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).
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?
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