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British Airways devalues Club Europe Avios redemptions

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Clearly assuming that no-one would be around on a Wednesday in mid-July (and indeed I was in the middle of nowhere in the Lake District, and Rhys was in The Seychelles checking out Hilton properties), British Airways decided to sneak out a devaluation of Club Europe flight redemptions.

An identical devaluation has taken place on World Traveller Plus and Club World redemptions, although this is much smaller percentage increase.

British Airways devalues Club Europe Avios redemptions

What has changed with Club Europe Avios redemptions?

It’s very simple.

The cash element has been increased by £24 return (£12 one way).

This is the case irrespective of which ‘cash and Avios’ option you pick.

The lowest one-way cash option is no longer 50p, it is £12.50. The highest is no longer £62.50 but £74.50.

Here’s an example of the new pricing for a one-way to Berlin in Club Europe:

British Airways devalues Club Europe Avios redemptions

What is odd about this change is that Avios made a big song and dance about moving to a flat £1 taxes and charges figure because it was a move back to ‘free flights’.

OK, you had to pay a lot more Avios to access £1 of charges, and it was substantially poorer value than the other payment options, but if you wanted to feel that you’d got a ‘free’ flight then you could book one.

Now you can’t. The lowest Club Europe redemption now requires £25 of taxes and charges, which seems to defeat the point (sic) of having a ‘free’ headline rate.

Note that there are no changes to Economy (Euro Traveller or World Traveller) redemptions.

And on long haul ….

£25 return has been added to World Traveller Plus and Club World redemptions.

Club World flights to New York had, with Reward Flight Saver, £350 return of taxes and charges.

This has now gone up to £375 return:

British Airways devalues Club Europe Avios redemptions

These changes add £96 to a return trip in Club Europe for a family of four, and £100 to a return long-haul trip in World Traveller Plus or Club World.

The changes follow hot on the heels of the Avios devaluation of American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and LATAM flight redemptions last week.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (227)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • JRich says:
    18 Jul18 July 08:06

    The changes aren’t horrible, but I feel BA has become quite cavalier devaluing left right and center with no notice and no notification. It effectively makes the program semi-dynamic, which erodes the incentive to save Avios in the first place.

    • sigma421 says:
      18 Jul18 July 08:48

      This, to me, is the big risk. Previous programme changes (e.g. the switch to revenue based earning or the introduction of peak and off peak pricing were well telegraphed in advance, giving people the opportunity to burn balances if it suited them). Now, stuff is just happening (introduction of RFS on Club World, this, various partner changes and aren’t announced at all, even after the fact.

      I do wonder if the push pull between the airline op-cos and IAG loyalty is going to cause more of this in the future, there are presumably different incentives at work.

      • Rob says:
        18 Jul18 July 08:52

        As I understand it, BA is moving towards selling seats to Avios Group at I-Class rates, with BA taking the hit on cancellations as a goodwill gesture (in the same way that a big tour operator would be allowed to cancel seats which a member of the public couldn’t).

        • memesweeper says:
          18 Jul18 July 10:00

          … which might leave us better off booking actual redemptions via partners? Cathay for instance? Less choice of seats but not dynamically priced.

        • JRich says:
          18 Jul18 July 18:14

          Most of BA’s corporate fares have reasonable cancellation fees , say £100 on a £2,000 ticket, so this doesn’t feel like a huge give away to Avios. I can’t for the life of me understand how the airline industry got away with selling completely inflexible tickets months in advance to consumers for so long. One silver lining of the pandemic is that genie is never going back in the bottle.

          Additionally they will need to close the arbitrage between the programs because this change also makes Qatar look much better value…

  • Charlie T. says:
    18 Jul18 July 08:08

    I redeemed last night from BCN to LCY in CE for £94.50 + 8750 Avios, so it definitely goes higher. Peak date I think. Did think it looked oddly expensive.

  • AndyC says:
    18 Jul18 July 08:28

    OT – and may already have been commented on, but has anyone noticed that the Reward Flights section is no longer appearing in the App? This is despite deleting the App and reinstalling it.

  • Wally1976 says:
    18 Jul18 July 08:38

    “What is odd about this change is that Avios made a big song and dance about moving to a flat £1 taxes and charges figure because it was a move back to ‘free flights’.”

    Still possible in economy of course which is what 99% of the population are looking at.

  • PGR says:
    18 Jul18 July 08:42

    Any change to the 50p (“£35”) cost of cancelling?

    • Rob says:
      18 Jul18 July 08:52

      Feel free to book one and find out!

      • VinZ says:
        18 Jul18 July 15:08

        Don’t tease us, I’m sure you know the answer! 🙂

        • Rob says:
          18 Jul18 July 16:05

          I can’t know because you’d need to book at new rates, wait 24 hours for the cooling off period to end and then cancel – and we’re not 24 hours in yet!

          • Matthias says:
            18 Jul18 July 18:24

            Do you think the 50p cancellation will go up to £12.50 for existing bookings made pre-change Rob? I’ve just checked one of mine and it hasn’t

          • Sven says:
            4 Aug4 August 17:10

            Hi @Rob – did you get feedback from anyone on this?
            -> “Any change to the 50p (“£35”) cost of cancelling?”

  • George K says:
    18 Jul18 July 09:22

    How much of this increase can be attributed to the rise in premium class APD announced earlier this year, do you think?

  • Alex says:
    18 Jul18 July 09:28

    Still showing at old level for LHR-DUB when you click through to the payment screen.

    • Rob says:
      18 Jul18 July 09:33

      It’s still rolling out. They are struggling to do it without taking down ba.com entirely, apparently.

      • Alex says:
        18 Jul18 July 09:43

        Glad I managed to book in time then 🙂
        Cancellation still shows as 50p for me

  • Paul says:
    18 Jul18 July 09:35

    Yet another example of heads they win tails you lose. The need for significant consumer protections in this area, (ie any form of non cash payment or part cash payments) is overwhelming. It sis simply ripping people off! The should be wearing masks

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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