Let’s be clear …. avios.com is NOT closing. Your questions answered.

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• Julian says:

  20 Aug20 August 11:12

  Rob/Raffles,

  You don’t seem to have covered “Can and how I do use a Lloyds credit card earned avios.com one class flight upgrade voucher” after BA Executive Club and avios.com sever their connection?”

  Logically one might have thought that such a voucher would move on to one’s parallel (or newly opened in a few less common cases) BA Executive Club account and be able to be used there to upgrade a BA Executive Club avios redemption booking by one class. But not so as BA’s view seems to be that because the class upgrade voucher is also being completely withdrawn by Lloyds (as the Lloyds Amex card disappears for any :Legacy Duo or Rewards card account holder, even though a poorer lower Avios rate collecting Mastercard card will remain) then there is no point in them spending money on updating their own IT infrastructure (even though most of that is now being done very cheaply in India) to accommodate this.

  Instead to use a Lloyds Avios flight upgrade voucher the route to do so will remain a telephone call to the avios.com sales centre, which will remain open (I have been told) for Lloyds Avios card class upgrade vouchers until such time as the validity of all such vouchers has expired.

  Although the Avios site will remain open as a collection hub for some other Avios schemes the fact is that the bulk of the jobs with Avios.com actually related to its BA Executive Club and link and therefore the vast bulk of those jobs will go at the end of this month. For instance the guy I spoke to on the avios.com customer service line two weeks ago assured me that his job was going at the end of August and only some of his colleagues on the sales side were remaining in post to facilitate the continued flight class upgrade voucher redemptions.

  I also can’t see how it makes sense for Vueling Club to remain linked with the scheme in the long run given that the airline is now again wholly owned again by IAG. But probably at some point Iberia Express and Vueling will be amalgamated (or may be Vueling will just hook up with the Iberia Plus Rewards program instead of avios.com) unless by their continued separate existence this makes it harder for the EU competition authorities to act against them?

  • guesswho2000 says:

    20 Aug20 August 11:31

    Who said BAEC and Avios.com would be severing their connection? My understanding is that you’ll still be able to transfer between them, as well as Iberia.

    What I’m not clear on is where the upgrade vouchers are going to go, will they stay in Avios.com, as I have an Aerclub account, or will they transfer to BAEC? As long as I can still use them I don’t care, but would prefer the former, as I can do that online.

• RussellH says:

  20 Aug20 August 12:11

  > The thing that is being closed down is the Avios Travel Rewards Programme. This was set
  > up to be the ‘Avios scheme for people who don’t fly’ and there was a hope that it would
  > compete with Clubcard or Nectar. It has failed to do this – not helped by the fact that BA
  > doesn’t fly from the regions – and is closing.

  When first set up, long before either Clubcard or Nectar incidentally, it did work. I do not think I had heard of frequent flyer schemes when Air Miles launched. The only way that we knew of to get Air Miles in the 1990s was through shopping. I got silly number of miles when buying things like a kettle and a rug at Debenhams. They were paper vouchers, which meant that giving them away to someone else, or combining yours with those of a partner or friend for a trip together was dead easy. The AirMiles price included all taxes, so the flights really were free! The disadvantage back then was that if you had to cancel your trip, you lost the AirMiles – your travel cancellation insurance did not cover that. You could buy a stand alone policy from AirMiles…
  AirMiles soon signed up Access – at the time the only UK MasterCard franchise.
  Then came Clubcard, and AirMiles stopped the paper vouchers and gave out cards. I recall using this card in restaurants too. Sainsbury’s came out with their own loyalty card, and the points could be converted to AirMiles. Sainsbury’s was a mess, though, because you needed a different card for each Sainsbury’s you used (I had three). Then Sainsbury’s brought Nectar to the UK, and that killed Sainsbury’s->AirMiles. Indeed, that may have been the start of the decline of AirMiles, which seemed to try and re-invent itself every 5 years or so.
  At one time it seemed to be just another travel agent, with the USP that you could also pay in AirmIles rather than cash. Around ten years ago I booked LHR-MUC on LH with AirMiles, and managed to screw a few Miles and More miles out of the flight too.
  I wonder if the reason that avios.com ultimately failed as a general loyalty scheme was because they were the first in the UK, with Clubcard and Nectar seeing what worked and what did not.

  • Rob says:

    20 Aug20 August 12:31

    Nectar was also rubbish though, losing all its key partners except Sainsburys who just bought it for peanuts (when you strip out the points liability and cash balance). Clubcard is a shadow of its former self.

  • Mikeact says:

    20 Aug20 August 16:28

    In what way have Avios.com failed……just because it is the de facto standard for all IAG partners ?
    And Access was set up by the competing banks when Barclays/Barclaycard hit the market first with Visa followed by MasterCard …when we all carried around both Barclay cards. The other UK banks had to do something….hence Access…….the registered name still held by NatWest.

    • RussellH says:

      20 Aug20 August 17:07

      Rob gives his feelings in the article that the avios.com travel programme has failed to do what it was set up to do, hence it being closed down.
      As I remember it, Barclaycard arrived in the mid-to-late 1960s (1966 according to Wikipedai); the response of the ‘other’ banks was the cheque guarantee card.
      I certainly had a Barclaycard in 1970. Access only arrived in 1972; some will remember the big stushie when thousands of new, unsolicited Access cards were sent out in bulk mailings. At the time I assumed that I got mine because I had just been granted a cheque guarantee card in late Aug or early Sept – I was given the card because for the last four months of 1972 I was having to cash cheques in Edinburgh, while the bank branch was in Stirling. The first ATMs did not appear unti afterl I returned to the UK from the USA in 1976. You got a pack of punched cards which you fed into the ATM – each card was worth £10 and it was cleared like a cheque, and returned with your bank statement..

    • Rob says:

      20 Aug20 August 20:49

      Avios was meant to be adopted by big name High Street retailers as a loyalty currency.

• Leo says:

  20 Aug20 August 12:36

  As we have a BA Household account I’ve always had to push/pull avios between BA and Iberia via Avios.com. Am I right that I now need to set up an aerclub or veiling account to do this? I know that this seems to be explicitly covered in the article above but do either vueling or aerclub have issues with BA Household accounts etc. like IB does? Sorry for the dumb query – does that even make sense?

• pr99 says:

  20 Aug20 August 13:00

  Has Avios said anything earned via Bink will now go to BAEC.

  • Rob says:

    20 Aug20 August 13:04

    No but it should be automatic for anything sent to your old Avios account.

  • Peter K says:

    20 Aug20 August 19:16

    It’s Bink even still a thing!!! ????????

• chris says:

  20 Aug20 August 13:04

  It is strange, isn’t it, that VA online shopping is so poor % wise as compared to BA?

  It has been each time I’ve compared to the extent I almost never do any more – is there a reason for this?

  • Mr Dee says:

    20 Aug20 August 16:54

    Yes even though they are run on the same software

• Kaz says:

  20 Aug20 August 13:12

  Change of topic but any idea when the new hilton credit card will be launched and when it does launch will the current one cease to exist completely?

  Also, I have spent over £10k this year on my hilton card but it shows my hilton status for next year as Silver- will they update this in the new year or do I have to let them know?

  • Rob says:

    20 Aug20 August 13:18

    I doubt even Hilton knows yet as they are still sending out questionnaires asking for your views on proposed benefits package. It must be 2019 now.

  • RussellH says:

    20 Aug20 August 13:31

    > when it does launch will the current one cease to exist completely?

    I had both the IHG Barclaycard and the Creation IHG M’Card for a few months. Turned out to be a bad option as when the IHG Barclaycard finally closed there was a bonus sign-up offer from Creation offered to those who had just lost their Barclaycards.

    However, I do not recall a long period between the IHG Barclaycard being closed to new applicants and the card being withdrawn from existing holders, as we are seeing with the Hilton card. Maybe Barclays suffered more than they let on when they lost the IHG contract?

• Matt says:

  20 Aug20 August 13:22

  OT – Marriott Breakfast.
  I am platinum in the old scheme and remain platinum in the new (thanks for nothing Marriott), but whereas I used to get breakfast AND a welcome gift, it now looks as though you only get one or the other? So many terms and conditions around breakfast/each chain, I am struggling to understand what is going on to be honest – It also still looks as though you get no breakfast at AC hotels or courtyard – looks as though there is some nasty changes creeping in? I thought they claimed benefits were being standardised in each property?

  • Rob says:

    20 Aug20 August 14:11

    No. It is very messy. Perhaps I do a cut out and keep guide!

• Russ says:

  20 Aug20 August 13:27

  Talking about avios and hotels (questionable segue coming) can I book hotels with the Iberia promotional avios or will that put me in negative equity as they suggest? Cheers.

  • PhilW says:

    20 Aug20 August 18:48

    Hotels are all good, provided their booked via Iberia site

    • Russ says:

      20 Aug20 August 20:01

      Thanks PhlW.

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