The Avios changes are live – post your ba.com comments and observations here

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• What's the Point says:

  28 Apr28 April 19:09

  Sorry have I missed something?

  I’ve checked all my Qatar and Sri Lanka Avios redemptions (non-UK flights) and there all the same Avios cost as when I booked last week.

  • Mark says:

    28 Apr28 April 21:57

    If they are economy redemptions then yes they will be – no change in economy peak redemption rates, and all partner redemptions are now classed as peak.

    Long haul business partner redemptions on the other hand have jumped by 50%.

    • What's the Point says:

      29 Apr29 April 12:58

      Many thanks Mark for clarifying

• badger says:

  28 Apr28 April 19:09

  Too much bleddy noise around these changes – I can’t see that people who got a free flight into Heathrow from somewhere in the grim north actually deserve any sympathy now that’s disappeared.

  • sandgrounder says:

    28 Apr28 April 20:32

    Well, what’s cheaper when you pay cash- a direct or a connecting flight? The scheme was less valuable to people in the regions, hence the free connection.

    TBH since the LCCs introduced reserved seats, with priority boarding, it is probably better to fly direct from MAN or LPL in the front row on Ryanair to a short haul destination than face an LHR connection. Now the free connection has been removed it will probably be an annual long haul (if I can find seats!) and the odd trip to BLL and GOT, nothing more. I’m not doing anything drastic just yet, but I think a switch to Virgin is on the cards.

• David Barron says:

  28 Apr28 April 19:55

  Like many I’m sorry to see the demise of the RFS free domestic add-on. As non-status passengers living in the Newcastle area we really benefitted from this every once in a while.

  Using up the last of my Avios points I booked a return city break for October a couple of days ago. Newcastle to Milan via Heathrow. £70 return plus 18k points was a bargain I had to book whilst I still could. The cash only fare was an eye watering £578.70 for my wife and I at the time of booking.

  Also thanks to my Hilton Gold status and some Hhonors points in the bank our 3 night break was confirmed for 30 euros a night plus 8k points per night. Happy days!

  As for the future then I for one am now saving Virgin miles instead of Avios – Great whilst it lasted but my loyalty to BA has gone and its now all about the best prices.

  At least the domestic add-on remains free for long haul, even if the rates have gone up.

  • Fenny says:

    28 Apr28 April 22:21

    I’ll be collecting with Virgin from now on, too. I’m off to Boston in UC in 3 weeks. Shame I’d already converted £120 of clubcard points to BA before all this happened.

• Adam says:

  28 Apr28 April 20:15

  Thanks for the advise, managed to get all stickers now except Regent Street & Bullring, any ideas or help would be much appreciated.
  I have checked in to all locations in the search bar under these terms but no stickers?

  • badger says:

    28 Apr28 April 20:22

    I usually give the example of advice (noun) and advise (verb) to people who are trying to think of a way to get the spellings of practice and practise correctly differentiated.

    Since they sound completely different and only the moronic would confuse them.

    Not sure it would work in all cases, to be sure.

    • RT says:

      28 Apr28 April 20:48

      Grammar Nazi incoming.

      • TJ says:

        29 Apr29 April 00:12

        There always correcting are grammar but their knot perfect

        …well that hurt my brain

        • Worzel says:

          29 Apr29 April 06:54

          “There always correcting are grammar but their knot perfect’ .

          “Oiyam” 🙂 .

• Liz says:

  28 Apr28 April 21:01

  It took me a while to get the Bull Ring one – put Bull Ring Apple Store in your search – that’s how I found it – the Regent St one came up no problem for me.

• idrive says:

  28 Apr28 April 22:26

  well, to be honest i struggle to find big differences in pricing (looking at Eu RFS, some one way from France/Italy got cheaper taxes, intra Asia redemptions look ok) so this means i will be kind of quiet for the time being. Also Cash prices for Economy tickets at the moment are crazy and the only disappointment is the earning rates. So this will make me save to use 2 Amex 241 in Business off peak one day in the future. Luckily i managed to sneak in a LON-EDI for free. Completely forgot about JER, which was in my plan, was stupid i did not book a ticket i needed.

  I think I will switch earnings to AA or Iberia, keeping forgetting how AA redemptions are cheap and convenient (someone quoted bad cancellation policies though) and put my BA Card away, switch to AA/LH and complete with Virgin, in which I have two Premium Eco+one upper class ready to go whenever i want/find availability.
  But still the truth is that I am going to pay cash for my next tickets. I am very tempted by the HKG deal with BA as a treat for my birthday…just for the experience but i don’t need Bronze as I am already Silver with OW…
  I will keep my Avios balance safe for last minute/emergency/super treat and for the 241 once I have found my companion:-)
  We have to accept these changes, now it’s done. I only feel very sorry for the EX-London people.
  hopefully we will see some sort of bonus that will offset this change.

• Incidental Tourist says:

  29 Apr29 April 07:27

  It seems BA has created two exec clubs, one for economy travellers who will now never earn enough avios for premium cabins but for whom economy redemptions are now cheaper (off peak), the other for premium travellers who should have better availability when they look to redeem since there will be less demand for premium seats from economy travellers and from UpgradewithAvios (which is no longer a no brainer given the absurd price of premium economy versus biz on other carriers).

  Im okay with this.. so long as the better availability turns out to be true…

  The cheaper economy redemptions also benefit status holders if they just have to be somewhere at short notice. As a gold I can usually find economy availability all the time (books into V). Before the changes an economy return to YYZ cost a mimimum of 20,000 avios plus cash, now it costs 10,400 plus slightly less cash (offpeak). That is the price with the highest cash component selected, and that’s a good price for the flexibility you receive ( V class if you need to change).

  Now if BA’s economy seats weren’t so bad this would genuinely be useful. The one time in the last year that I was booked to fly BA Y longhaul I chickened out and upgraded to W at the airport. Before you slate me for being soft, note that this was a 787 to EWR. Boeing designed this plane for 8 across, BA sees fit to put 9 across in Y. This is $¥€£ing cruel!

• Incidental Tourist says:

  29 Apr29 April 07:33

  It would be interesting to know the proportion of the readership of hfp that actually dont fly at all apart from redemption flights using avios gained via credit cards ? Judging by comments I’d reckon a third…

  • Rob says:

    29 Apr29 April 08:38

    HFP had 10,000 unique visitors yesterday plus another 3,500 get the emails. That is 13,500 readers. There are about 50 people who write the majority of the comments (to whom I am very grateful). Don’t confuse one with the other though. The email list is a ‘who’s who’ of investment banks, accountants, consultancies etc.

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