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

jtr2803

Hmmm, only just had a chance to look at what this means to me (have been feverishly collecting clubcard points as I have applied for a volunteer place in the Maldives next summer), fortunately I haven't exchanged for airmiles yet but I *think* I will be miles (no pun intended) worse off...

Under the current scheme, using the equivalent points to miles rate and based on my accumulated points, a return to the Maldives would be 2,500 miles + £420.

Under the new scheme, if Male is in Zone 7, I would need to have 60,000 Avios (that's 6,000 airmiles isn't it?) and would have to pay £300 ish in taxes etc.

Am wondering how the part miles/part payment scheme of it will work. There is no way I can collect enough points to make up my current miles of 2,500 to 60,000 Avios.

theexplorer

jtr2803 wrote: »

Hmmm, only just had a chance to look at what this means to me (have been feverishly collecting clubcard points as I have applied for a volunteer place in the Maldives next summer), fortunately I haven't exchanged for airmiles yet but I *think* I will be miles (no pun intended) worse off...

Under the current scheme, using the equivalent points to miles rate and based on my accumulated points, a return to the Maldives would be 2,500 miles + £420.

Under the new scheme, if Male is in Zone 7, I would need to have 60,000 Avios (that's 6,000 airmiles isn't it?) and would have to pay £300 ish in taxes etc.

Am wondering how the part miles/part payment scheme of it will work. There is no way I can collect enough points to make up my current miles of 2,500 to 60,000 Avios.

yes, 60,000 avios is 6000 airmiles or visa versa. Not sure if they have a part payment scheme with Avios or not.

Itmight be worth checking withthem if Male is still in zone 7 as some zones have changed. Have you double checked that the tax etc to Male is £300?

I dont know how it is now, but i found Malyasian airlins reasonable a few years ago to get to Male, might be worth a look

tgt

I am alarmed by this statement in MSE guide - "Points on all three schemes will expire after three years of no collection or redemption activity".

With BA Miles, used to be that they are lost if there is no movement, either debit or credit, within a year. I am saving them up for future use, and keep my account active by converting Tesco vouchers to top up occasionally. This I have done for several years, haven't spent any miles for ages.

Another rule change?

wessexdriver

This is yet another devaluation of the airmiles scheme!

Some years ago I valued the cost of purchasing airmiles with my Tesco clubcard vouchers. It was not worth me doing it as I would be better off exchanging them for holiday vouchers at a rate of X4. This I did and on two occasions had £2000 of vouchers for Virgin holidays. This was okay but needed to book whole holiday with Virgin (quite expensive).

Then friend offered family to stay with him in his villa in Orlando. Took advantage of double exchange of Clubcard vouchers into airmiles on first occasion.

It cost me 5776 Airmiles & £817 (part miles - Part payment) to fly to Miami (No Orlando or Tampa flights available) For 3 of us. This was booked in March 2010. Today that would cost 7500 airmiles & £960. An increase of 1724 airmiles & £143 in 18 months!

The new cost in Avios will be 150,000 Avios (15,000 Airmiles) & £900 for 3 of us. That is doubling the airmile cost overnight!

Even the trip I have just booked to Cyprus to use my miles up. 2x 2500 airmiles plus 2000 airmiles & £50. Total cost 7000 airmiles plus £50. New fares are 75,000 Avios (7500 Airmiles plus £213 taxes).

Even recently £2.50 clubcard vouchers bought me 60 airmiles. Now it is only 50.

This scheme is constantly devaluing itself and I will certainly not be continuing with it!

malkie76

theexplorer wrote: »

no one said that are being lost, they are however being made next to worthless as it is cheaper tojust buy a flight from BA

You seemed to suggest your miles were being taken away from you and you wanted them ring fenced.

It will not be cheaper to buy a short haul flight direct from BA.
Long haul you still get free flights - you only pay taxes. Complain to the government if you feel taxes are too high.
Long haul miles represent an extremely valuable method for upgrades - you are currently looking at £600 + 20k points for a £2000 business flight - 20k points values at £1400!!!!

I recently burnt 150k miles and £700 for £10,000 of flights.

How can that not be value for miles????????

malkie76

ps - have you started a legal case, or are you content to just grumble on the Internet?

Any

theexplorer wrote: »

Martin, can you please look into the legality of what Airmiles are doing. being as most of the airmiles have been "bought" and are not just loyalty scheme points, can Airmiles do what they are doing. Effectivley they are making millions of bought Airmiles worthless.

UK to NY 40000 avios points Pluas tax = £200 Tesco vouchers plus £300. Therfore an airmile collector will pay £500 for a flight which cab be bought on the BA site for £396.

People have altered thier lifestsyles to save airmiles. Switched shopping from sainsburys to tescos, when airmiles changed thier partner, paid £50 annual fee to get a permium lloyds duo card etc etc

Should they not be ring fencing the current Airmiles in the system and applying new points to the new system?

There is a facebook page to fight agaisnt the chage and a website

http://www.fighttheairmileschange.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/FighttheAirmilesChange

Please support them and help fight the change

Thanks

Sorry, this is now getting completely ridiculous.
It is in their T&C that they can implement changes to the scheme.

For that reason alone, surely one would keep all Tesco vouchers in Tesco vouchers until the day they wanted to use the Airmiles and exchange them all at once and then use them?

It is a loyalty reward, not a money, even though they have monetary value. That is not the same thing!

They did give warning as well, you have 4 months to book flights under the old scheme for as much as 50 weeks ahead.

theexplorer

malkie76 wrote: »

You seemed to suggest your miles were being taken away from you and you wanted them ring fenced.

It will not be cheaper to buy a short haul flight direct from BA.
Long haul you still get free flights - you only pay taxes. Complain to the government if you feel taxes are too high.
Long haul miles represent an extremely valuable method for upgrades - you are currently looking at £600 + 20k points for a £2000 business flight - 20k points values at £1400!!!!

I recently burnt 150k miles and £700 for £10,000 of flights.

How can that not be value for miles????????

Ring fence the ones that we have bought to be used on the old scheme.

Not complaing about the taxes being high, complaing about we bought Airmiles which included taxes, not can't use them for the purpose for which they sold for by Airmiles. They are not fit for purpose as adverised and sold.

No one said it would be cheaper to buy a short haul flight, but a lot of members have saved for many years to buy longhaull flights.

I would rather have 2 or more flights than 1 upgraded flight, so the upgrade is not releveant to me and it would appear to many others.
I can't say if that is good value or not without knowing what alternatives there were to each indiviudual flight

theexplorer

malkie76 wrote: »

ps - have you started a legal case, or are you content to just grumble on the Internet?

can't say for legal reasons

theexplorer

Any wrote: »

Sorry, this is now getting completely ridiculous.
It is in their T&C that they can implement changes to the scheme.

For that reason alone, surely one would keep all Tesco vouchers in Tesco vouchers until the day they wanted to use the Airmiles and exchange them all at once and then use them?

It is a loyalty reward, not a money, even though they have monetary value. That is not the same thing!

They did give warning as well, you have 4 months to book flights under the old scheme for as much as 50 weeks ahead.

T&C can ber onerus in law and fail under the unfair contracts act

How can it be a loyalty reward? If some one gives £2.50 to a company in exchange for airmiles, then thay have bought them. Also if you look on Airmiles website, they sell airmiles which you need to pay with a card. That is just like going into a travel agent and buying a flight but you saying the ticket is a loyalty reward. In order for it to be a loyalty reward, Airmiles would have to gibe them free for a reason.

It is actually less than 4 months, however, even if it was 4 months, that is not a reasonable amount of time for several reasons.

Not everone knows at this time of year what dates they can book from work next year.

Some people have far to many to be able to use all by next year

Some people have airmiles in the system through Tescos that will not hit thier account until it is too late, you may or may not be aware, but a lot of people have there tesco clubcard accounts set up to automatically send them to Airmiles.