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

callmeacynic

It strikes me that this is all a bit of a red herring...

Right now, through my BA Exec Club account I can buy a return flight, London to Warsaw, for 15,000 BA miles plus £75.60 (taxes, charges etc.)

On Airmiles, the same flights would cost me 2,500 Airmiles. Alternatively, I could spend just 1,500 miles plus a supplement of £80.

On the premise that 1 Airmile = 10 BA miles, that's exactly the same deal (give or take a few quid) which suggests that the taxes and charges have always been included, just in miles rather than cash.

(and if the zone remains the same under Avios, with a £27 Euro cap it'll be a better deal by about £50)

theexplorer

callmeacynic wrote: »

It strikes me that this is all a bit of a red herring...

Right now, through my BA Exec Club account I can buy a return flight, London to Warsaw, for 15,000 BA miles plus £75.60 (taxes, charges etc.)

On Airmiles, the same flights would cost me 2,500 Airmiles. Alternatively, I could spend just 1,500 miles plus a supplement of £80.

On the premise that 1 Airmile = 10 BA miles, that's exactly the same deal (give or take a few quid) which suggests that the taxes and charges have always been included, just in miles rather than cash.

(and if the zone remains the same under Avios, with a £27 Euro cap it'll be a better deal by about £50)

It changes completely on long hual flights though.

At the moment a flight to the US costs 5000 airmiles and nothing to pay. Come the change it will cost 40,000 avios which is the same as 4000 airmiles, plus £300. So we have saved 1000 airmiles bit are paying £300 extra.

The ironic thing about it is, inorder to get 40,000 avios points, it will cost £200 in tesco vouches. Add the £300 onto it and the flights costs £500. in many cases on BA's website, the same flight can be bought for £396 ! sometimes cheaper with other carriers

struggler

KTM_Gordo wrote: »

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

I'm not surprised that IAG has done this - BA already had two separate schemes in Airmiles and BA Miles, and Iberia has its own too. Merging them is the obvious thing to do, and from the e-mail I got today, I can go further for the same equivalent number of points with a small fee to cover the taxes fees and charges.

Instead of Malaga, I'm now thinking of Moscow for the same number of points (and £27 is a fairly nominal sum for fees unlike those the budget airlines ladle on to the fare).

BA say that the schemes will still be separately run from each other with only the name of Avios being shared, no merger of schemes. If someone knows differently I would like to hear.

richardw

theexplorer wrote: »

there are several reasons why they cannot be spent before Dec deadline, one is that many people do not know thier work allocation until after the new year

Good point. An extension to the deadline for bookings to say 15th Jan may help. I think the meadja may pick up on collectors in this predicament.

struggler

malkie76 wrote: »

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.

Unfortunately not true it would appear !

marilou66

Does anyone know if this also applies to Frequence Blue Airmiles (Air France, KLM etc frequent flyer scheme) ?

richardw

marilou66 wrote: »

Does anyone know if this also applies to Frequence Blue Airmiles (Air France, KLM etc frequent flyer scheme) ?

were talking about https://www.airmiles.co.uk, not Frequence Blue.

malkie76

theexplorer - your answer to everything when pushed appears to be "google it" rather than provide anything supporting your case.

I do wish you luck on your mission, but please don't sell your house to fund it as I think you are onto a loser here. There's nothing stopping you spending your miles, so I'm not sure on what grounds you can have a legal case ?

The cost has gone up ? The value has gone down ? Isn't that the exactly current climate we are in ?

struggler wrote: »

Unfortunately not true it would appear !

Someone checked this earlier, and it was clear on the BA and Airmiles websites that you could transfer without cost an unlimited amount of times.

Any

struggler wrote: »

Unfortunately not true it would appear !

Appear where?
Why do you think that? I've read it on their site I think and someone posted cut out from the site here suggesting otherwise..

theexplorer

malkie76 wrote: »

theexplorer - your answer to everything when pushed appears to be "google it" rather than provide anything supporting your case.

I do wish you luck on your mission, but please don't sell your house to fund it as I think you are onto a loser here. There's nothing stopping you spending your miles, so I'm not sure on what grounds you can have a legal case ?

The cost has gone up ? The value has gone down ? Isn't that the exactly current climate we are in ?



Someone checked this earlier, and it was clear on the BA and Airmiles websites that you could transfer without cost an unlimited amount of times.

I have no need to address the other issues as they have been covered.

Re my comment about google, i was asked which large companies have been defeated in court through having terms & condition that failed under the unfair contracts act. As I have no inkling to look that up and have no nned to know, i suggest to google it. That is the only time i have said to google anything.

I would suggest that you get your facts straight before posting