Here’s the least surprising news of the week — Membership Rewards has just announced a transfer bonus for Membership Rewards points to British Airways Avios points. Of course this comes only a week after British Airways took a machete to their award chart.

The nice thing about the bonus is that there’s no small print — there are no limits, it’s not restricted to those that haven’t made transfers in the past, and the bonus points post instantly. So for every 1,000 Membership Rewards points you transfer, you instantly get 1,300 Avios points.

This isn’t as good as the 50% transfer bonus they had earlier in the year under their more favorable award chart (for those in North America), though this still isn’t bad.

It’s not worth transferring speculatively because of this promo, but it does make the cost of shorthaul award tickets and award tickets to South America, Asia, and Europe a bit more reasonable. So if you need to make an award booking see what British Airways would charge, because it might just work out favorably in this case.

This morning I posted the details of British Airways’ new frequent flyer program, Avios. Well, I posted the details to the extent I could make sense of them, which wasn’t all that much!

Then a couple of hours later I posted suggesting that Avios awards weren’t pricing correctly based on the new published rates. As I showed, the Avios award calculator suggests that New York to London to Barcelona should cost 60,000 miles one-way in first class. I mean, how much clearer can it be?

Let me mention in particular the first highlighted point above, which reads “Prices shown are the lowest based on a one-way journey, with up to one connection (on BA flights only).”

Yeah, one thing they forgot to mention. They lied. Each segment prices individually, which is why this award costs 75,000 miles — 60,000 miles for first class from New York to London, and 15,000 miles for business class from London to Barcelona. So very quietly British Airways has eliminated the concept of the “free” stopover, since you’re charged separately for each segment. The above isn’t just a typo, but an outright contradiction.

But here’s what I find truly hilarious ridiculous. Check out the “answers” that the British Airways Executive Club representative on FlyerTalk provided us with.

Remember how British Airways advertised that the cost of 97% of awards would stay the same or go down? Turns out they really meant:

We did say that 97% of our flight prices got the same or better – this was for BA flights to and from London. I apologise if this was confusing and I assure you we will continue to monitor your feedback on this.

It would seem to me that this is something that would be worth disclosing at the time, no? Isn’t this considered false advertising? After all, many people may have not redeemed their miles before the changes under the expectation that most awards would go down in price or remain the same, only to find the restrictions that weren’t disclosed.

Then there’s this:

2c) Will BA ever publish a “distance band” as IB have?

Our pricing is not as straightforward as publishing a distance banded model – instead we chose to develop a calculator and our forthcoming zone map tool to help retrieve the prices for the flights you are looking for instead

Whew, I was worried for a second that I wouldn’t need a “calculator” or “tool” to figure out how many miles I would need for an award ticket. And here I was expecting the program would be “simplified.”

We have said so far that this is the beginning – we are always looking for ways to improve the Club so please continue to read our communications as they are issued

I can hardly wait to see what’s next! Perhaps you can instead develop an award chart whereby the cost of a ticket is based on whether there’s a full moon or not?

And here’s my absolute favorite:

10) Why was the partner award chart not announced in advance of the changes? Poor communication ==> poor loyalty

I think this is a fair challenge. On hindsight, I think I would have developed the Avios calculator in advance to ensure that you had access to be able to price all of the individual queries that our members had. Looking at booking behaviour at the time, I thought it would be useful to issue the prices for BA flights in and out of London and indicate that partner parallel routes would be the same price. I now see that more detail may have helped. The only thing I can offer are apologies and the explanation that we were limited in terms of development with the timescale we had.

On hindsight? On hindsight?!? British Airways, did you miss the… oh, I dunno…. thousand blog posts/articles/tweets/forum discussions begging you to disclose the new award chart upfront? If you were limited in terms of the development due to the timescale, maybe you shouldn’t have rolled out the new award chart so quickly.

I like British Airways, I really do. I think they’re a great airline. But their rollout, communication, and disclosure with these changes have been an absolute marketing failure. And that’s putting it nicely.

Am I off base?

“Avios” is quickly becoming my new favorite cuss word. Let me take it a step further. I’m starting to feel contempt towards Avis car rental by no fault of their own.

This morning I posted about the changes to British Airways’ award chart, and generally it’s pretty ugly for North American based flyers.

I’ve been playing around a bit more with the pricing, and I’m utterly confused. Their “Avios Calculator” seems to contradict the way awards are pricing. For example, the “Avios Calculator” suggests that awards from JFK to Paris, Brussels, Spain, etc., should cost 60,000 miles each way in first class. For example, here’s what my search for New York to Barcelona turned up using the calculator:

New York to London to Barcelona seems like a real bargain at 60,000 miles, so I’m trying to make it price. When I find award availability, it prices as follows, however:

I realize they just changed the program, but does anyone have a clue what’s going on? I realize that they’re probably still updating things, though it’s not that the pricing hasn’t been updated, but rather that the new pricing is wrong.

For New York to London to Paris and Brussels it’s pricing at 69,000 miles each way, when the cost should be 60,000 miles. It seems they’re adding the cost of the individual segments as opposed to the entire journey.

Anyone?

Oy. Back in September British Airways announced they’d be “revitalising” the Executive Club program on November 16, which sounds great in theory, though they insisted they wouldn’t reveal the details until the program actually rolls on November 16, which is today. Talk about a lot of advance notice for no advance notice! It has been a very frustrating process, not just because they’re not disclosing the new chart up front, but because of all the availability issues they had over the past week or so, which I suspect might be intentional. The Executive Club call center had a busy signal almost all day yesterday, making it tough to book any awards.

Well, now that it’s November 16 and they’ve “simplified” the award chart you’d think it would be easy to find, but nope, it’s not. Instead you can just search routes and see the price, though I don’t see a single award chart yet.

The best they seem to have so far is this (somewhat useless) Avios calculator, which will tell you the price for a particular route:

If the new award chart is distance based, why the heck is it so tough for them to show us a single award chart which has the costs based on the distance flown?

They also have a zonal map, though I feel like I need another four year degree to figure out how the hell to work it.

So instead we’re forced to explore in terms of actual examples.

In looking up a few of the most popular redemptions, New York to Hong Kong to Bali one way in first class has gone from costing 75,000 miles to 130,000 miles. That’s a 73% increase!

In fairness, if you “just” want to fly from San Francisco to Hong Kong one-way in first class, the cost goes from 75,000 miles to 105,000 miles, which is “only” a 40% increase.

For those in North America, seemingly the only good news is that award costs go down for travel to Europe for those on the East Coast.

New York to London goes from costing 75,000 miles one-way in first class to costing 60,000 miles (business class goes from 50,000 miles to 40,000 miles 0ne-way).

The cost of first class from New York to London to Rome one-way goes from 90,000 miles to 75,000 miles.

Anyway, enough examples, the implications here are exactly as expected — for the most part, the cost of partner redemptions for those in North America are increasing drastically, especially for LAN and Cathay Pacific routes, given how “far” they are.

That being said, the cost of many awards to Europe are going down, especially for those on the east coast.

And actually I think my September 3 post on why I’m keeping the British Airways Visa turned out to be true. If you spend $30,000 on the card annually you earn a companion voucher good for a second passenger on an award ticket (you just have to pay taxes/fees/fuel surcharges).

If you live in New York, for example, first class to London or Paris will run you 120,000 miles roundtrip in first class, plus about $800 in taxes/fees/fuel surcharges. If you’re able to earn a companion certificate every year, that’s basically a trip to London in first class for 60,000 miles plus $800 in taxes/fees per person, compared to other airlines which charge 125,000-135,000 miles, plus $300 in taxes/fees. So I’ll gladly pay the extra $500 for a savings of 65,000-75,000 miles.

Of course that only applies to those of you in that situation. On the whole the changes of course get a huge thumbs down from the perspective of a North American flyer… exactly as we expected!

Hopefully this comes as no surprise to anyone, but today is the last day to redeem your British Airways Executive Club miles before they turn into Avis Avios Points.

Today is the day to book those Cathay Pacific first and business class tickets to Asia and LAN business class tickets to South America. I’ve been so busy helping clients burn their miles that I have 600,000 British Airways miles (between family members and me) I’m hoping to burn today. I’m hoping to book two first class tickets to Asia on Cathay Pacific and two business class tickets to South American on LAN, with more than enough miles left over for a British Airways first class ticket from New York to Europe when Avios kicks in, since the new program will actually lower the cost.

Funny enough my brother is actually looking forward to the Avios program. He lives in New York and is booking the tickets for his honeymoon next summer, and the price for his tickets should go down by (at least) 30,000 miles in first class.

Anyway, since I’ll likely spend half of my day on hold with British Airways, feel free to ask any last minute redemption options here and I’ll do what I can to help.

Speaking of Avios, check out this hilarious poem from a FlyerTalker: The Avios Are Coming! The Avios Are Coming!

It’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a very long time.

I’ve quite literally lost it with this ridiculous excuse for a loyalty program. As someone that just about books award tickets for people full time, this is probably the busiest week of the year for me thanks to the British Airways devaluation that’s kicking in on November 16. Not only are they making a radical change to their loyalty program which is more or less going to destroy the award chart for those in the US, but they’re refusing to announce the new chart until November 16, which is the day it goes into effect.

Despite public outrcry they’ve remained firm on their stance without giving any sort of justification, thinking they’re somehow doing us a service by not showing us the new award chart until the day it kicks in (then again based on how bad I suspect the new chart will look, they probably are doing us a service).

So suffice it to say the British Airways Executive Club call centers are an absolute mess and the agents are grouchy as ever, as the hold times are often 30+ minutes. I can handle all that, because it’s understandable since everyone is trying to redeem their miles right now.

What I can’t handle, which has been a common theme over the past week, is that British Airways is extensively blocking partner award availability that even their own website shows!

I thought it was an isolated incident when I was trying to make a booking for a client to South America on LAN. The availability showed up on British Airways’ own search tool, yet the call center couldn’t find the space for two of the four flights. Mind you, I had the agents “direct sell” the space, which will make the space show up if it is in fact there. In the past the only place I had this issue was with Dragonair flights out of Beijing (oddly enough, it’s quite random).

But on all four British Airways awards I’ve worked on this morning, availability on the website hasn’t matched what’s actually there. This is for travel on both Cathay Pacific and LAN.

So the website will say there are eight award seats remaining, but after you enter the credit card information to make the booking, there’s an error message saying to contact Executive Club.

If it were an isolated incident that would be one thing, but of the flights I’m looking at, just about every third segment is having this issue. And it’s not that this is “phantom” award space, because Qantas also shows the space as being available. When phoning up the call center they claim the space isn’t there, which, as far as their systems are concerned, is correct.

On my last call I requested a supervisor because I wanted to bring the discrepancy to their attention, but the agent refused to transfer me — “this isn’t something that we would connect you to a supervisor for.”

Sorry, but the timing on this is just far too convenient. British Airways, are you having some widespread system meltdown or is this intentional? Or can you only answer that question after November 16?

Anyone else having the same issues?

Two things I have to publicly shake my head over today:

Priority Club’s website

Priority Club’s website has more or less been down for the past three days now. For the most part it won’t load at all, though at times the main page works while other pages don’t. How the hell can the hotel chain with more hotel rooms than any other have a website that’s down for three days? I was trying to book a room at the InterContinental Dubai for next week, but instead gave my business to Hyatt because I can’t book a darn hotel room!

British Airways’ award chart changes

This is what really riles me up, though. On September 1 I wrote about British Airways’ award chart “adjustments” which will kick in on November 16. On one hand kudos to them for giving some advance notice, though they said from the beginning that they won’t release the new award chart until November 16. I think we all figured they’d back down from that, but as reported on TravelSort, they’re sticking to it. It’s un-f*&$^%-believable to me that a program would have the courtesy to announce the changes in advance, but not say what the changes will be. The worst part is they won’t give a reason.

Which makes me wonder, why don’t they reveal the new chart? Is it because it’s so atrocious that they think we’ll redeem all of our miles now (I think most of us are already redeeming all our miles)? Is it because they haven’t finalized the award chart yet? If so, did they lie to use when they promised the number of miles required wouldn’t go up in 97% of cases? Does anyone at the airline have any sort of an answer?

Check out my weekly column over at TravelSort.com. This week I share tips for maximizing the value of the British Airways companion certificate for travel on British Airways, given that they’re largely devaluing their program for US based members come November 16.

Trip Report Index

I got to Charles de Gaulle’s shuttle center in terminal three at about 6:20AM, just over an hour before my flight. Charles de Gaulle is hands down my least favorite airport in the world, so I guess I shouldn’t have let my cheap side get the best of me by taking the first hotel shuttle instead of booking an earlier cab.

I literally sprinted to check-in in terminal 2A, which is probably about a ten-minute sprint. While the terminal as a whole was eerily calm, British Airways check-in was an absolute zoo.

British Airways check-in

I tried to use one of the kiosks to check-in, though after entering all of my information it told me I needed to see a representative. There was an agent assisting with the kiosks, and when she saw me walk away she asked if everything was alright. I explained the kiosk wasn’t working for my ticket, at which point she went to a kiosk with me and did the same exact thing again, and not surprisingly it didn’t work either.

I then got in the business class check-in line, where there was about a ten minute wait. With just a couple of minutes to spare before the check-in cutoff, I had my boarding pass in hand and proceeded through passport control and security. Fortunately, much like the rest of the terminal, passport control and security were empty, so I was through in a matter of minutes.

Terminal

I even had enough time to briefly check out the lounge that British Airways uses in Paris, which is the American Admirals Club. The Admirals Club is located all the way at the end of the terminal in the retro/futuristic building… I can’t decide which.

Walkway to Admirals Club

Futuristic or retro?

At the Admirals Club was an American agent (both in terms of the airline she worked for and her nationality) who told me I’d have to head to the gate soon. It was nice to get a bit of Texas in my morning right in the middle of Charles de Gaulle.

Admirals Club entrance

I just dropped in to snap a few pictures. The snack selection was fairly basic, consisting mostly of croissants, pretzels, etc.

Admirals Club

Admirals Club

Admirals Club

Admirals Club snack selection

After a few minutes there I headed to my departure gate, which was A45, about a five minute walk.

By the time I got there boarding was well underway with no priority boarding lane in sight, so I got in the queue.

Queue for boarding

Plane

British Airways 303
Paris (CDG) – London (LHR)
Sunday, June 5
Depart: 7:35AM
Arrive: 7:55AM
Duration: 1hr20min
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Seat: 2F (Club Europe)

Once aboard I settled into 2F. A French gentleman was already seated in 2D, so this was the first intra-Europe flight I had in a while where I actually had a seat opponent (though the middle seat is blocked, so it doesn’t really matter).

Legroom

View from 2F

Boarding finished up within about 20 minutes, at which point the captain got on the PA, welcoming us aboard on behalf of him and his “senior first officer.” Help me out here, but if the first officer is so damn senior, why is he flying the right seat of the smallest mainline jet British Airways operates? The funny thing is I heard the same announcement on the outbound as well. I’m guessing it’s just the captain trying to be nice, though it doesn’t make any sense to me.

The captain also announced the flight time as being 45 minutes.

After a fairly quick taxi to the runway (long by any other airport’s standards, short my Charles de Gaulle standards) we were airborne.

View after takeoff

Cruise altitude

About five minutes into the flight the flight attendants sprung into action to serve a hot breakfast.

On one hand it’s impressive that British Airways serves a hot breakfast on a 45 minute flight, though unfortunately it was the dreaded mystery egg and sausage dish, the same one I had a couple of weeks earlier from London to Vienna. At least the croissant tasted good and it was served with a smoothie.

Breakfast

We started our descent only minutes after leveling off, as the 18 year old girl from Dallas seated immediately in front of me started talking to the flight attendants in the jumpseats right across from her. She explained how her mom was one of American’s most important frequent flyers, and her mom had booked her to fly from Paris to Rome via London, “because no airlines fly that route nonstop.” Maybe not with your mom’s AAdvantage miles…

As we began our final descent we picked up a bit of chop thanks to the cloudy skies over London, though arrived at our gate at terminal five about 10 minutes early.

On descent

Touchdown

After deplaning I headed to the transfer center and boarded the bus bound for terminal three, where my connection to Miami would be departing from.

If you’ve read my blog the past couple of days, you may have noticed that I’m convinced the sky is falling, at least as far as British Airways Executive Club goes for those of us on this side of the pond. British Airways is “revitalising” their frequent flyer program (a term I’ll be using on this blog from now on in place of “enhancing,” by the way), and by that they mean they’re putting us all on a level playing field. In the past the award chart was incredibly lucrative for those of us in North America, while those in Europe were paying substantially more for similar award tickets.

As I argued, it’s a function of being competitive. In the US, airlines have become nothing more than credit card companies with a fleet of private jet that are just a cost of doing business. In Europe, credit cards are side businesses for airlines.

Just as Delta charges fuel surcharges on award tickets originating outside of the US, British Airways had a much more competitively priced award chart for travel on their partners originating in the US, because their competition suddenly became United, US Airways, etc., and not Lufthansa, Virgin, etc. And when I say that, I’m referring to their co-branded Chase Visa credit card that they launched in the US a couple of years ago, which offered 1.25 miles per dollar. I wouldn’t spend a dime on the card if it would take me 250,000 miles to get a first class “saver” ticket to Asia, while otherwise it was sometimes a good value.

I’ve seen dozens of comments from people saying “that’s it, I’m canceling my British Airways Chase Visa card.” Not so fast. For one, we should wait until they officially announce the new award chart. Speaking of which, it really ticks me off that they announced the changes put say they won’t release the new award chart until it goes into effect.

But beyond that, I suspect that the value of the British Airways Visa card will actually be increasing for me. While they haven’t announced the full new award chart yet, they have provided a few examples of the new pricing, and one of the routes that will go down in price is New York to London, which will now cost 120,000 miles in first class. Many are assuming the new award chart will be distance based, so I wouldn’t expect the price to be the same from the west coast.

But the above pricing means that you can essentially get two first class award seats from New York to London for 120,000 miles, or 60,000 miles per person, plus taxes and fuel surcharges. If you spend $30,000 on the British Airways Visa in a year you get a “companion voucher” good for a second passenger on an award ticket

To add to that, I suspect we’ll see a lot more 50% transfer bonuses from American Express Membership Rewards. They offered a 50% transfer bonus just a couple of months ago, and I’m sure once the new award chart is released they’ll offer several more. So with that in mind, you’re potentially looking at first class for two from New York to London for 80,000 Membership Rewards points, or 40,000 Membership Rewards points per person, plus fuel surcharges.

Yes, fuel surcharges and taxes are substantial, but you’ll typically pay 125,000+ miles per person for first class between the US and Europe, so the taxes and fuel surcharges shouldn’t be more than the value of 85,000 miles.

And yes, New York to London is a short flight. A very short flight, actually. But it’s regularly operated by British Airways’ new first class, and you have access to the Concorde Room in both New York and London.

So my point is simply that the value of the British Airways Chase Visa is increasing with these changes for me, for all the wrong reasons. Previously there was no need to have the card (for me, at least), since my redemptions were on partner airlines and I could rack up those miles at a more favorable ratio through American Express Membership Rewards. Now, the major benefit of the card, which is the companion certificate good for travel on British Airways, suddenly became much more valuable.