BA Miles Vs. Delta skymiles
 

Hey folks,

I cant decide which visa miles card to get, BA Miles or Delta Sky miles from American express.

If you guys had a choice, which one would you pick and why? or would you just get both?

Looking forward to your reply,

Thanks

Neither
 

I got the amex gold with 25k signup bonus, first year free and another 5k after renewal

just think those form of amex points are more versatile and give you more options than locking in with a particular carrier

How about both? (or all 3?)

The banks, for now, are still approving CC apps. If you are able to manage your different programs and have/are good with credit, check out the CC forum here on FT and see what people do to really load up on miles.

BA miles are FAR more valuable than Delta miles (the Zimbabwe of the FF miles world:D) besides the ability to redeem awards on OW airlines members with the same address are allowed to combine their miles (as best I know the only other airline to permit such, free of cost is HA).
Even more useful is that BA allows you to redeem one-way awards on all partners, some of them at a lower cost than most other programs.

Example? I have redeemed two one-way C awards on LAN. SCL/LIM for 20k miles each and even some intra-Europe one-way coach awards are 7.5K miles.

mike

I agree. There is no point of earning DL miles when you can (almost) never redeem them
for awards .
Michael

Another advantage of BA miles is that you can book award tickets up until about 2 days before departure without getting gouged for an extra $150
fee for booking less that 21 days in advance. This has come in handy for me
when booking last-minute domestic trips on AA using my BA miles.

BA has only one major negative and that's the excessive fuel surcharges for award tickets.

Agreed for award tickets on BA itself (and possibly Iberia and Finnair), but there is no fuel surcharge on AA domestic tickets and for the Cathay Pacific award seats that I have checked the fuel surcharge seemed minimal.

First of all, are you based in the US? (The answers are completely different if you're based somewhere else, because miles/points-earning cards work differently in each country!)

Assuming US:

Neither. I'd either get the Diners Club charge card (not sure if it's possible to apply for one at this time), or the Starwood (SPG) Amex. Both of those periodically (at least once a year) have offered big (25%, 30%, 50%, whatever) bonuses for transferring points to BA, and somewhat smaller bonuses at other times of year for transferring to DL (AMEX MR has that one too). So you tend to earn more miles in either if you use a card that doesn't earn miles directly, and then transfer. (And, if you can't decide which right now, you can defer the decision until you need to transfer, if you're collecting either Diners Club Club Reward points or Starwood (SPG) points.)

(You may, of cousre, want to get a DL card and/or a BA card for the signup bonus only, but from the standpoint of continuous use, the Diners Club card or the SPG Amex card would be much better.)

BA award tickets on AA is a big plus!

However, you can't use BA miles for AA transatlantic flights, only BA flights. If you don't live near a BA hub, can a flight (non BA carrier) be used to get to the BA hub, before boarding the BA transatlantic flight -- all part of the same one award?

Thanks
 

Thank you everyone for your advice,

Delta is completely out of the question now.
sdsearch I am located in the US. You mentioned the American express spg card for continuous usage, that sounds like something I will get.

Ok for the final run, Which one of the 3 would you select:

American Express Premium Plus BA card

American Express Starwood Credit Card

or

Chase British Airways Miles card with 25,000 points for signup

I have the last two, in addition to a lot of other cards.

Some advice - don't just rush out to get a card. Spend some time reading the various forums here (especially the BA and credit card forums) to get a feel for what's possible.

Other random thoughts:

1. I think you might have skipped over it but it bears further examination. BA will allow you to set up a Housahold Account. With this arrangement, up to 6 people may pool their miles. The miles may only be spent on members of the HA.

2. It might seem strange, but disabuse yourself of the notion that a credit card is ... a credit card! Over here, a credit card is a tool for gathering milkes/points. Accordingly, if I were you, my plan would to be to set up a household account (see the BA forum for details and restrictions) and then have all six members of the account apply for the card (with the 25,000 mile bonus). Bingo - an immediate 150K miles. Then put the cards in a drawer.

3. If you carry balances on your credit card, do not even consider a co-branded card - the interest rate will negate any miles/points you might earn. Get one with the lowest interest rate you can find, or at least cash back, and use that as your 'credit card'.

4. Another benefit of BA - award flights may be changed (dates and times and sometimes even city pairs) at (usually) no charge. Huge advantage compared with most other airline FF programs.

Trust me, I've been where you are. Plan on spending a lot of time reading the various forums on FT until it all starts to soak in. This is the part that tends to eliminate the folks who think it's a snap to just get a credit card and next week they'll be flying First Class to Tahiti. Not gonna happen. It's a lot of work, but it's the most enjoyable work I'ver ever done. And the payback can be tremendous! :D