The idea that redeeming miles for an American Airlines transatlantic economy class fare isn't a good use of miles also comes from the value that people assign to their balances — generally people like to think they're getting outsized value from their miles and an Economy
Class redemption often doesn't give them that.
Not exact matches
If your flights are more than 650 miles, you can still find some great value with British Airways Avios when flying within Asia and Europe, as they
often have some of the better
redemption rates for both economy
class and business
class.
The major issue with these flights is that the business
class redemptions were mostly mixed -
class fares,
often with economy being the longest leg.
One of the issues for business
class redemptions is that the business
class fares are
often mixed with economy on long segments.
For example, the route from Hong Kong to Bangkok is
often considered flying into two separate zones but Flying Blue lumps them together so a one way business
class redemption is only 25,000 miles, which is highly competitive.
Even with flexible currencies, you'll
often have
redemptions worth closer to 2 - 3 cents per point unless you're doing nothing but traveling internationally in business
class (and I agree there are some people like that, but not most people).
Any economy ticket requires at least $ 200 in YQ, and business -
class redemptions are
often well over $ 400.