MSE News: Costs to soar in Airmiles revamp: use points before they devalue

Wopple

Perhaps I am being stupid here, but I fail to understand this story or this thread. Surely you are currently paying taxes and charges? I just checked and ran a trial London-Cairo redemption and the total extra charges amounted to 280 quid per person - this is redeeming now and flying before 15 December.

The BA website says nothing about customers paying more in taxes than they currently do. It DOES say the following as of September 2010

13.14. Members will be liable for all taxes and other charges associated with Award travel on British Airways or a Service Partner airline, including without limitation, airport departure tax, customs fines, immigration fees, airport charges, customer user fees, fuel surcharges, agricultural inspection fees, security and insurance surcharge or other incidental fees or taxes charged by any person or relevant authority or body.

Can someone enlighten me as to what exactly will changed?

Any

Road_Hog wrote: »

Really? It's the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere, which accounts for 50% of the world.

But I said "where you can fly.." That person cannot fly anywhere in the world!! and I also didn't say completely everywhere. Hopefuly the OP knows how to use internet to find out thrle weather conditions...

Any

Road_Hog wrote: »

I seriously doubt that you estimate how badly the scheme has been devalued and how people will react when they clock on to this fact.

This is a tactic to close the scheme by making it worthless and uneconomical.

Who wants to save up for a flight to New York which is now free, but will cost £300 (which can go up at any time) in charges, when for an economy traveller you can usually get the same flight for the same price without using your Air Miles. You're looking at £600 for a couple and £1,000 per couple to Australia.

It just isn't worth it, fine if you're locked into collectiing BA miles as a frequent flyer, but for people collecting Tesco vouchers etc. there are better uses for them that make more financial sense.

It defo devalued for some and I completely agree there us much better use for Tesco vouchers. There is better use for Tesco voucgers even now when you can sell them on Ebay for 1,5x-2x and then buy the tickets in cash and still have beer money left over!!! And you can buy any flight, not wait for availability. As we already discovered page back, if you bothered to read before attacking me for some reason.
Flying to Europe mainly and living outside London(500 miles surcharge), for me this scheme is finaly making sense!!
As I also said before-people will do different things now.

Any

Wopple wrote: »

Perhaps I am being stupid here, but I fail to understand this story or this thread. Surely you are currently paying taxes and charges? I just checked and ran a trial London-Cairo redemption and the total extra charges amounted to 280 quid per person - this is redeeming now and flying before 15 December.

The BA website says nothing about customers paying more in taxes than they currently do. It DOES say the following as of September 2010

13.14. Members will be liable for all taxes and other charges associated with Award travel on British Airways or a Service Partner airline, including without limitation, airport departure tax, customs fines, immigration fees, airport charges, customer user fees, fuel surcharges, agricultural inspection fees, security and insurance surcharge or other incidental fees or taxes charged by any person or relevant authority or body.

Can someone enlighten me as to what exactly will changed?

Not on Airmiles, on Airmiles you were able to ger completely free flight in exchange for Airmiles.

GentleGiant_2

Not sure if it has been mentioned - but send in any paper miles now - otherwise they will become worthless

becominganobsessivesaver

Just to highlight a potential positive (assuming that BA do not change the current earning rates)this may make buying flights with BA more attractive than the competition. For example a flight LHR to LAX will earn over 10,000 avios - so for an additional £27 you could then get a free flight to europe zone 1. That seems like a pretty good deal to me (especially for families who like a long haul holiday one year and a short haul the next).

Doshwaster

becominganobsessivesaver wrote: »

Just to highlight a potential positive (assuming that BA do not change the current earning rates)this may make buying flights with BA more attractive than the competition. For example a flight LHR to LAX will earn over 10,000 avios - so for an additional £27 you could then get a free flight to europe zone 1. That seems like a pretty good deal to me (especially for families who like a long haul holiday one year and a short haul the next).

And even better for people (like me!) who do a lot of flying with work, much of it transatlantic. As a BA Silver card holder, I already get double BA Miles on flights so they rack up pretty quickly.

maghaberry

This is certainly not good news for me
The change will mean that I will no longer convert Tesco vouchers to airmiles; it used to cost 750 airmiles Birmingham-Belfast return plus £26 baggage fees on Flybe, but now the taxes and charges will be an extra cost
Booking a month in advance direct with Flybe,I would just pay taxes, charges and baggage without having to spend any airmiles

maghaberry

RMcC wrote: »

Sounds like a very bad deal for those of us who use airmiles to fly from Northern Ireland to the mainland.

At the minute I can fly Belfast City to Heathrow return including free baggage with BMI for 750 miles. This will now cost 9000 (900 in old money) PLUS the charges.

Looks like, the only value to these miles now is to book from London to Europe. Disappointing.

I'm in the same boat, Birmingham-Sydenham was 750 airmiles plus £26 baggage with Flybe
From November it is going to be the same price booking with airmiles or just booking direct with Flybe (Taxes+Charges+Baggage) without having to use airmiles at all
Plus I get the benefit of choosing a flight time that suits me and I get to keep my Tesco vouchers for something more useful

maestro2001

Strangely I seem to be better off with the changes. I fly regularly to Athens, for 3 people this would currently be 6000 plus £150 on the airmiles website (I only have 6700 miles). After November the 16th it will cost 60 000 and £81. This is because Athens has moved from zone 4 to 3, so there may be other changes that could work to our benefit.