Moving From AAdvantage To The British Airways Executive Club – How I’m Handling It

AAdvantage or Executive Club

TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.

Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.


Thanks to the superb job American Airlines management has done in decimating the once wonderful AAdvantage program, 2018 will be my last year of top-tier status with American Airlines.

I’m not saying that I’ll never return to AAdvantage or that I’ll never fly American Airlines again (both of those would be ridiculous statements to make) but I am saying that I’m done with trying to make the most of an ever depreciating program – it’s time to try something different.

Still, it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire as I’m now crediting my oneworld flights to British Airways – an airline whose hierarchy I detest (the CEO of the airline’s parent company has less class than a swamp rat) – so this could all go horribly wrong and end up being a very short flirtation with the British Airways Executive Club.

a row of black and white seatsI’m moving to the loyalty program of an airline whose short-haul Business Class seats have just 30″ of pitch – I must be nuts!

I know that I’m going to save money by moving over to the BAEC but, as Newton’s 3rd law teaches us, to every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction….so I’m going to get screwed somewhere.

Before I look at the areas where I think I’m going to feel a bit of pain I’d like to take a more positive tone and look at some of the benefits I expect to reap from my move to the BAEC:

  • I’ll save money (as I’ve already mentioned)
  • Having Gold status with BA will give me access to American Airlines Flagship and Admirals Club lounges when flying domestically in the US.
  • Having Gold status with BA will allow me to use Flagship Check-in facilities at airports like LAX (which I use a lot)
  • Having Gold status with BA may help me get more operational upgrades than I do right now (I have a few BA flights booked for 2018 on which an upgrade would really be appreciated!)
  • Having Gold status with BA will see me keep all the oneworld benefits I’ve enjoyed while I’ve held AAdvantage Executive Platinum status – like access to the Qantas First Class lounge at LAX.

Those were the main positives I see from my move to the British Airways Executive Club….but I’m also expecting some downsides too.

Specifically, there are two downsides that I’m having to work around

1. Avios Is A Terrible Rewards Currency For Me

a group of logos with text

While I’m crediting my oneworld flights to BA the main redeemable currency I will be earning is Avios (ugh!) Considering how many long-haul flights I like to book that’s a dreadful currency to be collecting.

American Airlines miles may be very hard to use on American’s own aircraft but I can still get some value out of AAdvantage miles by booking flights between Europe and Asia (or Australia) on partner airlines….and those are options I’d like to keep open.

Avios is simply not an option I want to consider when booking long haul flights – you need a  large number of Avios to book long-haul flights and then you have to deal with all the surcharges that get tacked on to Avios redemptions too. It’s just not worth it.

To counteract this I’m going to have to rethink my credit card policy.

In the past I’ve explained how I hold just one airline credit card (the AAdvantage Aviator credit card) and how I don’t really use it for spending….but that may now have to change.

I’ll still keep my bonused spending on cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex Platinum card and my Chase Ink credit card but, as I no longer earn AAdvantage Miles from flying, I’m going to have to find another source – that’s going to have to be my Aviator card.

a woman standing next to a credit card

I can still boost my balances of other useful airline miles by transferring over Membership Rewards points from Amex or Ultimate Rewards points from Chase but, if I want more AAdvantage Miles, they’ll have to come from an AAdvantage co-branded credit card.

2. I’ll No Longer Have Any Systemwide Upgrades

Considering I gave away 3 of my 4 systemwide upgrades in 2017 this may seem like a strange thing to be listing as a downside…but hear me out.

American may now only give out 4 Systemwide upgrades (SWUs) to Executive Platinum members (as opposed to the 8 it used to give out) but 4 is still better than none and none is what I’m going to have in 2019.

For the time being American’s SWUs still upgrade Economy Class tickets to Business Class so they give elites a little bit of hope that they can get out of the cramped conditions at the back of the plane without actually paying for a better seat….but there’s no such equivalent if you only just scrape over the line for BA Gold status (as I will).

a business card with a gold ribbon

This is where the Avios I will now be earning from flying may actually be useful.

While I’m ok flying in an Economy Class seat on long-haul daytime flights (as long as I’m in an exit row) I have no real interest in subjecting myself to long-haul night flights in Economy Class more often than I absolutely have to….so I have a plan.

On flights between Europe and Asia/Australia I’ll continue to buy amazing value Qatar Airways Business Class fares and travel in a lot of comfort but, for flights across the Atlantic, I’ll probably subject myself to BA Economy on daytime segment and pay a bit more for Premium Economy on the night flight.

I’ll then look to use Avios to upgrade myself from Premium Economy to Business Class.

Sure, I’ll be flying in BA Business Class (a relic of the 1990’s) but that’s still a lot better than flying overnight in Economy Class and the tier points I earn from booking Premium Economy will help me qualify for status that much quicker.

a row of seats in an airplaneBritish Airways 787-9 Business Class (Club World)

Bottom Line

An important part of playing around with loyalty programs is being flexible with where you credit your flights and hotel stays. It’s very easy to get sucked in to just sticking with the program you know and understand best (because that’s the easy option) but often that isn’t the right thing to do.

It wasn’t that easy taking the plunge and crediting my first flight of the year to the BAEC rather than AAdvantage but it’s a move I had to make. I’m sure I’m going to run into a few aspects of the BAEC that I haven’t really given much thought to and that may turn out to be further downsides…but there may be unexpected upsides too.

Right now I’m happy with my decision and I’m enjoying trying to figure out ways to maximize the positives and minimise the negatives of my move….now I just have to hope that BA doesn’t ruin my plans by devaluing their loyalty program when I’m not looking!

1 COMMENT

  1. I said farewell to AAdvantage in 2017, and qualified as BA Gold in the last couple of months of 2017 for exactly the same reasons you mentioned. The EQD spend requirement for AA is far too difficult a hurdle for a non-U.S. resident, and unlike Delta, they didn’t waive it for overseas members.

    I agree the SWU’s are valuable, but they can be difficult to redeem. I recently was offloaded from my ‘confirmed’ first class upgrade at the gate on a recent transat journey as I was using a ‘free’ (the gate agents’ words) SWU upgrade. Loyalty is worthless in AA’s mind.

    Timing a seamless move to BAEC Gold also requires knowing when your membership year starts with BA. AA uses the calendar year. I had the unique situation of holding AA Executive Platinum and BA Gold at the same time for a few months. Also, what was impressive is that BA sent out all my Gold credentials (luggage tags, card) within 10 days of achieving the 1,500 tier points. I also received the Bronze and Silver tags along the way, with my Silver arriving after Gold!

Comments are closed.