Venice trip and miles or points?

[Kenny H]

I should probably be going to flyertalk or something but figure I'll start here.

Doing a week in Venice mid October. Flying out of DSM(which for logistics purposes really means ORD).

I can use Chase points, looks like 100k gets me a good flight on Lufthansa.

But I can use AA miles and 115k gets me business class on British Airways. Seems like a no brainer to just go with AA miles but thought I would ask if I'm missing any angles.

[Barry L i p t o n]

Look at carrier imposed surcharges, and then decide. The BA flights come with whopping surcharges, as do the Lufthansa on points.

You don't say whether Lufthansa is coach or business class, nor whether you are transferring the points to a Star Alliance carrier or just redeeming UR points for credit card statement credits.
While Iberia (also available for the same AA miles) has fuel surcharges, I think they are lower than BA. AA doesn't have any if flying their own metal. I'm flying IB mostly TATL these days.

[Kenny H]

Look at carrier imposed surcharges, and then decide. The BA flights come with whopping surcharges, as do the Lufthansa on points.

You don't say whether Lufthansa is coach or business class, nor whether you are transferring the points to a Star Alliance carrier or just redeeming UR points for credit card statement credits.
While Iberia (also available for the same AA miles) has fuel surcharges, I think they are lower than BA. AA doesn't have any if flying their own metal. I'm flying IB mostly TATL these days.

See! I have never heard of surcharges.

It is coach on Lufthansa. Simply redeeming UR points direct in their travel rewards site.

I looked up the AA rewards flight directly on the AA site, no transfer.

[Mark Y]

100k chase for coach
115k aa for business?

Yah. No brainer!

[Kenny H]

Ouch, yeah $1200 in surcharges on AA. Basically they both meter out at $3200 total so no real difference. The return flights suuuuck. But at least UR has the option of VCE-ORD direct.

[Barry L i p t o n]

No surcharges on AA. You want to fly BA on AA miles.

Fly BA on AA miles - big surcharges
Fly IB on AA miles - smaller surcharges
Fly AA on AA miles - no surcharges

You can also transfer your Chase points to IB miles one for one. But that getting more complicated.