BA launches unprecedented 75% ‘buy Avios points’ bonus – worth it?

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• N says:

  5 May5 May 09:23

  First they screwed over everyone who had bookings.

  Now they’re screwing over everyone who currently holds avios.

  Who will they screw over next?

  • N says:

    5 May5 May 09:24

    Sorry I forgot to include

    “Then they screwed over their staff”.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 May5 May 09:34

    How is this screwing over people who hold avios?

    • N says:

      5 May5 May 09:46

      More points available,
      More demand for seats,
      Less available to those with existing points.

      But at least BA have a few more pennies to pay HR to process those redundancies now!

      • Andrew says:

        5 May5 May 10:04

        I’m not sure many people will be throwing good money after bad by snapping up hundreds of thousands of Avios, so I think you’re ok. Plus with the massive downturn in demand for flights, Avios award availability is like to go up to try and shift seats.

        • Spk says:

          5 May5 May 10:14

          You wouldnt buy avios for redeeming flights for next year or two, but beyond that? Prices will creep up soon and you’d need avios for the routes where BA has the only direct flight

        • Mikeact says:

          5 May5 May 11:05

          Probable changes for RFS…£25 to £50 and maybe £50 to £100..Avios stay the same.
          But, further afield?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        5 May5 May 10:18

        Do you know how many Avios get issued a year? a 200k limit per person buying avios at a 25% higher bonus than usual is a mere droplet in the ocean

      • Mikeact says:

        5 May5 May 11:01

        Yes, but thousands have said they won’t fly BA again, so good news all round.

• ChrisA says:

  5 May5 May 09:28

  I’m interested, but it hasn’t picked up on the fact that I am a BAPP cardholder. Perhaps because I’ve only had the card for a few weeks.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    5 May5 May 09:44

    Same here, only 50% bonus on the drop-down. Do you think you need to have your new BAPP card details registered under saved payment cards in your account – worth a try!

    • ChrisA says:

      5 May5 May 10:00

      I’ve tried this, SS – no changes as yet!

  • Spk says:

    5 May5 May 09:55

    I think the system checks for credit of avios from a BA amex card. I have never added the card to my BAEC account, but it recognised me having BAPP.

    • ChrisA says:

      5 May5 May 10:00

      Yes you must be right. I’ve only had my current BAPP since 21st April. It would be very good if, when selecting ‘British Airways Amex’ from the payment options drop down when buying avios, it added the extra 25% avios on.

      • Nick says:

        5 May5 May 11:14

        Ok so we need to be clear what the definition is. Amex doesn’t have separate bin ranges they guarantee (and share with merchants) for each co-brand product, so BA can’t know from your card number which Amex it is.

        What happens is Amex give them periodically a list of BA card holders. This then triggers a flag in your EC account saying ‘BA/AX card holder’. THIS is what they will be using to determine who gets the bonus. Incidentally this is the same reason co-brand cardholders used to have to pay the CC surcharge – BA tried many times to get Amex to help exempt these cards but Amex always refused to do it.

        Therefore, as long as you do have a BA Amex, you can use any Amex to pay and will get the bonus. Similarly, if you only recently took out the card, it will not trigger (though you could probably put in a manual claim later depending on offer T&C).

        Similarly, if you have recently cancelled a card (no guarantees of course!) you’ll almost certainly still trigger the bonus if you pay with another Amex. My flag took months to be reset when I cancelled mine (as you can see in the email ads they send you, some will be bespoke for card holders, and I got the ‘wrong’ ones for ages.

        • ChrisA says:

          5 May5 May 11:20

          Thanks for this explanation Nick. I’m pleased for people who may be able to benefit from this rather inefficient system through having a recently cancelled BA Amex.
          For those of us who have recently taken out a new one, it is a little frustrating – although as you say a manual claim may be possible. The only problem there is that the only mention of this extra 25% avios for BA Amex cardholders that I can find, is via this article!

  • Lady London says:

    5 May5 May 09:58

    Try it – worth checking final screen in case it does it anyway

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 May5 May 10:22

    Think its just looking for Avios drops in your account recently. Mine is showing 75% bonus and i cancelled the card 2 months ago. No card payment saved in my account either.

• Alex W says:

  5 May5 May 09:33

  Tesco clubcard quarter ends this week. There must be a decent chance of a conversion bonus to Avios and/or Virgin?

  It must have been a couple of years since the last virgin one and they need cash. I’ve stockpiled about £185 vouchers in anticipation…

  • BJ says:

    5 May5 May 10:08

    Doubt there are many of us left with a clubcard balance worth getting excited about.

    • Rob says:

      5 May5 May 10:19

      I actually have £18 this quarter! Of which £15 came from Tesco Bank, since whenever I have a one year savings account mature they seem to send me a 750 points voucher as a thank you.

      • Mikeact says:

        5 May5 May 11:07

        @Rob…,you still on grandfather rate ?

    • The Urbanite says:

      5 May5 May 10:38

      @BJ the Tesco Debit card remains a generous proposition, paying at least 1 CC point per £1 of in store spend. It’s better still when the Pay+ bonus offers are on. The scheme isn’t dead yet!

      • BJ says:

        5 May5 May 23:01

        @Urbanite, shifted mine to HSBC for £175. Figured that I’d be better placed for anew Tesco account in the highly unlikely event one comes along. I shop Sainsbury as return on nectar is better than on clubcard.

  • Connor says:

    5 May5 May 10:24

    Managed to get £70 worth this quarter. Handy as I’d used them all for Hotels.com bookings.

• Phil G says:

  5 May5 May 09:34

  In the past few years opportunities to spend avios on flights I want to be on have reduced dramatically.

  I don’t see BA as a company who wants to make this any better, unless it suits them.

  So will there be more avios seats in the future?

  • Rhys says:

    5 May5 May 09:50

    I wouldn’t be surprised if BA use it as a tool to aid recovery once travel re-starts. Big demand lever they could pull if they suddenly released 4 CW seats on every flight instead of the usual 2.

    • Lady London says:

      5 May5 May 10:01

      And remember on Transatlantic and some Asia even if you make an avios booking, at least in Y the ‘taxes’ that are mostly kept by BA, can be far more than you’d pay several other airlines for a pure cash booking without having to hand over any avoid as well

      • the_real_a says:

        5 May5 May 15:10

        Exactly – people need to understand Avios Long Haul redemption’s are cash generating from the “tax” component.

    • Spk says:

      5 May5 May 10:03

      Agreed. Why let empty seats go waste if they can reduce liabilities and get some ‘taxes’ in at same time?

      • Rob says:

        5 May5 May 10:20

        They are already releasing FAR more than 2. We have rebooked our California trip for next Easter, on prime Easter school holiday dates. There were 6-8 CW seats when we booked on the flights we looked at.

        • Anna says:

          5 May5 May 18:31

          They are even releasing more than 2 in CW on the NAS/GCM route just now, this has never happened outside of low (hurricane) season before! Great news for the 3 of us if they re-open the borders by next Easter.

    • Charlieface says:

      5 May5 May 14:24

      Only 2+4 seats is a myth. That only applies at T-355, historically they could and usually did release many more seats over the next year, especially last minute.

• Andy says:

  5 May5 May 09:35

  What happens to the Avios if BA goes bust?

  I’ve never had to think about that before.

  • Grant says:

    5 May5 May 09:43

    You have one less place to spend them

    • Andy says:

      5 May5 May 10:06

      True. But let’s face it, people collect Avios for the flights, not some wine.

      • Genghis says:

        5 May5 May 10:32

        Likely you won’t be able to buy them for wine either given AGL will run out of cash.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    5 May5 May 09:45

    BA wont go bust!

    • BrightonReader says:

      5 May5 May 14:41

      They said the titanic wouldn’t sink.

• Gromit says:

  5 May5 May 09:39

  Cash is king which is why they want some of yours…..

• dr says:

  5 May5 May 09:40

  Meanwhile I’m just coming into my 6th week of waiting for a refund from them!

  • Andrew says:

    5 May5 May 10:06

    Chase them up, refunds are being done in a couple of days now, so if you call them they will action yours immediately.

• Cam says:

  5 May5 May 09:42

  Before deciding to accumulate Avios (or any other points) for future travel, the fundamental question is where one will actually be able to travel, and how much of a hassle it will be, for the near term. E.g., BBC are reporting today that New Zealand will keep closed borders (ex-Australia) for some time.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    5 May5 May 09:45

    And U.S.A until 2021!

    • Jessiefan says:

      5 May5 May 10:31

      Source for this? No way USA will ban travellers until 2021

      • Alan says:

        5 May5 May 23:47

        US transport secretary interview I believe, seen it in a few place. They seem to be planning to get internal travel really ramped up first. If no vaccine by the end of the year then 2021 seems sadly quite plausible.

  • Rhys says:

    5 May5 May 09:48

    Depends on what your definition of ‘some time’ is. At this stage I think it’s anyone’s guess.

    • Cam says:

      5 May5 May 11:32

      The quote from Jacinda Ardern is “a long time to come”.

      • Alan says:

        5 May5 May 23:49

        Yep sounds like into 2021 for sure from the way they were speaking. Until there’s a vaccine they can’t risk opening up sooner, would undo all the work they’ve done.

        • Rob says:

          6 May6 May 09:48

          What % of their population travel abroad each year (excluding Australia)? Not many I reckon. It’s not like the UK where you’re a 1 hour flight from multiple countries. It also isn’t as driven by tourism as, say, Spain or Italy so cutting off that revenue stream is not a massive killer, and of course the staycation effect offsets some of it.

          Seems a sensible approach on that basis.

  • BJ says:

    5 May5 May 10:21

    + how much will an avios be worth going forward? Views expressed on blogs like HFP suggesting FF schemes will be used by airlines to help them emerge from this situation might be right, but it is also possible members may come down to earth with a very heavy bump.

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