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Where has all British Airways First Class Avios flight availability gone?

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For the last few days, ba.com has been showing virtually no Avios availability in First Class for 2019.  I sat on the story because I thought it may be an IT glitch, but it does now seem that ‘something’ is up.

The ‘something’ is potentially linked to the Avios and British Airways Executive Club changes discussed here by Alex Cruz, although the problem with that conspiracy theory is that Cruz said that the IT required would not be in place until the year end.

What is odd is that not all First Class availability has been removed.

British Airways First Class Avios availability reduced

As of last night, there was still 2019 availability on the following routes (E&OE):

  • Abu Dhabi
  • Bahrain
  • Barbados
  • Bermuda
  • Doha
  • Dubai
  • Kuwait
  • Riyadh
  • St Lucia
  • Tel Aviv

It doesn’t take a genius to spot the pattern:

Middle East and Caribbean routes retain F Avios availability in 2019

North, South and Latin America, Africa and Asia routes have no F Avios availability in 2019

If you assume that this is not an IT issue and is not linked to reduced availability ahead of a big cash sale (but I normally get notification of those) then you can only assume that British Airways is trying to introduce some immediate changes to Avios redemptions.  This would be in advance of the planned bigger moves, presumably ones that can be done now with the current IT infrastructure.

Options could be:

A major reduction in routes with First Class from 1st January (but if it was being cut, the Caribbean routes would be on the list and New York would not, and in any event seats are being sold for cash)

First Class to be relaunched from 1st January as an uber-premium service which will be so exclusive that BA does not want it tarnished by anyone unwilling to pay for it (but, if so, it would be put on the Middle East routes as a priority since BA is losing premium business to Emirates and Etihad, and those are still open for redemption – and anyway, does anyone believe that BA is capable of offering a super-premium First Class service like Lufthansa or Air France?)

First Class redemptions restricted to certain groups only (eg British Airways Silver and Gold members, potentially no oneworld partners or Blue / Bronze) – the issue here is that this strategy doesn’t have any benefit to BA, since BA First Class is not exactly a premium product on the world stage.  This also makes no financial sense, because IAG makes a lot of money if a Blue member transfers 150,000 Amex points to book a BA First Class redemption, and zero money if a status member redeems 150,000 miles earned from flying.

‘Dynamic pricing’ to be introduced for First Class ahead of its introduction in other classes (but that would require IT capability which Cruz implied was not yet available)

…. or something else?

Whatever it is, British Airways will need to come clean very quickly as it is now clear that ‘something’ is up.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

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Barclaycard Avios card

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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

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There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (231)

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

  • Clive says:
    2 Apr2 April 08:57

    Was about to move a late chunk of MR to Avios in preparation for an F redemption so will have to consider other options. Maybe to VS… and I think SQ redemptions are considered relatively good value? Has these been a H4P article on non-avios MR airline sweet spots somebody could point me to?

    • Rob says:
      2 Apr2 April 08:59

      Depends on route – you need to decide where you want to go first. SQ is amazing value for the Middle East at just 50k return in Business (flying Lufthansa or Swiss from London) but less so elsewhere.

      • Tom1 says:
        2 Apr2 April 09:38

        Any tips on a one-way Pe/biz redemption from Lon to MLE please?

        • Rob says:
          2 Apr2 April 10:01

          London to Doha, Doha to Male probably better bet than BA which anyway is seasonal.

  • N says:
    2 Apr2 April 09:04

    What a kick in the teeth. F redemptions are the only thing worth collecting Avios for. I’ve been slowly but surely building up a stash of SPG recently. Glad I’ve done that!

    I wonder what Amex think…

  • Tom says:
    2 Apr2 April 09:07

    I’ve been on the verge of cancelling my BAPP Amex for a while and moving my CC spend, this may well make me do it!

    • Rob says:
      2 Apr2 April 09:34

      Have I got news coming up for you 🙂

      • Ben says:
        2 Apr2 April 09:38

        That’s just mean Rob!

      • pointsarb says:
        2 Apr2 April 09:50

        Hope that means that the upcoming VS cards are a game changer Rob 🙂

      • Matt says:
        2 Apr2 April 10:03

        How long do we have to wait Rob??

        • The_real_a says:
          2 Apr2 April 11:46

          This week according to twitter!

        • Bonglim says:
          2 Apr2 April 11:55

          I wonder if there is going to be a virgin 241 voucher? That would be a game changer.

      • pointsarb says:
        2 Apr2 April 14:24

        241 Virgin Flight Voucher via credit card + Redemption of VS miles on AF/KLM = bye bye BA 🙂

        • pointsarb says:
          2 Apr2 April 14:30

          …..and what timing this would be for VS to deliver a ‘sucker punch’ to BA with all the negative sentiment toward BA lately!

  • DWB says:
    2 Apr2 April 09:10

    To add another +1. If First redemptions go then so will my BAPP.

    I’ve already cut spending after the recent anecdotal threats of downgrades.

    I’ve got enough Avios to do a few redemptions but I’m seeing no value in earning more while this uncertainty continues.

    BA get money from me right now because of BAPP. That goes, I will not fly them, in any class.

    My impact as one person – minimal. If however a lot of us do it, that could soon add up.

    As Rob so often says – but BA don’t seem to get – the extra money lies in getting those people who pay their own tickets to choose BA. Rewarding those who are there because their employer says so, adds very little.

    • cate says:
      2 Apr2 April 10:25

      Yes but are they making enough money out of you holding the BAPP is the point. If you pay off your balance in full each month, don\t buy any of their other products i.e. holidays, car hire, ins, etc then your walking away and taking someone else\s card may be ok for them.

  • Mr Cinnamon says:
    2 Apr2 April 09:13

    Looks like we got our First returns to Tokyo in February just in time.

    I doubt this will stop me collecting via BAPP, at least not for now.

  • The Original Nick says:
    2 Apr2 April 09:20

    I much prefer using my Avios for seating in nicer carriers to be quite frank. CX, QR, IE are all well ahead in comfort, F&B and CS.

  • Jamesay says:
    2 Apr2 April 09:22

    My own hunch – based on a variety of rumours and experiences lately – is that Cruz will drop FIRST all together (ornon a good number of routes). The FIRST product is not much better than AA Business and frankly on most of the mixed fleet routes in FIRST I’ve befn on the Service from the mixed crew was appalling.

    Cruz is slowly killing the Airline.

    Oh and to the commentator who wrote about “our National carrier” – don’t make me laugh. Just because “British” is in the title … that doesn’t give it “National” status – go check out who owns it!

    • dicksbits says:
      2 Apr2 April 10:02

      I cannot imagine British Airways without First class to NYC..

  • JonTY1 says:
    2 Apr2 April 09:23

    This is a depressing article. The last 5 or 6 years have not been good for airline miles collecting and redeeming….

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

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