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

theexplorer

unhappy_shopper wrote: »

For e.g.

(CURRENT) Prague with Airmiles from Manchester - 2000 airmiles +£0
OR 1,500 miles + £45
OR 1,250 miles + £60
(NEW) Prague with Avios from Manchester - 9000 avios (900 airmiles) +£27

For other destinations, we will be able to calculate whether they are beneficial or not only after they release the new zone map.

Airmiles customers will be hit hard as the taxes to the US for example are around £300. What is being overlooked is the fact that a lot of Airmiles customers used vouchers worth money to effectivley buy the Airmiles, so a flight to the US (New York) will already have cost them £200 before tax is added.

theexplorer

Airmiles customers will be hit hard as the taxes to the US for example are around £300. What is being overlooked is the fact that a lot of Airmiles customers used vouchers worth money to effectivley buy the Airmiles, so a flight to the US (New York) will already have cost them £200 before tax is added. This makes the flight coat around £500. It is possible to buy flights to the US a lot cheaper than that, therefore the Airmiles will be completely devalued

Any

theexplorer wrote: »

Airmiles customers will be hit hard as the taxes to the US for example are around £300. What is being overlooked is the fact that a lot of Airmiles customers used vouchers worth money to effectivley buy the Airmiles, so a flight to the US (New York) will already have cost them £200 before tax is added.

For longhaul.. The message you quoted also talks about Airmiles..

Caz3121

I am still in two minds on whether to blow these or keep them (not got loads, about 4,500) I am a member of a frequent flier scheme and all my long haul is done through this in premium classes and paying the taxes. I have only used airmiles for edinburgh/london due to the fact my bmi miles are not good value for inter-Europe economy and the fact that they were free flights
My initial view was to get shot of them however having thought it over I may well keep them for Europe flights (booking any domestic ones I know I need before the cutoff)
For those wanting to use them long haul this is indeed not good news but it may not be as bad for me as I first thought as it will open up the benefit of European flights with a connection for less miles than current with only a £27 fee and one ways could be a bonus as I can mix this will one ways from the bmi scheme so a bit more flexibility

northernstar5

Anyone know whether these changes have any impact on travelling using AA advantage airmiles? I think BA is a partner airline as far as using these airmiles are concerned

SaveTheEuro

KTM_Gordo wrote: »

According to the article, yes you will be able to merge them.

British Airways give a clear No to the question of the BA Executive Club and Airmiles merging.

Their answer to the question of a merger:

No. The Executive Club, Iberia Plus and Airmiles UK (which will be changing to the Avios reward programme) will remain as separate programmes.
But Avios points will be the shared currency across each reward and loyalty programmes owned by British Airways' parent company, International Airlines Group.

No chance there then of using existing BA Miles to travel on the airlines offered by Air Miles.

phil_solo

unhappy_shopper wrote: »

2. Nov 15th 2011 is too short a cut-off period. Christmas mailing of the Tesco Clubcard vouchers may not be available by then. So Airmiles customers who are waiting for them will not be able to convert. So, is there any possibility of a delayed deadline?

You don't have to wait for the physical vouchers to drop through the letterbox. Anyone with internet access (I'm guessing most of us on here!) can log in to their Clubcard account and check for allocated unused vouchers at any time.

Last time I got an email from Tesco saying my vouchers would be sent out in the next 3 weeks, logged on an exchanged them for Airmiles straight away without waiting.

phil_solo

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.

Absurd hyperbole alert! What is uneconomical is having three schemes doing basically the same thing within one commercial organisation.

All that's happening is that a once very good points collection scheme is being converted into an industry-standard 'frequent flyer' program with added collection and spending opportunities, and being aligned with the two existing industry-stander frequent flyer schemes currently being run by the airline partners. Whilst not 'merged' I thought I read that you would be able to shuffle Avios points between schemes, but I may have misinterpreted something.

Airmiles has been a very good scheme for 20-odd years. Avios will be less good, but still somewhat more flexible than the usual loyalty programs operated by airlines.

I don't like that Airmiles is changing and it will no longer be possible to flout Benjamin Franklin's maxim about the certainty of taxes, but there you go.

It must be remembered that taxes, fees and surcharges are the 'state of the art' in airline transportation, but back when Airmiles first began in the 80s most of these 'additional fees' didn't actually exist at all or were much lower.

With governments and airports on a one-way path to racking up these charges, and with ever-escalating fuel costs at some point the subsidy had to end.

malkie76

SaveTheEuro wrote: »

British Airways give a clear No to the question of the BA Executive Club and Airmiles merging.

Their answer to the question of a merger:

No. The Executive Club, Iberia Plus and Airmiles UK (which will be changing to the Avios reward programme) will remain as separate programmes.
But Avios points will be the shared currency across each reward and loyalty programmes owned by British Airways' parent company, International Airlines Group.

No chance there then of using existing BA Miles to travel on the airlines offered by Air Miles.

My take it on it was that you could transfer points within the schemes without issue. Hence you could transfer your points from BAEC into Airmiles and use them as you previously would have used Airmiles.

IveBeenConned_3

HELP - I need some good advice.

I've been ripped off!!!! by Airmiles and TESCO Clubcard. I fell for the Tesco LIE on its website "Use your Clubcard vouchers to get free flights with Airmiles".

I've exchanged £1,100 of Tesco Clubcard Vouchers (to date) for Airmiles (about 27,000) towards a big holiday (5 of us to the USA to visit family). Now, it's going to cost me (at least) an additional £1,500 in FEES to Claim my FREE Flights. The Airmiles are now completely worthless to me. I feel extremely ripped off by TWO big companies who should have given its loyal customers much more notice (as people save Airmiles for years not months). I have no intention of ever flying BA again, yet alone giving them an extra £1,500. As for Tescos, my wife has shopped there every week for 5 years. This morning, she went to Morrisons.

So, my Question ... What can I do with the 27,000 Airmiles?
(1) Is there any way of converting them back to Clubcard vouchers (as the Airmiles were mis-sold by Tescos)?
(2) Is there any other way of cashing in my Airmiles?
(3) I notice on eBay that there are a number of people selling their (electronic) Airmiles' accounts - is this legal?
(4) If (3) is legal, what is a realistic price for 27,000 Airmiles on eBay?