Iberia drops Reward Flight Saver redemptions … will British Airways follow?

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• Tim says:

  4 Jun4 June 11:48

  Those of us here who descend from the Airmiles side of the family will see this as just another logical step in their obsolescence. At this rate Avios will be worthless in 24 months time. Another 12 months after that and the hardened collector will find that even the extra they pay in fare terms to use them over over airlines will not be worth the BA perks that they once thought so invaluable.

  Then B.A. is hardly helping. When the Manchester-Gatwick route was suddenly severed, most of the BA short-haul (i.e. Reward Flight Saver) network from the North at a stroke went with it. It is the latter-day equivalent of the Beeching cuts.

  The trends are forever downward for Airmiles collectors, Avios, BA and IAG as a whole. I can’t imagine there will be little left in three year’s time.

  Spend your Avios pile Raffles, while you still can.

  • Rob says:

    4 Jun4 June 12:01

    I’m fine. You will able to pay for cash tickets with Avios later this year (not that I told you that) which will make it easy to clear them.

    • will says:

      4 Jun4 June 13:54

      come again?!

    • Rob says:

      4 Jun4 June 14:11

      Hotel redemptions with Avios get you 0.58p, so I imagine it would be the same.

      • Squillion says:

        4 Jun4 June 14:41

        0.58p might not be so bad. My low season flights to our place in the sun are currently around £75 😉 but normally about £90 if you get in early enough. Working on return flight for £150 that’d be 25862 Avios vs the current deal 15000 Avios + £30 RFS. Taking off the £30 RFS for comparison purposes gives £120/0.58p = 20690 Avios, ie it’s more expensive in Avios terms but not ruinously so.

        You might willingly trade a worse Avios ‘purchase price’ for better availability.

        Not so good at the more normal £90 each way.

        • Rob says:

          4 Jun4 June 17:21

          You would also earn Avios for taking the flight, plus tier points, as it would be treated as a normal cash flight. Probably OnBusiness points as well if you can get those. This moves the break-even needle even further.

        • Squire says:

          6 Jun6 June 10:41

          For those of us in the regions it’ll be dire. I chose avios for free flight connections. BA never really got its head around making the connection affordable when you pay with cash/

• trickster says:

  4 Jun4 June 12:47

  The MAN-LGW route was not suddenly axed. While it’s a shame it went, there was a decent amount of notice.
  Also, it doesn’t remove most of the short-haul RFS options from the North. There are far more options vai LHR than there were through LGW, apart from sunshine/beach destinations if that’s what you mean.

  I’ve done 5 RFS bookings to European cities over the last couple of years from Manchester – all through LHR.

  • Andy says:

    4 Jun4 June 18:29

    The reason why MAN to LGW flights is that BA are using the aircraft for new routes out of Gatwick to compete with the orange one. plus since BA took over BMI they had too many flights to Manchester.

  • Tim says:

    5 Jun5 June 18:09

    It was sudden to me. I have used it for 20+ years and only found out that it had stopped when I tried to book and I am signed up to every BAA and BAEC mailing list.

    That booking went to Easyjet direct to destination from Manchester. BA is on a retreat. It really, really does not deserve to use the name “British”. BEA, one of its forerunners had a much better idea. BA is on the last legs of retreating to high value customers from or to London.

    24 months at most before a big change,

    Tim.

• AAH Member says:

  4 Jun4 June 19:24

  RFS has featured strongly in the Avios Advisory Hub discussions. I don’t think there are any plans to scrap it. But this IB+ move was a bit of a shocker.

• mike turnbull says:

  6 Jun6 June 09:55

  As one who was living/working in the US when AA first introduced an FFP scheme, I have to say that the best days of earning and burning have long since gone…massive bonuses…easy long haul redemptions…easy, free upgrades…free lounges…no taxes to pay….the list goes on and on. I am so grateful that I was able to take the family to so many places around the world compared to today. All I have left now is a million each on BA and AF/KL (Sky Team…the worlds worst), which should see me and my wife out !

  • Rob says:

    6 Jun6 June 10:18

    But the miles were harder to earn. When I started in this game a decade ago, people were always shocked when I said that it was possible to get 100,000 miles a year without flying. You really had to work Tesco and other promos to do it, though.

    I would now revise that up to 250,000 being a tough but manageable annual target. 100,000 is a doddle today as long as you and your partner are credit card worthy.

• Kathy says:

  6 Jun6 June 14:41

  100,000 a doddle?! Only if you spend a fair amount of money already! As a sad singleton who only spends £300-£500 on a credit card per month, I can’t get most of those credit card sign-up bonuses – I simply can’t hit the spending targets. Especially not with an Amex card, since my rare large expenditures all seem to be with companies who don’t take Amex.

  It’s unusual for me to fly twice a year, so I can’t rack up Avios that way. I don’t drive, so can’t earn them on petrol. That leaves me my normal credit card spend and Tesco. It took me about 5 years to save up enough airmiles for a return flight in economy to New York last year, which I claimed just before the scheme switched from Airmiles to Avios to avoid having to pay the taxes and surcharges.

  For people like me, getting rid of the RFS would make the scheme pretty much worthless. Even if I try churning low spend target credit cards and chasing down extra point offers it’s going to take me years to build up a big enough balance for a business class long-haul return, which is where the only value will lie if you have to pay full taxes and surcharges on short haul redemptions. For a lot of people it simply won’t be worth the effort – especially when there are cash-back cards out there offering more immediate returns.

  • Rob says:

    6 Jun6 June 14:57

    I agree, it isn’t easy if you are only spending those sort of numbers on your credit card. However, as you know, if you can afford the long-haul taxes then you can probably afford the minimum spends (and vice versa).

    But, whilst Reward Flight Saver exists, you can take advantage of that – and you’d actually be getting a better ‘pence per Avios’ return than people who redeem for long-haul tickets.

    Aer Lingus and airberlin also offer ‘low tax’ alternatives. I have just booked another New York to Berlin ticket in Business class (one way) on airberlin for 40,000 Avios and £1.70.

• Kathy says:

  6 Jun6 June 15:59

  I’m clearly going to have to read up on your Aer Lingus/airberlin posts! Aer Lingus may really be worthwhile looking at, as they fly from my local airport to Dublin and it takes me an hour and a half to get to LHR anyway.

  Still, I maintain that most people on my end of the collection scale will not perceive Avios to be worth collecting without the Reward Flight Saver offer. Especially when you’ve been used to getting totally free flights under the old airmiles scheme.

  You’re right, by the way, I can’t afford the long-haul taxes in business class usually. I’ll be flying Club one-way for the very first time in October, having used Avios to upgrade a flight my work are paying for. Otherwise it’s economy all the way!

• Jane Easthope says:

  10 Jun10 June 16:45

  RFS price increases now announced on Avios.com:

  “If you book before 11 July 2013, the fee is £30pp in Economy Class and £40pp in Business Class. From this date, our prices are rising by a small amount to £35pp in Economy and £50pp in Business.

  For flights with Comair, from 1 July 2013 the fee will be £56 return in Economy and £64 in Business.

  Unfortunately the price rise is due to factors outside of our control, such as the continued increases in government and other airport taxes across Europe. We’ve kept the increase as small as possible, the table below shows you how we can continue to offer you big savings on flights.”

  • Rob says:

    10 Jun10 June 16:53

    Yes, see my thoughts tomorrow!

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