Forget the Avios changes for now – just get booking!

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• JamesWag says:

  28 Jan28 January 13:56

  Now it won’t be owned by BA it will definitely devalue further.

• JamesWag says:

  28 Jan28 January 13:58

  They could have told me this BEFORE the USA CW sale expired midnight last night. A cheeky MR to ensure Gold would have been good as I was umming & arring as it was but will now lose the 100% Avios bonus stripped from Silver holders.

• Mark says:

  28 Jan28 January 14:02

  I have just started visiting this website and learning about this hobby recently – am I right in thinking that these changes increase the relative attractiveness of Virgin FC miles, compared to Avios (if you’re happy with the USA route network, of course)?

  • James67 says:

    28 Jan28 January 18:46

    Post change you would be correct in relation to CW and F. However, BA economy offpeak will be better value. It will beninteresting to view Virgin response to this because to date only thing holding back a delta-lead devaluation of FC was BAEC. For north America AA is attractive in economy also because of offpeak pri ing. However, watch out for them devaluing soon when US DM merges: I expect we will see something very similar to what BA abbounced today.

• JamesWag says:

  28 Jan28 January 14:03

  I hope the ‘peak period’ short haul economy & CE tickets will only be what they are NOW at their peak. Its a sod that CW & F will increase in peak times. One of the things I liked over some other schemes was the consistent pricing, if there was a flight you knew how many Avios it’d be no matter the day, time or season.

• Adam says:

  28 Jan28 January 14:06

  It’s a serious devaluation for those of us redeeming in premium cabins now split into peak and off peak with peak increasing by 50% and off peak by 25%. An availability increase doesn’t justify it!

  • nick says:

    28 Jan28 January 17:27

    We just managed to get biz returns with a 241 later this year. Perfect dates for us too.

    After years of searching at midnight and getting nowhere, I’d given up on ever getting those flights with BA and had embarked on a, frankly, ridiculous method of collecting points to do it with another airline. It’s a bit of an odd feeling to have my 3-year-long struggle to get biz flights to Australia come to such and abrupt end and part of me is a bit disappointed as the other airline we were going to use has a much better product, but there is no way I’m going to turn down those flights. So, finally – thank you, BA.

    Bizarrely, I think the changes might mean I’ll start collecting Avios again (albeit not by flying with them as I’d never pay for their sub-standard premium products; and it is no longer worth trying to collect avios at the back of the ‘plane). I can live with the revised pricing if I can actually get the flights booked.

    • nick says:

      28 Jan28 January 17:28

      This was supposed to be in response to John’s comment below!

• John says:

  28 Jan28 January 14:10

  I just looked at:

  LON- Sydney Oct/Nov
  LON-Maldives Oct/Nov
  LON- Orlando Apr/May

  Using a 2-4-1 and availability was the usual hen’s teeth. Okay, these are popular routes but surely head for points readers haven’t taken the ‘two seats per flight’ already?

  • Lady London says:

    28 Jan28 January 14:50

    BA covered that point. They made sure to put in their FAQs that if the minimum number of seats was already previously released on a flight, then they wouldn’t have to release any more.

    Increased availability of award seats is a con. And don’t forget any extra seats released are also available to all the AA and US members too being part of Oneworld.

    • James67 says:

      28 Jan28 January 19:51

      @Lady London … 7right, and the huge downside of this that I forsee is that post avios sell off, IAG will likely stick rigidly to their contractual obligations with the result that award seat availabilty in practice might actually become worse than ever. At least at the moment BA can and does release seats as it likes so there can be a lot more on some flights. If the new avios owner can get any extra seats released at all they will likely have to pay dearly for them.

  • BallSack says:

    28 Jan28 January 14:58

    ”
    I just looked at:

    LON- Sydney Oct/Nov
    LON-Maldives Oct/Nov
    LON- Orlando Apr/May

    Using a 2-4-1 and availability was the usual hen’s teeth. Okay, these are popular routes but surely head for points readers haven’t taken the ‘two seats per flight’ already?
    ”

    If you find some on dates which work for you, please buy a lottery ticket too as its your lucky day !! The 2-4-1 can be a real sh*t unless you have really flexible dates & durations for your trip and want a less travelled route.
    I’m seriously going off it as a benefit. Sure I’ve used it to good effect effect before but its a real faff.

    • Louie says:

      28 Jan28 January 15:23

      Errr? I have just looked for SYD. Availability for 2 people in Club for 20 days in November. Where are you looking?

      • john says:

        28 Jan28 January 16:14

        Fair point. I can see them now too.

    • Andi says:

      28 Jan28 January 17:46

      Feel the same about 241. Dubai is around £2k taxes and 120k points for 4 on 2×241 vouchers in CW. Cheapest WTP [is that what BA calls Premium Economy?] is around £2600 and with Avios upgrading you to CW and uses 80k points and you get WTP tier points and 8k points per traveler, 32 in total so almost half of what you spent.

      with the Faff of having to keep a card until you redeem the 241 I’m wondering if its easier to keep one Amex Gold Card permanently on my wives account and churn a Platinum for myself once in a while. i can hit the spend and bonus within a month and ditch and receive most of the fee back, making it a worth while investment. i just have to transfer out Rewards to a chosen scheme

  • Paul says:

    28 Jan28 January 17:13

    If you are interested in Orlando, try Tampa. BA and LH are the only international airline that fly there so immigration is very quick and it is a short 1 hour drive from the hotels in Kissimmee.

    • Poincianakings says:

      28 Jan28 January 17:26

      LH don’t operate into TPA. Eldiweiss the Kuoni owned charter do from ZRH seasonally. But agree TPA is a great option

      • Dan says:

        28 Jan28 January 18:03

        I’ve been checking most days since September for upgrade availability from JFK to LHR in June – managed to grab 2 Club World seats this morning.

        Although the increase in regional transfer costs is going to hit hard further down the line!

• Deenesh says:

  28 Jan28 January 14:13

  Not sure if I’m doing something wrong but I cartainly can’t find these cheap “off-peak” redemption prices.

  • Ben says:

    28 Jan28 January 14:16

    The new pricing only kicks in from 28 April.

  • BallSack says:

    28 Jan28 January 15:00

    Wakey-Wakey 🙂

• David says:

  28 Jan28 January 14:14

  Raffles, for those with a Lloyds Avios Rewards upgrade voucher it is my interpretation of the changes that it would be better to not use it until after the new redemption chart is live, because WTP avios requirements (for off-peak) actually seem to be reduced. Together with the much improved CW availability it seems better to wait for when it will cost fewer avios for a redemption to say Singapore with use of the voucher (91000 avios) than to jump in now and pay 105000 avios (plus the voucher). Obviously this doesn’t apply for “peak” dates.

  Likewise I think those looking to redeem in WT or WTP off-peak would be better waiting for the reduced avois requirements?

  This has to be balanced against the excellent availability showing today because of the recent bulk release of reward flights, but my reading of the changes are that availability should be much improved over the existing situation in WT and CW going forward.

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