While I like this concept in theory, I can’t help but find the execution to be a little… underwhelming?
In this post:
British Airways flights bookable exclusively with Avios
In a first for the airline, British Airways has launched Avios-only flights, whereby certain flights are only bookable with points, and not with cash, at the regular Avios costs. Furthermore, these flights are only bookable through Executive Club, and not through partner frequent flyer programs.
British Airways is more or less copying Qantas here, as for a few years the airline has been offering the concept of “points planes,” whereby each seat on select flights is bookable with points. This is a great way to engage loyal members and generate buzz. Of course British Airways copying Qantas doesn’t have to be a bad thing — in this case I’d consider it to be pretty positive!
Also, to British Airways’ credit, the airline already guarantees a certain number of award seats on each flight when the schedule opens, which you don’t find at many airlines. For short haul flights, the airline guarantees at least 12 award seats per flight, with four seats in business class and eight seats in economy class.
Details of British Airways’ Avios-only flights
So, which British Airways flights will operate as Avios-only services?
The first Avios-only flight will be the inaugural service from London Gatwick (LGW) to Sharm El Sheikh (SSH), BA2814, which operates on November 3, 2023. For this flight, roundtrip off-peak pricing is as follows for Euro Traveller (economy), depending on how much cash you want to spend:
- £1 + 27,500 Avios
- £9 + 26,000 Avios
- £25 + 23,500 Avios
- £35 + 18,500 Avios
- £91 + 12,500 Avios
- £121 + 8,500 Avios
Meanwhile roundtrip off-peak pricing is as follows for Club Europe (business), depending on how much cash you want to spend:
- £1 + 48,500 Avios
- £9 + 47,000 Avios
- £35 + 38,500 Avios
- £50 + 35,500 Avios
- £95 + 26,500 Avios
- £141 + 19,500 Avios
Then in February and March of 2024, once weekly service from London Heathrow (LHR) to Geneva (GVA) will be bookable exclusively with Avios. This includes flight BA728 to Geneva and flight BA729 to London on February 10, February 17, February 24, and March 2.
For these flights, roundtrip off-peak pricing is as follows for Euro Traveller (economy), depending on how much cash you want to spend:
- £1 + 18,500 Avios
- £9 + 17,000 Avios
- £18 + 14,500 Avios
- £35 + 9,500 Avios
- £65 + 7,400 Avios
- £85 + 5,900 Avios
Meanwhile roundtrip off-peak pricing is as follows for Club Europe (business), depending on how much cash you want to spend:
- £1 + 30,000 Avios
- £9 + 28,500 Avios
- £25 + 23,500 Avios
- £50 + 17,000 Avios
- £85 + 13,000 Avios
- £125 + 10,500 Avios
We can expect more Avios-only flights to be announced throughout 2023.
I mean, I guess this is cool?
In theory I love the concept of a flight being made available exclusively to members of a loyalty program using points. It’s a really fun initiative. God Save the Points says that “these flights will be as hot as a Jordan 1 ‘Chicago’ drop,” and while I’m not exactly sure what that means, I’m guessing it’s supposed to be positive.
While I respect his take, I’m not sure I share his enthusiasm here. Why am I more skeptical?
- This is a great way to create some press around British Airways’ new flight to Sharm El Sheikh, though the Avios-only service only operates in one direction; this isn’t exactly a very cohesive Avios-only concept for passengers, since most passengers will likely have to book a separate ticket with cash in the other direction
- Of course Geneva is a popular destination for skiing, though British Airways has historically had good availability with Avios to & from Geneva, and even on most of the dates with Avios-only flights, there are still dozens of award seats available on other flights; for example, on February 17 I see 12 flights bookable with Avios from London to Geneva
I very well could be wrong, but my guess is that most of these Avios-only flights won’t sell out for quite some time.
Please let me know when these Avios-only flights are made available for destinations that are actually tough to get to on points, like Los Angeles, the Maldives, etc. Just as a point of comparison, when Qantas introduced the “points plane” concept, the airline operated an A380 to Tokyo bookable exclusively with points — that’s much more exciting, if you ask me!
Bottom line
British Airways has introduced the concept of Avios-only flights. They’ll launch later this year, initially with one flight to Sharm El Sheik, and then next winter there will be several flights to Geneva. While I’m a fan of the concept, I can’t say the routes chosen seem like much to get excited about.
What do you make of British Airways’ Avios-only concept?
Avios only flight is commendable. However, I've noticed it's restricted to certain airports and cities. I cant wait for it to go across countries.
I can hardly wait for HS to London flights. There’s never any award flights available now so I’m hoping I’ll be able to use my points finally.
Why not a flight to Sydney?
This is nothing new, In the past I use to book flights from South Africa to the UK using my avios, but sadly, that is no longer the case. Now you can only use your avios to book hired cars and hotels. What is the point of that?
British Airways isn't an airline that I trust. They are NOTORIOUS for putting their own ASS first in every scenario. The voucher saga during covid was one of many examples that prove this point. The bottom line is, it's a step in the right direction, but time will tell if it's actually something to get hyped up about. I wouldn't hold my breath.
Dumb. It will fail but for sake of argument, if it would be wildly successful, we'd have a problem. Avios becomea a currency, albeit tiny. Again, it won't succeed and it's just dumb.
Don’t like it. Make more seats available on all flights. I recently flew TPA-LGW and there were plenty of Premium Economy Seats vacant…yet my daughter was told I got the last seat?
One of the full GVA rotations has already sold out. The rest will follow.
" “these flights will be as hot as a Jordan 1 ‘Chicago’ drop,” and while I’m not exactly sure what that means "
It means a large group of people wasting money on some subculture propaganda under the idea of investment.
Basically an era of bitcoins before bitcoins.
Didn't you learn from your parents that their pet rock never reached a million, or your grandparent who has the 1 out of 200 rare baseball...
" “these flights will be as hot as a Jordan 1 ‘Chicago’ drop,” and while I’m not exactly sure what that means "
It means a large group of people wasting money on some subculture propaganda under the idea of investment.
Basically an era of bitcoins before bitcoins.
Didn't you learn from your parents that their pet rock never reached a million, or your grandparent who has the 1 out of 200 rare baseball card along with the other 100,000 people who also had the same card.
You're better off investing with Bernie Madoff, then all these subculture scams.
In December 2022, BA introduced a points-and-cash sliding scale feature for award redemptions. At the same time, BA introduced a change to its Gold Upgrade Certificates. Previously, there had to be award availability in the target cabin class in order to use the GUC. Now, there is no such requirement. It might be that this is another step towards a no-fuel-fee award option across the board. And, dare I say, dynamic point pricing.
I think the reason this promotion is a lot less exciting than the way Qantas did it is because reward flights are meant to be aspirstional.
Making 12 A380 first class award seats available is aspirational.
5 hours on an A320 in short-haul European business class is not aspirational.
The Geneva flights are timed with ski holiday peak season around school / college vacation dates in the UK, and these flights typically sell for $$$ so I can only assume these are to address a specific complaint about booking Avios seats for ski trips. Hopefully some more longer haul routes will follow for the summer vacation!