British Airways launched the Avios program in 2011 and it provided a great value for short-haul flights.
Unfortunately, awards have been devalued several times since then. Those awards originally started from just 4,500 Avios, before climbing to 6,000 Avios, and then 7,500 Avios for US flights.
The last devaluation was in 2019, so I guess they were due for another one, especially with Virgin devaluing their Delta partner award chart last week.
Today, British Airways raised partner award pricing, without providing any warning. In an era of hidden award charts, I guess that’s not a surprise, but no-warning changes always sting the most. It provides the opposite experience of what loyalty should be.
I have pieced together most of the partner award changes that I found by searching for awards on routes within each zone. Similar to Virgin’s changes, this seems to affect most short-haul awards, while most long-haul awards are unchanged. That’s bad news because most of the value in the BA program are for short-haul awards, as flights within the Western Hemisphere are not subject to onerous fuel surcharges.
| Zone | Flight Distance | Sample routes | Coach | Business | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (Flights that don't touch the USA) | 1-650 | Melbourne-Sydney | Remains 6,000 | Remains 12,500 | Remains 24,000 |
| 1 (Flights to, from, or within the USA) | 1-650 | Cleveland-NYC Pittsburgh-NYC | Was 7,500 Now 8,250 | Was 15,000 Now 16,500 | Was 30,000 Now ? |
| 2 | 651-1,151 | Miami-NYC Miami-Cleveland | Was 9,000 Now 11,000 | Was 16,500 Now 20,500 | Was 33,000 Now ? |
| 3 | 1,152-2,000 | Chicago-LA NYC-Cancun | Was 11,000 Now 14,500 | Was 22,000 Now 29,000 | Was 44,000 Now ? |
| 4 | 2,001-3,000 | LA-Honolulu NYC-LA | Was 13,000 Now 16,000 | Was 38,750 Now 42,000 | Was 51,500 Now ? |
| 5 | 3,001-4,000 | Dallas-Honolulu NYC-London | Remains 20,750 | Remains 62,000 | Remains 82,500 |
| 6 | 4,001-5,500 | NYC-Sao Paulo NYC-Buenos Aires | Remains 25,750 | Remains 77,250 | Remains 103,000 |
| 7 | 5,501-6,500 | Dallas-Tokyo NYC-Tel Aviv | Remains 31,000 | Remains 92,750 | Remains 123,750 |
| 8 | 6,501-7,000 | NYC-Tokyo | Remains 36,250 | Remains 108,250 | Remains 144,250 |
| 9 | 7,001+ | NYC-Delhi | Remains 51,500 | Remains 154,500 | Remains 206,000 |
It’s worth noting that Avios rates vary between Aer Lingus, BA, Iberia, and Qatar, and you can transfer Avios between airlines, so it can be worth shopping around for the best rates.
British Airways did not immediately respond to our request for comment on these changes made without notice.
What do you think of these changes?
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21 Comments On "OUCH: British Airways Devalues Partner Award Pricing Without Warning, Here Is The New Hidden Award Chart"
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It could have been worse. Moral of the story earn and burn!
Absolutely!
Super excited for British Airways’ plans for future expansion! Glad they’re always looking out for the customer. Now how can I take my miles donation back?
I miss the good old CLE-NYC Avios days:(
Yup, 4.5K+$2.50 was amazing.
why do we collect points again ? it looks like the covid fun days are far over
Just booked Pesach yesterday to Cancun for 22k per ticket, now its 29K!
NYC – DEL still showing 40K on Qatar operated flights.
This chart is for partner awards, not Avios airlines.
Thanks. Glad it doesn’t affect me much in that case. I use avios solely to book Qatar flights.
How can you still fly Qatar?
A shame. I was on the fence about a trip which is no longer worth the points to take.
Ouch indeed. Was ready to book 6 tickets last night but waited for today
That explains it.
I was in middle of booking a ticket when this change happened, and all of a sudden I was told that I needed another 6000 points. I had already transferred the points, and I was sure that I counted correctly.
What a bummer!!
4500 was nice, 9000 was barely ok, 11000??????
Methinks NY needs a law regarding these devaluations as well
It will certainly make LHR a less useful place to connect to TLV once this horrible war against Amalek is over.
This does make United with AC a much better option….
I could not move points from Chase to Avios today: neither Chase nor British can explain the issue. Anyone else having issues?
They also raised the surcharge from yyz to Lga from 7.50$ to 52$ insane
Basically zero value in the redemption
It’s not all bad. They also raised the price of american airline miles where you can book through British Airways. For example look at route from MIA-SJO on January 1st flight flight 1517 at 8:40 am has economy and business available for British airways but AA is charging 22.5k/32.5k. In the past the points from AA had to be 15k/25k or less espectively for this route for it to be available for British airways points. It’s been very difficult to find saver using BA points so at least now it will be more available albeit at higher avios prices.
That has been allowed since AA killed their award chart early this year.