The BA program- the good, the bad and the ugly
 

The good news for me is I got my BA VISA with 100,000 promo miles.

The bad and ugly is, when I tried to book a RT flight from Boston to Europe (I tried London, Paris and Dublin), the supplemental charges to the 50,000 mile RT fare amounted to approximately $550 for each destination, including over $400 in "fuel surcharges"!!!

This is ridiculous, considering that I can book a full cash economy ticket on the same routes for about $900 on other airlines! IMHO it is hardly worth spending 50,000 miles and dealing with booking restrictions, etc to save a mere $350.

When I have booked frequent flyer flights with my AA Aadvantage account on the AA site, this has never been an issue- supplemental charges on my recent RT Hartford-Caracas on AA cost me 30,000 miles and about $100. in supplemental fees (which I consider reasonable).

Unless I am reading things wrong, the BA Executive Club program is not what it is cut out to be.

Comments?

I posted this as well on the "British Airways Executive Club" forum, not knowing which forum is the more appropriate.

As per numerous comments in the BA card thread - do not use BA miles to fly BA. Use it on a partner airline to go where BA doesn't

ie: Check Boston to Peru.

With all due respect, if you'd read the terms and conditions of the BAEC website before signing up for your free 100K miles, you'd have already been prepared for this.

That said, there are many ways around paying BA's hefty fuel surcharge. Use 40K miles (plus $75) to fly to Easter Island on LAN with stopovers in Santiago and Lima. Use 50K miles to fly to Bali on Cathay Pacific with a stopover in Hong Kong.

These miles are extremely useful if redeemed carefully.

Read thepointsguy.com 's recent blog posts about using BA miles.

+1 ^

okay I have been reading some of the groups but have not looked as close with the BA fees. In the opinion of the knowledgeable here is it worth while to do the 30K spend to get companion tix with these fees? Do the fees go up for first class?

I was looking to use the 100K from the card, then 37500 from 30k spend to get cert, then 12500 from Amex or diners. 150 to Europe zone1. wanted to go to Greece so thought switz, then connecting flight cash. I did not look at fees on first class tix as of yet.

Just asking advice of those more knowledgeable.

thanks for any direction.

While it may disclose that there are taxes and surcharges to be paid, other airline also disclose the same on their credit cards. How many airlines in the US, charge such exhorbitant fees? BA is marketing a card in the US and needed to be more specific about the extent of the fees. When in Rome...

Secondly how many commonly purchased products do you know of in which taxes and fees are 50-60% of the price of the product? I don't know of many, so when I hear that I can get something for free if I pay taxes and fees, it means I won't be a lot or that i would be paying a small % of the price of the product. Expecting ppl to do research when they see such disclosures is unreasonable IMHO.

But expecting people to read a thread before they apply for a card is not, IMHO

OP is you are in an AA hub, BA miles could be useful. Its best to use BA miles on partners that do not charges YQ even if you get a little less of savings, just to hurt BA. When you use BA miles on a partner airline, BA has to pay the partner, so this hurts them financially. If BA had some sense, they would not charge YQ on their flights. Then pax would redeem on BA flights for seats that would have gone empty otherwise and BA would not be paying anyone.

Only if pax vote with their wallet, will they learn to adapt to Rome. Thankfully we have competition and if pax like us do not do the above, then the competition will only follow BA instead of the reverse.

That BA thread was huge. Ppl came there to ask questions such as what do to if they got denied, who to call for reconsideration, any way to waive annual fees or simply to report instant approvals. If someone does have a reasonable need to inquire on the extent of the fees, one would not be expected to wade through that thread.

Yes, to the increased YQ for first class and higher LHR taxes as well. Stop in LHR and your govt taxes will increase as well. Let me know your origin and destination and I can let you know the cost.

The 30K spend is a bit tempting. Basically it means you are buying miles. See how many miles you are saving and double the cost of YQ to see if it worth it. But still keep looking for ways to save by using the miles on partners.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but BA's exorbitant taxes/fees become somewhat more palatable when using the miles to fly BA in J or F as opposed to Y. That is, while they may be even higher for J or F (or are they?), they still are relatively cheap compared to the $$ value of those tickets.

I'm not trying to justify BA's approach here at all. Just trying to clarify how to extract the highest value if you can't or won't want to use the BA miles on other OW carriers (such as if you're using the miles for the 2-for-1 BA mileage award deal).

If you have domestic trips on AA and if you can get some miles in Star Alliance, you could still use BA miles on AA and use Star on carriers such as LH, LX, SQ, etc. Find every possible way to hurt BA by using them on partners.

Using BA miles on BA or even worse using AA miles on BA will show AA that they can get away with charging YQ and they will start the scourge of YQ on all flights. Is temporary pleasure in BA premium cabins that much worth it? Would you like a situation where pursuing FFP is worthless?

Per other posters... got a great deal on some Qantas flights using BA miles.

I've never found using miles for a straight ticket economical. However, using it to upgrade is a different story altogether.

Newbie question: I have no points yet, but I have the BA 100k mile card. How do I book or check BA points redemptions on partner airlines? Do I go to BA website?