$1167 Business Class to Paris or Keep Award Tickets?

$1167 Roundtrip Business Class from the NYC to Paris or Keep Business Class Award Tickets? Per Dan, there's a fare sale on British Airways, OpenSkies and American Airlines for departures between May 16 and August 23 that appears to be competing with upstart La Compagnie's cheap “business class” product, which can go for as little as ~$1500 per person if traveling as a couple to London, La Companie's new destination. I put business class in quotes, since it's hard to describe angled flat seats and a fairly bare bones in-flight experience as international business class.

Anyway, back to the offer. The $1167 rate is possible with two discounts:

1. AARP $400 off a roundtrip business class ticket originating in the U.S.; and

2. 10% off with code CARDOFFERU, meant for British Airways Visa cardholders, but works (so far) for everyone

AARP $400 Discount

You do need to be an AARP member with a login to be able to use the AARP discount, but it's easy to join and costs just $16 per year. See AARP $400 Off British Airways Business Class Flights for signup tips then go to the British Airways AARP site. The current offer requires you to book before October 31, 2015, and all you need is one AARP membership, which will allow you to book for multiple travelers with the discount.

Here's an example of the fare I was considering for summer travel on British Airways subsidiary Open Skies, which offers flat bed business class:

Worth Redepositing Award Tickets to Book Paid Tickets?

On the face of it, it seems a no-brainer to book paid business class tickets for less than $1200 per person roundtrip if you were planning to travel to Europe anyway. A few advantages:

• Low Fare: To put it in perspective, most economy tickets cost more (without discounts) than the discounted British Airways Open Skies / AA tickets. And in most cases you'd pay 100,000 miles for roundtrip business class to Europe, which is a redemption value of only 1.2 cents per mile or point–not a rate most people would redeem miles and points for. If we redeposited, we'd get back our miles, which could be put to higher value use on future trips.

• Mileage Earning: Paid tickets earn miles–in this case, nearly 11,000 Avios per flight. Let's say you only value Avios at 1.4 cents per mile given the new British Airways Avios devaluation–that would still be ~$154. Or you could credit to AAdvantage instead.

• Better Product Than La Compagnie: While this wasn't a factor for us, since we were never booked on or planning to fly La Compagnie, there's no question Open Skies Business Class is a better product than La Compagnie.

• Paid Tickets Helpful for Minimum Spend: We're working on that $20,000 minimum spend for the 150K AMEX Business Platinum, and no question the paid tickets would be helpful towards that, as neither my husband nor I have the time or inclination to do manufactured spend.