In your opinion will BA go the way of Virgin Points with dynamic pricing?
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In your opinion will BA go the way of Virgin Points with dynamic pricing?
I feel like it’s made it so much more difficult to collect virgin points vs just cashback. Do you think BA will do the same with avios?
Rob believes they want to. He’s said it about 3 times in the virgin article comments.
They’ll kill the golden goose if they do it the way Virgin has
Avios is more than just BA who might wish to move to dynamic pricing like Virgin but while one should never say never, IAG Loyalty has created a whole Avios ecosystem that is very profitable, so it would be odd if they decided to kill it off by being too clever.
Avios is more than just BA who might wish to move to dynamic pricing like Virgin but while one should never say never, IAG Loyalty has created a whole Avios ecosystem that is very profitable, so it would be odd if they decided to kill it off by being too clever.
Which is currently the correct answer.
ALTHOUGH …. if Virgin had kept the guaranteed seats all would have been well.
(To be fair to VS …. I booked 4 UC down to Cape Town for next Easter when Virgin extended the schedule – the 2 guaranteed seats x 2 days, back to back. Those flights now seem to be full because VS is quoting £15,000 for UC on the same April 2025 services. Price is so high it won’t even offer seats under ‘guaranteed availability’!).
Avios is more than just BA who might wish to move to dynamic pricing like Virgin but while one should never say never, IAG Loyalty has created a whole Avios ecosystem that is very profitable, so it would be odd if they decided to kill it off by being too clever.
Which is currently the correct answer.
ALTHOUGH …. if Virgin had kept the guaranteed seats all would have been well.
(To be fair to VS …. I booked 4 UC down to Cape Town for next Easter when Virgin extended the schedule – the 2 guaranteed seats x 2 days, back to back. Those flights now seem to be full because VS is quoting £15,000 for UC on the same April 2025 services. Price is so high it won’t even offer seats under ‘guaranteed availability’!).
Enjoy Cape Town, we’ll be leaving about then after 3 months of hopefully full on windsurfing up in Langebaan. Always windier than Cape Town, but less waves, ideal for an old boomer.
I hope not. I think I’d give up with air miles at that point and get a hotel credit card or Cashback card
@Garethgerry – so pleased to hear the mention of Langebaan (and hopefully visiting La Petite Maison). Most people here seem to do the overtouristed Garden Route as a reflex, without considering any other options when the west coast is just so much nicer, unspoilt and better value.
We live 100yds from Petit Maison.
Agree about garden route over hyped. If you are into flowers come in August flower season, the west coast from Postberg up to springbok and inland is just a sea of wild flowers
We live 100yds from Petit Maison.
Agree about garden route over hyped. If you are into flowers come in August flower season, the west coast from Postberg up to springbok and inland is just a sea of wild flowers
We ate in there a couple of years ago on the way back from Paternoster.
We are booked for early October next year, plan was to go to Namaqualand for the flowers, do you think we have left it a bit late to do that?
Planning to spend time down in Overberg as well.
Sorry for hijacking the thread!
Thinking about it, personally I think I’d be better off if they did follow this route. Almost never travel peak holiday times, usually choose location by price of flight, really only use Avios for CV booking each year. Hopefully the extra “availability” would add to my options, but can plainly see for those tied to half terms and the like, it’s probably a killer, unless of course as Rob says, they keep the guaranteed number of fixed price seats and just add the rest as variable prices.
We live 100yds from Petit Maison.
Agree about garden route over hyped. If you are into flowers come in August flower season, the west coast from Postberg up to springbok and inland is just a sea of wild flowers
We ate in there a couple of years ago on the way back from Paternoster.
We are booked for early October next year, plan was to go to Namaqualand for the flowers, do you think we have left it a bit late to do that?
Planning to spend time down in Overberg as well.
Sorry for hijacking the thread!
You’ll be pushing it, we used to go to Langebaan for nearly 6 months , (down to 3 post covid). Occasionally there were still wild flowers in mid October. If you can move it to September the odds would be better. Even without flowers it’s still a spectacular place. Where are you staying, my advice would be look for B&Bs based on farms, great hospitality, the real SA.
We’ll see how things go, but with BA Amex now needing £15k spend, we may change our strategy to focus more on Virgin, particularly for MCO from MAN. We’re flexible with dates, so Virgin redemptions could be much better value.
We’ll see how things go, but with BA Amex now needing £15k spend, we may change our strategy to focus more on Virgin, particularly for MCO from MAN. We’re flexible with dates, so Virgin redemptions could be much better value.
Um, I wouldn’t be too confident on that given events this week!
MAN will have to be the least likely to cheap redemptions as direct flights
MAN will have to be the least likely to cheap redemptions as direct flights
Not from what I can see, plenty of options for 50-70k return redemptions to Orlando in UC, for example.
Not from what I can see, plenty of options for 50-70k return redemptions to Orlando in UC, for example.
Virgin are literally inventory dumping these seats… unsurprisingly demand to fly Manchester to Orlando outside of school holidays in business is… very low.
You’ll find awful value in the new Virgin system to most destinations at desirable travel times.
Avios is more than just BA who might wish to move to dynamic pricing like Virgin but while one should never say never, IAG Loyalty has created a whole Avios ecosystem that is very profitable, so it would be odd if they decided to kill it off by being too clever.
Was reading the following article which detailed how much growth IAG Loyalty is seeing at the moment:
One of the strengths of the programme is undoubtedly the short haul pricing for reward flights. I know it’s not the way to extract the most value for your Avios but I don’t think you should underestimate how much value your average punter might put on an economy redemption to destinations such as the Balearics, Faro or Greek islands. You can save a fortune in cash by using your Avios for those redemptions which you can then put towards your hotel or spending money budget instead.
Nice piece, here’s a link for non paywall.
Not from what I can see, plenty of options for 50-70k return redemptions to Orlando in UC, for example.
As geek has written, anyone with kids who must travel during peak holidays are stuffed.
If you have no kids or are flexible with dates, you can rejoice.
This was pretty clear from the announcement, so not sure why this is a surprise for many.
Avios is more than just BA who might wish to move to dynamic pricing like Virgin but while one should never say never, IAG Loyalty has created a whole Avios ecosystem that is very profitable, so it would be odd if they decided to kill it off by being too clever.
Was reading the following article which detailed how much growth IAG Loyalty is seeing at the moment:
One of the strengths of the programme is undoubtedly the short haul pricing for reward flights. I know it’s not the way to extract the most value for your Avios but I don’t think you should underestimate how much value your average punter might put on an economy redemption to destinations such as the Balearics, Faro or Greek islands. You can save a fortune in cash by using your Avios for those redemptions which you can then put towards your hotel or spending money budget instead.
BA’s network and size means there are always many who are content with using points for low value either because they are ignorant or unable to generate many Avios.
This means they keep subsiding BA’s opportunity cost for redemptions from HfP readers.
I personally know many who use BAPP, forget to book T-355 and then complain there are no seats available. They settle for offsetting the cost of cash flights.
I don’t bother educating them as either they don’t have the patience or they think we just waste time on such silly things.MAN will have to be the least likely to cheap redemptions as direct flights
Ha. My UC to ATL next March is now 29k. I really don’t think I have the strength to work out whether I’ll save on the taxes, let alone call VS to try and re-book!
@CJD, you are correct, though I think many people still don’t appreciate this. I still think fondly of the year BA was flying MAN-NCE and the value we got from using avios to travel at half term/Monaco GP weekend!BA’s network and size means there are always many who are content with using points for low value either because they are ignorant or unable to generate many Avios.
I think it’s important to note that short haul redemptions can offer very good value – albeit more at the higher cash/lower Avios combinations. Ultimately, so long as you can replace the Avios (e.g. through Avios Boost) at a lower price than the value you get vs a cash fare, its a good way to proceed – especially as you getting the cancellation flexiblity vs a non-refundable cash fare.
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