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Flybe to become full Avios ‘earn and burn’ partner, scrapping Rewards4All

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Flybe announced to the Stock Exchange this morning that it is abandoning its Rewards4All scheme with pretty much immediate effect, from Monday 27th October.  The company will become a full Avios partner at that point, allowing you to earn and spend Avios points across all Flybe services.

The announcement is below.  I will have a full analysis tomorrow but you can see the key points in this FAQ page.

The key question for me is whether Flybe becomes a Reward Flight Saver partner.  As I have written numerous times, taxes on Rewards4All redemptions are often HIGHER than the cost of buying a cash ticket on the same flight!  Unless this changes, it will be a bit farcical.

FLYBE ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH AVIOS
Flybe Becomes part of the Avios Travel Rewards Programme-

Europe’s largest regional airline, Flybe, has announced a significant new partnership with Avios, part of International Airlines Group (IAG), the parent company of British Airways, Iberia and Vueling.

The milestone agreement will take effect from Monday 27th October 2014 and marks another step by Flybe to offer more benefits to its customers, adding value to their flight purchase and providing a broader selection of redemption opportunities for points earned through frequent travel.

Avios operates the global Avios currency for the British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus and Meridiana Club frequent flyer programmes as well as the Avios Travel Rewards programmes in the UK and South Africa.

The new partnership with Avios replaces Flybe’s existing Rewards4All frequent flyer programme. Rewards4All members will need to redeem their outstanding points within six months from today’s announcement. Redemptions can be made on flights up until 24th October 2015. To guide members through the redemption process, the flybe.com website will provide clear information on the process.

This agreement follows Flybe partnerships recently announced with booking.com, the world leader in online accommodation booking and STA Travel, which has established Flybe as ‘Preferred Partner for Student and Youth Travel’ with the world’s largest student and youth travel company with a 2.3 million database. It also follows a new codeshare agreement with Finnair and an interline agreement with Aer Lingus.

Saad Hammad, Chief Executive Officer, Flybe said:

“This agreement represents a significant service enhancement for Flybe customers – a big step change that opens up a new world of reward possibilities.”

“We join Avios following an extensive review of frequent flyer programmes, including our own in-house programme Rewards4All. We determined a better customer proposition existed, and the clear choice was Avios. There are 2 million customers with billions of Avios within 30 miles of a Flybe airport. “

“Our Avios partnership begins on the day we formally start our operations at London City Airport on October 27th, which is already proving an attractive option for the business traveller with daily flights from/to Edinburgh, Belfast, Aberdeen, Dublin, Inverness and Exeter. Flybe customers, and those we welcome onboard from our codeshare partners, are benefiting from our extensive UK regional flying network. Whether flying from Edinburgh to London City, Birmingham to Belfast or Manchester to Stornoway, it makes even more sense to Fly with Flybe!”

 Gavin Halliday, Managing Director, Avios, said: 

“This is an important partnership for Avios, building on our commitment to provide engaging collection and redemption opportunities for Avios Travel Rewards Programme members. Our members will benefit from access to even more reward flights and on new regional routes, as well as the new opportunity to collect when flying with Flybe.”  

Comments (35)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Graham says:

    This would be awesome news for me! Fingers crossed they use RFS. I’m looking forward to the analysis tomorrow.

  • Roger says:

    Well, that came out of the blue!

    I wonder how full is this ‘full’ partner and look forward to Raffles’s analysis. For example, will we be able to transfer our FlyBe Avios into BAEC Avios? (Not currently possible with South African Avios.)

    Booking.com as an Avios partner via FlyBe? That could be good for me in areas where booking.com is strong such as South Africa.

    • Polly says:

      Do they not all go into the general avios ac then? Amazing that you would end up having two avios accounts it that how it works? Was hoping once they went into the avios account, they become just part of that total. Am amazed BA are good with this!

    • Trevor says:

      Not sure what you mean about transfers, cos CMA is available between Avios SA and BAEC – I’ve done it a few times, as recently as last week.

    • Marco says:

      You can transfer South Africa avios into BAEC avios

  • trickster says:

    If they do RFS, this would be great news from the ‘Regions’.

  • Tariq says:

    Positioning to take over Little Red routes/slots?

  • Snoogles says:

    Bet there’s no RFS! Avios have always said that’s for BA & IB only .

  • czechoslovakia says:

    As a regular from MAN, this is possibly great news. But I`m a sceptic on the RFS outlook. BA are effectively subsidizing the (actual) taxes and (actual) airport security fees somewhat on the RFS tickets, aren’t they? Given the laughable Flybe R4A scheme, I can`t see them being so generous, and I`m certain IAG wont want to be loosing out on the deal. Especially as Flybe cooperate with so much of BAs main competition. Interesting development, though. Looking forward to tomorrows update Rob.

    • neuromancer says:

      As the biggest part of the “taxes” are actually carrier surcharges, going directly to the airline, it is hardly “subsidizing”.

  • CV3V says:

    Having endured a 1hr 45 min flight on a FlyBe Dash 8 from EDI – LCY on Monday this is some good news for earning avios, it also gives all those BA Gold members at Edi a reason to use FlyBe (if they can be bothered walking to the far end of the terminal building, and then getting a bus transfer).

  • Ben_mw says:

    Just tried a couple of dummy bookings, as RFS would be great for us living near MAN, with the inlaws being near INV, flying with a toddler and a baby is just less hassle than driving. At the moment there is loads of availability on avios.com, way more than I’ve seen before, but taxes/fees etc are at £55 and some pennies, so I’m assuming no RFS.
    Checked with a booking from MAN to DUS, direct flights are 9000 Avios plus £61.04, indirect on BA via London are 9000 Avios and £35 RFS.
    (Random dates in November). I assume therefore that (as yet) there is no RFS.

    • Graham says:

      That is disappointing. That said I’d probably be willing to spend the £26 extra for a direct flight. In the end more options for the regions is a good thing I think.

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