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

On_The_Ball

I think many people will feel the same - part of me thinks they just don't want to offer the scheme anymore, so rather than take it away completely they'll just make the offer so poor that most people won't bother with it. Why I would pay the equivalent of £500 to fly to New York? As I said yesterday, the only real value over Airmiles I can see in it is for flights to Moscow. Some others still remain roughly the same - Dubrovnik, Athens and Istanbul are still decent value, but most others can be beaten.

The cheapest flights are now £72 (rather than £38), and frankly you can get that value elsewhere and keep your Tesco vouchers/earn cashback.

The whole thing is really sad. If they're not out to crush the scheme I wonder whether we'll see a change?

Going4TheDream

On_The_Ball wrote: »

I think many people will feel the same - part of me thinks they just don't want to offer the scheme anymore, so rather than take it away completely they'll just make the offer so poor that most people won't bother with it. Why I would pay the equivalent of £500 to fly to New York? As I said yesterday, the only real value over Airmiles I can see in it is for flights to Moscow. Some others still remain roughly the same - Dubrovnik, Athens and Istanbul are still decent value, but most others can be beaten.

The cheapest flights are now £72 (rather than £38), and frankly you can get that value elsewhere and keep your Tesco vouchers/earn cashback.

The whole thing is really sad. If they're not out to crush the scheme I wonder whether we'll see a change?

You have a point ON The Ball. This has become an almost worthless scheme for many now, the other thing that crossed my mind is whether all the 'sponsors' ie Lloyds, shell, tesco etc will still want to be involved now it doesn't seem such a good value scheme, after all they all get something out of it by people supporting their products and there is a cost to these companies too, they too will be looking for value for money. ie All of a sudden the Llloyds air-miles credit card no longer seems a good idea, how many people will ditch this and return to a cash-back card making it more expensive for the sponsors to run their side? If sponsors do remain in the scheme are they likely to downgrade their offerings effectively making it even harder to collect the now worthless miles? You cant help but feel the writing is on the wall really

madamx

BA executive club site says the 3 schemes will be run separately . So how can you merge BA avios with a Airmiles avios . I can't see BA allowing you to use their avios to book with FlyBe

PavoReal

On a completely different Airmiles subject since not flying anymore we have this year booked a 'cottages4you' holiday for a week in the UK worth £564 using Airmiles that cost me 8,470 miles plus £30 booking fee. Does anyone know if the new Avios changes will affect this type of usage in any way?

Any

I seriuosly doubt that many people will stop collecting... many was collecting BA miles which worked in similar way until now!
For short haules in Europe it stays the same, for non London people it is even much better value.
Domestic flights are obviously a problem for some (flying domestic? seems nuts to me unless you are flying from Edinburgh to Southport or somewhere equaly far apart).
So are long haul flight with paying the taxes and fees.

I think people will just rethink how they are using their miles. They will be changing to just upgrading (specially on long haul - if I was flying to Australia I would wait for cheap flight and then upgrade to first class).

New York is probably worse hit, with flights available from £359 if you wait for deal and now fees being nearly that on Airmiles!!

But then - one thing this might bring is better availability of flights. Because I never yet was able to book a flight I wanted with Airmiles!

On_The_Ball

The reason I think some people will stop collecting is that they'll find better uses for their Clubcard vouchers. BA Miles are collected differently aren't they? As in there isn't an alternative?

richardw

On_The_Ball wrote: »

they'll find better uses for their Clubcard vouchers.

Yes, I'm using them for rail tickets on with Red Spotted Hanky.

Any

On_The_Ball wrote: »

The reason I think some people will stop collecting is that they'll find better uses for their Clubcard vouchers. BA Miles are collected differently aren't they? As in there isn't an alternative?

BA miles are also offered on Tesco vouchers, aren't they?
And credit cards, flight, etc..

I don't think exchanging Tesco vouchers for Airmiles was a good value for me what so ever to start with.

I would have needed £100 Tesco vouchers for flight to Prague, while I can get £300 for it to restaurant and buy Jet 2 flight for £80!!

On_The_Ball

Absolutely true, they aren't great value on everything - but I'm about to use just over £520 worth (plus a few Lloyds Amex and other bonus miles) to get two Hong Kong returns. That's incredible value.

Any

On_The_Ball wrote: »

Absolutely true, they aren't great value on everything - but I'm about to use just over £520 worth (plus a few Lloyds Amex and other bonus miles) to get two Hong Kong returns. That's incredible value.

That is £1560 if you tripled your rewards + other points...
How long were you saving up for that? That is a lot of vouchers!!

I would get myself a diamond personally, or OH wants expensive watch for his big birthday:D

Don't take me wrong, I would love to see Hong Kong, but I think you can get a good deal for cash (£483 return for November...)

I changed recently my Tesco credit card to Nectar American Express, as you can spend Nectar on Expedia & Jet2 etc... for real price, not fixed airmiles value. Also I find I collect the points much faster (thanks to bonus points making it effectively 1% cashback on average).

But now Airmiles is changing to my favour might change back again... decisions decisions.. Need to do some calcs:-)