The British Airways Club loyalty program is being devalued, and I find the announcement about the changes to be oddly refreshing…
In this post:
British Airways Club increasing award costs as of December
British Airways Club has announced that it will be increasing award costs across the board in the coming weeks. Here’s the announcement:
We wanted to let you know that from December 15, 2025, the price of Reward Flights will increase. This will affect both the Avios and cash elements of the fare.
We’ve kept our Reward Flight prices at the same level for some time, but we’re having to make these changes as a result of increasing Air Passenger Duty and third-party charges, as well as changing market conditions and ongoing inflation.
We want to reassure you that any Reward Flights booked prior to the price change will remain at the current price.
British Airways hasn’t shared the full details of the updated pricing, but that’s not surprising, since there’s an element of dynamic pricing, as British Airways no longer strictly uses a distance based award chart. However, the airline does share the below examples of how award prices will be changing.
As you can see, there will be increases both to the number of Avios required, as well as to the cash component due on award tickets. If the examples are representative of the average changes, it looks like there will be a roughly 10% increase in the number of Avios required, with the cash component of tickets in some cases increasing by more than that.
I hate devaluations, but I appreciate the honesty
Of course it’s unfortunate to see British Airways increase award costs, though as far as devaluations go, this one seems relatively mild and reasonable. Admittedly the program already has pretty uncompetitive award pricing in some markets, so increasing those costs even higher will only make the program even more uncompetitive.
That being said, what stands out to me most about the announcement is how it’s communicated. It’s sad that this is worthy of praise, but it’s so rare to see an airline actually owning what it’s doing — British Airways is raising award costs, and there’s no silver lining. That’s it.
It blows my mind how often we see devaluations where the airline gaslights its members, telling them the changes are due to customer feedback, or somehow suggesting that the changes are positive.
So yeah, I’m not a fan of a devaluation, but I am a fan of at least owning the changes you’re making. And as far as devaluations go, this is hardly the worst one that we’ve seen… at least based on what we know so far.
Bottom line
The British Airways Club loyalty program is increasing award pricing as of December 15, 2025. The airline claims that these changes are due to the increasing UK APD, market conditions, and ongoing inflation. While we don’t know the full details of the changes yet, it looks like the number of Avios required are increasing by an average of around 10%, while cash components may increase by even more than that in some situations.
What do you make of this British Airways Avios devaluation?
!@*%!((
Pardon my French. With that out of the way, then what's a reasonable course of action? Try to book flights under current rates or transfer to another Avios partner?
I've had a bad feeling a wave of devaluations were coming and looks like this is only the start...
I appreciate the email not trying sugarcoat it. Could've been worse and signed off the email with: Happy Christmas!
This is nothing compared to TK's devaluation. 150-167% today on some rewards
To be fair, in Short-Haul (e.g. LHR-NCE) the award pricing is super competitive: 8500 avios + 42€ in Club, who beats that?
Upgraded Points has what several new flights cost now and what they will cost after the increase.
As a London local, the UK government is indeed raising APD. ("Duty" = "tax"). They're also raising a tourist tax, to be levied on hotels. The airlines, including BA, along with hotels, airports, and other travel & hospitality industries have raised their objections, yet these taxes are going head.
UK airports are also raising passenger drop-off charges as well as penalties for drop-offs of more than a few minutes. Objections raised as well, to no avail.
If Trump even floated doing half the nonsense Labour are doing people would be dropping like flies from the collective aneurysm.
The most economically inept government in British history
I came to comment before someone commented the latest screwing of rewards program is not too terrible.
But i see i did not get here in time. I don't know why people like getting screwed by corporations.
Eh, in the grand scheme of things, that's not a terrible devaluation. Still fairly low taxes/fees for business versus VS.
Yeah, 'not great, not terrible...' Some are calling it 'a light chest x-ray'...
Oh, there's still ample gaslighting to go around...
*cough* AeroB13a *cough*
After they screw their elites with new Tier Points, this is the least they could do for their members.
It sucks but also is not surprising.
Less and less reason to have BA as a viable option - their full cash rates are absurd
I wonder why we constantly see transfer bonuses on the cc end to transfer to avios and yet they continue to devalue. Why not just not offer the bonus and stop devaluing?
Because the rest of the world doesn't revolve around credit cards in your wallet.
I would wager a vast majority of the points in the system are from credit cards, and not flying. That's what causes the devaluations.