when comparing the miles you earn with carriers such as american or virgin, British airways are somewhat stingy with the miles they offer their customers. For example a trip from new york to london on ameican, round trip, earns you almost 7000 miles as a regular member, on british the same flight gets you less than 1000. and to redeem miles, the same flight off peak on american would use 40,000 miles, british uses 50,000!!!