British Airways Executive Club Program Changes Are Coming

I suspect that the "slider" thing is just similar to the new Hilton Honors' C+P program, which effectively killed almost all sweet spots leftover since the deval of HH in 2014.

I guess this is not very surprising but I disagree with you that the change to a revenue based program (in Europe) is not a big deal. In case of Miles and More for example you earn up to 87% less miles with the new revenue based program.

This article provides a detailed comparison of the new and old program (unfortunately only in German) https://reisetopia.de/meilen-miles-and-more-studie/

I will get 408 M&M miles for business class return flight. 4 segments. In the old system I would get 3000.

"I don't want more choice, I just want nicer things!"
- Edwina Monsoon

We've all had the conversations with *cough* civilians. The redemptions they fall for are truly sad. BA is not wrong to offer bad redemption value in the form of a "slider" and easy ways to spend their Avios on an upgrade to BA W LHR-CDG, because they don't have enough for LAX-LHR in J and they want to get something, anything, with their points.

These changes, if we're lucky, are a sideshow that won't affect true travel hackers. But what might happen is that the changes will be unveiled with hand-quicker-than-eye fanfare, to distract from the disappearance of BAEC sweet spots like 3.5 hour international KA J in Asia for 20,000 Avios and USD$50.

Don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do.

Exactly how much are the new rewards revenue-based? Like Southwest/JetBlue where a mile is 1.6 cents across the board?

Yes, we care.

Iberia has a slider awards on which you can pay say 34K Avios for a one-way JFK-MAD with minimal fuel charge, and then fewer Avios and but more money for other options. Is that what we are talking here?

I wondered how long it would take you to post this. This was an exclusive from head for points given by the South China post . At least credit your sources.

Poor form.

It seems to me like a back door devaluation of Avios masquerading as more customer choice. This is what BA often calls «enhancements »

"I wondered how long it would take you to post this. This was an exclusive from head for points given by the South China post . At least credit your sources.

Poor form."

Agreed.

I'm with a couple of others on this. I know that Rob from HFP speaks to you (at least that's what Tiffany has indicated in the past) but come on. Rob's article was an exclusive. Let's be clear- South China Morning Post didn't want to publish Cruz's comments on BAEC so they gave them to HFP. You should be properly crediting this post, dare I say it encouraging UK based readers (or BAEC members) to read his blog given he offers a much better resource (and better competitions) than you do for BAEC.

What next will you be heading over to TPG and ripping off their posts as well?

There's more spin in this than a record turntable. And I agree with you, the CEO of British Airways using points for his child -- give me a break. Can he lie straight in bed? The slider aspect has been with Qantas for quite some time.

Hey Lucky, do you see any changes coming to their Lifetime status at all? I've been aiming for that but still a couple of years away, always knew there was a significant risk, given the direction of travel of all these programs.

If they move it to the same award redemption model as Jet Blue, it’ll be the end of us traveling on BA on F using a companion ticket voucher as the points needed would be insane and not worthwhile. Glad we are checking off as many European countries as possible now. Another one bites the dust soon. Sigh.

Head for Points is my first read, then this site. Partly because HFP gets scoops like this one, but also it doesn't endlessly bash BA

This seems to just imply a refinement of where they have already gone.... they have long allowed more “part payment” with Avios than many other carriers (up to several hundred GBP on J or F tickets), and they have been revenue based essentially since 2015, it sounds like they will just magnify this. Hopefully they don’t get rid of the remaining sweet spots in the program at the same time.

I also wonder how they will differentiate award space for Gold/GGL members going forward. At the moment those members essentially have the option to pay with Avios if no ordinary award seats are available. It sounds like Cruz wants to make this available to everyone.