Oneworld Program for India Based Fliers
 

Is there any value to extract out of BA Executive Club. BA has One stop flights to most of the Tier-2 US cities I travel ( DEN, AUS etc). For work, I fly in Business Class, so I earn a good amount of miles with flying as well. Is there any good value out of BA EC redemption ( I see Intra US and some Intra UK flights as good options). Is there another Oneworld Program makes sense for India based flyers? I'm looking for some good redemptions for personal travel to South East Asia.

Ps. - I have a ton of Citi PM points as well - which can be transferred to top up redemptions.

PPS: Posting in IBA Forum as the question is specific to India based flyers.

If you are asking whether CX is in OW, yes it is.

Thanks for the reply.

My question is more on any oneworld program which makes it a good value for India based fliers for crediting miles.

Also the sweet spots for redemption from India for Oneworld.

Here's a crazy and impractical idea, but worth putting it out there since you mentioned you are looking for intra-Asia redemptions.

BA's paid J fares earn handsomely on Alaska ( 'I' fare commonly found earns 250%).

So one DEL-LHR-DEN roundtrip could net you about 45k miles right off the bat.

You could then use those miles to book intra-Asia redemptions on JAL. Economy roundtrip costs 30k and Business roundtrip costs 50k.
One-way are allowed at half the price.

The caveat (or opportunity depending on how you look at it) is that you have to route through Japan, or more accurately, your first flight has to be DEL-NRT as that is the sole flight JAL has out of India.

On the upside, you can have a stopover in Japan even on one-way tickets.

As I said, this may not be for everyone, but worth a reminder to those who can benefit.

JAL doesn't show up on the list of India-Asia redemption options though.

You have to search Asia-Asia region for that.

I've done this award twice last year in fact. Bookable online on Alaska website without even calling.

Interesting problem and tradeoffs to be made. So let us know what you finally go with.

Now here’s your challenge. The easiest and generally best place for redemption is generally any US airline (because of low/no YQ and generally low mileage requirements) - so from a pure redemption perspective I’d go with AA on OW.

The problem with doing that is 3 fold - BA credits miserly to AA and other programs - you can earn upto 250%-350% RDM on BA J. You earn about 125% on AA, CX etc. So half or less. The second problem is that Citi doesn’t transfer to AA. And finally you get screwed on the lounge access while traveling domestic in the US.

I wouldn’t credit to BA because while the earnings there are double or more... redemptions with them require significantly more miles - but not double. But then they have the dreaded YQ! And with BA it’s quite a lot of money.

The options then are CX, QR and QF.

I’d go with CX. Very decent redemption charts. Great airlines to fly with. And generally better award availablility for their own members as you’re only looking at SE Asia redemptions.

I have a more difficult question for you. Why BA in J? :) Even to get to some of the smaller cities in the US I’d prefer LH, LX, TK or even EY, EK, QR doing a 2 stop.

Thanks Everyone for great insights.

Piper, BA flies direct to AUS & DEN (While LH Flies to DEN). Most of my trips are 4-7 days and ability to fly in in Directly without having to go thru TSA again in USA makes BA a better choice.

But I'm enjoying the Qatar QSuites in the current trip and I must say, Impressed ! Also the Free Hotel in DOH and Visa Entry makes it more attractive.

Great! Taking a break in the Sleeping Rooms now. I'm starting to love flying Qatar & connecting thru Doha.

Also found that in ORD, there is a Air side Transfer from T3 to T5 (Where all international Flights operate from), helping to skip TSA on the return journey.

And Thanks for the inputs.

the dreaded yq is the main reason i stopped flying ba....i wouldn't credit to them as well....

If you are mostly flying to USA and in paid business maybe American Airlines AAdvantage is the way to go. I mean if your flying J anyway the status benefits are going to be minimal (e.g. you mention flying QR and lounge access is class of service based for the AM and AS lounges) and out of India its not as if Oneworld Emerald or Sapphire is going to get you a better ground experience than flying J. Potentially if flying often to the USA (presumably on AA intra USA) having status would help with mileage earning and status benefits like dedicated phone lines, waitlist priority, etc in case of operational difficulties/flight problems. I think the AA award chart is one of the more decent options nowadays.

Yes. credit miles into JAL. Best redemptions is JAL partner airlines . Delhi to Europe in business return using JAL miles flying partner airlines ( Qatar) cost 63000 JAL miles plus 4000 INR as taxes. We can also club family members in JAL , therefore good value addition.

Another vote for Alaska. 250% mileage on BA "I" fares is nothing to scoff at. 350% on higher Business class fares. You can redeem Alaska miles on Cathay, JAL and Singapore for South East Asia. At 60k OW in Business it is also a great redemption deal for IND-USA. 70k in First.

The downside is non-existent elite benefits on any partner airlines.

Don't let the tail wag the dog. Common sense suggests you should credit your miles to the airline that you fly the most. That would maximize your benefits in many tangible and intangible ways. If you make Emerald or Sapphire, you can get some benefits on other alliance partners too. So BA, QR, JL, CX, whichever one you fly the most for long-haul flights.

I agree that BA's J product is sub-par. I won't recommend AA's program these days: their miles are hard to use, and you won't get lounge access on their domestic network. Nevertheless, if you fly AA domestic a lot, then the possibility of upgrade would be a positive. So there are pros and cons to balance.

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.