MSE News: Avios vs its detractors - read the opposing views

hermante

Not that relevant to this forum, but some people who are really !!!!ed off at this change are the American members of BAEC, as for many redemptions the number of Avois needed can now be more than twice as many BA miles, especially for multi-segment trips (eg US airport not served by BA, via London to Europe), or redeeming on AA for transpacific. BAEC also used to be a good deal for continental Europeans since BA wanted them to transit in London, but this may no longer be the case.

In any case people based in (south) England should never fly BA to a western European airport (unless doing some complicated itinerary) - so much easier to take a train!

jftbrian

hermante wrote: »

Not that relevant to this forum

Sorry i fail to see why this is unrelevant. If Avios are positioning themselves to show regional flights with another carrier, whos contract runs out on Mar 31st 2012 and they are not informing people of this, then in my eyes it is perfectly relevent. While the Uk is not as big as the USA the people of the highland, Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles, Cumbria, Cornwall, Devon and the whole country of Wales and Northern Ireland may disagree as there is not a regional airport that serves them as BA only fly to six regioanl airports. This leaves people with long journeys to an airport just to use the Avios scheme.
I sympathise with your plight and im in no way saying that one cause is worse than another, infact im sure you will agree that both situations are bad for the Avios member !

In any case people based in (south) England should never fly BA to a western European airport (unless doing some complicated itinerary) - so much easier to take a train!

Do you thing that trains are a suitable option for the population ? Have you seen the prices and how our once great train nation is now !! Its a horrible way to travel !!

thelawnet

theexplorer wrote: »

Very constructive !

Guess you are not an Airmiles collector as opposed to BA Exec points collector

Au contraire.

We flew to Tunis in June for 10,000 Airmiles. Now only 6,000 + £108.

I'm happy about that change

Really, i thought being able to fly to the US with £250 worth of tesco vocuhers converted into Airmiles was a good deal, doubt you could get a cheaper flight than that.

Eh? We are flying BA at Christmas to the US for £330 CASH. I can think of better things to do with £250 worth of Tesco vouchers.

There are some, but realtivley few flights that have benefited and ONLY if you can get to a regional airport, otherwise it can cost in excess of £100 more. One example Liverpool to Barcelona.

Relatively few?

Most of Western Europe as well as North Africa from London, and anywhere in Europe from Manchester, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Jersey.

Interesting, so under the new scheme it will cost £45 in tesco vouchers coverted to Avios, plus £64 taxes and fees, making it £109, yet under tthe old scheme, it cost £100 in tesco vouchers, how does it being £9 more expensive make it a good deal?

Not sure how you compute that.

900 miles = £37.50 of vouchers
2000 miles = £83.33

The vouchers have a 'deals' value of £150 or £333.32, which is closer to the real value lost than the nominal face value of the vouchers.

In actual fact, you can buy the flight from Fly be for only £85, much better deal and not trapped into the Avios scheme.

Well yes you can, which perhaps shows that the loss of these cheap Flybe flights, which used to cost 2000 Airmiles, is not such a great loss after all.

Maybe for the particular route YOU want

For lots of routes. Again, make the most of the good deals, get over the bad ones.

yet again, very constructive. Once again, professional companies, if offering channels to commuicate should do so with requiring you to share information

No, you can communicate with them however you like. Write them a letter. Don't complain about how facebook works.




Sadley, too many negatives which outweigh by far the positives[/QUOTE]

theexplorer

thelawnet wrote: »

Au contraire.

We flew to Tunis in June for 10,000 Airmiles. Now only 6,000 + £108.

I'm happy about that change

When you say we, i assume you mean 4 people as below when you say we, you mean one person. Also going by your calculations, it appears you were on the Tesco preserved rate of 60 miles per £2.50.

Which UK airport is that flying from?

Yes then you have beneifted from the change on the Tunis route, you have saved £14.50,(per person) but that is at the cost of not being able to get your US flight for a mere £208 which equates to the exchange rate you were getting your airmiles for. Instead, you have paid £330 for it which is £122 more expensive.

thelawnet wrote: »

Eh? We are flying BA at Christmas to the US for £330 CASH. I can think of better things to do with £250 worth of Tesco vouchers.

So when i say I doubt that you could get it cheaper than £250, I dont get why you say you got it for £330. Actually it would have only been £208 worth of vouchers at the exchange rate you got the Airmiles for. To me £208 is a big saving over £330.

thelawnet wrote: »

Relatively few?

Most of Western Europe as well as North Africa from London, and anywhere in Europe from Manchester, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Jersey.

Yes relativley few, you have to fly with BA or Iberia to get the £27 saver and there is only a few airports in the UK that are serviced by them. The majority are not, therefore if you fly from one of the majority of airports, it is going to be a lot more expensive, in some cases in excess of £100 on top of the avios points.

thelawnet wrote: »

Not sure how you compute that.

900 miles = £37.50 of vouchers
2000 miles = £83.33

The vouchers have a 'deals' value of £150 or £333.32, which is closer to the real value lost than the nominal face value of the vouchers.

I had made the calculations based on the base rate that the majority of airmiles collectors get from Tescos as opposed to the preserved rate which you appear to be on.

Going on your collection rate, it would have cost you £83.33 in tesco vouchers, now it will cost you £37.50 in tesco vouchers plus £64, which is £101.50. The increase for your collection rate is £18, so even worse than the people on the base collection rate.

I agree with you that the vouchers have deals which can be worth up to 4 times the value of the voucher, however that is using Tesco's reward scheme. Many people chose not to use that as they wanted airmiles to book flights with. So in the context of airmiles changing to avios, it is not really relevant as the vouchers have already been converted to airmiles.

thelawnet wrote: »

Well yes you can, which perhaps shows that the loss of these cheap Flybe flights, which used to cost 2000 Airmiles, is not such a great loss after all.

At least we agree on one thing . To extend that further though, there never was great value in using Airmiles for any short haul flight as most could be bought cheaper elsewhere. The flights that really benefited were the longhaul flights. £208 to the US is good value. Now the taxes and fuel surcharges added to the avios cost makes it actually cheaper to by the same flight directly from BA for cash. Even cheaper from elsewhere.

I, like many people saved airmiles just for the long haul flights, and i think you will find that the people fighting against this are those ones that have saved 1000's of miles over the years for a special holiday or occasion. Under the new scheme, they are pratically worthless as in many cases it is cheaper just to buy the flight for cash.

Its easy to say get over it, but when someone has saved for years and seen thier hopes dashed, maybe thier only chance of a dream holiday taken away from them, then it takes some getting over. I am fortunate, i managed to use all of mine up, but there are still people that do not even know about the change.

The good deals are not that good, being able to save a few pounds here or there compared to the original price dosn't make me want to tie into a scheme that can change without any thought to its customers. I am now free to look for real deals without being tied in, don't feel the need to shop in tescos or use a lloyds credit card. In fact have stopped my tesco shop and cancelled my card. My change in shopping habits has saved me on avergae about £15 per week and am getting cash back on a differant card. Over a year i will have saved in the region of £1000. Enough to buy 3 return flights to the US or using your example of Southampton to Bergerac, 12 return flights. I think that is a quicker return than saving with avios plus I am not tied to thier availability, rules or airlines

thelawnet wrote: »

No, you can communicate with them however you like. Write them a letter. Don't complain about how facebook works.

It is not about how facebook works, when Airmiles used facebook, it was a lot more open, but now that Avios have taken over, it is not as open and a lot more restrictions.

wdw2003

theexplorer wrote: »

In fact have stopped my tesco shop and cancelled my card. My change in shopping habits has saved me on average about £15 per week .

I'm with theexplorer on this. After really struggling to use airmiles when and where we want, we've decided after many years of loyal Tesco shopping to start shopping more wisely (ie Aldi and elsewhere), save money each week, put that aside and then have the flexibility to buy the flights that suit us.

It actually feels quite liberating! :j

theexplorer

wdw2003 wrote: »

I'm with theexplorer on this. After really struggling to use airmiles where and where we want, we've decided after many years of loyal Tesco shopping to start shopping more wisely (ie Aldi and elsewhere), save money each week, put that aside and then have the flexibility to buy the flights that suit us.

It actually feels quite liberating! :j

You are so right, it does feel quite liberating,I hadn't really appreciated by how much until after a few weeks of no ties or loyalty. I am quite impressed with the products Aldi sells. May not have the range as Tesco, but we make up the shortfall elsewhere

isplumm

hermante wrote: »

In any case people based in (south) England should never fly BA to a western European airport (unless doing some complicated itinerary) - so much easier to take a train!

Hmmm.... not sure I agree with that .... with the eurostar going from north london anyone living south of london, has to across london.

For example - i live in southampton, so to get to north london can take at least 3 hrs .... whereas heathrow is 1 hr drive ...

Mark

isplumm

jftbrian wrote: »

thelawnet wrote: »

Whine whine whine.


*
At present you are able to book these flights with Flybe, however I have been informed that the contract with Flybe ends on March 31st 2012. I have further evidence that Flybe at present have no plans to have a contract with Avios in the future !!

I am not wanting to look like I am out to get at Avios, however, I cannot understand why questions that i am asking are only being answered in the present tense or being avioded if i persist in getting clarification.
If there will be future contracts with airlines why are Avios being less than open about asking questions with regards to flight availability post 1st April 2012.

Hi,

But as their contract is not up to end Q1 2012 not sure how this is relevant at the mo ....? i assume that all this is under some form of confidentality agreement between flybe & avois ....?



Mark

maestro2001

Has anyone actually managed to book anything on the new Avios website yet? It just gives me 'no availability' for everywhere and then has a technical error.... Its been like this all week.

neverdespairgirl

jftbrian wrote: »

Do you thing that trains are a suitable option for the population ? Have you seen the prices and how our once great train nation is now !! Its a horrible way to travel !!

Trains are a fantastic way to travel - much less grief than airports, and more confortable than planes.