Hi all,
The recent discussion about redemption taxes, fuel charges etc. got me thinking. I've been using my citi AA card for everything for 2 years now. Just got the BA card for the 100k promotion and hit the 2k spending. I had planned to just go back to using my AA card (since i dont want to end up paying both annual fees) but

If I can use BA miles on AA flights and vice verse, and the BA card gives 1.25 mi/$ to AA's 1mi/$, does it make sense to keep and use BA as my primary credit card? Or do the fees and difficulties in booking on BA offset the benefit of the extra 1/4 mi/$.

Also, I've got about 105k miles on BA now-if i do stop using it and take my 2 reward flights is there anything I can do with the remaining 5k? can it be transferred to AA?

Thanks in advance for the advice!!

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What types of awards are you interested in? You cannot redeem AA miles for BA TATL flights, and you cannot redeem BA miles for AA TATL flights.

And you cannot "transfer" miles between the two programs.

Interested in flights from the US to Europe, Asia, and the middle east. I do almost all of my domestic travel on Southwest and haven't been able to determine whether building up my AA or BA account is a better bet for those TATL trips

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It's best to compare the reward charts for the flights for which you want to redeem miles. BA awards permit multiple, en route stopovers; AA awards do not. BA awards require payment of fuel surcharges if the airlines flown on the awards impose them. I believe that AA awards are free of fuel surcharges, regardless of airline flown. And oneworld awards generally require fewer AA miles than BA miles.

BA has 1.25miles/$. ^

BA has really high YQ on long haul international flights with BA.

BA has expensive redemptions for F & C.

BA has a better stopover rule.^

BA miles redemption on more than 1 partner airlines is more expensive.

BA FA's have bad teeth j/k
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AA is less strict on their amount of miles redemption for F & C. ^

AA has no YQ. ^

AA doesn't have as good of a stopover rule.

AA offers lower mile redemptions through off-peak travel.^

AA allows several partner airline travel at very reasonable miles redemption, through their AA All Airline Awards. ^

I was contemplating the same question and came to the conclusion that AA is better for my purposes, though I seem a bit more loyal to AA than yourself.

BA's redemption rates are generally higher and I'm still chasing lifetime elite status on AA as well. Not to mention those nasty fuel surcharges on BA metal. It makes sense for me to stay with AA.

While true for the most part, BA is better than AA for US to Asia beyond Japan... if CX/JL gateways are convenient for you.

Regarding to OT, I'm starting to warm up to the idea of 1.25 miles per dollar. While I'll be busy trying to hit 20k on my PPE card for the next 5 months, I'll consider throwing some love BA's way after that. Sure I can just do Schwab, but I must admit that miles and points offer an intangible value that presses my buttons.

If we are still talking about F & C... , For a USA based traveller, to beyond Japan Asia. (like singapore, China, etc.) and looking strictly at award miles expense....


Not in F. AA is better hands down.

In C it is a tie. BA is very slightly cheaper in miles, if structured right. However, with BA you have to live near a CX/JL gateway AND you have to stick with only one airline in each direction. With AA you don't have to live near a gateway and you can mix and match airlines at your pleasure. For C, if you live near a gateway BA is better, if not than AA is better b/c no out of pocket r/t to gateway.

In Y, BA is definitely better IF you live near a CX/JL gateway and can stick to the single partner airline. If you don't live near a gateway it would probably be a tie.

And don't forget AA will be flying to China soon on their own metal. Which strangely enough is much better for BA FF'ers than AA's.

After posting, I remembered this bit, but it's 67.5k with AA v. 75k with BA (about the same margin by which BA beats AA in C).

Make no mistake about it, I still love AA miles, to the extent that I think they are clearly superior to BA miles on a 1 to 1 basis. However, for my specific needs, BA miles are awfully competitive. For example, last week I booked (but did not ticket) a 5 day advance PVG-HKG-JFK on CX using 50k BA miles and around $90 in fees. That same trip would have cost 55k AA miles plus around $130 in fees. If I ever had the luxury to plan trips more than 21 days in advance, I'd be able to save the $100 close-in fee on AA, but since this is rarely the case, most BA YQ surcharges are a wash for me.

The gateway issue is an annoyance that I'm learning to accept. The thing is, for me in Portland (OR), award seats to SFO are a scarce commodity anyway, flying via YVR entails a nasty layover on the return, and LAX is just plain annoying.

You're right. Sucking it up in Y (at least in one direction) is the secret to maximizing the value of BA miles for most people. But, assuming 100k offers become the norm, I won't feel bad about redeeming in C or F.

AA already flies to Shanghai and is planning on adding Beijing in March or April iirc, but I'm in no rush to set foot on any AA planes as long as JL and CX remain partners and continue to fly across the Pacific (a medium term concern in the case of JL).

Also, you can only use BA miles to upgrade on BA and AA miles to upgrade on AA, if that is a part of your FF strategy. And I could be wrong, but I believe BA bus class seat to London is considered to beat out AA's.

Welcome to Flyertalk.

You can have (much of) the best of both worlds if you use the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card instead of either the AA or BA card for primary spending. When you use the SPG card you accumulate Starpoints ($1 = 1 Starpoint), but when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints in a single transaction to either AA or BA (or a couple dozen other airlines) you receive 25,000 miles.

This effectively gives you the 1.25 earning rate of the BA card plus the flexibility to transfer to AA or BA as required.

Details of SPG's airline transfer partnerships here (note that transfers to CO, SQ, UA are unfavorable):

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefer...tner_list.html

Information about SPG credit card here...

http://www201.americanexpress.com/ge...wood-Preferred

...but do not apply using that link, search for one which also offers 15,000 points for spending $15,000 in six months.

The thing is, most people reading this thread are probably already engaged with BA for 1 year, whether or not they got the fee waiver. Given this, a straight up 1.25x multiplier isn't such a bad prize. Although there is no option to xfer to other programs, there's also no requirement to build points in 20k increments. As such, IMO it's not worth adding an SPG to the mix until the membership year draws to a close... or at least until a great SPG Amex sign-up offer comes along.

Perhaps, but when I read...

... I think the OP needs to know that there was a better choice even before the BA offer.

If you wish to fly USA-Europe the choice is also about the product you get as award because it is either BA (if you use BA card) or AA (if you use AA card). Assuming that you fly in biz (I find it hard to understand the case for using awards to fly Y USA-Europe given that Y tickets are so cheap):
- AA allows you to get awards on direct flights to many destinations in Europe whether it be LHR, CDG, MAD, etc... While BA only allows to fly direct to UK and then you have to connect to go elsewhere in Europe.
- BA biz is far better than AA biz. Frankly, if you mostly fly to UK and Middle east, this would be a no-brainer for me.

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BA miles can be redeemed on Aer Lingus, Finnair, and Iberia for U.S.-Europe travel; AA miles can be redeemed on Air Tahiti Nui, Finnair, and Iberia for U.S.-Europe travel.