A picture into the world so many mileage holders miss out on—and should serve as a reminder for those NOT thinking about BA today as well.
The fact that British Airways Avios points offer great transfer deals with Amex Rewards (seeMay issue) poses a question for many savvy travelers: Do BA points have more value as an upgrade or as an award?
Starter Reasons to Think About Playing With BA Points
- Mileage availability is often good on BA flights.
- BA is a major international airline with a flight network that spans the world and can get you to both major and obscure destinations.
- 30 to 40% transfer bonuses come up every several months or so with Amex Rewards.
- Anyone can buy the BA miles needed to upgrade—even if you don’t have a BA mileage account today.
Booking Strategy Comparison: Mileage Upgrade vs. Mileage Award New York-London with BA Business Class
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[aside headline="How to Buy BA Miles Fast and Easy:" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]Amex Membership Rewards members: Just call 1-800-297-3276.Everyone else: Buy directly through BA at this link here. BA members can also create a household account, meaning you can share your bought Avios points with other members as long as you live at the same address. For more see link here.[/aside]
Five Reasons Why Upgrades are Better than Free Tickets
Award tickets do not earn base miles and/or Elite Qualifying Miles. However, Premium Economy tickets, which can be used to upgrade with points to Business Class, do. American members can even earn AA miles and elite credit at the rate of 110% base miles and 150% EQPs when purchasing a Premium Economy ticket with BA.
Earning miles on a paid ticket can offset the points used for the upgrade by about half. On Los Angeles-London, BA requires 25,000 points for a round-trip upgrade, but any BA mileage member, even non-elites, earn 13,606 miles back, so the net upgrade cost is only 11,394 points round-trip.
So one free BA ticket can actually cost you as many as eight upgrades to Business Class. On LAX-London, the cost for an award ticket is 100,000 points, but earning miles back through an upgrade gives you at least eight more upgrades—and the chance to earn even more when you gain elite status (entry elite status, Bronze, can often be earned after just two flights and nets 25% bonus miles).
Upgrades require fewer miles than an award ticket so you don’t have to be a big mileage-earner to play this game as often or little as you want. Not everyone has unlimited access to big mileage accounts. Many people don’t get into mileage-game opportunities because they don’t have the big accounts. To London, BA requires 20,000 points from New York and 25,000 points from Los Angeles for a round-trip upgrade; but award tickets are four times that: 80,000 from NY and 100,000 from LAX
Plus: Anyone can buy miles directly from BA (with the current promotion, ending June 13, you can get up to 7,000 bonus points) for $520 for 20,000 miles and $603 for 25,000 miles; as well as from Amex Rewards when they can be as low as $375 for 20,000 points and $475 for 25,000 points, as is the case with the current 35% promotion; and $500 for 20,000 points and $625 for 25,000 points at other times. In other words, anyone can play this upgrade game.
[aside headline="Elite Rules" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]
American Elites:
Never use free award tickets... period, unless you’ve already achieved the highest elite status level you want because they do not earn base or elite miles. If that is the case, use your miles to redeem award tickets. Never use miles for AA upgrades. If you can avoid it because co-pays range from $700 r/t from economy to Business Class to $1,100 r/t from Business Class to First. Use BA Upgrades instead. Let me tell you why: In May the lowest economy ticket (NYC-London) started at $929 plus $700 (r/t co-pay), for a total of $1,629 plus 50,000 miles r/t. With BA, the cost is 20,000 miles r/t and the fare starts at $1,363. That is $266 less than AA in cash and 30,000 fewer miles!
British Airways Elites:
Never use award tickets... period, if you can help it because they do not earn base miles or tier points unless you’re paying top dollar for Premium Economy because you missed the advance-purchase deadline or are traveling during peak season.[/aside]
BA does not charge a co-pay on upgrades, as do almost all other U.S. airlines. The only one that does not, Delta, allows upgrades on economy fares that sometimes cost more than Business Class fares.
Upgradeable Premium Economy ticket prices can be reasonable, especially during the low season when NY-London tickets can start at $1,363 r/t including taxes (see April 29 alert). This is only about $250 more than United charges for its co-pay for an upgrade. Other BA Premium Economy destinations, such as the Middle East, start at $1,710 and Africa at $2,154 (see May 14 alert).
Top level elites on American and BA Net Free Upgrades. Given the bonus miles received the cost to upgrade is about the same number of miles you’re earning for the flights, so your net cost is about zero—while saving about 61% off of Business Class fares. How many premium ticketing strategies can that be said of?
Drawback to BA Mileage Program
BA charges the tax difference between the paid Premium Economy ticket and the upgraded Business Class seat. The amount varies, but to London it ranges from $350 to $450 r/t. Our samples have figured this in and it is not a deal breaker.
Save Up to 61% With This Ticketing Strategy
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