BA v IB v LA Frequent Flyer
 

I'm thinking of moving to Buenos Aires and was contemplating changing my main FF from BA to either IB or LA. I'm currently BA Gold(Emerald) and am about to do a RTW DONE of about 30K miles. So now would probably be a good time to think about the change as I would probably qualify in Saphire on any new club relatively quickly (although I would lose out on a lot of mileage bonus...)

Does anyone have any experience with IB or LA's clubs?

Or should I just stick with BA?

Thanks for any feedback...
broadway

What are your flying habits going to be other than your RTW? Class? Routes? Frequency?

flight habits
 

Usually 1 or 2 rtw (d) and 3-4 round trips between europe and US, which would probably change to a couple round trips between us and sa, and a couple between europe and sa. Normally fly business class but for short flights say london-ny i often go cheap seats.

Well if you don't mind travelling AA TATL then AA is most generous in terms of earn/burn. And with 1-2 DONExs in year you should make EXP comfortably - ergo 8 eVIPs.

I checked out out all 8 OW FF plans circa 2001, info was quite hard to get on half the plans (including IB and LA), but at that time both IB and LA plans were awful compared to the rest of OW (maybe EI was equally bad). I think LA and IB have improved substantially since then, but I would guess they are about half the AAdvantage value. But both IB and LA share a characteristic: they offer some high value benefits for their Emeralds in their home city (MAD and SCL). Things like free valet parking, free car washes while at the airport, free limo service -- quite valuable, but only if you live in MAD or SCL, and qualify for top-tier.