This morning British Airways announced a change to their Executive Club. Previously, the cheapest redemption available was 4500 Avios for a short segment (BA prices their awards by segment and distance, versus the zone-based approach of American’s AAdvantage program, for example). That redemption will change to 7500 Avios, an increase of 66%, starting February 2, 2016. Ew.
(side note: props where it’s due, at least they gave a respectable amount of notice, so if you have some Avios to burn, be sure to make your reservations before February 2!)
This development is well covered by others in the miles and points community. They’ve covered it better than I can at this point so I’ll just link to their excellent articles. It’s definitely a negative development but I’m not quite sure we should all be finding cliffs to jump off of just yet.
I want to let you know about a tool you can use to figure out how this will affect you.
It’s a website called Radius Around a Point. It allows you to draw a circle around a point on Google Maps. The 4500 Avios redemption level was for flights 650 miles or less. All you do is search for your home airport on the website, click the map, and type in 650 in the “miles” field. Zoom out and you’ll know where you’re affected!
650 miles around DFW Airport
The BA news is definitely a negative development, but at least for me it’s not too terrible. If you’re in the northeastern United States it’s probably worse for you.
What do you think? How did it affect you?
I live in at an American hub (CLT) and was working on some bookings for next year, guess I have to book quickly!
Based in SEA… it won’t affect me much… even the most closest popular destination worth flying into, SFO is out of the 4500 point range anyway. May be if I have to fly into PDX or YVR in hurry and can’t drive..
I was thinking the same thing, fares from northern US to Canada are typically high, so that’d be the one area where it really hurts. Still better than a similar redemption through AA though.