Using BA miles

[depstein]

I have over 50,000 BA miles. The whole point of accruing them was to get to Israel. Now I see that BA charges massive surcharges, taxes, etc. so where is the "free travel"? Any way to get around these charges and use the miles?

[aussiebochur]

I have over 50,000 BA miles. The whole point of accruing them was to get to Israel. Now I see that BA charges massive surcharges, taxes, etc. so where is the "free travel"? Any way to get around these charges and use the miles?

Fly on the Oneworld partner airlines (e.g. AA).

[Dan]

I have over 50,000 BA miles. The whole point of accruing them was to get to Israel. Now I see that BA charges massive surcharges, taxes, etc. so where is the "free travel"? Any way to get around these charges and use the miles?

Hence the reason for my warning here:
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/5804
Although when I penned that post I actually didn't realize that you were able to travel on BA's partners without paying fuel surcharges.  In other words for each flight segment you can find that doesn't involve travel on BA the price will be less.  Alliance partners include AA, Finnair, Iberia, Malev, and Royal Jordanian.  Other partners include Aer Lingus and S7.
 
However people here have just recently been reporting that they have started charging fuel surcharges even on some partner travel.  For now it appears like BA.com only charges fuel surcharges if you travel on BA, not on partners.

[steve2]

I have over 50,000 BA miles. The whole point of accruing them was to get to Israel. Now I see that BA charges massive surcharges, taxes, etc. so where is the "free travel"? Any way to get around these charges and use the miles?

 it still is free as BA will still charge those same surcharges on paid tkts.also it probabaly doesnt make sense to use BA all the way if going coach, but if going Biz or 1st you still be very hard pressed to find any Carrier that will sell you a Biz or FC tkt for what it will cost you in surcharges and txs

 That said even w/o the surcharges there really isnt any so called free tkt.eg say you charged $50k on a BA credit card to get the miles well had you instead charged that same $50K on a CC with a 2% rebate you would have had a check for $1000 coming in that you could have used to purchase a tkt and flown when ever you wanted to and not when the Carrier had award seats avaialble

[menashe]

Hi i have 45k left on my ba miles acct, i closed my ba chase credit card, my question is how can i earn or get another 5k miles, since the minimum rt usually is 50k? Any advice would be appreciated, through partners, transfers, etc.

[yare]

amex mr, spg both transfer into ba   (and now with the amex mr promo 4k transferred will become 5k)

[queensdeals]

I know that the AA-ElAl relationship is not part of oneworld...still is there anyway to use BA miles to get on ElAl through AA?

If not, whats the best way to utilize the miles to go via AA (JFK-TLV) to avoid surcharges?

[yare]

there isn't.    using ba miles on aa for any tatl flights you'll have to pay fuel surcharges

[queensdeals]

i think that has changed yare...
now should be free on AA.  Just dont know best way to orchestrate it on AA

[Dan]

i think that has changed yare...
now should be free on AA.  Just dont know best way to orchestrate it on AA

We haven't heard of anyone booking AA TATL surcharge-free yet.

[yare]

i think that has changed yare...
now should be free on AA.  Just dont know best way to orchestrate it on AA

just the opposite... now you have to pay on aa metal as well.    there are no direct flights with aa, it's either connecting with iberia from madrid, ba from london, or malev from budapest (i assume you don't want to go with rj).   the only direct flight using aa miles is through elal, but as was mentioned ba can't help you with that.      at this point ba miles on aa metal is only fee free if it's domestic u.s./to caribbean/hawaii.