British Airways starts to cut long-haul fuel surcharges on Avios flight redemptions

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• James67 says:

  28 Jan28 January 13:15

  As regular readers will know I have been vocal on likelihood of this devaluation for past year. Despite this, I found the news this morning shocking and surprising. It is early days yet so we need to await fuller analysis but it would be foolish to believe other than that changes will be net negative as a whole. Despite this, there will be winners and losers and which you are may well vary as your travel needs changes over time. One thing of interest to me is the announcment that all avios related activity is being transferred from IAG to AGL. My reading of this is that BA intends to sell off AGL down the road meaning the rewards will be managed by an independent company with the result that further enhancments and devaluations are likely. I also commented recently on whether loyalty pays and if we would not be better focussing our efforts on maximising savings on a flight by flight or hotel by hotel basis. In light of all recent devaluations, and particularly now that BA is affected, I think this is an issue we should all now afford greater emphasis. I know Rob has been less keen on focussing HfPs on revenue promotions as opposed to points and miles earning and redemptions opportunities. Thus far this has in my view been the correct focus. However, as mileage and point schemes evolve in ways that make it more difficult for the majority of ordinary readers to earn and redeem I think it would be useful if Rob could allow HfPs to evolve in parallel by putting a little more emphasis on promos that save hard cash, particularly those from partners that earn avios at the same time. As the scheme rules become ever more complex, and the true cost of participation rises and benefits fall, it is important that we all do our homework on a trip by trip basis to ensure we are not actually being conned by our hobby.

  • Brendan says:

    28 Jan28 January 13:22

    Well said.

    • Mick says:

      29 Jan29 January 21:20

      Yes .. Very well said

  • Rob says:

    28 Jan28 January 13:51

    The shift has already happened – there has been significantly more coverage of fare sales, basically Air France / KLM, Finnair and the Middle East ‘big 3’ over the last six months. There isn’t much more I can add to be honest because only the big hub airlines offer global coverage.

    I didn’t see your comment about selling the company before I posted the article that just went up. You have missed a key point – the guaranteed two seats. That is the key to everything and if you can’t work out why I will explain tomorrow.

    • James67 says:

      28 Jan28 January 16:54

      a
      Ah yes, got it. The interesting consequence could be a short term boost to avios collection opportunities from launch promos, and hopefully a few very rewarding errors along the way. Probably a pipe dream though as the loyalty game has been around long enough to weed out naivity amongst manaent. Can still happen though…economist iberia! Not that that helps for those procrastinators like me. Almost messed up again today, the run on seats aound Xmas and new year was something to see.

• Gordon says:

  28 Jan28 January 13:51

  I am sure many if not most people on here either focus on business or first class when it comes to long haul. Economy redemptions are simply not worth it. Looking at zone 5 for new york it appears that miles have effectively been devalued by between 25 and 33% for business class and 12 and 25% for first class. If you have family and your options are restricted to peak times then its the higher of these figures. If you live outside of London and have used connecting flights for reward saver then the devaluation is up to 50%

  • Kris says:

    28 Jan28 January 16:26

    Yup, it’s a double whammy for me. The Mrs is a teacher so we can only get away at peak times & traveling from Scotland means we’ll have to burn twice as many avios to get to Europe. Boo-urns!

• Chewbacca says:

  28 Jan28 January 23:07

  Slightly off topic here but does anyone know how upgrading/downgrading on BA Premium works for resetting the renewal.

  Spent just over £10k on BA amex (basic) got Mrs to take out new BA Premium with me as supplementary. I understand that if I upgrade the basic to BA Preimum the £10k spend will convert to a voucher and the renewal clock will change to a year from now ie Jan/Feb 2016 before spend will qualify for a new voucher.
  Am planning to only spend on new BA Premium to meet referral bonuses and second voucher.
  If we upgrade the Basic, trigger the voucher then downgrade and subsequently upgrade will this change the renewal date each time? I was thinking that upgrading/downgrading might roughly average out at the equivalent of one £150 fee is this feasible? £300 for two cards mightn’t be worth it especially given these new changes?

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