Avios Points Boosting guide discussion

mew

Some bad changes happening at BA executive club and no doubt for Avios too, especially if you live outside of London: http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/club-changes

k3lvc

mew wrote: »

Some bad changes happening at BA executive club and no doubt for Avios too, especially if you live outside of London: http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/club-changes

Indeed - being a northerner this is just more likely to make me fly KLM than BA and spend my hotel/meal/gift money in Schiphol rather than Heathrow

It was good while it lasted

dmet

Looks like the giving with one hand is being offset with taking from the other. Yes they now have an off peak fair structure but they fail to mention they have put up the business and first avios amount. I am doing a trip in March where I have used 100,000 avios for first out, business back to Boston. Same trip after April will now be 140,000 peak or 118,00 off peak, so an increase of at least 18,000 for the same trip.


Looks like they are trying to get the "free" fliers out of business and first.


Also the conversion rate for flights looks like you will get less avios for cash flights.

pollypenny

I am disgusted with this latest BA change. They have fewer and fewer flights from Manchester, but at least the shuttle was free with Reward flights.

Now we will earn a paltry 25% on our regular trip s to the USA!

PeacefulWaters

pollypenny wrote: »

Now we will earn a paltry 25% on our regular trip s to the USA!

If you've any sense you'll fly direct with somebody else!

Or hop on a flight to Dublin and fly from there.

ayayay

Im very annoyed about the changes. Ive been saving for return business class flights to the States. Half way through they change the rules and i'm now going to need 50% more miles. Furthermore this is real money for me as some of the miles come from tesco vouchers. Once ive spent these miles I wont be bothering anymore.

worldtraveller

A good summary/analysis of the changes at Head For Points today:

http://www.headforpoints.com/

steve1500

As some whose nearest major airport is Manchester. I scrapped using Avios on BA ages ago.


European flights I use my Avios with Monarch & trans Atlantic is now Virgin.

jpsartre

dmet wrote: »

Yes they now have an off peak fair structure but they fail to mention they have put up the business and first avios amount.

They mention this explicitly

"We will introduce variable Avios pricing for reward flights depending on the time of the year, the cabin and zone. At busy peak times of the year we will have a standard Avios price and for less busy, off-peak times fewer Avios will be needed.

This means that for two thirds of the year you will require fewer Avios than now to fly on reward seats in Euro Traveller and World Traveller. In Club World and First the Avios price will increase and the amount will vary depending on the time of the year."

dmet wrote: »

Looks like they are trying to get the "free" fliers out of business and first.

That's a simplistic way of looking at things considering they are upping the number of reward seats in Club. We will likely see more "free" flyers in Business than before.

dmet

jpsartre wrote: »

They mention this explicitly

"We will introduce variable Avios pricing for reward flights depending on the time of the year, the cabin and zone. At busy peak times of the year we will have a standard Avios price and for less busy, off-peak times fewer Avios will be needed.

This means that for two thirds of the year you will require fewer Avios than now to fly on reward seats in Euro Traveller and World Traveller. In Club World and First the Avios price will increase and the amount will vary depending on the time of the year."

Fair point, didn't read that. Still trumpeting the fact they are giving you a benefit but playing down the penalty. Headlines always point out the positive.

jpsartre wrote: »

That's a simplistic way of looking at things considering they are upping the number of reward seats in Club. We will likely see more "free" flyers in Business than before

Maybe upping the number in club but for business and first will cost more points so it could mean people will be less likely to use them as it will now take longer to accumulate. The flights I am taking would have meant an increase of 18% off peak or 40% for peak. Quite a big difference, especially if it takes time to accumulate like ayayay said. I don't see any savings of 40%-50% to offset the increase.