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not more than 48 hours after i extolled the virtues of british airways am i back to say “stay away!”

the oneworld alliance includes american airlines and british airways, and as an american aadvantage frequent flyer i can accrue aadvantage miles while flying british…or so i thought. it’s a total scam. an itinerary that should’ve given me 20,000 miles (EBB to LHR to DEN) gave me 2,014. i should’ve been close to having a free contiguous-48 ticket, instead i’m left with zilch.

if you’re an AA member flying BA, be aware of these caveats:
**british airways flights to/from the u.s. are not valid for aadvantage mile accrual or redemption (read: knock off 10k worth of miles).
**discount economy class tickets (read: any ticket priced within reason…mine was $2k and “discount”) only qualify for 25% mileage accrual.

compare these measly 2,014 miles to the EBB-AMS-MSP itinerary i flew with northwest/KLM in september thru which i earned 16,214 miles. i know who i’m going to be flying from now on.