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I made a 241 voucher Avios redemption this week to Grenada in Club World so I thought I would share details in case of use. I had worked out the exact number of Avios I needed in advance but then the new RFS changes made things a lot more complicated. I only just had enough Avios to cover the booking at the original (pre-RFS long haul changes) redemption pricing. I almost got stuffed as a result.
First up, I got through to BA almost immediately on the 1 800 452 1201 shortly before midnight. I had tried a couple of non-UK numbers in advance but they got me through to cash only booking teams who transferred me other cash teams despite me asking for Executive club. I’m glad I checked in advance.
Key point for this route is that the redemption is now more expensive than it was pre December 2022. The base Avios plus cash amount on the HesdforPoints How Many Avios Do I Need to Fly to…? table is out of date and presumably impossible to update in a sensible way…
I booked the outbound leg on the BA website shortly after midnight. It gave me different options to pay with varying amounts of Avios plus cash. It was complicated to work out which was the ‘right’ one (ie what it used to be) because my outbound was off peak and my inbound peak. It turns out that I selected a higher Avios sum with a lower cash sum – eg the ‘one of the new options’ 76,000 one way Club rather than the ‘old only option’ 62,500 one way Club.
When I called back to book the return leg, the agent held the tickets and then spent ages pricing up the total cost. She put me on hold and when she came back told me that the pricing option I had chosen for the outbound leg had to be used on the return – ie I would have to pay 76,000 x 2 plus the lower cash element.
I protested because I didn’t have enough Avios for that. I asked to just do the ‘old style’ price of 62,500 outbound off peak plus 75,000 inbound peak. She went away again and then came back to say she would send it down to the back office team to do that.
I’m waiting for confirmation of the final price but hopefully I will be paying the 137,500 total peak / off-peak price Avios price which was standard until December 2022- plus an increased amount of around £1,800 in taxes.
Two things to note –
1. The agent was lovely but she admitted that the new system is much more difficult for them to use and is currently a bit of a mess. She expects lots of errors to be made. She couldn’t estimate the redemption cost before the tickets were released and she made the booking.
2. As far as I can see, it is now very hard to work out exactly how many Avios you will need in order to make a redemption in advance of actually doing so, especially with a mix of peak and off peak. If you were aiming for a specific number of Avios for a redemption based on the previous standard redemption sums, you now need to be very careful when making the booking to ensure that you choose the right component for a specific leg. Maybe BA will always reprice as a whole after you book the inbound but my call suggests maybe not. I simply couldn’t work out what Avios I needed in advance.
On a separate note, the level of taxes now mean that I’m way less enthusiastic about the whole thing…
Anyway hope this helps someone.
Thanks for the feedback. This is going to be messy for a while I think, especially until old style 241s wash out.
Similar (and very frustrating) issue
We made a flight booking from London to Barbados in Club with the old-style Companion Voucher:
– Outbound (booking made -355 days pre-changes) – was charged 62,500 Avios plus £882.08 of tax/surcharges
– Inbound (booking made post-changes) – we were refunded the 62,500 Avios and was charged 180,000 Avios for the whole return and an extra £550.20, leading to a total tax/surcharges of £1,432.28 for the 2 x off-peak flights.I had expected a new booking now to be (i) 180,000 Avios plus £900 with the new RFS (i.e. 90,000 Avios plus £450 one way and this is the option I get when I search on BA myself). Or
(ii) Both under the old Avios rate of 125,000 Avios plus £1,764.16 return
(iii) If one way was pre-change and the other was post-changes: a total of 152,000 Avios plus £1,302.08 (62,500 + 90,000 Avios plus £882.08 + £450)But somehow I found myself being charged more Avios and £ – tried to speak to a call centre agent in the UK post-booking and it was not very useful at all (they even claimed that they were not aware of the new RFS Avios rates…). After asking Rob and found the HfP Forum, and realising that it is just a huge mess, will keep calling to see where we go with this!!
I booked MAN-LHR-NAS for next December when my outbound date was released the other day at T-355. I decided to stay as near to the old pricing as possible as that tends to fit both my avios and cash budget. I paid 62,500 avios plus £840 in surcharges. I can’t remember what I’ve paid previously when booking the same flight to GCM but the cash amount definitely isn’t higher. A dummy booking is showing that the nearest PE pricing on the return is 50k avios (peak) plus £520, my feeling is that that has gone up slightly for the cash element. But as this is a very expensive route and I’d expect cash prices to be £2k+ pp for CW out and PE back, an award booking still makes sense. I’ll be booking the inbound in a couple of weeks so it’ll be interesting to see if they will then refund the 50% avios without quibble.
Apologies – put this on the wrong thread initially!
In case it’s helpful additional information, I just called to see if I can change the inbound on my 241 booking to RFS (pay some more Avios, get some cash back). I was told the whole booking would have to be changed to RFS, they couldn’t change just a single flight, but besides, one of my outbound flights is in First which doesn’t allow RFS, so I couldn’t change the whole booking to RFS if I wanted to keep the flight in First, which I definitelyo do.
I manly use my yearly 2-4-1 voucher to fly yearly to Capetown.
Bus out, Premium back (both Off Peak)I know the old cost because I have a booking for this Jan £1291 for 95000 Avios
After the recent changes I made a record of the new prices, it was £1360 for 95000 Avios
However, now for the same trip it is £ 1,856 for 95000 Avios
Are those cash sums the surcharges and is that with a new or old voucher?
Something weird does seem to be happening with surcharges as I tried booking an F return to NYC yesterday with an old voucher and was quoted the old avios price as expected but over £2k in fees!This was using a new voucher!
We booked outward to Miami in early Dec and are currently waiting for our return dates to come up. Given the unexpected hike in avios required and the limited opportunities for replenishing avios these days (for some of us anyways!), we chose the second pricing option at this first stage (one way: 76k avios + £680) but suspect we would now be better off with the headline pricing option when booking the return by phone (for return seems to be 190k + £900 for offpeak/peak journey??). All of the replies so far have been really helpful so just wondering if anyone else had additional experience yet of trying to move to this when booking the return. We’re on a new 2-for-1 voucher and flights showing to date all seem to be reward saver ones. Thanks in advance for any advice!
This zone seems to be the worst affected by the pricing changes, Rob has referred to it a couple of times in his recent articles. Personally I think the original pricing gives the best value but that’s because it tends to coincide with my avios & cash budgets. The headline pricing is only beneficial, IMO, if you have a huge pile of avios to earn.
How are you planning to book the return? I haven’t heard if anyone’s booked one of the new price options online then asked for the 50% avios back, they might insist that you have to choose the same ratio of cash & avios on both legs but it’s an unknown atm.With hindsight, I’d have preferred to do this whole trip (probably just this one) on the headline option pricing, but not sure if I’ll now get that option when phoning in for the return leg. Being a bit dense here, I realise, but not sure I understand the reference to ‘asking for the 50% avios back’? Forgot to say that this is – hopefully – a business class booking both ways, out off-peak, returning peak. Apols!
I manly use my yearly 2-4-1 voucher to fly yearly to Capetown.
Bus out, Premium back (both Off Peak)I know the old cost because I have a booking for this Jan £1291 for 95000 Avios
After the recent changes I made a record of the new prices, it was £1360 for 95000 Avios
However, now for the same trip it is £ 1,856 for 95000 Avios
That’s infuriating as I wanted to use mine for CPT having used one for Johannesburg earlier this year. I thought from earlier articles recent changes only really affected people based outside the UK and additionally a couple of random routes like Brazil, Barbados and Tel Aviv. Obviously it’s poor all round by the sound of things.
With hindsight, I’d have preferred to do this whole trip (probably just this one) on the headline option pricing, but not sure if I’ll now get that option when phoning in for the return leg. Being a bit dense here, I realise, but not sure I understand the reference to ‘asking for the 50% avios back’? Forgot to say that this is – hopefully – a business class booking both ways, out off-peak, returning peak. Apols!
One option for securing the return is to book it online then contact BA to request a refund of the extra avios. Most agents are happy to do this.
Thanks, Anna – really appreciate the advice. Happy New Year when it comes – let”s hope BA have no other surprises up their sleeves in 2023!
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