SteveF

No, it becomes pointless (or Aviosless) to continue to fly BA in order to earn TPs or Avios on cheapo economy. A significant number of BAEC members don't earn their Avios by flying BA anyway.

awestphal

Actually, the current & "enhanced" BA EC Program might just do that for us mainland European mid- to high-volume business travelers with both TATL and Asia travel patterns. While BA is great to TATL due to tons of nonstops to secondary US cities from a European hub, they have to compete with MEA carriers from mainland Europe. Plus, Finnair to North Asia is dreadfully attractive, in terms of timing, layover, product and price. Briefly reviewed my BA Exec Statement for 2014: In excess of 2.000 TP from QR and Finnair. In prior years, those flights were almost exlusively with CX or LH.

M&M downgraded mileage earned in C flights to Asia on competing *A carriers, probably hoping that M&M members would switch back to LH/LX. Personally, I switched to QR/Finnair and the occasional BA flight .

DSA

Fair point, but for those (like me) who earn most Avios from a credit card, Tesco, Shell etc. there is (currently) no change to the earning rate.

Calchas

JohnW52, welcome to FlyerTalk and welcome indeed on what I think will be a busy day here.

You are quite right that this is a squeeze on those of us lucky enough to inhabit the regions.

I think we will have to plan carefully what to do next.

Don't forget that IB will be launching a MAN-MAD and EDI-MAD very soon, which may help matters a little. Still a connection of course but at least you only go through security once.

Rick5105

For those of us who try to be loyal to BA, who eke out a few avios here and there on short-haul and occasional long-haul economy tickets, who will never be anything other than blue, have just been told we are insignificant to the company. Am sure it's great commerical stuff, but BA have just told me that my loyalty is insignificant to them, which I guess it is. Bye bye BA, hello easyJet.

GUWonder

It's not a matter of what BA partner airlines offer -- it's a matter of what BA wants to charge BA customers for redeeming BA points for award tickets that include partner operated flights.

Calchas

Only IB will offer off peak (on their own timetable).

Everyone else is on peak all the time.

mikebg

Well, these changes just gave me another reason to justify a little run to get gold in March! I wasn't quite convinced of its worth, despite having booked it already.

paul4040

There is no point in trying to be loyal to a vast corporation with countless shareholders.

As always, work out what's the best value for you. When I saw this thread it looked like bad news for me at first reading. Having run my sums, I find that actually it benefits me.

If it had really shafted me so other airlines or alliances served me better, I'd be off in a shot.

I'm afraid these changes are quite severe for a lot of members who travel more casually. But if you do travel a lot, and don't redeem in F all the time, and earn plenty of Avios outside of flying activities, BA has kind of tweaked the programme to provide better value.

Cerebrito

Depends on how you look at it, those avios are now effectively worth less, so there an effect to the earning rate.

Swanhunter

I guess it shows that BA aren't that interested in

* Silver and below
* Economy passengers
* Regional passengers

matthandy

Is anyone a member of BAEC because they want to be loyal to BA? I would suspect that most people are members because they want to make use of the benefits that come with such membership.

I am a little surprised that BA have decided to devalue the tier bonus for Silver instead of just increasing it for Gold. If they had done that they arguably they'd have two happy(ish) groups of customers instead of one annoyed one and one that's just feeling a bit 'hmmm'.

To me it makes sense to reward people with more Avios for booking flexible fares in premium cabins. The change in redemption rates is certainly annoying. Will it mean more seats available? I doubt it as there are plenty of other ways that people earn Avios other than flying.

aflan85

Yup. My travel patterns are such that, price-wise, there is little difference between BA/LH/KL. I have largely been loyal to BA due to the advantages of the EC for travellers like you describe, as well as generally preferring the service. These changes erode this advantage, plus the increasingly zoo-like T5 is becoming little different to FRA.

If I ever get the iPad 'thank you for your loyalty we really appreciate it' nudge from the CSD/purser/whatever again I will have to try hard not to laugh and spurt G&T everywhere!

LondonElite

Well, I'm surprised by the unchanged TPs to get Gold; I expected this to go up a little, but hey-ho. The rest is not really surprising, though I don't really expect to be able to book CW/F any more easily than before.

The rest doesn't affect me too much, since I don't book Q, O, or G, and I have far too many Avios anyway.

I guess there's work to be done to update the stickies at the top of the thread!

GUWonder

You described my pattern of use of BAEC, and yet these changes provide me with worse value out of the program. I doubt I am alone. Gutting the value customers get out of these programs is the objective of changes like these that are designed to enhance the more immediate term profitability of the program for IAG and to enable a more lucrative sale value (of the program) to potential owners/shareholders.

* Customers redeeming points for longer-haul award tickets and/or on partner airlines.