BA miles conversion

OK on Uncle Scrooge's advice I'll post this here.I have a pretty empty BA Exec Club account (minimal activity). I have a smallish (£50 odd) pile of Tesco Clubcard vouchers.I have never converted any to BA miles via these vouchers. However with the current BA/Tesco promotion I'd double up on the miles for the first transaction.
Do I go for this option? I haven't spent BA miles for a long time (I ditched my BA credit card for the VS Mastercard a while back).I am toying with the idea of the fee paying BA Amex but really don't know enough about BA redemptions policy /2-1 stuff (and the FT threads just lose me )
Thanks
DL.

[Scrooge]

Ok, because it's BA related I moved the thread over to the BA forum.

To answer your question, are you planning on flying with BA in the next couple of years ?

If so then I would say go for it, they can only help to build up your miles for those upgrade.

A good thing with BA is you can buy any fare and upgrade to the next cabin, so finding a cheap WT+ and upgrading to CW can be a lot more affordable than going with VS and having to buy and upgradable fare to get into UC.

A good thing with BA is you can buy any fare and upgrade to the next cabin, so finding a cheap WT+ and upgrading to CW can be a lot more affordable than going with VS and having to buy and upgradable fare to get into UC.

But don't forget, on BA you can only ever upgrade one cabin, unlike VS. So if you buy an econ ticket, you can only drop miles for WT+.

[Scrooge]

Very true.

Regarding the Tesco conversion, I just did mine for the first time at the start of March. I thought I would only get double miles on the first £2.50 vouvcher converted, but ended up with double miles on all vouchers converted. So that was a result.

On the credit card, I did the opposite and ditched my Virgin AmEx for the BA AmEx. Main reason was to get the 2-4-1 voucher. I rarely fly with BA - Virgin whereever possible But, I'll easily spend £10k on the cc with my work expenses entitling me to the 2-4-1 voucher. I'll typically stay with Starwood hotels when travelling and will convert those points to BA miles, so it is pretty easy for me to get 100k BA miles every 18 months or so. Have used the 2-4-1 last year to book NCW seats to Joburg for the world cup this year (quite a lot of availability when I booked even when a major event was on). I'm now waiting to book 2 NCW to the Maldives for my 40th next year. Overall, if you can get your BA mileage count high, I'd rate the BA card and mileage scheme over the Virgin one anyday. I have over 600k virgin miles and will struggle to use them.

For collecting hotel points, I've found the Starwood scheme extremely beneficial. They have many promotions and you get a 25% bonus when you convert 20K points, so 20k Starwood points nets you 25k BA miles (or Virgin come to that).

[Nottingham Nick]

I know this doesn't really apply in DragonLady's case, but if you don't want to or can't use points in a particular scheme, then they can often be converted to other programmes.

There is a very useful calculator : http://www.webflyer.com/programs/mileage_converter/ here, courtesy of our friends at Flyertalk, that gives the conversion rates.

Be warned though, you always take a massive loss of value when you convert from one scheme to another. But, at the end of the day - if you aren't going to use the points, anything is better than nothing.

Nick

We used to earn 300k miles PA just out of Tesco its not quite as easy now but 150k is still very achievable,the online convertion is quick and painless.
Probably the best use of BA miles is to upgrade a cheap sale £500-£600 WT+ to CW for 25K miles return.The Tax on a 100k US CW redemption is heading to £300,so for another £250 you save 75k miles and also earn miles and TPs on the WT+ fare.All WT+ fares booked direct with BA are upgradeable with the exception of hotel inclusive packages.We hold 3 Amex PP+ cards in the family and use the 3x 241s every year without a great deal of trouble.Just don't expect to get to Oz, South America SIN or BKK without booking a long time upfront or being very lucky.We have managed without problem F and CW redemption's to HKG,NRT,BOS,JFK,LAX,SFO,SEA,YYZ,YVR,ABU & BAH over the last 5 years.

Thanks Jaguarpig, very useful information. I'm wondering if you, or some other knowledgeable sole can answer these questions about the BA scheme:

- can you upgrade WT to CW or to First? or can you only upgrade with miles to one class above what you have booked?

- does there need to be reward seat availability in the class you want to go to? or just seats available?

- just to 100% clarify, you can use the 2-4-1 voucher on these miles upgrade scenarios?

Like you say, this may well be a better way of maximising the use of miles.

Thanks,
Darren

Can you upgrade WT to CW or to First? or can you only upgrade with miles to one class above what you have booked?

- does there need to be reward seat availability in the class you want to go to? or just seats available?

Can't answer all, but on BA you can only upgrade one cabin, so no, you can't go from Y to J on a plane with WT+, or from WT+ to F. And yes, there must be reward seat availability.

[HighFlyer]

A 2-4-1 is for full miles redemption, not an MFU (miles for upgrade). Destinations vary in terms of how may miles you need for an upgrade or full redemption. USA is 25k miles from WT+ to J and 100k miles for full J reward (where as a full J reward to SYD would be 200k miles). You need to have seats free in the cabin you want to travel in. For an MFU you are buying one fare and upgrading to the next so in a J-F you would buy a J at revenue and need a miles seat in F. For a full redemption/2-4-1 you need miles seats in the cabin you want to fly in.

This calculator is useful to see the redemption rates per zone: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ec ... blic/en_gb

We have a 2-4-1 sat in our account now. They are valid for use for 2 years from date of receipt, so we have 2 years to book it (not travel on it).

How many BA miles for example, would it take to upgrade a PE seat to CW, return to the USA from the UK?

[Neil]

How many BA miles for example, would it take to upgrade a PE seat to CW, return to the USA from the UK?

If you have a look on the BA site at this page it explains everything. The link Sarah provided shows the full redemption mileage needed.

How many BA miles for example, would it take to upgrade a PE seat to CW, return to the USA from the UK?

25k rtn

Aha, I get it now, it confused the hell out of me to begin with, hence why I asked.

But, I'm guessing it takes 50k for a miles fare, and then 50,000 x 0.5 for an upgrade, from Y to PE, or PE to CW

And also, 50,000 x 1.0 from CW to 1st

But with BA, you can't upgrade from Y to CW, or Y/PE to 1st, but you can just use miles for the full fare. Is that about right?

Yep thats spot on, the WT+ to CW is classed as a half class upgrade, so half the usual 1 class miles upgrade 25k instead of 50k rtn.

And you can upgrade any fare? Is that correct, or is it like Virgin where you have to book an upgradable fare?

I signed up to the scheme a year ago when I flew to HKG with them, but didn't claim my miles in the end due to the booking being part of a group booking, and the fact it looked upon first sight that you needed thousands of miles to go anywhere!

Fares have to be booked direct with BA to be upgradable.Fares that are booked direct with BA as part of a package inc hotel or car hire are not upgradable.

Hi all,

Is the "double miles for first conversion" offer still valid? Can't find anything on the Tesco or BA site...

No it ended somewhere around the 21st March.
DL

The BA black Amex has an offer of 18,000 points instead of the usual 6,000. Phoned amex today regarding upgrading my blue amex to black and told me to cancel my card and reapply to benefit from this offer, seems a cracking offer what with the 40,000 MR points due from the platinum offer.

I am supprised with the advice though?

cheers

alex