British Airways and Iberia are following the industry trend, and are switching to revenue-based points accrual. There’s hardly anything surprising here, and of course it’s being spun as a positive (because remember, there’s no such thing as a negative change in the airline industry!).
In this post:
Iberia Plus goes revenue-based in November 2022
For tickets purchased as of November 29, 2022, Iberia Plus is awarding Avios based on how much you spend on your flights, rather than based on a percentage of how far you fly. Tickets purchased prior to November 29, 2022, will continue to earn Avios based on the old system.
The way you qualify for status isn’t changing (it’s still based on Tier Points), but rather this just impacts Avios, which you can redeem for award flights.
With the new program, you earn 5-8x Avios per euro spent, depending on your status (taxes, fees, and charges, are excluded):
- Clasica members earn 5x Avios per euro spent
- Plata members earn 6x Avios per euro spent
- Oro members earn 7x Avios per euro spent
- Platino, Infinita, and Infinito Prime members earn 8x Avios per euro spent
Members also earn Avios when they spend on extra services, such as extra baggage and seat selection, which previously didn’t earn Avios.
As Silvia Morán, Iberia’s Loyalty Director, describes these changes:
“We think this is a more fair and transparent way to reward our more loyal members, with a model that they have been requesting for some time and which is also more in line with other industry loyalty programmes.”
While this is absolutely more in line with other industry loyalty programs, is this really something that loyal members have been requesting for some time? Hmmm…
British Airways Executive Club goes revenue-based in 2023
While details remain limited, it has been announced that British Airways Executive Club will adopt a similar model as of 2023. It remains to be seen when exactly in 2023 this will go live, and if the earnings rates will be the same (or perhaps with British Airways it will be based on GBP spent?).
Ian Romanis, Head of Retail and Customer Relationship Management at British Airways, said the following about this change:
“We congratulate our colleagues at Iberia for introducing this change and we look forward to joining them in 2023. More announcements will follow about what this change will mean for our Executive Club programme, which will unlock even more opportunities for our Members to earn Avios when they fly.”
Bottom line
Both British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus are going revenue-based when it comes to earning Avios. Iberia has made this change as of November 2022, while British Airways will be making the change as of some point in 2023.
I’m not sure there’s really anything I can say here that hasn’t been said before, as these are hardly the first airlines to move in this direction.
What do you make of British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus changing how Avios are earned?
Small print states:
*Applies to net spending, including ancillary purchases and carrier imposed charges but excluding taxes and fees.
I'm more intrigued as to how this affects tier points.
Does anyone know what, if anything, this does for taking trips on BA or Iberia and crediting the flight to a partner? In other words will I still get that 3.5 x actual mileage when I credit my BA business class flight to ALASKA?
Would be interested in analysis on what this means for Qatar too, given avios are interchangeable.
Not long ago you could buy iberia/ba avios on sale and transfer to QR.
Should we expect revenue earning and dynamic avios pricing on Qatar soon?
Does that mean that using AVios for short haul flights will cost more?
What about EI?
It seems people are willing to share an opinion without even investigating. SkyPesos, SkyPesos. I would encourage critics to use BA's mileage calculator tool to determine the number of Avios earned for a given route, cabin, and tier status. Then, do a simple calculation on fare (net of taxes and fees) multiplied by tier status multiplier. From Iberia, we can assume Blue = 5X, Bronze = 6X, Silver = 7X, and Gold = 8X. Assuming...
It seems people are willing to share an opinion without even investigating. SkyPesos, SkyPesos. I would encourage critics to use BA's mileage calculator tool to determine the number of Avios earned for a given route, cabin, and tier status. Then, do a simple calculation on fare (net of taxes and fees) multiplied by tier status multiplier. From Iberia, we can assume Blue = 5X, Bronze = 6X, Silver = 7X, and Gold = 8X. Assuming Silver status, doing the math for a number of routes in discounted business class, 1) long-haul international wins (in some cases quite substantially), 2) very short intra-Europe wins, and 3) mid-range intra-Europe loses. Frankly, anyone traveling from the US to the UK is going to be better off under the new system. But, clearly, some people gripe just to gripe.
The race to the bottom continues. :\
Hang on, what does this mean for Avios redemptions on both Iberia and BA? Any word on that?
@ Angel Prado -- Nothing is changing with redemptions... as of now.
One wonders how long Alaska Airlines can afford to hold out as a miles-based program ...
I'm willing to bet it happens before the end of 2023.
If taxes, fees, and charges truly are excluded, then that means the "fuel" surcharge as well, right? So it's more or less 10 avios per roundtrip flight as, on paid tickets, the price of the ticket is something like 1 EUR/GBP and the rest is all kinds of funny surcharges. Doesn't create much loyalty now, does it?
AA's fares usually have a significant chunk of "carrier fees" embedded in what is effectively a tax dodge. That spend does get calculated as Points/Miles. (it's government or airport fees that are excluded.)
@ Daniel from Finland -- It hasn't been officially clarified one way or another, but I would hope/assume that carrier imposed surcharges do earn Avios.
According to Head for Points, it’s been clarified and surcharges will be excluded (see comments under the HfP post).
JESUS SAVES!
I've been praying to Him for eons to make BA's program go revenue-based, and I've been clamoring for it to BA for over 20++ years, saying to BA "I don't want to earn lots of bonus Avios based on distance and class of service, I want to earn them only on the money I spend! So if I spend less money for a first class ticket instead of buying a full-fare first class ticket, then I demand FEWER and LESS ENRICHING REWARDS!"
And BA listened!
BA RISING!
(Barf)
Awful changing that unfortunately almost all airlines are going in