The debacle that is Avios, and a few gems it offers

Posted by Seth on November 18, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | 9 Comments to Read

When British Airways and Iberia announced a couple months back that they were integrating their loyalty programs under the Avios moniker there were a whole bunch of folks (mostly based in the USA) who were pretty upset at the potential issues it could raise. At that time I took a somewhat measured approach, suggesting that there are a few areas in which folks might see benefits, mostly for those in the UK or Europe. Now that the details are out and we can look at the numbers I’m still not certain, but the program mostly seems to be a debacle unless you live in the UK or Spain and only fly on simple trips.

You didn’t want to connect, did you?

The single-partner award chart isn’t nearly as bad as previously expected, with a catch. Awards on a single partner now do not permit connections. If you require a connection for your itinerary then you redeem an award for each flight. That means JFK-EZE on AA would be one price (25K one way in coach) but connecting via Miami would add 7,500 to that total; connecting via Dallas is 10,000 more. So if you can position yourself to get to a hub gateway (or if you are lucky enough to actually live in one) then the numbers can be quite reasonable still. I queried ~150 city pairs on routes operated by wide-body aircraft by Cathay Pacific, Qantas and LAN and found a few routes where the numbers aren’t completely awful. But that assumes you’re at the gateway and want to go to the hub. A pretty significant catch to be sure.

Also on the connection front, it appears that folks based in Europe are going to feel the pinch of award prices rising. A trip from Istanbul to Paris sees a 4,500 point surcharge over a trip from Istanbul to London. Not all that surprising considering the rate on London-Paris is 4,500. In other words, even if you stay on BA metal for the journey you get hit with a connection penalty. This applies to flights originating in the USA as well, and the up-charge might be even more than you’d expect (ORD-LHR is 20,000; ORD-CDG is 25,000 while MIA-LHR and MIA-CDG are both 25,000). In other words, the award charts are very inconsistent and nearly impossible to decipher with any reasonable sense of reason.

Multi-partner Awards

The multi-partner award chart is unchanged and is shown below. With this scheme you are permitted up to 8 segments on an award, including an open jaw stopovers so long as the stopover is on the direct point of travel. That basically means only at hubs, which is also not particularly great, but also not atypical.

Some "gems"

So, what are these "gems" I referenced in the thread title? There are a couple to talk about.

If you’re looking for flights operated by international configured aircraft and hoping for a bargain there are a few routes that come up as quite reasonably priced. Some have gone down from the prior charts, though, again, no connections are permitted any more so there’s that problem. Still, take a look at some of these routes with the decent redemption pricing (o/w, economy):

Comparing those numbers to other carriers I’ve compiled data on suggests that the program isn’t a complete fiasco, so long as you can avoid that pesky connection problem.

Also, it is possible to redeem 10% of the regular Avios award price for an infant in lap which is a nice feature and most certainly not one that most programs offer. But that’s a pretty small consolation.

Upgrade or downgrade?

In the end, I believe that the overall changes to the program are quite negative for most customers. Yes, there are a few bright spots where award costs have gone down and those should be celebrated, but for most customers the connection penalty will be a rather steep price to pay to make the Avios retain value. That said, if you live in a hub or in a spoke with good frequencies there is the slight chance that the program can be made to work for you.

I’m quite happy that I’m not sitting on a pile of Avios right now, even being in NYC where I have the advantage of many non-stop options. If it comes to that I’ll just move some Membership Rewards points over and leverage the program that way.

Check out some other views on the changes from these noted loyalty bloggers:

• Lucky’s posts
• Avios points not pricing correctly – One Mile at a Time
• British Airways clarifies some Avios changes – One Mile at a Time
• TPG’s thoughts:
• British Airways Avios Program Worse Than I Expected

Related Posts:

• Updates to the British Airways program coming soon

Big bonuses for flights to London (so long as you’re a big spender)

Posted by Seth on October 9, 2011 under frequent flyer, points | Read the First Comment

The three largest US airlines have apparently decided to have some fun with bonus frequent flier points and London this fall. It is not particularly clear what started the push, but American Airlines was first out of the gates with their promotion: 25K bonus points for the first flight, 35K for the second and 45K for the third between the USA and anywhere in Europe. Each subsequent flight will continue to earn at the 45K level. British Airways has a similar deal out there as well.

The catch here is that the tickets must be booked in a full fare class. So paid premium cabin tickets as well as Y, B and H fares in coach are the qualifying fares. Generally not a tremendous value, though there are some discounted business class seats available around Thanksgiving that could make this a worthwhile deal.

United Airlines was next on the list, with bonuses of 25K, 35K, 45K and 45K available for flights on either Continental or United metal but only to London. The United offer is slightly less attractive in that they are only offering the bonus for premium cabin flights; full-fare economy gets you no bonus.

Delta was on board just a couple days later, matching the United promotion. They, too, have limited the deal to only London and only on premium cabin fares.

No idea why London has become the target of the big bonus miles, but if you’re going anyways and you’ve got those high fares you may as well take the bonus points. Registration is required for each program’s bonuses.

UPDATE: If you’re looking to cash in on this deal without dropping a lot of cash check out the sales to London on right now from most of the carriers for later this fall. There are some bargains to be had (~$1400 r/t) if you can make the dates work!.

Updates to the British Airways program coming soon

Posted by Seth on September 2, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | 17 Comments to Read

British Airways has announced a number of changes to their loyalty scheme this week. While some of the reactions have been overwhelmingly negative, I see things slightly differently. Yes, there are some changes that will devalue the points for some members. But there are other changes that are surprisingly positive. Going forward, the program is skewing heavily in favor of members residing in the UK or Europe at the expense of members pretty much everywhere else.

So what are the big changes?

For starters, the points now have a new name: Avios. Not points, not miles, but Avios. Yeah, that’s stupid, but in the grand scheme of things doesn’t really matter.

More significantly, the single partner award chart is going away. This chart represents the most valuable awards for folks outside of the UK and Europe so it is understandable that it will be a tremendous downgrade for those customers. In many cases it appears that award costs are increasing by 2-3x assuming they keep the existing for BA/multi-partner awards. That hurts. I’ve previously suggested that the single partner awards between North and South America or North America and SE Asia are a great deal, particularly with the lack of YQ fuel surcharges on those carriers. Seeing that award increase from 80K in business class to 180K sucks pretty badly.

So that’s the bad news. But what about the good news? If you live in the UK and outside of London there is one rather significant benefit coming. Onward flights between London and the Regional airports will no longer carry a surcharge for redemptions. That’s a rather nice bit of relief for those members.

Additionally, if you are traveling within Europe the fees for redemptions are mostly going down. With the variety of taxes and fuel surcharges the airlines charge in Europe it is not uncommon for award prices to be comparable to revenue ticker prices. The new scheme will fix those costs at £27 for a return trip. That’s a pretty good deal.

Also, with the exception of Tel Aviv, most destinations in the Europe/Mediterranean region are staying level or decreasing in redemption costs. Again, a move that is heavily favored towards the folks in Europe, but it is a positive change.

Finally, there are some other bits like points expiry extending to 36 months after the last activity rather than 24 months as currently.

Overall, the impact of these changes would seem to depend on where you’re living. If you live in the United States and are sitting on a large stash of BA points, now is a pretty good time to look at unloading them, Maybe the Brits have finally decided to get their payback for that little Revolutionary War thing.

Related Posts:

• A great time to transfer AmEx Membership Rewards to British Airways

Pre-flight pampering from Thai Airways

Posted by Seth on August 18, 2011 under Review, Trip Reports | 6 Comments to Read

The Thai Airways lounges in Bangkok have been oft regaled. Their first class passengers, particularly, are well spoilt with hour-long massages and excellent dining options. Alas, my trip was only departing in business class so I was relegated to the lesser service. I know that the first class treatment must be nicer but the business class option was pretty darn impressive.

Check-in was handled well, with the added bonus of having seats at the check-in counters rather than having to stand while dealing with bag tags and seat assignments. I would have been happier if they tagged my bags all the way through to my final destination rather than just to Johannesburg, but that ended up not making a difference as I had to claim and drop the bags again anyways after clearing customs. And the private security and immigration facilities just for premium passengers was terrific, not in the least because I was the only one in line as I passed through.

Thai operates a bunch of lounges at Suvarnabhumi Airport covering First and Business Class passengers as well as Star Alliance Gold elite members. But they reserve access to the largest lounge for only premium cabin passengers. The services were, in my experience, nearly identical at the main lounge as in the others. Most notable was the presence of a duty free shop inside the biz lounge. And the dedicated lounge was much larger. None of the lounges were particularly crowded while I was there, but I attribute that mostly to my off-peak departure time (6pm) more than anything else. I can imagine that the *G lounges would get quite crowded at peak departure times.

All of the lounges offered up plenty of beverage options as well as various snack foods, ranging from soup to steamed buns to shumai to noodles. I’m drooling again just remembering them.

All the talk I’d previously heard about the first class departures spa and massages neglected to mention that business class passengers also get a complimentary treatment. No, it isn’t an hour long nor a full body work over, but you do get a choice of four half hour treatments. I didn’t realize this until I’d already spent an hour – and most of my preflight lounge time – sitting in the dedicated business class passenger lounge. Whoopsie. Fortunately there was just enough time for me to get my shoulder and neck massage prior to the flight. But shame on me for not doing the research I should have.

Following my massage it was time to meander out to the gate area – about 15 minutes away – and prepare for the flight itself. Thanks to the quality of the pre-flight pampering I was afforded in the lounge and the spa I wasn’t too worried about the in-flight experience.

I’ve been in the Lufthansa First Class Terminal and their dedicated First Class Lounges. I’ve been in the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class lounge. And I’ve been in any number of lounges operated by other carriers for elites and business class passengers. Putting aside the cool factor of the drive from the FCT to the airplane, I’m not sure that much out there beats the quality of the pre-flight pampering that Thai offers is pretty impressive. In the heat of the moment, relaxing following my massage with a glass of tea, I was convinced that it was the best ever. I’ve backed down from that a bit, mostly because the dining options that Lufthansa offers for the FCL/FCT are better by far than the business options that Thai has.

But I could quite reasonably argue that the Thai product is the best Business Class option I’ve experienced. Up against Virgin’s flagship Clubhouse in London‘s Heathrow I’d say that Thai does a quite respectable job. Less crowded, easier access to the spa treatments and better tasting food, if not quite the same variety. No waitress service but the open self-service bar didn’t suck.

Related Posts:

• Across the pond in Lufthansa First Class (Part 1: MUC First Class Lounge)
• Flying home with Virgin Atlantic

Qantas announces changes to frequent flyer programme

Posted by Seth on May 17, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | 3 Comments to Read

A bit of excitement coming out of Australia this morning as Qantas has announced several changes to their frequent flyer programme. Most of the changes appear to be rather beneficial to customers, particularly at the high end, but there are a couple moves that quite likely will limit earning potential in the program as well.

Perhaps most significant is that a new elite tier is being added to the program. The "Platinum One" level will require 3,600 tier points to qualify (Platinum is only 1,200) so this level is not going to be something that many folks reach. It will require 20 paid one-way trips in business class between Sydney and San Francisco or 10 paid one-way trips in first class between Sydney and London in a year to reach this level, for example. The specific details of what benefits will be included are not yet published.

In addition to the new top tier level the earning rates for travel are changing, mostly for the better. Passengers who already have elite status will see their bonus miles earning rates grow and passengers flying in premium cabins will also see the bonuses they earn grow.

All good news, right? Well, maybe not. There is one area where the earning is going to change a bit for the worse. As explained on the announcement page:

Currently members earn a Loyalty bonus of 5,000 points for every 450 Status credits earned. Loyalty bonuses will be calculated this way only until 30 November 2011.

From 1 December 2011, Members will earn a Loyalty bonus of 8,000 points for every 500 Status credits earned within a single membership year – up to a maximum of four Loyalty bonuses per membership year.

At 1 December 2011, Status credit balances relating to the calculation of the Loyalty bonus will be adjusted to recognise only those earned within the member’s current membership year. Status credits earned in previous membership years will not be recognised in the calculation of Loyalty bonus after 1 December 2011.

Not a huge devaluation there, though the 4x maximum annually seems a bit limiting. Those passengers aren’t even at the top tier level (only 2000 tier points, just over half way to Platinum One) and they no longer will be earning the Loyalty bonus points.

Overall it would appear that these enhancements are actually that, changes that make the program better. It certainly is nice to see that happening in an industry where program devaluation seems to be more the norm lately.

Related Posts:

• JetBlue’s TrueBlue program: now 15-25% more True

JetBlue adds Virgin Atlantic as interline partner

Posted by Seth on March 22, 2011 under frequent flyer, News | 4 Comments to Read

JetBlue continues to add international interline partners, expanding the number of destinations accessible on a single ticket. Today’s addition of Virgin Atlantic brings connectivity between four airports in the United Kingdom and four JetBlue hub airports in the United States, with onward connections available.

The Virgin Atlantic routes that are being linked are:

• Boston – London (Heathrow)
• New York (Kennedy) – London (Heathrow)
• Orlando – Glasgow
• Orlando – London (Gatwick)
• Orlando – Manchester
• Washington (Dulles) – London (Heathrow)

This is an interline agreement only; there is no frequent flyer program reciprocity yet. Still, always good to see more options appearing for such connections. Flights are only bookable through Virgin Atlantic or travel agents right now but that will likely change in the near future given that JetBlue has recently started offering interline booking directly on its own website for some partners.

One interesting competition note here is that interline connecting flights between Kennedy and Heathrow are now available on both Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines. The flights on American can earn TrueBlue points while the Virgin Atlantic flights cannot. It will be interesting to see if that skews the passenger traffic one direction or the other.

Related Posts:

• JetBlue adds interline booking
• JetBlue & American Airlines announce earning reciprocity
• JetBlue heading south, WAY south

But [we] wait in Casablanca—and wait—and wait—and wait

Posted by Seth on December 30, 2010 under Trip Reports | 3 Comments to Read

Little did I know that, on the eve of our great North Africa adventure, our decision to screen Casablanca would be the inspiration for one of the reports from the trip. Sadly, however, it has come to pass that we are stranded in Casablanca, awaiting exit papers to Tunisia. Really it is more like we are awaiting the next flight but it feels the same: nothing we can do and nothing more the airline will do. And so we wait.

In our case the situation was a pretty simple yet rather egregious snafu on the part of Royal Air Maroc. The morning started reasonably enough. Some minor confusion upon checkout from the Riad regarding the bill but those details were quickly resolved and we quickly made our way to the airport. A line here, a line there and next thing we knew we were in the international terminal for our domestic flight from Marrakesh to Casablanca. The flight continues to London and I guess no one ever takes just the domestic portion. Either way, we were in the international transit area awaiting our flight amongst the hordes boarding Ryanair and easyJet flights to the Continent.

At the posted boarding time no gate assignment on the departure screens nor any update to the flight status. A full 20 minutes later – only 20 minutes to departure now – still nothing posted. I wandered over to the lounge (small but clean and decently stocked) and asked the agent there what was going on. Not to worry, she assured me, as the inbound was only delayed a little bit and the flight would leave soon. She was right. We were only about 10 minutes late pushing back and made it to Casablanca with 60 minutes to make the connection over to the second flight of the day.

Then things got ugly.

None of the departures screens in the terminal had any details about our flight. Through some dumb luck we happened across a wholly different set of monitors that indicated that departures to five countries, including ours, should proceed to a specific gate. We headed down to the gate, now about 40 minutes prior to departure to discover a desolate area. We were the only passengers there. Not good at all. There was a gate agent off in the corner flirting with a police officer. She seemed to suggest that it was fine, that we’d be fine and that she’d call a bus to take us to the gate. Ruh-roh.

Twenty minutes prior to departure we’re still waiting for the aforementioned bus to appear. By now we’ve been joined by three other passengers, two of whom were also headed to Tunis. I ask again about the bus, noting that it is very close to departure and that I am quite worried we won’t make the flight. Eventually a bus shows up and the five of us scurry aboard. And wait – and wait – and wait. Precious minutes tick away before we finally start rolling to transfer to the other terminal.

The bus drops us of about 150 feet from an aircraft, the one that happens to be bound for Tunis. Unfortunately, we aren’t going to head directly on board. Instead we have to go into another transit area in the new terminal. As we enter there is an agent inside who come out, calling for the Tunis passengers to hurry so that we can make our flight. We hurry, as instructed, only to get to the gates about 60 seconds later and watch as the other gate agents laugh at us and the plane rolls away. We’re now officially screwed.

At this point the four of us who have missed the flight become allies. It was of great help considering my limited French skills. A cacophony of French, Arabic and English overwhelms one agent after another. How to get help? “Nothing we can do for you here.” We head back to the original terminal where we visit the transit desk. “Nothing we can do for you here.”

So we immigrate. Again. In our case, because we never really left Morocco they actually just annulled our exit stamps and gave us additional entry stamps. Then the search for useful help continued.

No one was willing to help and few were willing to point us in the correct direction to even see help. Ultimately, whether by design or just dumb luck, we ended up in what I believe was the Royal Air Maroc Station Manager’s office. Even he wasn’t all that interested in lending assistance until we started to pull out chairs and make ourselves comfortable in his office.

Eventually we did get help. A guy took our boarding passes, wandered off for an hour or so and eventually came back with passes for the early flight tomorrow. They took us to retrieve our bags, only one of which was located.

They provided us with hotel and food vouchers at a pretty dingy airport hotel where the lunch offerings were pretty bad and the restaurant itself had not a single clean table. Needless to say we ended up buying our own meal at the other restaurant in the hotel to avoid that mess. There’s a cute little bar that is dingy, smoke-filled and over-priced, but the value of a wee bit of alcohol at this point is not to be underestimated. The WiFi doesn’t work and the room is pretty dingy though the sheets appear to be clean.

And it only took us about 3 hours to get all that sorted out.

Suffice it to say, I’m not really all that impressed with Royal Air Maroc. Or maybe it is me. We had similar troubles last year on our trip between Egypt and Barcelona for New Year’s Eve then.

Read more of my Marrakesh adventures here!

Related Posts

• The adventure takes a more direct turn towards Barcelona

Major OneWorld alliance upgrades

Posted by Seth on October 8, 2010 under frequent flyer, News, points | Read the First Comment

The main players in the OneWorld alliance have wasted little time since their anti-trust immunity deal was approved in making big changes in the way they operate on transatlantic routes. For frequent fliers the main change is that there will no longer be restrictions on earning points across the partners for the flights that cross the Atlantic. This change comes with a drawback for folks who collect AAdvantage points from American Airlines, however, as they will now be required to pay the YQ fuel surcharge on all awards redeemed on British Airways metal, a requirement that did not exist prior to this change.

The other major changes come in route planning and scheduling. On the New York City – London route the carriers have a rather dominating position with 11 daily frequencies. There will be two morning flights out of New York and then nine more in the evening, operating every half hour from 6pm until 10pm. The carriers are describing the new schedule as “shuttle-like” and the claim is rather appropriate.

The carriers are adding new routes in addition to colluding on the existing ones. British Airways will be returning service to San Diego for the third time; the previous two failed pretty badly though San Diego is apparently the largest city in the United States without nonstop service to London. American will be adding service to Budapest, among other routes.

All of these changes should help the carriers compete better against the immunized carriers in the two other major global alliances. And while there certainly will be many instances where there is greater convenience for customers, it seems unlikely that the changes will actually introduce more competition in most markets like the airlines are claiming.

Related Posts

• US DoT approves anti-trust deal for American, British Airways, Iberia
• British Airways – Iberia merger and ATI approved by EU
• SkyTeam, oneworld announce expansion

Delta looks to increase service to London, Raleigh-Durham

Posted by Seth on August 27, 2010 under News | Be the First to Comment

One of the conditions handed down by the European and US authorities for the approval of the American Airlines – British Airways anti-trust immunity application was the ceding of slots for service between London and certain US airports. Delta has decided to take advantage of this opportunity. They have applied to the appropriate authorities to serve both Boston and Miami from London’s Heathrow airport. Based on the limited number of slots at Heathrow currently held by the SkyTeam alliance, it appears likely that the application will be approved. If awarded the new service Delta would operate 10 daily frequencies from Heathrow to 6 different US gateways:

• New York JFK: 3x daily
• Boston: 2x daily
• Miami: 1x daily
• Minneapolis: 1x daily
• Atlanta: 11x weekly
• Detroit: 10x weekly

In addition to the new London service, Delta is also looking to beef up its presence in the Raleigh Durham market. Noting a significant increase in traffic from RDU this year, the carrier is adding 14 daily frequencies, increasing service by more than 25%. Included in these additions is service to three cities not currently served by Delta from RDU of which two have never seen Delta service from RDU. Additionally, Delta has recently opened a SkyClub lounge in RDU, demonstrating their commitment to the market.

Of course, it is entirely possible that part of the traffic increase is based on the fact that Delta has been running a rather significant promotion for flights from RDU and that when the promo ends the volume will decrease as well. Then again, maybe the fact that the region is pretty stable is really what is driving the expansion. Delta will be competing against Southwest on three of the routes. A number of the new frequencies are on the somewhat miserable CRJ-100 aircraft so that might not be so great either, but who knows.

Related Posts:

• US DoT approves anti-trust deal for American, British Airways, Iberia
• British Airways – Iberia merger and ATI approved by EU
• The Skies are Open!

US DoT approves anti-trust deal for American, British Airways, Iberia

Posted by Seth on July 21, 2010 under News | 7 Comments to Read

Following on the approval granted by the EU last week, the US Department of Transportation has approved the request from American Airlines, British Airways, and Iberia to have anti-trust immunity on their service in the highly competitive and lucrative transatlantic market. The approval was granted 12 years after AA and BA initially requested such permission and after being denied repeatedly for most of that interim period. The approval is not without conditions, but generally they are minimal compared to the benefits that the airlines will receive from this approval.

The airlines will be required to give up 4 daily slot-pairs at London’s Heathrow airport, two of which will be ear-marked for service between London and Boston. This divestiture requirement is less strict than that required by the EU and significantly less than some competitors, namely Virgin Atlantic, would have liked to see. The DoT dismissed Virgin Atlantic’s concerns rather abruptly,

Furthermore, Virgin Atlantic’s analysis of the constraints at Heathrow airport does not prove that the agreements are anti-competitive and should, therefore, be disapproved. We directly addressed the issue of Heathrow access in the Show-Cause Order. Even though the immunized oneworld members will collectively hold almost half of Heathrow slots, there are still a number of other competitors at Heathrow. There are also some important mitigating factors that Virgin Atlantic does not adequately consider. First, since the provisional application of the U.S.-EU open-skies agreement, at least three major airlines have begun serving the United States from Heathrow, and the overall U.S.-Heathrow market has enjoyed an expansion and diversification of services.27 The new entrants have enhanced competition and will continue to exert competitive discipline in the market when the joint venture is implemented.

The DoT is correct that there have been a number of new entrants into the Heathrow market but those companies have paid a sizable sum for those slots. Moreover, fares have increased significantly in the US-London market. It is not clear that competitive discipline has truly remained even with the competition, and this approval will reduce competition in the market.

Also interesting in the filings is the support that the oneworld partners received from parties who are exposed to potential harm from the move in terms of reduced competition. The Dallas-Ft. Worth airport authority supported the application even though BA and AA are the only carriers offering non-stop service to Heathrow from the airport. The fact that is is a major hub for AA certainly doesn’t hurt the claim, but ultimately both the airport and the DoT are supporting the idea that connecting traffic is sufficient to preclude anti-competition concerns.

As DFW pointed out in its reply, the connecting services available in the nonstop overlap markets discipline the fares charged for nonstop service. For example, in the case of the Dallas/Ft. Worth-London route, which concerned Virgin Atlantic because it will effectively have one competitor in the nonstop market following the transaction, we determined that approximately one-quarter of the passengers already use connecting services in the overall city-pair.

The approval of this request was not at all unexpected, though the very light divestiture requirements are somewhat so. The DoT has previously approved similar deals for SkyTeam and Star Alliance; continuing to deny similar benefits to oneworld would amount to a regulatory competitive disadvantage being applied to the carriers. Fares will be higher in many cases, not lower. It is rare that reducing competition results in anything else; that the DoT can suggest otherwise is disheartening. It is even more confusing when considering the restrictions that the DoT applied to the proposed Delta/US Airways slot swaps which would have similar impact on competition.

The DoT release can be found here and the full report here.

Related Posts

• British Airways – Iberia merger and ATI approved by EU
• The Skies are Open!
• Slot swaps galore in New York and Washington, DC