christabir

I don't usually do stuff like this, but BA is giving away the farm. For someone like me who can't afford the airfare these really help. There are two offers that look outstanding IMHO:

1 - Fly now and fly with a companion later. Register at ba.com/companion and fly by Jan 29, 2010 and get a free companion ticket to use in 2010 in any cabin. Good deal. And everything is on sale right now.

2 - Get a BA credit card and buy $2000 worth of stuff in 3 months (I know -it's lot) and get 100,000 miles! That's enough for a round trip from Europe to Southern Africa in business or two r/t trip coach tix USA to Europe. I never spend this much, but if you spend $30,000 in any year, they give you a free companion miles fare. It's a good deal if you spend a lot on credit.

My husband can't fly very far in coach, so I do everything I can to get upgrades and business flights. These are two of the best deals I've seen.

P_M

These are good deals indeed and I have already applied for the visa card. Please note that if you are not already a member of the Executive Club you must join first in order to find the offer for 100K miles.

atravelynn

Thanks, this is a tremendous deal!

For many of us groceries will make up a good part of the $2000 over 3 months. Here's a hint I've used before. I buy the grocery store gift cards to rack up the required purchases within the time limit. You just have to be careful not to lose the cards.

P_M

Very good hint atravelynn, thanks.

BeniciaChris

Wow-These travel tips are spectacular. I've told friends I am a milage whore.
Wish I could utalize this-I just got2 business seats American (Brisish) to Cairo for next year. Bought return on Lufthansa. I am trying to get upgrades on Lufthansa with United miles. I don't use United but have gotten codeshare miles & safeway miles with them. Need to wait the 330 days out to try for it.
Thanks for info. Chris

LyndaS

Does the 100k deal have to be on a new BA card? I've had one for a few years, would I still qualify? No problem for me to spend $2000 over three months....

MissGreen

In Australia the credit card things are not that wonderful. I am about to make a big purchase for the home and we are thinking of putting it on a card then paying it off immediately just so we get the points. BUT, they have made a huge change to the points system here. You normally have to spend about 20,000 or more to get a trip from Melb to Sydney... for those not in the know, that is a 1 hour plane trip! And, as you all know, Australia is MILES from anywhere and from memory you needed 200 or 300,000 to get a business class ticket to the USA.

shelleyk

The BA offer is good, but be aware of 2 things. It is not easy to get frequent flier seats on BA. I have 150,000 miles I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to use for years, and my dates have been very flexible. Also, the taxes you pay on the "free" ticket generally amount to much more than what you would pay on other airline's overseas routes from the US. So before you spend the money on the credit card, be aware of these caveats.

P_M

LyndaS yes it does have to be a new card.

Maybe you could apply for a second card? I think it's worth a call to ask.

Patty

The credit card offer is a very good one (already applied) but a few things to be aware of:

1) As mentioned BA charges very high fuel surcharges if you redeem on BA operated flights. You could easily be looking at $500-$600 on a "free" ticket between the US and Europe. US-Africa may be higher. It's still a good deal if you redeem in business class. Not such a good deal if you redeem in economy. You can also use BA miles to redeem on partner airlines which may not have fuel surcharges or their fuel surcharges may not be as exorbitant as BA.

2) The companion award for spending $30k a year is good on BA metal only. Again still a good deal in business as you could get 2 US-Europe business class awards for 100k miles (plus the fuel surcharges).

3) The lower mileage requirements are generally for BA only or one partner only awards. Once you need to starting mixing airlines, the mileage required may increase substantially. BA has 4 award charts - BA only, one partner only, BA plus one other airline, and 2 or more Oneworld airlines.

4) Household accounts - up to 7 people at the same residential address can "household" their accounts allowing the pooling of miles. This is a great benefit. There are some restrictions such as tickets can only be redeemed in the household members' names and how often you can make changes to your household.

For the offer on ba.com/companion (unrelated to the credit card offer), you have to purchase the ticket in an eligible (higher) fare class:

<i>Member must book a round-trip transatlantic ticket in qualifying World Traveller (Y, B, H), World Traveller Plus (W, E), Club World (J, C, D, R) or First (F, A) fares and book and travel between September 29 and January 29, 2010.</i>

Lynda,
The official BA representative on the BA forum at Flyertalk posted that previous (but not current) cardholders are eligible http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1004128 (post #137 on page 10). And I believe this is a US offer.

There's also a huge thread about the credit card offer on the Milesbuzz forum at FT http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1013709

Lynneb

There is also a UK deal with a joint BA/Amex card.

LyndaS

Darn, I'm a current card holder. Oh well, I guess slow but steady is the word here!

Patty points out a good point on the companion fare offer - when I first got the card two years ago, I recieved a free companion fare ticket with the card. When I went to see if I could use it on our last trip to Nairobi in May, the BA person quoted me appx 8k for the economy ticket, and about 10k for the WTP ticket. And no upgrades allowed on those either. Not in my lifetime I told her, that would have been more than if I would have purchased 2 of the lower class tickets in the specific classes.

cary999

Mileage good for BA flights from USA to Europe Zone 1. Africa -not- included.
http://www.mychasecreditcards.com/br...ays/hp_postpin

regards - tom

DonTopaz

I think you have misread the offer, Tom. Item #3 in the link that you sent explicitly states that you can use the miles either for an economy ticket between the US and Eur-1 (which costs 50k miles), or you can use the miles toward any other ticket (my bolding):

<i>You will receive 50,000 bonus BA Miles with this bonus offer, which can be redeemed for 1 transatlantic reward flight in World Traveller, economy class from the USA to Europe Zone 1, <b>or choose to redeem for another qualifying flight.</b></i>

christabir

I recently used AA miles to go LHR to JNB for two in business r/t on BA. The taxes and fees were under $500 for two, so I'm not going to complain. We started in March trying to find flights for June and as long as we were a bit flexible, were able to get perfect flights. We have good luck getting free flights because we plan our trips around the flights, not the other way around. We also never fly during peak times. And be flexible when and with whom you'll fly - we could have flown either BA or Iberia (or both) and gotten just what we wanted. Yes, it's more difficult, but not impossible. We are also going to move up our pseudo-planned trip to Egypt to get the other offer.

Me and DH applied for card. Hope to get them in time for Christmas shopping, and we'll put EVERYTHING on them - gas, food, heating oil (yes, some companies will let you), cell phones. Zim/Zam here we come!!

BeniciaChris - I thought I was the only one!! Do you do the airline sopping websites, too? I've gotten lots of miles (over 30,000) through AAdvantageeshopping.com and Deltamilesshopping.com, and it costs me nothing.

Lynda - if you have a friend, relative or acquaintance who will get the card, that person can but a ticket for you - no partial anything, but a whole ticket. Not too long ago my boss let me use his airline miles for two off-peak tix, but now he knows how it works so he keeps using them for himself!!! Bummer for me.

Patty

There's no fuel surcharge when using AA miles on BA metal.

Using BA miles on BA metal, I think you'll find that the total is more like $800 per ticket for US-Africa. There's a chart somewhere on ba.com that shows the surcharges. These are in addition to any actual taxes.

cary999

"or choose to redeem for another qualifying flight."
I saw that but don't know what a "qualifying flight" is. If it means any route that BA offers mileage redemption then why didn't they just say that? Why make it sound so restrictive saying - Europe zone 1? If there is a list or table that shows all "qualifying flights" I'd like to see it. Anyone?

regards - tom

LAleslie

This is temppting--though I've found those companion fare tix are not really a deal when you can do much better flying the lowest fare (tho they're non-refundable).

I've rarely flown BA tho, and based on only one recent experience (London to Toronto) I found it almost as bad as U.S. airlines, and this was in business. Did I have an unusual experience?

Thanks for all that useful ino Patty. The household card looks like a winner.

Patty

Just to clarify, a household account refers to BA Executive Club memberships, not BA Chase Visa cards. See #16 http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_us

Tom,
These miles are just like any other BA miles and can be used for awards or upgrades. They're just citing one example because people may have no idea what 50k miles could be used for.

Calculator for redeeming on BA http://www.britishairways.com/travel...r/public/en_us

One partner only http://www.britishairways.com/travel...e/public/en_us

BA plus one partner http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_us

2 or more Oneworld airlines http://www.britishairways.com/travel...r/public/en_us

The last one is based on mileage flown and not travel zone.

After looking at this more closely, I think the mileage amounts are actually the same for BA only or BA plus one partner.

LAleslie

So, from what I can tell, one can apply for EC membership under a household account and then get the credit card, yes?