British Airways devalues Club Europe Avios redemptions

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• David S says:

  18 Jul18 July 10:11

  Just waiting for BA to say “In response to Customer feedback, we have made this exciting change….”

  • Scott says:

    18 Jul18 July 12:02

    Well, it is really.
    People have so much disposable income and are willing to pay whatever BA choose to charge. The more the better.

    Plenty still going on about how “well, it’s £xxxx for a flight, so £37.50 still saves me loads”.

• Lady London says:

  18 Jul18 July 10:13

  Is BA like the Royal Family and doesn’t have to respond to requests for comments ?

  @Paul is right.

  • Mikeact says:

    18 Jul18 July 10:32

    Nobody is forced to go with Avios….if you don’t like it, don’t collect…easy.

    • Occasional Ranter says:

      18 Jul18 July 10:48

      *Michael O’Leary has entered the chat*

      • CarpalTravel says:

        18 Jul18 July 11:07

        🤣

    • Matarredonda says:

      18 Jul18 July 10:49

      Spot on.

      • Scott says:

        18 Jul18 July 12:06

        £20 the other day with a cabin bag (£50ish with a 20kg bag and an exit row seat) on Ryanair from MAN-VIE. £400 with BA from LHR that I would have had to get to in the first place.

        For the sake of a couple of hundred Avios and maybe 10TP, there’s no justification to fly BA with that sort of price differential.

        Definitely some here would would delude themselves into believing the £350 extra was worth it…..

        • ken says:

          18 Jul18 July 13:33

          But MAN-VIE single over next 10 days is £218

          Thats the basic fare taking a tiny bag.

          I doubt you are comparing like with like.

          BA single starts at £59 and that comes with 10kg carry on

    • Paul says:

      18 Jul18 July 13:51

      No, Avios have a value, at the least the cost to buy them from BA. As for I don’t own them, this may be in the T&Cs but clearly if I buy something it becomes mine. What we need is Lipton style court case to challenge BA and others behaviour and to ensure that there is adequate protections for the consumer. It feels like a very unfair contract that currently exists

      • NorthernLass says:

        18 Jul18 July 16:22

        It’s pretty normal in the loyalty points world. If they started having a tangible value, the government could start looking at taxing them, so be careful what you wish for!

• Sotirios A says:

  18 Jul18 July 10:22

  At first I thought this was for all BA shorthaul redemptions. Only 10 minutes ago I realised this increase affects only CE redemptions. I think we can all agree this is not “terrible news”.

  I fly quite often between LHR and ATH, a good 3:30 flight time on average. I mostly fly WT, either cash or award, and being Gold I can select an exit row seat most of the time, unless it’s a packed A320 where CE covers up to row 12. Even then, any aisle seat would be OK for enduring 3-ish hours.

  My point is, the vast majority of BA shorthaul flights are just fine to be in WT, and I am quite reluctant to spend more avios for CE within Europe for flights between 1 and 3 hours, unless there isn’t any WT availability and I have to take a specific flight. Also I see there’s a lot more value in terms of pence per avios spent when redeeming for otherwise expensive WT flights within Europe.

• Tim_T says:

  18 Jul18 July 11:08

  I’m glad you were enjoying The Lakes Rob, where I call home. No airport security to worry about!

  • The real Swiss Tony says:

    18 Jul18 July 11:14

    New owners at CAX mulling an attempt to resurrect commercial services apparently….

    • Tim_T says:

      18 Jul18 July 12:43

      Yes, not sure it will ever be viable as it’s less than an hour from Newcastle airport and not much more to Manchester, Edinburgh or Glasgow. However I do hope it does at it would handy for me

• TeesTraveller says:

  18 Jul18 July 11:45

  Will you update the article when you get a response from BA on this?

  • Rob says:

    18 Jul18 July 13:54

    We know what it will say – ‘in response to member feedback’ etc …..

    • TGLoyalty says:

      19 Jul19 July 00:48

      In response to members feedback we understand they’d all like to pay more with no notice?

      Tbf it’s a profit chasing organisation so it’s going to do what’s best for its bottom line I just don’t think it was worth the trouble. This is a PR nightmare vs increasing prices 750 Avios etc

• Richard S says:

  18 Jul18 July 11:53

  I assume this may reduce pressure slightly on the lounges? BLUE and Bronze card holders no longer deciding CE redemptions are worth the money? I wa at T5 the past two Mondays at around 3pm fast track wasn’t and the queue for access to tge club lounge north was out the door and we were held at the S lounge at the bottom of the escalators near the Gold / first lounge … hardly “Premium ‘

• Cranzle says:

  18 Jul18 July 11:59

  The.biggest WHOA is surely the end of Pret’s subscription. Rob & Rhys broke them!

  • VinZ says:

    18 Jul18 July 15:03

    LOL

• Lumma says:

  18 Jul18 July 13:05

  What’s frustrating here is that it’s becoming more and more difficult to find economy seats for the return flight and you often have to book into CE coming back to the UK. And now it’s going to cost me more.

  My theory is that they’re trying to sell 4xCE tickets for the price of 8xET tickets and only open up economy seats at the last minute to try and fill the plane, so in theory you could try and book the return while you’re away but it’s a risk

  • m says:

    18 Jul18 July 13:53

    Yep. Same observation. Fewer ECO tickets available.

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    18 Jul18 July 16:38

    Mmm think you’re onto something here yes

  • Lady London says:

    19 Jul19 July 14:22

    Yes has been noticeable for a very, very long while that BA is in favour mostly of only offering CE award seats until the last minute (wl often 24hrs or 36hrs if you’re lucky) and only offering Y awards seats so close to the flight.

    However note that BA differentiates which class and which booking class avios seats, it will let be visible/searchable, according to status of the person logged in (or not) and searching. Clearly BA also makes further differentiations within, say, Silver level and can show particular seats available to one Silver member and not to another Silver member at exactly the same time.

    So clearly BA is being very picky about who they show desirable economical avios seats available to, how soon before the flight based on many factors.

    I and friends and colleagues with diffeent statuses have tested this with laptops and phones sitting alongside each other a few times now.

    I view it as BA’s somewhat unfair attempt to get people to use as many of held avios as possible for a seat, so the value of issued avios liability on BA’s balance sheet can be reduced. Then they proressively relax this in stages according to personal status and history.

    A Blue will see far, far less availability for longer, than a Silver, who in turn will see much, much less availability than a Gold who will see more availability and sooner if it’s there, in all classes.

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