Forget the Avios changes for now – just get booking!

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• AmandaB says:

  28 Jan28 January 17:32

  I think this is a bit like the punch line to that old joke:-

  Well our (reward seats) are only 100,000 when we don’t have any……

  The point is, it doesn’t matter how much they ‘cost’ if there are none available. I have looked today and wish I had my next 2-4-1 in the bank. Lots of availability to lots of places…. and loads of points in the account to spend ‘cos up to now the availability was almost non-existent.

  • RIccati says:

    28 Jan28 January 23:31

    Yes, but it is a con. They were going to release those reward seats throughout the year. Now they just released them in bulk to sweeten the blow. When these seats are taken, what they change 2 CW per flight rule and give more reward seats later in the year?

    Next year, all bets are off the table re: availability.

• matt says:

  28 Jan28 January 17:42

  I’d given up on redemption flights to Florida in late December, but thanks to Raffles’s suggestion, I’ve made good use of my 241 voucher to and from Orlando. So although there’s some coal here, Christmas has come very early for me. Cheers!

• LazyLoki says:

  28 Jan28 January 17:52

  Oh God damn it!

  I’ve just transferred close to 100,000 points from Amex to BA. Had I known about these changes I’d have send them to Club Carlson for 300,000 Gold points = almost a week in one of their top hotels.

  These changes make Club Carlson probably the best transfer option for Amex MR transfers now. What’s the score with the BA companion voucher? If it’s in your BAEC account will it be lost if cancelling the BAPP card? Don’t think I’ll be bothering trying to get another 2-4-1 this year and these changes have significantly reduced the points earning potential of the card.

  • BallSack says:

    28 Jan28 January 18:10

    How ‘just’ is ‘just’ ? I’d give them a call and see if you can take them back. You can’t lose anything by asking. Even if they want an admin fee, pay it and go live the high live in a swanky hotel !

    • LazyLoki says:

      28 Jan28 January 20:06

      Hit my BA account today so no chance of that I’m afraid.

  • Jason says:

    28 Jan28 January 18:13

    Bearing in mind you’ve got almost 15 months, with better availabilty, why would you want to not use them?

    • LazyLoki says:

      28 Jan28 January 20:11

      I understand what you mean but unfortunately I can rarely plan travel more than a couple of months in advance. This has always been a big attraction to miles for me (I don’t fly to many of the most popular destinations so availability isn’t usually an option). With the massive increase to miles required, I’ve taken a 25-50% hit in the effective value of my miles.

      I’ll wait and see how this pans out for economy redemptions – I’ve never bothered with them in the past but if the charges are going to go down and make them better than they are now, I’m not opposed to whittling down my avios balance on those. I’ll just about to requalify for silver (might take a couple more months now!) so I’ll slug it out until my status drops to Bronze. After after that my loyalty to BA/One World will come to an end and it’ll be back to taking the cheapest option rather than paying a little extra to fly with BA/OW.

• nick haley says:

  28 Jan28 January 17:52

  anyone finding that the ‘map’ https://www.britishairways.com/travel/reward-flights-map/execclub/_gf/en_gb?eId=106160&refevent=dropwidget shows availability, but then the redemption via a 2-4-1 shows none available? Is the map not live? (searching for later in the year/before 28thApr)

  • Rob says:

    28 Jan28 January 18:05

    Map has always been broken and nothing has changed!

    • Nick Haley says:

      28 Jan28 January 18:50

      Ha good point. Will use Tim Roger’s website instead — and quickly.

      • Rob says:

        28 Jan28 January 21:18

        That uses cached data which can be a day or so out of data (not Tim’s fault, the Avios Flight Finder app uses the same data).

  • BallSack says:

    28 Jan28 January 18:08

    Map has never indicated availability for using the 2-4-1, its rubbish.

• Think Square says:

  28 Jan28 January 17:52

  How long do 2-4-1’s take to be issued? I’ve been holding off triggering it until I needed to spend. That moment may have come.

  • Jason says:

    28 Jan28 January 18:00

    Almost immediately

  • Rob says:

    28 Jan28 January 18:04

    Should be available within 72 hours of spend clearing with Amex. Will be there within a week of making the purchase.

• Alice says:

  28 Jan28 January 17:53

  I was barely flying enough to reach bronze, so being based in Leeds and losing the free London leg means my 30,000 avios balance is now not going to get me very far. Its time to start having another look at KLM’s offering I would say.

• RIccati says:

  28 Jan28 January 18:53

  It is a 50% DEVALUATION for what matters, long-haul premium cabin, for example, LHR-HKG in CW

  OLD
  Zone 7 60,000 + taxes, fees and carrier charges

  NEW
  Zone 7 75,000 off peak and 90,000 peak

  • RIccati says:

    28 Jan28 January 18:56

    If redemptions with Partner Airlines (ie, Cathay) are treated as peak that is it. Confirmed 50% devaluation (needed 60K now need 50% more, i.e. 90K).

    • RIccati says:

      28 Jan28 January 22:28

      When it comes to the core of FFP — that is, redemptions, it stands out throughout the changes that

      a. BA does not like to part with cash (when we redeem Avios for another airline). Dire availability pushed people to redeem with partners, now more CW seats are available and partner airline seats are 50% more expensive.

      and

      b. BA would like more cash. They say more Economy fares will be eligible for upgrade with Avios but no one saw prices, mid-level Economy fares could be made just as expensive as flexible ones. To upgrade one has to buy a non-discounted economy ticket + pay upgrade taxes + pay increased Avios.

      Clearly, in exchange for an opportunity to use miles for WTP/CW redemption, BA wants more cash (upgrade with Avios would require more cash than straightforward redemption).

      Raffles, you might note more eligible fares to upgrade as a positive but in reality ‘an upgrade’ equals to Avios + More Money redemption (vs a redemption under the old scheme).

      They are well on their way to exceed 1bln PROFIT target for this and next year. Can see the impact of incentives for top management — the changes aim to squeeze more revenue without increasing Avios liability.

    • Gordon says:

      28 Jan28 January 22:31

      I know its still rubbish but is it not a 33% devaluation. Suppose you had 180,000 miles pre change. That would buy you 3 return flights at 60k each, now it will get you 2 at 90k. So you can buy 1/3 less flights than before

      • Brendan says:

        28 Jan28 January 22:42

        Economically equivalent. A 33% devaluation is the same as a 50% price increase.

      • RIccati says:

        28 Jan28 January 22:57

        Yes, yes 30K increase /90K total gives 33%. I counted that.

        But what if I did not have 90K miles. Then it is 50% price increase.

• Chilibenny says:

  28 Jan28 January 19:18

  Will Aer Lingus redemptions now increase Raffles?

  • Mark says:

    28 Jan28 January 20:27

    What about the sweet spot (dub -bos). Please tell me it is still 12.5k one way. That’s my only pleasure with BA – except the 52 flights per year (bhd – lhr) to earn my summer holiday.

    • Rob says:

      28 Jan28 January 21:15

      No. Will now be priced as a peak redemption.

      • Brendan says:

        28 Jan28 January 21:59

        12.5k is the peak redemption so that won’t change. However business will go from 25k to 37.5k each way.

  • Rob says:

    28 Jan28 January 21:17

    Yes, now priced as peak at all times.

    Once BA buys Aer Lingus they will also have fuel surcharges attached but that is a year down the road at least.

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