A Deep Dive Into The Best Way To Use Miles To Fly American Or British Airways Between The US And London

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A dive into the zany world of award booking:

It’s been a while since I did a deep dive into the miles and taxes needed for a route. It’s a labor intensive process, but I wanted to see how things stand for a sample redemption for travel next year. If you’re not ready to book travel yet, consider bookmarking this post for future reference.

When you book an award ticket with miles, the miles, taxes, and fees required can vary greatly depending on which miles you use. This post will compare just how many miles you’ll need for a single route with several different mileage options and much the taxes and fees can vary based on which miles you use.

I picked flights from Boston to London on 1/18/21 and from London to Boston on 1/25/21 on American and British Airways. Mileage rates and taxes between other east coast US cities and London should be identical to this.

Tax rates in the charts below have been converted into USD, so the exact amount may vary based on currency fluctuations. Taxes and fees have been rounded to the nearest dollar.

While saver mileage rates typically stay the same regardless of the cost of a paid ticket, the paid rates for the flights on the dates above are also given to compare the value of using miles versus paying for a flight. Chase Sapphire Reserve® points on the other hand directly correlate to the paid price of a flight at a value of 1.5 cents per point. The cost of a paid flight is also broken down to show what the actual taxes and fuel surcharges are on the paid flight compared to the fees on an award ticket.

Flights to London are a notoriously poor award option due to fuel surcharges and the UK’s hefty taxes on long-haul flights from London. But is there value to be had?

I took a look at rates for Boston to London one-way, London to Boston one-way, and Boston to London round-trip, and then compare them to see if you’re better booking 2 one-way awards or a round-trip award.

The conclusions are pretty typical. The value for redeeming miles in business and first class is better than in economy. But it’s also interesting to see how fuel surcharges can range from zero to moderate to extremely high, depending on which miles you use. And it’s interesting to see that there’s little rhyme or reason for whether an award will be cheaper as 2 one-way tickets or 1 round-trip ticket, so it’s always worth checking both ways when redeeming miles for an award.

One potential “hack” is to fly back from another city in Europe in order to avoid the UK taxes on departing from London and some airlines may offer a free stopover to do that, but that’s beyond the scope of this post. However the advantage of using miles is that you can book a one-way ticket without the huge premium found on paid tickets. That adds a lot of flexibility to your travel plans.

Below are 7 comparison charts for each class of service offered by American and British Airways on this route. In them, I’ll compare the miles required if you redeem AA, Alaska, British Airways Avios, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Iberia, JAL, or Qantas miles. Yes, there are more mileage booking options available, but I think this is a good start. 😀

All of these awards can be booked directly on each mileage program’s website, with the exception of using Cathay Pacific Asia Miles to fly on American. However those can be booked via the Cathay Pacific Asia Miles chat function.

Here are the mileage transfer options (and a way to save on fuel surcharges) for the airlines in the charts below:

• American (AA):
  • Transfer from Marriott at 60K:25K ratio
  • Transfer from Marriott starting from 330K:100K ratio and get 7 nights in a Marriott hotel.
  • You can earn up to 65,000 miles when you open Citi American Airlines cards and all spending in 2020 counts towards earning Million Miler Lifetime Elite Status:
• Alaska:
  • Transfer from Marriott at 60K:25K ratio
  • Transfer from Marriott starting from 330K:100K ratio and get 7 nights in a Marriott hotel.
• British Airways (BA):
  • Transfer from AMEX instantly at 1K:1K ratio
  • Transfer from Chase instantly at 1K:1K ratio
  • Transfer from Marriott at 60K:25K ratio
  • Transfer from Marriott starting from 330K:100K ratio and get 7 nights in a Marriott hotel.
  • Earn up to 100,000 Avios with the Chase BA card.
  • Chase BA cardholders will get a rebate on taxes and fees up to $100 in economy/premium economy or up to $200 in business/first class on your first 3 one-way or round-trip award bookings from the US on BA flights annually. The credit is per reservation, so you’ll want to book passengers on separate reservations to maximize the benefit. The charts below do not account for this rebate, but they will substantially change the math for BA flights using BA miles if you have the BA card.
  • Chase BA cardholders will get a companion pass valid for a BOGO award in any class on BA if they spend $30K in a calendar year.
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles:
  • Transfer from AMEX instantly at 1K:1K ratio
  • Transfer from Capital One at 2K:1.5K ratio
  • Transfer from Citi at 1K:1K ratio
  • Transfer from Marriott at 60K:25K ratio
  • Transfer from Marriott starting from 330K:100K ratio and get 7 nights in a Marriott hotel.
• Iberia:
  • Transfer from AMEX instantly at 1K:1K ratio
  • Transfer from Chase instantly at 1K:1K ratio
  • Transfer from Marriott at 60K:25K ratio
  • Transfer from Marriott starting from 330K:100K ratio and get 7 nights in a Marriott hotel.
  • Earn up to 100,000 Avios with the Chase Iberia card.
• JAL:
  • Transfer from Marriott at 60K:25K ratio
  • Transfer from Marriott starting from 330K:100K ratio and get 7 nights in a Marriott hotel.
• Qantas:
  • Transfer from AMEX instantly at 500:500 ratio
  • Transfer from Barclays Arrival Premier at 1.4K:1K ratio
  • Transfer from Capital One at 2K:1.5K ratio
  • Transfer from Citi at 1K:1K ratio
  • Transfer from Marriott at 60K:25K ratio
  • Transfer from Marriott starting from 330K:100K ratio and get 7 nights in a Marriott hotel.

• Chart 1: Flying on American in Economy

• Notes:
  • While Qantas has the lowest mileage rates, booking with a few thousand extra American, Alaska, or JAL miles will allow you to avoid fuel surcharges. Cathay Pacific also has no fuel surcharges, but mileage rates are a bit higher.
  • If you are going to use BA or Qantas points, book as 2 separate awards to save on the fuel surcharges.

• Chart 2: Flying on American in Premium Economy

• Notes:
  • Premium economy redemptions are limited to just AA and Qantas miles, with American being a much better value unless you have Sapphire Reserve points to use.
  • Booking a round-trip award with AA miles enabled the ability to book a less expensive web special. These awards aren’t eligible for date changes, but you can redeposit the miles and cancel the trip and that’s free if you do it 60 days before the flight.

• Chart 3: Flying on American in Business Class

• Notes:
  • JAL is the big winner here at just 80K miles and no fuel surcharges.
  • Booking a round-trip award with AA miles enabled the ability to book a less expensive web special. These awards aren’t eligible for date changes, but you can redeposit the miles and cancel the trip and that’s free if you do it 60 days before the flight.
  • Booking with American, Alaska, Cathay Pacific, or JAL avoids fuel surcharges.
  • BA, Iberia, and Qantas miles have fuel surcharges, but the Qantas surcharges in business are much lower than BA. In both cases, you’ll do better by booking 2 seperate one-way awards rather than a round-trip.
  • Rather than using BA Avios, you can transfer those miles into Iberia Avios and save 24,000 miles and pay significantly less in fuel surcharges.

• Chart 4: Flying on BA in Economy

• Notes:
  • The fewest amount of miles for a one-way from Boston to London goes to BA at a bargain 13K miles and just $64 in fees. This is especially great if you’ll combine a trip with another city in Europe and fly home from there, thereby avoiding London departure fees.
  • AA and BA miles have very low fees in economy and you’ll do better booking round-trip travel with them, versus other airlines having less fees with 2 one-way awards.
  • If you use JAL miles you’ll save $60 on the fees by booking 2 one-way awards, but you’ll wind up spending an extra 1,000 miles.

• Chart 5: Flying on BA in Premium Economy

• Notes:
  • There are no great mileage options here, but using BA Avios are decent and you’ll save $118 by booking 2 one-way awards instead of a round-trip. Using Sapphire Reserve points can make sense here.
  • Fuel surcharges apply to all airlines here, though Alaska has the lowest fees and the biggest savings achieved by booking 2 one-way awards instead of a round-trip.

• Chart 6: Flying on BA in Business Class

• Notes:
  • JAL is the winner here at just 80K miles and $692 round-trip.
  • Booking with AA, Cathay Pacific, or JAL avoids some of the huge fuel surcharges.
  • If you’re booking with Alaska, BA, Iberia, or Qantas, it is absolutely critical to book these as 2 one-way awards instead of a round-trip to realize savings of $374-$574!

• Chart 7: Flying on BA in First Class

• Notes:
  • JAL is once again a winner here at just 120K miles and $692 round-trip. Booking round-trip saves 10K miles and $20 in taxes.
  • Booking with Cathay Pacific or JAL avoids some of the huge fuel surcharges.
  • If you’re booking with AA, Alaska, BA, Iberia, or Qantas, it is absolutely critical to book these as 2 one-way awards instead of a round-trip to realize savings of $374-$574!

Feedback:

As always, I’d love to hear your comments on how to improve the format of this post and whether it’s helpful to you!

If readers are interested in making this into a series of posts, I’m open to suggestions for other routes and airlines to research as well.