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Update 10:30 PST: Whole scale changes have been announced to the American Airlines AAdvantage program (details here) but, for the time being, they do not directly affect the information below.
Last week I suggested that there may be a section of British Airways flyers who would do quite well by switching their miles/points earning from Avios to American Airlines AAdvantage…at least for the duration of the current American Airlines promotion. The original point of that post was to show how British Airways Business Class flyers could earn a very healthy haul of AAdvantage Miles in the current promotion and to show how valuable those AAdvantage miles could be, compared to Avios, for long-haul reward flights.
As I was writing that post and comparing AAdvantage Miles to Avios, it occurred to me that there was something else I should be pointing out. While, for the purposes of the promotion, it could make sense for Business Class flyers to temporarily swap over to earning AAdvantage miles, there’s another group of British Airways flyers who would benefit by swapping over permanently.
Earning Loyalty Miles/Points For Flying
For those not used to airline loyalty programs it’s not always obvious that you don’t have to earn miles/points in the loyalty program of the airline you’re flying on – if you fly on BA you don’t have to earn Avios and you don’t have to be in the British Airways Executive Club to earn loyalty points/miles. There are other choices too.
One of those choices is American Airlines’ AAdvantage miles .
You can fly on British Airways (or any other oneWorld airline), never set foot on an American Airlines plane and still have all your flights earn you miles in the American Airlines AAdvantage program.
What I’m going to do next is show why some British Airways flyers should probably be doing just that.
Earning Avios & AAdvantage Miles On British Airways
Below is a table showing the number of Avios and the number of AAdvantage Miles flyers can earn from flying on British Airways (broken down by fare class).
For reference, this is a link to the AAdvantage earning chart for flights taken on British Airways.
Note: The percentages in the table refer to the number of miles flown which is used as a basis for calculating the number of Avios or AAdvantage Miles awarded.
If you take a look at the table above you’ll see:
- Flyers earn a lot more Avios than AAdvantage Miles if they book Business Class and First Class fares
- Flyers earn more Avios than AAdvantage Miles if they book the more expensive Premium Economy fares.
- Flyers earn the same number of Avios as they do AAdvantage Miles if they book a discounted Premium Economy fare or any regular Economy fare.
Now, bearing in mind all of that, let’s take a look at how many Avios and AAdvantage Miles are needed to book reward flights on various long haul routes:
Spending Avios & AAdvantage Miles on British Airways
I’m going to focus on Business Class flights for the purposes of this exercise because that’s the most commonly redeemed “aspirational” flight award.
The Club World (Business Class) cabin on a British Airways A380
Below is a table showing how many Avios/AAdvantage Miles you would need to redeem for a Business Class reward flight on British Airways.
Avios is split into off-peak and peak seasons while, for Business Class awards, AAdvantage has the same pricing year round – I’ve included all three figures for comparison.
In summary:
- In only one instance (out of 24) do you need fewer Avios than AAdvantage miles – an off-peak Business Class award to New York.
- In just 3 instances (out of 24) do you need the same number of Avios as you do AAdvantage Miles to redeem the Business Class reward flight.
- In 19 instances (out of 24) you need fewer AAdvantage Miles than Avios to redeem a Business Class reward flight on British Airways.
Bear in mind that the numbers being compared above are the cost for the exact same seat on the exact same plane with the exact same airline. You’ll even pay the same taxes and surcharges whether you use Avios or AAdvantage Miles. The only thing that’s different is the loyalty currency you’re using to pay for the flight.
Who Can Benefit From This?
The simplistic answer would be to say: All British Airways Economy Class flyers and discount Premium Economy Flyers.
Those flyers earn the same number of Avios and AAdvantage Miles for their flights so, logically, they’re the ones who should choose to earn the currency that goes further – AAdvantage Miles
But it’s not quite that simple.
As I’ve pointed out in the past, people tend to collect the loyalty currency that’s easiest for them to collect in significant quantities. In the UK, where most British Airways flyers are based, that currency is Avios.
The primary issue for UK-based flyers who want to collect AAdvantage Miles is that there isn’t a readily available way to earn them from everyday life. The same isn’t true for Avios.
Avios can be earned from a number of non-flying sources in the UK…. like the American Express British Airways credit cards and Tesco clubcard points and there are a good number of flyers who do very well (Avios-wise) out of those sources.
Those sources of Avios (for which there is no real AAdvantage Miles equivalent) go a long way to balancing out in the imbalance in reward flight costs.
Put simply: You may need more Avios than AAdvantage Miles for a lot of long haul flights but, if you can earn significantly more Avios than you can AAdvantage Miles, then AAdvantage’s advantage (sorry!) is greatly reduced.
So who does that leave?
The way I see it, the British Airways flyers who would benefit most from collecting AAdvantage Miles rather than Avios will have the following travel CV:
- They primarily book Economy Class or discount Premium Economy fares (when paying with cash)
- They primarily redeem Avios for long-haul premium cabin travel (Avios is good for short-haul fares)
- They may have the BA Amex cards but don’t go out of their way to put a lot of spend on them
- They don’t earn a 2-4-1 certificate from the BA Amex Card (if they have one) or, if they do earn the certificate, they don’t regularly earn enough Avios to make the most of it.
To Sum Up
If your main source of Avios is from flying on discount Premium Economy fares or Economy Class fares and you like to use your Avios to book long-haul premium cabin flights, then there’s an excellent chance you should be collecting AAdvantage Miles instead.
Compare how many Avios or AAdvantage miles you’d need to fly your preferred routes and you’ll soon have your answer as to which loyalty currency you should be collecting.
Note: Most travelers booking Economy or Discount Economy fares will not be reaching a meaningful level of status (Silver or above) with British Airways so I have deliberatley not muddied the waters by taking status earning into consideration in this blog. If, however, you’re interested in how you can earn American Airlines status by flying on British Airways then keep an eye out for a blog on that topic in the next few days.
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