Hi guys,

So I now have AMEX gold, BA, CO and Citit AA cards. Got all the miles/points after initial spend. Now .... just need a card to use.

Question:

Is spending 30K on BA really worth it for the 2-4-1 ticket??? I mean, I may want to use BA miles to book a flight using a different airline and that 2-4-1 ticket would not be given to me (to my knowledge). So is it worth it???

I fly out of JFK. Go to Europe, Israel, South America, maybe Tanzania/Thailand in the near future.

thanks.

The BA 2-for 1 is a GREAT deal, but you can use it ONLY on BA metal and have to pay fuel surcharges and taxes.

If you travel to Europe (into London & out of Paris), the taxes and fees are about $650 per person.

Your net out of pocket cost is:
2 X $650 = $1300 + 100,000 BA Miles in Business or 150,000 miles in First.

This assumes that you live in BA gateway city in the US.

That's a pretty sweet deal!

Even if you have to pay 3% to use PayPal or Amazon Payments to make the 30,000 spend you still have a total cost of $ 2200 ($1300 taxes and fees + $900 Pay Pal Fees).

I've flown BA in First Class and it is wonderful!

But if $1300 as taxes and fees seem high and you want to save the cash, then you may be better off redeeming on partner airlines which don't charge the fuel surcharge. That would be LAN for South America and Cathay Pacific for Far East. Of course, the 2-for-1 is not valid on these (or any partners)

I am working on the same question. It seems that it's most worth it if:

-You plan to fly First or Business Class
-The value you place on flying F or J outweighs the $750 to $1000 in taxes and fuel charges per pax required (seems it does for most on these boards)
-You don't wish to book and ITN with very many stopovers (since all legs must be on BA metal and therefore connect through LHR)
-An Open Jaw ITN is valuable to you.

In your case, booking two tickets in F/J from JFK-LHR-DAR would be a pretty amazing value even with the fees.

In my case, I was hoping to use the voucher for a month long, multi-stop jaunt around Eastern/Central/Western Europe, which appears to require connections in LHR each time. It could still be useful using rail travel interspersed.

Additionally, if you plan to use the voucher next summer, be prepared for July and August to be completely blacked out due to the Olympics.

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Cathay's YQ is getting pretty hefty as well, though not as bad as BA. About $450 RT for a recent quote I received from the US to Cambodia.

Do you also need to keep the Chase BA card account to be able to book the ticket? If so might need to add annual card fees.

Everybody is different, but for me the value is in premium cabins to Africa. BA miles are great for stopovers so one can do a pretty great trip to Africa in F for around 1300 per person in surcharges + say $600 total in lost cashback for the 30k spend (and 270k miles iirc).

Now, if you were going to fly coach on a sale fare to JNB or something, it doesn't really compare well. If you prefer to spend the miles on partners it obviously has no value there as well. Also, if reaching 30k spend on a card in a year is a major hassle involving all sorts of tricks, it may not be worthwhile. Lastly, if you want to use it to originate outside of NA or for one-way travel, you can't.

I'd only do the cert if I had a specific plan for the next 1-2 years for travel to a destination where the value is high for you.

I think it is but many disagree. (many agree too )

For going to europe zone 1, it has great value. Especially if comparing it to AAdvantage.

BA 1.25 miles per $1 spent
AA 1 mile per $1 spent

the higher taxes are more than balanced out by having to use half the amount of miles in J or 40% less in F. Then again, as mentioned above you earn 25% more quickly with BA.

yes, booking LAN for south america is a great deal but who said you can't do both

I definitely believe it's worth it... because of it, I'm able to take my mom to London and Paris, in business class, for 100k miles and $1368 in fees. I consider this an experience I would otherwise be unable to give her, so I feel grateful for this companion pass.

Is $1300 steep? Yes, but considering I would have only been able to get 2 coach tickets for that amount (unless I got lucky and found a very good sale), I feel I am getting a great benefit out of this feature. Don't forget, if you use your BA card to pay for the fees, then you're getting 2.5 miles on that expense as well.

Since my husband was unable to benefit from *this* certificate (since I used it on Mom), I am striving to get another one for this year, which hubby and I will use either in 2012 or 2013 to go to Europe again.

Is the 2-1 offer just 1 per year or can you get one for every $30k you spend?

1 per calendar year (Jan-Dec). Certs last 2 years from date of issue.

Thank you

If you live in one of AA hub cities, then 2-4-1 is not a good deal.
I prefer to use BA miles on domestic AA flights and take advantage of stopover in DFW, so in effect I get 2 roundtrips in coach for 25,000 miles.
Also, with the miles getting devalued with time, it's better to use up the miles before shelling out any cash for the tax.

Second this! We're using it for an open jaw to MRU and a return from LVI (Zambia) in F. The cash out of pocket was ~$2,500 though. I generally wouldn't do this but I've told my wife to think of this one as our 5 year anniversary, a year early.

That said, if my annual CC spending was unlimited, I'd do this again. And I'd use transfers from Chase and Amex to bring my BA balance up again.

However, I have to weigh this against how many sign-up bonuses I can meet with $30k of CC spending... And that satisfies a LOT of sign up promos for me so I decided not to repeat. I am relatively aggressive in propping up my $30k spend but $30k/year puts a big dent in what we can do on other cards.

Who knows though... We may try it again next year after we experience BA F for the first time.

happy that I just hit my 30k spend for the year. In the draw the card goes.

Now have 2 x 2 for 1 vouchers.