You no longer earn Avios and British Airways tier points when flying Emirates

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• Neil says:

  12 Jul12 July 07:11

  This also worked for Air Tahiti Nui metal between Auckland & Papeete (Tahiti) back in March this year – booked under a Qantas Code share via the Qantas site. Tier points and Avios auto deposited against BAEC (much to my surprise). This explains why.

  • Rizz says:

    12 Jul12 July 11:51

    … and a bunch of other airlines too – I remember getting TPs/Avios for booking Air Niugini and Fiji Airways, both booked under QF codes, in the past. Basically, whoever Qantas codeshared with.

• JRC says:

  12 Jul12 July 07:55

  That’s odd though- I don’t think Air Tahiti Nui is a Oneworld member yet.

  • Matt says:

    12 Jul12 July 09:22

    Its not, but it was a QF code share. I redeemed Amex points to QF to book SYD-PPT (via AKL) last year. It was under a Qf flight code – saved me loads in a economy alone 😀

    • JRC999 says:

      12 Jul12 July 16:03

      Yes but the Emirates flights are QF Code share as well. So don’t understand why ATN Tier Points and Avios would post and they wouldn’t for Emirates, unless i am missing something.

• David says:

  12 Jul12 July 08:08

  I am not sure I will miss this offer. In 2020 I flew return LHR first to Melbourne on Emirates on a QF codeshare. Fare was higher but I thought it worth it for the tier points, and there was also no Emirates limo service on the codeshares. However tier points were never received. I gave up after constant phone calls and letters.

• Nick says:

  12 Jul12 July 08:37

  There are several changes coming to TP earning, they’re being spaced out so it’s not a huge hit all at once. This one can be taken as ‘trimming the edges first’.

  • Andrew says:

    12 Jul12 July 08:43

    Anything more to share?

  • Charles Martel says:

    12 Jul12 July 08:55

    Can they really dilute the programme any more? Surely there will come a tipping point when the other Oneworld schemes (or Star) make a lot more sense.

    • Rob says:

      12 Jul12 July 09:07

      I was with senior people from another oneworld airline this week, and they feel IAGL has jumped the shark and has lost touch with what members want.

      • Bervios says:

        12 Jul12 July 09:13

        What does. ‘Jump the shark mean’ – Google tells me it’s about Fonzie from
        Happy days water skiing so I think I’m on the wrong track!

        • Rob says:

          12 Jul12 July 09:34

          No, that is correct. The decline of ‘Happy Days’ is generally seen to stem from the episode in which Fonzie jumps over a shark on water skis, and after that episode it descended into increasing levels of stupidity without the strong characterisation which drove the earlier episodes.

          Hence the phrase is now widely used to describe an event which led to the organisation etc involved losing its last shred of credibility / authority / whatever.

          It was wheeled out when Chelsea did the ‘Best Bed At The Bridge’ stunt with Hilton earlier in the year.

          Arguably, if Avios had such a moment, you could date it back to when they put up all the ‘Fly to Amsterdam in Economy for 19,500 Avios + £1’ advertising when RFS launched and seriously thought it was a good idea, given how hard it is for the average person to earn 19,500 Avios and how cheap Amsterdam fares are.

        • Chabuddy Geezy says:

          12 Jul12 July 10:07

          There have been rumours that might reduce TP earning on oneworld airlines not in the North Atlantic JV/Qatar

        • bennymoon says:

          12 Jul12 July 11:30

          “The idiom “jumping the shark” or “jump the shark” is a term that is used to argue that a creative work or entity has reached a point in which it has exhausted its core intent and is introducing new ideas that are discordant with, or an extreme exaggeration of, its original purpose.”

      • SH says:

        12 Jul12 July 09:49

        I think it stems from poor survey design. They have interpreted what people want as “I want to book a flight with all points and no cash”, meaning that they should not change the underlying pricing but shift the balance to Avios, hence 19,500 Avios plus a £1 to Amsterdam, a staggering waste of a sign-up bonus. What they probably actually meant was “why when I book a business award to New York after saving up for ages do you want £1,000 in ‘taxes, fees, and charges’ as well”…

        A move to revenue-based TP earning is surely not far away, which will be seen as a master-stroke by the management as nobody will be able to do TP runs anymore (why this is seen as a problem is confusing; who else is buying 10 sector tickets from Sofia to Honolulu?), and it concentrates the scheme further towards appealing to bankers going to and from NY in First, who cost the scheme nothing anyway because the benefits they use are covered by their cash tickets.

        Once it gets to revenue-based status earning then I think it’s the end of the scheme for anybody who values websites like this. Might as well just buy business on whichever airline is the cheapest, which is quite often *A.

        • LittleNick says:

          12 Jul12 July 09:59

          Yes sadly suspect you’re right but pray/hope they won’t gut status earning too badly for those not on corporate tickets. I hope it’s still possible to attain Gold as a leisure traveller that can do a couple of long hauls a year as well as european trips too in a membership year otherwise my loyalty to BA will be gone and just going with whoever offers the cheapest J fares etc within reason.

        • Callum says:

          12 Jul12 July 14:10

          People have been pronouncing the latest changes as “the straw that broke the camels back” and “mark my words, this will stop people flying with BA” year after year after year after year. Yet here we are with record profits.

          They are well aware what people meant in that survey scenario you describe, they simply understand that while people may WANT something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s more profitable to provide it. Given the profits they make, it seems hard to argue that they’re wrong.

      • Charles Martel says:

        13 Jul13 July 03:11

        With recent changes to Avios earn rates, increases in fees and now rumour changes to tier points they’re not even boiling the proverbial frog slowly any more. Are the other airlines looking to take advantage by offering cards and shopping portals in the UK or just taking it as a lesson in what not to do?

        • Rob says:

          13 Jul13 July 08:48

          There’s a lot going on, more than I’ve seen for 7-8 years.

    • Niall says:

      13 Jul13 July 00:30

      It has already happened for me at least. For really genuine very frequent flyers who pay themselves / care about costs, Alaska is better. Earnings from flights are significantly better. Status is harder to achieve, but I’ll reach oneworld emerald in either BA or Alaska, I’ll just get significant more and more valuable miles from Alaska. BA should be careful here though. The fact it’s easiest to earn status in executive club is the last thing keeping it competitive.

      • LittleNick says:

        13 Jul13 July 21:56

        The problem with Alaska frequent flyer program is no lounge access if flying domestically in the USA or even a lot of routes across N.American unlike using BA status in USA

  • Jack says:

    13 Jul13 July 11:10

    How many times has this been said now over the last year there is not going to be any changes to how tier points are earned as they would have happened a long time ago now. Revenue based status earning is not done by the vast majority of airlines as it does not really work and only reward those who buy expensive tickets who do not need rewarding, rather than those who fly often . Why would you earn TPS flying a non one world or IAG carrier

• LittleNick says:

  12 Jul12 July 09:12

  Not surprising this came to an end, got to remember who owns a significant share of IAG and in turn BA, which is QR. They’re not exactly going to be very happy one of their companies is offering points for flying a direct competitor!

  • aseftel says:

    12 Jul12 July 10:30

    I think Qatar has more beef with Qantas than with Emirates actually

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    12 Jul12 July 15:37

    They own 25% of IAG and nominate 2 board members neither of which (Phillips and Matheu) appear to have any connection to QR itself.

    https://www.iairgroup.com/media/ihlizso0/board-report-on-the-proposed-re-election-of-directors-item-6-a-to-k.pdf

• Toby Warren says:

  12 Jul12 July 09:24

  Any one know when this changed? I did this route in April and have been patiently waiting for the points (and ensued the Limo service for them!)

  • Rob says:

    12 Jul12 July 09:31

    First Flyertalk comments were from April and it seems to have changed at some point between January and April.

    • Toby Warren says:

      12 Jul12 July 09:36

      Thanks, this is such a nusance.

      • ADS says:

        12 Jul12 July 11:02

        sounds like it’s still worth submitting a retro claim!

• Ian Johnston says:

  12 Jul12 July 19:22

  The quirky world of tier points is currently baffling me

  Qatar flights post before I land

  Qatar cash + avios check in offer upgrades post as P class – better for tier points, worse for Avios given I book flexible economy

  Qatar economy upgraded to business months beforehand post as ineligible flights and the constant back and forth with BA is doing my head in.

  Cathay PE constant posts as zero tier points.

  BA flights take 3 days to post

  I can remember the late 90s when North American flights earned more tier points. Sure looks like we are headed back that way.

• Bernard says:

  12 Jul12 July 19:23

  IAG/BA only care about short term profits. Who else would have put an incompetent who was totally out of his depth as BA CEO. Cruz has gone . But it’s indicative.

  Just wait until the review of the 80 tier point route offer concludes.

  The problem is that Avios is now separate from airlines, so is pursuing its own narrow objectives, not that (on Avios or tier points) maximise the airlines’ repeat custom.

  IAG has the same problem with the Avios CEO as American had with their now ex-marketing person.

  Flying BA for avios is ‘over’. Just easier to fly a better airline and get the spend based avios on credit card promo.

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