The Avios changes are live – post your ba.com comments and observations here

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• Martin says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:40

  Flying with BA LHR-LAX will earn you now 20 Tiers and flying with AA – 35 Tiers. I’m guessing they should change this soon otherwise will loose quite a few customers

• VP says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:48

  I did a booking for my in-laws on Sunday (so old rates apply) but in Manage my booking it was already showing the new Avios earnings and tier points. When I called CC, they told me to call them back if the correct amount does not post. So if you have made any bookings recently, it is advisable to keep track of how many tier points and avios actually post.

• ellie says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:48

  This change has been disappointing on so many levels. First, in terms of earning Avios, you are earning far less in economy but more in first class. .How is that serving customers more? It seems to be serving elite members by rewarding them more. Secondly, more infuriatingly, in terms of spending Avios, the idea is that more reward seats would be on offer. But, after spending hours before and after midnight of April 27th, this did not seem to be the case at all. In fact, my app showed availability of seats, but when I tried to book any one of them they disappeared- in fact the availability for seats until the end of 2015 has barely changed. What changed is the fact that I can now book a flight on April 16th next year. Well, I am sorry, but life cannot be programmed all the way up to then. And even if it could, and something changed, I would still need to pay a hefty fee to change any little detail of that booking, as I’ve learned the hard way on previous dealings with BA in the past. Finally, this has been a misleading campaign, entitled BA Avios Devaluation, when what it did is reward business class passengers and stop economy passengers from benefiting from reward flights. I would say it should be called BA Avios Inflation.

  • Callum says:

    28 Apr28 April 09:59

    Serving elite members more is wrong? Anyone would think they’re running a frequent flyer scheme!

    The extra flights were added long ago, they were never scheduled to appear tonight.

    Where exactly have BA titled the campaign? Or even ran a campaign for that matter.

• The_Real_A says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:52

  I had held back on some bookings because the points rate would go down! I dont want to be linched but I have SAVED some serious number of avios today post changes.

  • Jordan D says:

    28 Apr28 April 21:03

    You aren’t alone in that. With Euro pricing going down, I too have saved a bundle.

    Y redemptions aren’t for everyone, but there are some sweet spots to be found (especially vis-à-vis cash tickets).

• Simon says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:53

  Thanks again for your updates Raffles. Especially the recent ‘Important Dates For You Diary’. We left it to the 11th hour though.

  At c.10pm last night my wife/I booked LHR-KUL in F. We then phoned the place we like to stay in Bermuda to reserve a private cottage in the grounds and also then booked LGW-BDA at c.11pm in F.

  We blew 363k BA avios and 2 companion vouchers!

• RT says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:55

  Silly question but… you don’t receive TPs/Avios with flights booked using Avios points right?

  • AC says:

    28 Apr28 April 10:05

    Correct.

  • Simon says:

    28 Apr28 April 10:08

    It would be great but I’m afraid you get neither TPs/Avios when booking a rewards flight.

  • RT says:

    28 Apr28 April 10:15

    Thought so.

    Thanks.

  • Mike says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:27

    *Unless you’re doing an ‘upgrade with miles’, in which case you (used to at least) get the avois + TP for the class lower than you’re booking.

• Worzel says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:56

  A reminder:

  None of us own “our” points in the BA vault!

  Looked at Business class availability for the next 12 months; SIN, KUL, HGK, BKK= practically zero.

  However, as Simon (8:44 am) points out there are some positives.

  • CV3V says:

    28 Apr28 April 11:02

    Agreed, availability remains poor. I had been searching for a flight to KUL (or SIN or BKK) for flights next year using 2-4-1. There was zero availability in Business or First with BA for the whole region. I then got lucky with the only outbound and inbound flight – which were 12 days apart, and I reckon this was due to someone cancelling a 2-4-1 reward booking to go with the cheap Qatar flights.

    Whatever award availability was released seems to have been used up in the surge of avios redemptions which must have occurred, it’s really surprising on the new KUL route as availability had been plentiful but I think many people will use this as a stopover into BKK, SIN and HKT etc. Over the next few days as seats are released for 12 months from now I wonder if the award seats will be snapped up as fast as they used to be.

    • James67 says:

      28 Apr28 April 14:21

      I was tracking them over last few weeks for my recent UuA. BA was consistent releasing 3 J seats every Monday and Tuesday on BA9 and BA10 BKK serkvIces.I waited patiently for the 11th April 16 and got it as expected. The pattern is probably ongoing.KUL is booming for whatever reason. MH loads on LHR routes increased 40% in 2014 despite the airlines obvious difficulties.

      • CV says:

        28 Apr28 April 18:50

        On the LHR to KUL sector MAS have been overselling their economy seats and either upgrading passengers or off loading them to the later flight (helps fill the 2 A380s!).

        Also its expected that they will only cut the Frankfurt route, all other european routes will be kept. I don’t recommend the 777 flight from AMS to KUL – very old cabin.

        Will have to start monitoring availability and see if it starts to improve post depreciation.

        Flights from UK to KUL now come up at a variety of miles and taxes depending on what airline.

        • James67 says:

          28 Apr28 April 22:40

          I read someplace that you can also now bid to upgrade MAS flights a week before departure. I have no idea how it is working in practice or what the goi g rate is. I was almost tempted to try it but the prospect of over 13hrs back in Y if it went pear shaped was too much.

        • CV says:

          28 Apr28 April 23:07

          Yes its called MHUpgrade. I have a KUL – SIN booking with MAS and 2 days after making the booking they emailed me with a link to make my offer for an upgrade. There is a defined price range within which to make your bid, you are then advised 2 or 3 days before the flight (IIRC).

          There is more info on internet on it and tips on how to exploit it. Fly Stay Travel blog had a good amount of info on it.

  • Paul says:

    28 Apr28 April 11:07

    J availability to LAX this am. Not seen that for a while.

  • James67 says:

    28 Apr28 April 14:16

    I was tracking them over last few weeks for my recent UuA. BA was consistent releasing 3 J seats every Monday and Tuesday on BA9 and BA10 BKK serkvIces.I waited patiently for the 11th April 16 and got it as expected. The pattern is probably ongoing.

• Ronster says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:57

  I would like to thank Rob for all his advice.

  Since coming across Head for Points completely by accident, 18 months ago, it has been a source of invaluable information.

  I considerd many different routes and destinations. Yesterday, I managed to call and book a great return combination,just before the Executive Club closed.

  I used my 2-4-1 BA American Express card voucher and booked the following for me and the Mrs.

  2 x F LHR to NRT.
  2 x F HKG to LHR

  180,000 avios plus usual charges

  2x J HND to HKG

  40,000

  This last flight is on the top deck of Cathay Pacific 747. It has only one line of J on each side and cost only £40 in charges per person!!

  I will be prioritising saving and using my avios for F reservations in conjunction with the 2-4-1 vouchers.

  I thought about booking other trips before todays avios increases coming into play. However they have only increased by 13%. Therefore I have decided to wait, for the introduction of BA’s new F product on the 787-9.

  Many thanks again Rob

  All the best

  Ronster

  • RT says:

    28 Apr28 April 10:18

    Out of interest did your 241 voucher work for all your trips? i.e. including your HND to HKG connecting flight? If it did… I never knew you could do that… Is this something you can only do via the phone?

    • Rusell says:

      28 Apr28 April 10:30

      I think he means the 2-4-1 was only used for the LHR – NRT and HKG – LHR legs.

      As far as I know, the 2-4-1 is only valid on BA flights and the HND – HKG connecting flight would be flown on CX.

      Ronster: Any chance that you know when the new F product will be introduced on the 787-9?

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