American AAdvantage miles or British Airways Avios? A Canadian TravelSort reader writes “I'm glad I found your blog, so much info to go over, I'm 100% new to reward travel, I didn't know the points were this useful. I'm a Canadian resident, I currently hold a Royal Bank Avion card that allows me to earn RBC points. Right now they have a promotion that allows me to convert RBC points to American AAdvantage miles at 1:1.2 ratio, I have about 2 million RBC points so it'll be 2.4 million AAdvantage miles. But sometimes they offer transfers of RBC points to British Airways Avios at a 1:1.5 ratio, so the same 2 million RBC points would get me 3 million Avois. My home airport is YVR, and I do travel to Asia often (China, Taiwan). Which is a better option for me? 2.4 million AAdvantage miles or 3 million Avios points?”
First off, it's great that this reader has 2 million RBC points! With so many miles, he definitely doesn't have to think about buying Alaska miles with a 35% bonus, unless, say, he really wants to fly Emirates. As always, I recommend that he diversify his miles and points, but let's still compare the pros and cons of American AAdvantage miles and British Airways Avios for long haul premium class, specifically Cathay Pacific business class awards to Asia.
While I'm no expert in Canadian rewards programs, these can be converted into American AAdvantage miles, British Airways Avios, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles or WestJet in terms of airline miles. And as this reader identified, there are currently transfer bonuses for RBC points transfers:
- 20% Transfer Bonus for RBC Points to American AAdvantage (October 15-November 30, 2013)
- 50% Transfer Bonus for RBC Points to British Airways (November 1-December 31, 2013)
Let's compare American AAdvantage miles to British Airways Avios across a few key criteria: award chart, stopovers, and fees.
Award Chart
The American AAdvantage Partner award chart is a better deal for most any long haul international business or first class award flight. For example, looking at Cathay Pacific business class YVR to Hong Kong one way AA charges 55,000 AAdvantage miles; British Airways charges 60,000 Avios points. So roundtrip, you'd save 10,000 miles by booking with AAdvantage miles.
The difference is even greater if we look at another of this reader's destinations, Taipei. That's because, as long as he's just connecting and not stopping over in Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific Business Class YVR-HKG-TPE would still be 55,000 AAdvantage miles, but with British Airways, continuing on to Taipei would cost another 9000 British Airways Avios.
Stopovers
American AAdvantage awards do not permit stopovers of 24 hours or more in any international city; by stopping over, you would need to book 2 awards.
British Airways Avios is a distance based chart, so while awards end up costing more the farther you go, by the same token you can build in stopovers at no additional cost since these are in essence separate awards anyway.
Third Region Restrictions with AAdvantage Awards
American AAdvantage has third region restrictions for its partner award chart. The only regions you can transit en route to a third region are North America via Europe to India, North America via Europe to Africa, and North America via Asia Region 1 to Asia Region 2. If you try to transit a different region, your award will be broken into 2 awards. So you wouldn't, for example, be able to book an AAdvantage award from North America to the Maldives as one award on Cathay Pacific, since Cathay's hub is Hong Kong and you can't transit Asia en route to India and the Middle East region, which the Maldives is part of.
Partners
Both American Airlines and British Airways are members of Oneworld, so those oneworld airline partners are the same for both airlines. They also both partner with Alaska Airlines.
Although the reader is primarily interested in travel to China and Taiwan, if at some point he wants to travel to other destinations, such as the Middle East, Maldives, Tahiti, etc. American AAdvantage miles would provide more options, as Etihad and Air Tahiti are American AAdvantage partners but not a British Airways partners. American has quite a few more “other airline partners” (i.e. *not* Oneworld partners), so there are more carrier options if you have American AAdvantage miles.
Fees
Fees are higher for American AAdvantage for non-elites for everything except date/time changes over 21 days prior to departure:
Phone Booking Fee: While both AA and BA charge a $25 phone booking fee, Cathay Pacific can be booked online at British Airways, whereas it can't with AA, resulting in a phone booking fee. But note that for partners that can't be booked online at British Airways, such as Aer Lingus and Alaska, you'll pay the same $25 phone booking fee. Alaska can be booked online with AA.
Close-In Booking Fee: No close-in booking fee for British Airways; non AA elites are charged $75 per ticket for booking 21 days or fewer prior to departure.
Change Fee: British Airways charges $40 for date/time changes done online; AA charges non-elites the $75 close-in booking fee for date changes resulting in a departure within 21 days, but no charge for date/time changes over 21 days prior to departure.
Cancellation/Redeposit Fee: The British Airways cancellation and redeposit fee is just $40 when done online, but AA charges non-elites $150 for cancellation/redeposit.
Booking
For the awards the reader cares most about, Cathay Pacific, British Airways Avios offers two key advantages with the booking process:
Award Calendar: The British Airways award calendar opens 355 days before the departure date, giving Avios bookings an advantage over American AAdvantage awards on Cathay Pacific, since the AAdvantage award calendar opens 330 days before the departure date.
Search and Booking: Cathay Pacific awards may be searched and booked online on the British Airways site. They cannot be searched or booked online on the American Airlines site–you'll need to call, and will incur the $25 phone booking fee.
The Verdict: For business travelers and those with little flexibility who want to book Cathay Pacific first and business class, I recommend holding a good supply of British Airways Avios. Yes, you'll pay more for long haul first and business class, but, along with Cathay Pacific's own Asia Miles frequent flyer members, you gain an advantage in being able to book awards earlier since the award chart opens earlier. Plus, Avios are a good points currency for backup flights since it's just $40 to cancel and redeposit miles (see Frequent Flyer Awards: Low Fee Backup Options). Avios are also good for last minute flights, since there's no close-in booking fee for non-elites and Cathay Pacific does often open up some last minute award availability.
On the other hand, I also recommend having American AAdvantage miles, given the great award chart values and using them to book premium class travel over the next year, although I do expect an AAdvantage award chart devaluation sometime within the next year, as I wrote in United Award Chart Devaluation: Strategy Going Forward.
That's why I recommend that this reader transfer RBC points to BOTH American AAdvantage and British Airways Avios. Specifically, I would only recommend transferring the number of American AAdvantage miles he can reasonably see redeeming for award travel over the next year, and similarly with British Airways, although I wouldn't be as concerned with an Avios devaluation over the next year, given that the award chart already underwent a significant devaluation in 2011.
Related Posts
Cathay Pacific First Class Review
Cathay Pacific Business Class Review
Maximizing Awards Using American AAdvantage Miles
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