not necessarily....i end up taking 50+ flights on 9w every year but i always credit those flights to dl....it helps me maintain my dl diamond status which means a lot more to me than getting platinum status with 9w....the downside is that i don't get any elite benefits when flying 9w but i am mostly flying in business class so it doesn't matter anyway....

I am sure that this is a good choice for your circumstances. You have also stated that 9W status is not important to you. Perhaps because you are already flying J, possibly because many of these are short domestic flights. BTW, I am surprised that 9W flights help with DL status as they are not alliance partners (as a OW person, I don't know much about DL or SkyTeam or their procedures).

OP's question was about OW. I don't know of any comparable opportunity for him. In general I would recommend earning status on whichever carrier he would actually fly most long-haul miles. Short ones matter less.

they aren't alliance partners but have a code share agreement so one can earn dl miles on all 9w flights & vice versa....

Somehow I had missed the bolded sentence in my first reading. Actually BA award chart does have a sweet spot in short flights. This can be useful within SE Asia with partners like CX, JL, MH, and UL (Sri Lankan). Not to SE Asia, but within SE Asia. Even QR flies HAN-BKK, a distance doable in 4000 or 4500 Avios.

See the award chart: https://milecards.com/1588428374/bri...ys-avios-miles

Please note that you need not credit every flight to BA or earn high status with them if those goals are best served elsewhere, but it is good to have an adequate stash of Avios (or convertible currencies).

Did a simple search... BOM - HKG - Y - 14 Feb '18 - 19 Feb 18 - 25000 Avios + 19,707.00 INR. Who in the right mind would pay this YQ? Fares for that date are around 28k. You cannot just look at the chart because that's not all you pay.

Taxes on this route is actually very low. Problem is with the BA website. For Avios bookings ex-India the site adds full GST as part of taxes which is not supposed to be charged. Call BA and ask them to book the ticket. They will charge the correct amount manually.

Won't they then tack on a ~£12 phone service fee? The couple of times I've done this, they made it sound like they were doing me a huge favour by waiving the fee specifically because the award was not bookable online.

2 questions:
1. What is the correct amount?
2. How would one know this is an incorrect amount. Since the booking would be done through the website most people automatically pay the fee without knowing better.

There is higher YQ on flights originating other than HKG after last year loss. It is better to book 2 one way tickets for HKG if that is the final destination. If we price out HKG-BOM, we will see low YQ. Earlier it used to be around Rs. 1250 one way.

They should waive it as its their website which is at fault.

1. Difficult to know the correct amount. Best is to call BA or Cathay and ask them.
2. I booked a ticket using avios and the website and also the phone agent quoted around Rs. 1 lac taxes whereas from ITA matrix I calculated it should be much much lower. Then somewhere in the BA website on the final page where it shows tax breakup I recall seeing GST. That's when I thought there is something wrong. But yes generally people would pay whatever is shown on the website.

I just searched on ba.com for the exact flights you are looking at. It is showing 25k Avios and Rs. 19712 tax. If you click on the "i" symbol next to the taxes figure you will see the breakup. There you will see GST being charged, which should not happen. I believe you will arrive at the correct amount if you deduct the GST amount from the total tax amount.

I first noticed this issue in October 2017 and til now they have not rectified this.