What Would You Do With 100,000 British Air Frequent Flyer Miles?

Yep, I earned a hefty 100,000 miles in British Airways' on-again-off-again Visa credit card sign-up promotion, the most generous such offer I've ever seen.

First, new cardholders were awarded 50,000 miles after the first purchase.  Then they received an additional 50,000 miles after charging $2,000 during the first three months.

The card comes with a $75 annual fee, but that seemed like a small price to pay for 100,000 miles.  I went ahead and signed up, and then channeled all by purchases onto the card for the next three months.  And this week I discovered that the bonus miles had posted to my account.

(I have heard from at least one person who seems to have met all the terms of the promotion but was denied the promised bonus miles.  That will be the subject of a future blog post.)

And no, I'm not interested in giving the miles away.  Not now, anyway.

What I am interested in -- for my own sake and for others who might be in a similar situation -- is the first-hand experience of British Airways Executive Club members in redeeming their miles for awards.

The onerous fees and fuel surcharges imposed by British Airways for award travel on its own flights make Executive Club a particularly tricky program to navigate cost-effectively.  And because it's not a program in which I've participated, I haven't yet mapped out a viable redemption strategy.

Any advice?

Comments

[Barry]

I used them for travel from NY to Hawaii on AA. Booked on line with BA which switched me to AA (code share) then told me to call. I called BA and the dates I wanted were not available but we were flexible so, bottom line, we're booked.

$10 tax per ticket. They wanted an additional $20 per ticket for calling (not booking on line) but they waived the fee because they told me to call. Round trip Hawaii (JFK/HNL and out of OGG/JFK)for 70K + $20 bucks...not bad at all! What should I do with the other 30K?

[Martin Luthi]

I should add, your miles are also reinstated..

[Martin Luthi]

I signed up for this card.. actually i signed up for two, one for me and one for my wife. We live in the Tampa, Florida, area, and fly to London fairly regularly. BA is currently the only airline offering direct Tampa-London (Gatwick) flights, so it seemed like a good idea. Having fulfilled all the conditions, we duly received our 100,000+ points, good for 4 round-trip tickets. My wife recently flew on a one-way 25,000 lgw->tpa points ticket, and has a return one-way 25,000 tpa->lgw points ticket. The whole online experience was excellent, and as a seasoned award traveler, i give BA top marks for the whole program. Absolutely no issues whatsoever, and not overly expensive either, in this age of added fees/taxes. For the one way lgw->tpa segment it was $214 and $144 for the return leg. Best of all, if you cancel more than 24 hours ahead of the flight, you receive a full refund of fees/taxes and pay just a $20-25 admin fee. Doesn't get much better than that.

[whencanigo]

Go on safair! I was just able to redeem 45,000 in coach from Dar El Salaam in Kenya, to Atlanta, for Feb 2011. Was going to do it for 90,000 round trip from ATL-Nairobi, then return from DAR, but taxes were so high on the outbound trip, I redeemed AA miles (35,000 one way) instead and saved $275(AA taxes $75 v BA taxes of $350 each way). Remember that if you redeem for business or first class, taxes are double what they are for coach.

Another suggestion: redeem through BA for AA flights to anywhere in South America, where AA has a fantastic presence to wherever you want to go - Santiago, Lima, Quito, etc.

[mrfatboy]

My suggestions:
1) Use for Club World to Europe. Don't waste on First Class or Coach.

2) Use for American or other partners. BA charges hefty taxes/fees. It can be a $700 fee + 100k miles to fly (club world) from LAX to LHR. Other partners charge a small fee. Maybe fly to Asia instead of Europe.

[Audrey]

Good luck with that. I have 95,000 BA miles and every time I try to use them on AA I hit a wall. AA says you have to go through BA, and BA says you have to call AA. Finally, you call BA back and they tell you they have no award seats on AA available with BA miles. Can't wait to find a chance to add 5k miles, and burn em all!

[Jason]

Earn 40k more miles and fly First Class to Europe. I just flew from LAX to Warsaw then out of Prague back.

BA First Class service is unbelievably great and the lay flat beds are awesome. I slept almost 8 hours straight on the flight and woke up refreshed 40 minutes before landing at Heathrow.

[Tim Winship]

Franco - All frequent flyer programs prohibit the sale or barter of miles, except through approved channels, i.e. if you purchase them directly from the airlines. It's a rule that many disagree with, but one we abide by nevertheless.

[hector]

i was probably one of the few people to apply for the card and my friend also applied we both got approved got the 50,000 miles purchased tickets from orlando fl to london the fees were higher than we expected to pay for the tickets we paid 332.00 and the 50,000 miles each the normal price for a ticket is 930.00 even with the 75.00 it was still 50 percent less we had a great time its not that bad some cities r higher than others thats all

[Jorge]

I would buy myself & wife (or girlfriend or whomever) a round-the-world business class ticket(s) to visit all the places I can squezze(!) in my free time

[Franco]

I might buy them from you. Am going to the US in two weeks' time.

Cheers, Franco

[Joe]

You can use them on AA to destinations that BA does not fly.