Avios changes 6: why are off-peak Club World upgrades now more expensive than peak?!

Executive summary:  the biggest ‘hit’ from the Avios changes is probably the increase in the cost of upgrading from World Traveller Plus to Club World.  Off-peak upgrades are more expensive than peak upgrades.

Key link: ‘Club Changes’ page on ba.com

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Here are the other articles in this series you may have missed:

1. Understanding the new tier point rules

2. Understanding the new earning rates

3. Understanding the new spending rates

4. What is an Avios point worth after April 28th?

5. Exploiting the ‘no repricing on date changes’ rule

7. Save 43% of your Avios on long-haul redemptions if you fly Iberia

8. Partner redemptions may be cheaper if booked on iberia.com

9. What will happen to airline partner earning rates?

10. Are you a winner or a loser overall?

Historically, the best use of Avios points – bar none – was to upgrade a cash ticket booked in World Traveller Plus to Club World.

You were swapping a slightly bigger economy seat for a 6 foot long flat bed.  The cost was negligible – upgrading a World Traveller Plus return flight to California would only cost 25,000 Avios points.

Even better, you would earn Avios points on the ticket based on the World Traveller Plus rate.  A Silver or Gold member would earn back the entire cost of the upgrade!

For a BA Silver, the maths to San Francisco currrently looks like this:

• Cost of return upgrade from World Traveller Plus to Club World – 25,000 Avios
• Base Avios earned back (125% miles flown) – 13,396 Avios
• Status bonus (100% miles flown) – 10,716 Avios
• Total Avios earned – 24,112 Avios
• Net cost of upgrade – 888 Avios

This will change substantially after April 28th.

The cost of upgrading from World Traveller Plus to Club World is simply the difference in Avios points required for a straight redemption.  Let’s look at the new redemption table:

Let’s look at the cost of upgrading Word Traveller Plus to Club World for the long-haul zones.  These figures are EACH WAY:

Zone 5 (New York) – now 10,000 Avios, becomes 24,000 off-peak and 20,000 peak

Zone 6 (California) – now 12,500 Avios, becomes 30,000 off-peak and 25,000 peak

Zone 7 (Asia) – now 15,000 Avios, becomes 36,000 off-peak and 30,000 peak

Zone 8 (Asia) – now 17,500 Avios, becomes 42,000 off-peak and 35,000 peak

Zone 9 (Sydney) – now 25,000 Avios, becomes 60,000 off-peak and 50,000 peak

This is an astonishing jump in many cases.  It is even more shocking when you look at the NET cost.

This was our old calculation for a current World Traveller Plus to Club World calculation for a BA Silver flying to San Francisco:

• Cost of return upgrade from World Traveller Plus to Club World – 25,000 Avios
• Base Avios earned back (125% miles flown) – 13,396 Avios
• Silver status bonus (100% miles flown) – 10,716 Avios
• Total Avios earned – 24,112 Avios
• Net cost of upgrade – 888 Avios

These are the new costs:

• Cost of return upgrade from World Traveller Plus to Club World – 60,000 Avios off-peak / 50,000 peak
• Base Avios earned back (100% miles flown) – 10,716 Avios
• Silver status bonus (50% miles flown) – 5,358 Avios
• Total Avios earned – 16,074 Avios
• Net cost of upgrade – 43,926 Avios off-peak, reducing to 33,926 at peak

This is a shocking increase, however you cut it.

Let’s be clear though. A net cost of 44,000 Avios is still a good deal to upgrade a ‘slightly bigger than usual’ economy seat to a 6 foot flat bed Club World seat for 24 hours of flying time.

More importantly, the two Club World redemption seats you need to be available in order to do the upgrade are more likely to be there now.  The old ‘Upgrade Using Avios’ deal was astounding, but it remained theoretical if you couldn’t get the seats!

PS.  The cost of upgrading from Club World to First has not increased.  For a California return trip at peak times, it remains at 50,000 Avios return.  At off-peak times it has actually got cheaper, dropping to 45,000 Avios return.

PPS.  British Airways states on their website about the changes that, starting in December, it will be ‘easier’ to upgrade from World Traveller to World Traveller Plus because more fare classes will be upgradable.  Technically that is true.  However, World Traveller Plus is a very small cabin with very few seats made available for Avios redemption.  In reality, your chance of being able to upgrade from World Traveller will be slim.

Click for the next article – Save 43% of your Avios on long-haul redemptions if you fly Iberia