub... hope it happens soon...

You get a rope in BOM? We don't get that in DEL