BA Club not worth it now, Avios doubled for spending, Club Europe a joke
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I was going to book a flight back home to Scotland and checked out how much Avios it was only to find out that an off peak has nearly doubled to over 19000 for an economy +£1 . BA have totally lost it now with pricing earning and status. Once my Avios has been spent ill look for alternatives I think. Business is not worth it either now! my last 4 flights to Europe they ran out of champagne after just 2 glasses or they said they need to keep it for the return ! On the return ran out again after 2 glasses. Leg room is what people want and still don’t get this on club Europe, no tray between seats so what are you an actually paying for as its certainly not the service! They should look at partner Malaysias short haul product. I recently went on with an Avios booked flight and it was exceptional
If you’re booking the £1 taxes and charges short haul flights you’re a fool.
The ‘old’ price (from 3 years ago) is still there if you book the one with £17.50 each way taxes and charges. Nothing has changed.
Club Europe, last time I looked, was about fast track security, lounge access, empty middle seat, priority boarding etc. What you forget is that the actual flying bit of a short haul is actually less than half the time you actually spend in BA’s hands and lounge etc are more valuable.
my last 4 flights to Europe they ran out of champagne after just 2 glasses
That’s either a very small bottle or two very large glasses! They aren’t exactly going to be keeping half an open bottle for the return flight.
Well this isn’t Malaysia!
Most European short haul is like BAs – an economy seat with the middle one kept free.
If there isn’t a table installed then there is one in the arm rest to pull out or if you’re not on row one pull the table for the middle seat down.
When did you last book an award seat? The 18/19k plus £1 starting prices have been around for a few years now.
Does sound as though crew were implementing a policy of max 2 glasses of champagne per flight though. I’d be unlikely to drink that much on the ground in the length of time of most shorthaul flights anyway. Not even if it was a good champagne really.
@GaryB757 – I don’t drink the champagne but my wife does and they seem incredibly generous with proactive refills, but there’s usually a level of engagement that encourages this. I have never observed any two glass limit or mention of keeping alcohol back for the return. Perhaps it was a polite way of saying maybe you had had enough??
The BA CE product compares favourably with other intra European business cabins, but none of them really compare with some intra Asian business cabins and that is something unlikely to change, at least in the sense of European airlines offering big seats.
Short haul European flights are generally ghastly, whichever cabin you are in.
I flew economy from Seoul to Nagoya a couple of weeks ago on Asiana. Was like stepping back 30 years. Flight time was only 90 minutes, but a free meal was served (beef and noodles).
It was a very old A330, with very old seats. Well padded and comfortable with ample leg room.
@Alex-G – perhaps there’s a moral here! Both Malaysian and Asiana may offer a better short haul business class but they were bankrupt or nearly bankrupt and had to be bailed out in the last couple of years.
Flew business to Edinburgh last week in business using Avios.
No issues at all with the product.
Maybe opt for a different drink instead of crappy champagne?
I was going to book a flight back home to Scotland and checked out how much Avios it was only to find out that an off peak has nearly doubled to over 19000 for an economy +£1 . BA have totally lost it now with pricing earning and status. Once my Avios has been spent ill look for alternatives I think. Business is not worth it either now! my last 4 flights to Europe they ran out of champagne after just 2 glasses or they said they need to keep it for the return ! On the return ran out again after 2 glasses. Leg room is what people want and still don’t get this on club Europe, no tray between seats so what are you an actually paying for as its certainly not the service! They should look at partner Malaysias short haul product. I recently went on with an Avios booked flight and it was exceptional
Club Europe was never about £1. It was always £35 return with Avios for economy and £50 for Business.
I never had issues with Champagne nor any drinks for that matter.
As Rob pointed out, lounge access, fast track security beats this….
It depends, had this argument before.
For short an hour or less flights, if you you have status, get lounge fast track any way definitely economy is fine. My decision point is two hours before I think of club.
If you have no status then Club benefits on land can be worth it
For us is definitely about the pre departure experience especially from London we did it to BLL in Denmark which is an 1 hr 30 if that but that meant we left from terminal 3 LHR so we could do a lounge tour including the fab Cathay Pacific lounge we have no status so would never get in there. Was also only way we could afford a slightly last minute trip last half term as cash fares were high and there were no economy avios tickets left. Coming back I got a cheap one way fare as we have priority pass so can use the lounge in BLL anyway which would be one benefit of club so seemed pointless.
I think Club Europe is well worth the extra coin for the in-flight benefits of an empty adjacent seat and the convenience of eating a meal on the flight. Club cabins are typically very large, so many others seem to agree with me.
At the risk of reopening another controversy, the ground benefits have hitherto been diluted by cheap, easy Silver status that gives the same things to too many economy passengers. Overcrowded lounges and lengthy queues for Club check-in, express security and priority boarding mean that I attribute little value to these. I will be very happy when the demotions start coming through.
… I will be very happy when the demotions start coming through.
What is your approximate forecast date for your happiness to appear?
I think Club Europe is well worth the extra coin for the in-flight benefits of an empty adjacent seat and the convenience of eating a meal on the flight. Club cabins are typically very large, so many others seem to agree with me.
At the risk of reopening another controversy, the ground benefits have hitherto been diluted by cheap, easy Silver status that gives the same things to too many economy passengers. Overcrowded lounges and lengthy queues for Club check-in, express security and priority boarding mean that I attribute little value to these. I will be very happy when the demotions start coming through.
Quick through First wing, into albeit overcrowded first lounge.
But it will be April 2026 before numbers reduce.Meal on plane depends when you travel , in evening then club worth it.
As a leisure traveller, don’t get early morning flight, we try to arrive early afternoon, well in time to have nice dinner at night. As our normal lunch is a sandwich and cup of tea, don’t miss BA meal.
I will be very happy when the demotions start coming through.
Which won’t happen what with the plethora of other statuses out there.
Someone with an airlines lithium mallard bought status that is equivalent to BA silver or gold (that they used to have) is still going to be in the lounge.
There won’t be a mass clear out of users.
I recently found Fast Track to be the least beneficial to CE – airports have got their acts together with new scanners, procedures, etc. So if you’ve already got lounge access, CE doesn’t really offer much.
I recently found Fast Track to be the least beneficial to CE – airports have got their acts together with new scanners, procedures, etc. So if you’ve already got lounge access, CE doesn’t really offer much.
In my recent experience, half the time the new scanners are hit & miss with many bags still being pulled & causing more of a slow down due to backlogs on the machines.
It is hopefully a teething issue or user error, but at times the previous system actually seemed fast those who know how to be efficient at the scanners.
This was the case at MAN T2 last month. Everything could stay in the bags, but then half the bags were being sent for secondary screening and people were having items confiscated which they’d previously been travelling with for years without incident!
Agreed – at ARN and TFS. Stupid amounts of rejections. It’s almost as if the scanner companies were given a deadline with wanton disregard for fit for purpo — oh, wait!
I will be very happy when the demotions start coming through.
Which won’t happen what with the plethora of other statuses out there.
Someone with an airlines lithium mallard bought status that is equivalent to BA silver or gold (that they used to have) is still going to be in the lounge.
There won’t be a mass clear out of users.
There’s also been a big growth in Club Europe over the last few years. The only people who will make a difference to lounge overcrowding in T5 when they disappear is those travelling in economy with Silver/Gold (and who also haven’t switched to another one world carrier to credit their flights and maintained status).
If excluding frequent flyers who mainly travel in economy from a crumb of comfort at the airport makes anyone “happy” I can only assume they’ve never been flown repeatedly by their employer in economy.
My biggest fear with this rebranding and adjustment of British Airways club is the devaluation of current Avios points by increasing the amount needed for flights. Your post here rang alarm bells with me.
Reading other responses, perhaps you are looking at the one-pound fares. Annoying I cannot put a screenshot here but my standard Avios off-peak flight is EDI-LCY, Edinburgh to London City Airport. And my grown-up kids tend to use that route like a bus.
Thank goodness those reward flights are exactly the same place then respect of points and cash.Example
Edinburgh – London
Wed 18 Jun 2025, 16:10 – Off-Peak9250 Avios + £ 0.50
8500 Avios + £ 4.50
7250 Avios + £ 9.00
4750 Avios + £ 17.50
3700 Avios + £ 32.50
2950 Avios + £ 42.50As I book this route so regularly I know the pricing structure from memory. THERE IS NO CHANGE ON THIS ROUTE.
I still have a fear that in the future the Avios uncontactable people will devalue the Avios points by increasing the amount needed for journeys. That would definitely make my bonus booster purchases massively devalued and I would seek refund for those unless the Avios people increased the number of points received for historic purchases.
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