Well, British Airways sure found an interesting way to celebrate the July 4th holiday in the United States. The airline has just hugely jacked up redemption rates on both Alaska and American, and this is a painful devaluation. This is the second time we’ve seen such a devaluation on these redemptions in recent months, and at this point there’s almost no value with these awards (thanks to @twodub33 for flagging this).
In this post:
BA Executive Club devalues awards on Alaska & American
British Airways Executive Club has distance based award pricing, though no longer publishes an award chart. The pricing has been attractive, and Avios have been valuable for travel on both Alaska and American, given that the two airlines belong to the oneworld alliance.
It would appear that without notice, British Airways Executive Club has increased award costs for these redemptions, and they’re now as follows:
- Flights of up to 650 miles cost 12,000 Avios in economy (an increase of 3,750 Avios) or 24,000 Avios in business (an increase of 7,500 Avios)
- Flights of 651-1,150 miles cost 16,000 Avios in economy (an increase of 5,000 Avios) or 32,000 Avios in business (an increase of 11,500 Avios)
- Flights of 1,151-2,000 miles cost 18,000 Avios in economy (an increase of 3,500 Avios) or 40,000 Avios in business (an increase of 11,000 Avios)
- Flights of 2,001-3,000 miles cost 20,000 Avios in economy (an increase of 4,000 Avios) or 50,000 Avios in business (an increase of 8,000 Avios)
For context, here’s what the redemption rates were like prior to early July 2024:
- Flights of up to 650 miles cost 8,250 Avios in economy (an increase of 750 Avios) or 16,500 Avios in business (an increase of 4,000 Avios)
- Flights of 651-1,150 miles cost 11,000 Avios in economy (an increase of 2,000 Avios) or 20,500 Avios in business (an increase of 4,000 Avios)
- Flights of 1,151-2,000 miles cost 14,500 Avios in economy (an increase of 3,500 Avios) or 29,000 Avios in business (an increase of 7,000 Avios)
- Flights of 2,001-3,000 miles cost 16,000 Avios in economy (an increase of 3,000 Avios) or 42,000 Avios in business (an increase of 3,250 Avios)
What’s even worse is that these redemptions were previously devalued in December 2023 (yes, just seven months ago). Here’s what the redemption rates were like prior to then:
- Flights of up to 650 miles used to cost 7,500 Avios in economy or 12,500 Avios in business
- Flights of 651-1,150 miles used to cost 9,000 Avios in economy or 16,500 Avios in business
- Flights of 1,151-2,000 miles used to cost 11,000 Avios in economy or 22,000 Avios in business
- Flights of 2,001-3,000 miles used to cost 13,000 Avios in economy or 38,750 Avios in business
It would appear that awards covering a distance of 3,001+ miles aren’t increasing in cost, but then again, those awards aren’t where Executive Club offers the most value on partner airlines.
In almost all cases, you’ll now find significantly lower award pricing when booking through American AAdvantage or Alaska Mileage Plan, rather than through British Airways Executive Club. Then again, British Airways Avios are often easier to accrue.
This is an absolutely massive devaluation
This latest devaluation has to be one of the biggest price increases we’ve seen in awards in a very long time. And it’s even worse when you consider that this is the second devaluation in a matter of months.
I mean, my gosh, less than a year ago, a short haul award on Alaska or American cost 7,500 Avios, while now it costs 12,000 Avios, which is an increase of 60%. Yow. Even worse is for the longer distance band, where we’ve gone from 9,000 to 16,000 Avios, which is an increase of 78%.
The message here is clear — British Airways doesn’t want us to redeem Avios for travel on Alaska or American.
I also have to note how much British Airways Executive Club has lost its simplicity. Back in the day, the airline had a simple(ish) distance based award chart. You paid the same on every partner within each distance band, which made the program easy to understand.
However, increasingly Executive Club is rather complex, with no consistency in partner award pricing. At this point we might as well call Executive Club a dynamic award program with no published chart, because there’s no other way to logically make sense of this.
Bottom line
British Airways Executive Club has just hiked redemption rates on Alaska and American for the second time in a matter of months. Historically British Airways’ distance based pricing has been appealing for short haul awards within North America.
Late last year we saw award costs increased significantly, and now we’ve seen an even bigger increase in award pricing. This is awful, and at this point there’s basically no value left in redeeming British Airways Avios for short haul awards within, to, and from, the United States.
What do you make of these Executive Club changes?
What are the best options for AA domestic now? Qantas but with the higher cancel fees? Clearly alaska but with limited transfer partners to get miles?
Thanks, Labour!
/s
With this drastic change it British Avios no longer provides any value. What are the alternatives to redeem for American Airlines ?
Have you booked your BA Status match flight? I booked MIA-CPH for $2600 RT in J. BA Chase card would save you 10%
Meanwhile KLM reduced deltas shortest routes to 5k from 7.5k!!! Of course no last min availability stil..
Matching others' redemption rates would be more understandable if they didn't charge per segment and tack on insane YQ/YR. Transborder flights for 4500 avios was bound to change, but my goodness, the value has been squeezed out of everything.
Thank you for not saying how this is unfortunate for engaged loyalists but you understand why BA is screwing members over. Welcome back.
Brutish Airways :(
Good point about redeeming AS miles for BA awards. HOWEVER while the mileage burn is very reasonable (45K AS miles for YYZ BRU) the cash cost on top of it is eye watering: USD 745.
They jacked up prices on Latam too…
At the same time, BA has also jacked up the points needed for Qantas. The sweet spots for domestic are pretty much gone.
No great loss > There are better airlines to fly with than AA and BA. I would not go near AA with a 10 foot pole and BA is only a hair better. CON is that you need to fly through LHR and that is a whole different story.
This deval is likely my fault. I have been redeeming Avios on AA for the last 3 years, hitting BA HARD. Revenue flights from RDM-PHX that priced for $400 were 6,000 Avios. This is about 6.6 cents / avios. I Did about 24 of these redemptions since 2021. Shewt. Sorry!
Consider that BA's loyalty is to their airline and those that are part of their rewards currency.
I dumped the Bull S$** airways program a few years ago and sadly still stuck with 150 k
Once banked millions of ba points
No more!
Ever try and reach their crap call center?
Idiots
That’s why ignore all their misleading offers
Well, glad I used up all BA point for JAL A350 F award last month, looking forward for the trip next year lol, I think im done with BA , it was a good run :)
That affects my attitude about collecting Capital One miles for domestic use. Unless I'm mistaken, British was the only Cap 1 partner that could be used to book a domestic flight (Alaska and American). Since most of my travel is domestic, I'll have to get another Alaska card and put more spending on it. Dang!
You’re mistaken. BA isn’t even the only Oneworld transfer partner Capital One has (Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Qantas). Transferring to Flying Blue to fly Delta or Aeroplan or Turkish to fly United is also a thing.
What options exist to redeem American Airline bookings ? Not many cards have AA as travel partner. This is a huge loss for British as no one will collect Avios anymore.
I'm not fussed about US redemptions given the massive credit card earning rates and megabonuses. This is a much bigger issue for customers elsewhere wanting to redeem on the likes of Qantas!
So this is actually affecting all oneworld airlines but reported with a title which references AA (I suppose that's fair enough) and Alaska who don't even have any long-haul routes? Great stuff!
Shockingly a blog with a lot of US readership written by an American will actually mention airlines based in America! Horrors!
I thought this was a blog about global travel, not one focusing on domestic flights [whether in the USA, China, or anywhere else].
Points really need to be regulated. It's essentially currency. Can you imagine if an entity was in control of bitcoin and raise/lower it's value by 10-20% or more overnight. Imagine what your vacation would be like if someone overnight decided that a euro was equal to $2 usd. Your hotel bill would suddenly double. Unfortunately, if it does get regulated then it will be taxed and reported as income as well so we're jacked either...
Points really need to be regulated. It's essentially currency. Can you imagine if an entity was in control of bitcoin and raise/lower it's value by 10-20% or more overnight. Imagine what your vacation would be like if someone overnight decided that a euro was equal to $2 usd. Your hotel bill would suddenly double. Unfortunately, if it does get regulated then it will be taxed and reported as income as well so we're jacked either way. But less jacked if it's regulated.
If they are regulated they will be taxed. At least right now they aren't for the most part
Regulated by a government trillions in debut and our SSN is broke...great thinking! Leave the market place alone and if you don't like something cash out and move on.
So you want to pay tax on your AirMiles earnings?
I woke up this morning to a notice that they’d cancelled my JFK-LHR segment in August. I thought that was my BA Independence Day present. But maybe they’re just upset that labor is taking over the government.
Welcome to inflation in the USA! I still see pretty amazing value for close in bookings. ATL-DFW 7-9. $322 cash 16000 Avios is $0.02 per Avios. 13,500 AAdvantage miles with a much greater degree of difficulty to obtain.
I guess what everyone is forgetting is how the US redemptions on American at first and subsequently Alaska, were exponentially better value than all other redemptions and were already outliers in the opposite direction. No one moaned then that the programme wasn’t uniform and simple. But the moment something negative happens, bash bash bash!
I hadn't used it for this - hopefully the BA intra Europe flights remain good values - Club Europe redemptions have worked well for me
But brutal and trust eroding change for the intra Americas awards
Brutal. I transferred Amex points to BA last year with the bonus (30% Irecall). I transferred 120,000 points for 156,000 Avios. I used those for 3 r/ts on AA for 15,000 each (cheaper than AA wanted and prior to previous change). Luckily used 98,000 for 2 J tickets on Iberia then just last month used essentially all the rest on 2 one way AA tickets JFK-CLT in Feb. Down to a few thousand Avios and...
Brutal. I transferred Amex points to BA last year with the bonus (30% Irecall). I transferred 120,000 points for 156,000 Avios. I used those for 3 r/ts on AA for 15,000 each (cheaper than AA wanted and prior to previous change). Luckily used 98,000 for 2 J tickets on Iberia then just last month used essentially all the rest on 2 one way AA tickets JFK-CLT in Feb. Down to a few thousand Avios and writing those off (unless I find value on one to their airlines and transfer more miles). Got great value but also lucky w timing - won’t happen again
What about Qatar and Iberia? Samesies?
Gosh how things have changed. I still remember paying 4500 avios for NYC-YYZ/YUL flights that often cost $300+. Those were the good old days.
I went to law school in RDU (Duke). RDU-ORD, DCA, LGA were all 4500 Avios. Really good times. Of course now I'm equity partner and don't have to worry about points.
Be like me.
Cool story bro!
I switched to Qatar and Etihad for short distance awards on AA. Qatar seems easiest to deal with in terms of redeeming. BA was great with instant refunds (when it actually worked).
Devaluing is always disappointing but I almost never find any options for redemptions on domestic AA flights. I.E., doesn't really matter what they cost if they are never offered up for booking.
Similar experience with trying to book UA flights using Lifemiles. To use a tech term, it all seems to be vaporware.
Kudos to folks find value or are able to book but that has never been my experience. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
First, let's stop ragging on the British. I am an American living in New York City, but I concede the best city in the world is London. British Airways itself as an airline is 1000x superior to American Airlines. BA as an airline knows the meaning of the words decency, dignity, and class.
Second, massive points devaluations are coming from all airlines. The points game reached its peak 10-15 years ago and has been on...
First, let's stop ragging on the British. I am an American living in New York City, but I concede the best city in the world is London. British Airways itself as an airline is 1000x superior to American Airlines. BA as an airline knows the meaning of the words decency, dignity, and class.
Second, massive points devaluations are coming from all airlines. The points game reached its peak 10-15 years ago and has been on a slow decline. Points are going to be worth about $0.01 each and points and cashback credit cards will equalize in terms of which one is more valuable even to a frequent travel consumer.
This has to be a parody or something. BA is just AA dressed in a powdered wig with a British accent, BA aren't even the UK's best airline. VS flies circles around BA with their clubhouses and inflight service.
Definitely a parody.
VS is light years ahead of BA.
But theyre both hugely better than AA
Folks I don't know how VS got into this discussion. I have never flown VS. I have flown BA and AA. BA meets my standards for a decent airline and is 1000x better than AA.
Shut up
Andy, with manners like yours, you won't even be offered counsel or NEP. Ask your doctor if castration is right for you to reduce your testosterone.
Can’t you book through QR to avoid this?
BA just lost all their FFs and CC holders in the US market...
Never would fly them anyway with their pathetic sardine box seating and pathetic co-pay.
Huh? You referring to A380 and Gatwick 777s? Odds are you’ll get a nice business class seat these days unless you’re flying Gatwick leisure.
A lot of heathrow aircraft still flying old school yin yang club including most 787’s
This is worse as BA prices on a per segment basis, so any trip that involves a connection (like so many on AA in particular), will cost way more...
I guess the move is to transfer them to another Avios partner and redeem from there.
Glad I'm divorcing BA and moving over to AF/KL-Flying Blue.
Avios are really easy to earn in USA and Canada. I earn a lot of them and I value them for transferability to Qatar and for booking Aer Lingus. Maybe there are other decent uses but flying AA/BA/AS isn't among them, clearly. Still, I'll keep going, until they massively devalue QR/EI flights. Next month?
Apparently the British are still bitter about the colonies rebelling and declaring independence.
We did neither and they're shafting us too.
The same for redemptions on Latam. In this case, I think the devaluation is worse.
LATAM redemptions on BA Avios were also devalued at the same rate
oh and you should mention that Heathrow airport will take all your cosmetics in your carry on for the privilege to fly through there ha ha
OMG! Nearly missed my flight home over a NARS concealer. I told them to take it and they still wouldn’t let me go. All cosmetics in checked baggage coming home from LHR.
Are there even good BA redemptions anymore? Seems like with BA you’re getting relatively easy OW status, in exchange for basically useless Avios.
BA first is not half bad
It’s the Delta SkyMiles model: keep the customers hooked with elite status benefits but fleece the customers by running down the value customers get out of the rebate currency.
As you can transfer Avios elsewhere there are values to be had, at least as long as the pricing holds elsewhere...
Annoying indeed, although I typically found better Alaska redemptions via AA than BA anyway.,.
Now that BILT has removed AA, it's a lot harder to earn AA miles vs BA
Yeah, but it is easier to earn AS miles now
It’s crazy that the shortest distances now coat just about as much as the 2000-3000 range used to (12000 vs 13000)