BA Executive Club

Dear all,

Many thanks for raising your questions in this thread and to Nicci for answering them. I have collated the exchange into a Q&A format which I hope will make the information easier to find.

Prospero
Moderator: BAEC forum



Avios and Money

• Nicci, have there been any changes to pricing for the Avios with Money redemptions? And whilst I'm here, have there been any changes to the pricing for UUA (other than the amount of Avios required)?
  
  The Avios&Money and UUA prices have changed in line with the overall changes in pricing. One significant change is 2 new price points for Avios&Money for flights in Club World and First.

BA.com issues

• Maybe not a question, but a note. The online booking engine on BA.com is not pricing some itineraries correctly. For example, SFO-HKG via LAX is pricing at 180K Avios in F (I assume it's pricing the SFO-LAX leg at the old 75k rate for first). Booking the same legs separately does price out correctly (SFO-LAX in F for 14,500 and LAX-HKG 105K in F). (these we priced one-way for Jul 19th 2011) (EDITED to add, just saw JF8808's post...are these glitches or something else we should know about how required Avios is being calculated?)
  
  I am hoping that by the time you see this you are no longer experiencing this issue – we did have some reported issues earlier today but many customers were able to resolve this by clearing their cache and cookies.
  
  
• The partners page on ba.com is now a bit ambiguous about redeeming on partners.
  Is it still possible to redeem on Aer Lingus (and Air Berlin, Alaska Air) using Avios?
  
  Yes it is – sorry if this is not clear – we will review this too.
  
  
• The new zonal map is real slow, just want to report in this issue, so far tried for half an hour swapping between browsers restarting emptying the cache whatsoever, I m on a mac, real pissed. not cool.
  
  We do have a fantastic new zone map which we launched yesterday but unfortunately there are some unforeseen performance issues which we are working through as quickly as possible.
  
  
• Can you check if the reward features have been checked to work on Apple Mac products as well as Windows please?
  
  Absolutely – regrettably we are having some issues with our new zone map. We are working very hard to get this back on track ASAP.
  
  
• Why I can never get any availability on BA.com for 4M flights (Lan Argentina)? I can see it with KVS tool and Qantas search. The only option that I have is call BAEC and find a good rep. that know their system (after few calls) but I still have to pay the phone service
  
  You should be able to book Lan Argentina on ba.com. I will raise this with the ba.com team – in the interim your local service centre will be able to help you. If you could PM the route you are trying I can arrange for this to be looked into ASAP.
  
  
• The contradiction between the Avios calculator and the information for Iberia on the OneWorld Partners' page has still not been addressed...
  
  This has now been rectified.
  
  
• According to TierPoints earning chart (http://www.britishairways.com/travel...d/public/en_gb) Silver and Gold BAEC levels have: "Tier Points Bonus" (Silver - 25%, Gold - 50%). Due to avios calc there is no difference in TP fo Blue/Bronze/Silver/Gold levels. So, do Silver/Gold receive more TP on Qantas flights or not?
  
  There is an error on this page – we will rectify this ASAP. There is no Tier Point bonus. Executive Club members will earn the same Tier Points on Qantas as they do on BA except on discount economy where you will earn 25% Tier Points. The text should read Avios Tier Bonus and not Tier Point bonus – many apologies.
  
  
• I have a flight on an award partner, everytime that I try to change the date I get
  
  Error
  Unfortunately our systems are not responding, so we are unable to process your request at the moment. We apologise for this inconvenience and suggest you try again later.
  
  I'm getting this everyday since last week
  
  I have tested this and it’s working. Can you please pm me the details if you continue to have this issue? Sometimes this can happen if you have previously made any changes to the booking but without reviewing this it’s difficult to advise.
  
  
• Is it me or does the zonal map for finding availability not work? I see no destinations... even if i change... and keep it all as "open as possible" Any other experiences?
  
  We have had some technical “teething” issues with the zone map – we have significantly improved the performance since we launched and are working through some smaller bugs at the moment. It’s worth mentioning at this point that we are also looking to enhance the zone map with new features and services in the near future.
  

Booking fees

• With Alaska Air still a partner, but NEVER searchable on ba.com (it is available on aa.com, but I digress) Will the $30 phone booking fee be waived for us flying from YVR to the West Coast?
  
  Unfortunately you will not be able to book Alaska Air online for the foreseeable future. We do always try to put partner reward bookings online but unfortunately we have had the odd technical glitch with one or two of our partners. A fee will apply for any bookings made offline except if you are a Gold member.
  
  
• Date/time changes online used to be free in US/Canada. Now they will be $40. Why is there a service fee in place for something that can be done online, without any interaction from BA staff?
  
  Related to service fees, I saw a few other posts in this thread commenting on them, and based on other threads there's either confusion or an inconsistent application of policy happening re: some fees. Can you please update ba.com to reflect the policy of the known circumstances where fees will/will not be waived when using the call center to book?
  
  The new reward fees structure was created with trying to bring some consistency to how fees are applied. The official stance is that fees should be applied both on and offline as stated without exception.
  
  
• With regard to differentiation Gold to Silver (and with apologies for any ignorance on my part): the new overview comparing levels gives only Gold as ´no booking fees for awards´: is this new? Seems tough on Silvers?
  
  Gold members were exempt from most fees prior to the changes – this will apply to all fees for reward moving forward

Bronze tier

• If you are bronze you can choose seats 7 days before departure. But can you choose seats for your entire group or only yourself? It doesn't say anything about it in manage my booking...
  
  A Bronze member can select seats for everyone in the same booking.

Communication

• From a US perspective (California), why is it that most routes have gone up in price? I thought you said "97%" of routes were supposed to be cheaper
  
  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.
  
  
• There was mention of all the "new" ways we would be able to redeem our miles (now Avios). I don't see any new redemption options posted. Just wondering if these are still to come, or if the thinking was that we'd just transfer Avios over to what was airmiles to redeem there?
  
  You can now redeem your Avios for hotel and car hire. We have thousands of fantastic offers on hotels with many different suppliers and some great deals with our preferred car hire partner Avis – please find the link to this below
  
  http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_gb
  http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_us
  
  
• Not strictly a question on the announces changed today, but on what has not been announced today. Are there any more changes to the Club in the pipeline? In particular, as a prospective GCH (and on behalf of the GCHs who are largely underwhelmed by today's events) are there any future changes to differentiate Gold membership from Silver?
  
  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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Thanks for clarifyiing that the email I received that linked to the statement that 97% of the flights were not changing or going down in redemption levels was really for ex London BA flights.
  
  Since BA knows that I am based in Los Angeles, can you give me the correct percentage for ex Los Angeles BA flights? I suspect it is around 10%, but would appreciate knowing from BA. If that is too hard a number to calculate, can you share the % for ANY city other than one in the UK (BA flights only)?
  
  Now that you have acknowledged the miscommunication, we are hopeful that BA will begin to communicate accurately and honestly.
  
  Actually this statistic is accurate for direct flights to or from London. Where the statistic starts to vary is when there are more complex journeys with connections or are indirect routes. This is what we intended when we communicated originally. I’m afraid I cannot offer a similar % based on all possible routes and journeys that our customers may or can book – this is why we tried to keep it simple and stuck to direct BA flights originally. It was never our intention to create a perception of inaccurate communications.
  
  
• Is BA going to provide any transparency in award mileage calculation?
  
  I am concerned that going with award calculator instead of published mileage charts will allow frequent quiet unannounced increases and that makes me very reluctant to accumulate Avios. Is the chart posted by IB identical to that of Avios and if so will it be posted on BA website?
  
  The only thing that I can assure you of is that we have no intention of making frequent price changes. If we do have to make any changes in the future we always try to ensure we advise our members in advance.

Executive Club Tiers

• I have made Bronze with the changes but I will make Silver when I return from Beijing on or around 18th December. Will I be sent a new Bronze card, only to then be sent a Silver card soon afterwards?
  
  Yes, you will be sent both packs regardless of the time frame between earning them.
  
  
• My year finished on the 8th November, but at the end of October I passed the 5000 TP threshold for a Concorde Room card and GGL, which appeared on my earned benefits. However, I have had nothing through the post yet re the CCR card etc. Is this because cards have been delayed being sent out due to the changes in designs etc.?
  
  We delayed our usual fulfillment process to tie in with the changes to the Club so members who were due to renew in November will receive their new cards slightly later than planned.
  
  
• This is from ba.com under EU account. I thought the new levels are from March 1st 2012 but ba.com is already showing 1500 point for Gold? Is this really the case and all previous communications have been misleading towards us customers? It was very clearly said that the levels for Silver and Gold are 400/800 until Feb end?
  
  BAEC rep, please clarify.
  
  ba.com:
  Tier requirements
  Club tier Requirements
  Blue 0 Tier Points
  Bronze 300 Tier Points and 2 BA flights* - OR - 25 BA flights*
  Silver 400 Tier Points and 4 BA flights* - OR - 50 BA flights*
  Gold 1,500 Tier Points and 4 BA flights*
  *A return counts as two flights; includes BA codeshares on other carriers but excludes reward flights
  
  Apologies for the delay on this, there was an issue with this as it displayed the higher tier levels for members who were Gold as of the 16 November but this has been changed now. If you continue to have issues with this please PM me your Executive Club details and I will look into this for you.

Earning Avios Points

• There seem to be inconsistencies between the information cited for Iberia on the OneWorld Partners' collect avios page (50%/75% Silver/Gold bonus, and only on flights to/from the North America; etc.), and the Avios earnings calculator.
  
  The Avios calculator gives 100% Silver & Gold tier bonuses for IB flights on IB metal for sectors such as MAD-TLV. This is also the number-of-miles-earned shown in the MMB for a future booking of mine. (On the other hand, both OneWorld page and Avios calculator agree that cabin bonuses are 25% for IB Business vs. 50% for BA CW.)
  
  Something needs to be clarified and harmonized here. Many thanks.
  
  The Avios calculator is showing the correct accrual rates when I checked it. The partner page is currently being updated. Apologies for the delay with this – there are some minor tweaks waiting to be released on the site.
  
  
• You still list FinnComm as a non-eligible partner for collecting Avios points for Finnair flights. FinnComm has stopped operations so could this be changed for Flybe Nordic (owned 40 % by AY and 8 % by BA through FlyBe ownership) with a hope that wetleased AY flights (with no BE code) would be eligible (like the Helsinki-Stuttgart/Geneva flights in the near future.)
  
  On these services BA members will not accrue any Avios.
  
  
• I have a question which relates to earning on partner flights. A principal advantage of the Executive Club is that it allows us to earn Avios Points on revenue tickets, irrespective of fare class, barring a couple of exceptions. There are a couple of selling classes that don't earn Avios Points and I was hoping you and your team will have time to look into this sometime in the near future. Specifically, I am talking about O class on American Airlines and E class on Qantas. The latter, a Premium Economy selling class has caught out FTers in the past
  
  I am waiting on answer to this internally. I will respond to this ASAP

Earning Tier Points

• Does this mean that from now on if I fly eg LHR-MAD-SVQ (eg a connection) that I will now only earn 10+5 = 15TP, or does it remain 10+10? I always assumed the domestic business would drop by half, although it is a full-service unlike BA Business.
  
  You are correct this will now be 10 Tier Points.

Gold Guest List

• Any changes to the GGL rules or benefits? As usual the T&Cs for GGL are hidden somewhere..
  
  Please look out for any communications from us in this respect

Hotel redemptions

• Is there anyway to know what the points value is for various hotel options, or do you literally have to do a booking each time and then just try and guess how it's working? Without a straightforward X points = Y nights at Z chains/hotels, it's hard to tell whether this is a good value or not.
  
  You will need to search for the hotel or car inventory and dates that you want for the prices – we wouldn’t release the actual points value. However, there are some fantastic deals for spending your Avios in this way and we have literally tens of thousands of hotel rooms to offer so please do have a look for yourself.

Household Accounts

• I have a BA HOUSEHOLD account and tried to transfer the Avios to the SAME HOUSEHOLD Avios Account but it does not work online. Could BA correct the bug? Really have no desire to call anyone and prefer to do it online. Thanks.
  
  The terms and conditions state that you can only transfer from and to individual accounts. However, if you do want help with this the only way is to call the Avios team who will be able to help you.
  
  
• The T&C linked from the transfer Avios page on BA.com says clearly that household accounts in schemes other than BAEC are not supported/compatible with the transfer Avios offering.
  
  As such, you would need to disband your (Airmiles) Avios HHA before the transfer from your BAEC membership pot is possible. [You would not need to disband the BAEC household account.]
  
  As such, I wouldn't really call it a bug.
  
  However, perhaps Nicci could comment upon whether this household accounts area will change in the future with the avios.com (former airmiles UK) accounts, etc?
  
  We will continue to review this. There is no planned change to this for the immediate future.

Managing redemptions ticketed before 16 November 2011

• Do old tickets retain the old policy of free online date changes? Or does the first date change trigger the new fee schedule for subsequent changes?
  
  Reward bookings made before 16 November can be changed under the previous rules with any applicable fees either online or offline. This will apply for the whole validity of the ticket regardless of whether single or multiple changes are made.
  
  
• Will itineraries ticketed before Nov 16 still be governed by the old rules & redemption levels if one wants to make a change to the routing within the same geographic zone?
  
  Specifically, can I change a routing that under the old rules would require the same amount of mileage but under the new rules would have different redemption levels? For example, I hold a JFK-NRT-BKK ticket -- can I change that to JFK-NRT-CGK without being hit with the new mileage levels?
  
  Yes the “old” rules will apply. You can make a change to a routing within the same zone provided the inbound flight distance does not exceed that of the outbound journey. This is due to ticketing restrictions.
  
  
• I know from this and other posts that it is relatively easy/cheap to change dates, perhaps harder to change routings. How long into the future, though, can you change a date on a pre-Avios-booked award ticket? I made a couple of bookings that were kind of rushed at the last minute, the available flight date pairs I found were in August, and not logistically very good for me. I could use them if I have to, but was thinking to change them out to early December. (Pending availability and change fees), what's the longest out one could change booked dates? Or, when does the award ticket "expire?"
  
  Reward tickets are valid for a year so you can make as many changes as you need to within the validity period using the terms and conditions which applied for bookings made prior to 16 November.
  
  
• Can I made a change to a prior booking with a change in travel zones?
  
  e.g. SFO-HKG-DPS-HKG-SFO change to SFO-HKG-DEL-HKG-SFO with the same start and end date; distances HKG-DPS vs HKG-DEL are similar. Under the old rules, i need XX miles difference, which im gladly to pay. Can i pay just that difference, or will the entire thing be rebooked under Avios?
  
  You can make a change to a booking within the same zone, provided the distance of any surface sectors are not greater than your inbound flight distance.

Membership

• Will BAEC remain available everywhere (except I believe Australia)? Specifically, will members in Spain be forced into IBPlus?
  
  Yes the Executive Club will be available in the same countries that it is today – as you rightly point out this is everywhere except for Australia

Open jaw redemptions

• I am unclear as to the current limits of what we are allowed to open-jaw as return awards from the UK. (Obviously this only really applies to [Chase] 241s, as otherwise they could be booked as two one-ways.)
  
  e.g. East and West Coast USA?
  USA and Canada or Mexico or Caribbean?
  Peking and Japan or Singapore?
  North and South Africa?
  West and East Europe?
  
  Unfortunately this is not as straightforward as publishing in a table I’m afraid. Open Jaws are permitted provided the surface sector is not longer than the flight sectors. This is driven by IATA ruling.

Redemption calculation

• Is there a straight-up, simple to look at, reward chart for partner airlines as there was in the past? Way to confusing, and this so called "zonal map" isnt working for anyone.
  
  We have created the Avios calculator so that you can calculate the cost of your flight. I have added the link below
  
  http://www.britishairways.com/travel...r/public/en_gb
  
  http://www.britishairways.com/travel...r/public/en_us
  
  With the exception of UK BA domestic connections (these are calculated for you when you enter the origin and destination), you can calculate the prices of your BA and partner flight sectors by entering the route you are travelling on.
  
  
• Can you book an award BA codeshare, that includes EI connections. For Example, BFS->TEL (via LHR). Currently the avios calculator will not accept BFS->LHR (on EI metal) to work out avios needed. If you can do the above, will it be available online, or only over the phone, and will the EI flight count as a domestic connection?
  
  In a similar vein, will BA codeshare flights commencing in DUB on EI be available for award booking (unlikely to be considered domestic). The Avios calculator will not accept DUB->LHR.
  
  "other partners" page states:-
  Flights booked under the British Airways code but operated by one of our codeshare partners, are eligible for mileage accrual and Tier Points but not redemption.
  
  You can book these and use the same pricing as BA – to book or confirm pricing you will need to contact your local service centre.
  
  
• Thanks for clarifying that Award flights are still available on Aer Lingus. It wasn't however clear from you answer as to whether a connection from BFS->LHR for onwards all on a BA ticket will be considered a domestic connection as defined by the reward flight saver option ?
  
  Apologies for that – this would not be counted as a domestic connection as it is not operated by BA or IB
  
  
• 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
  
  
• I don't understand the Pricing for flights ex Zone1. The communications said that BA is moving to a purely Segment-based approach, hence in addition to the Miles needed from LHR someone who starts in Germany will have to "pay" an additional 4500 Avios per Leg. However when I use the Avios Calculator I see the following (one way, in WT)
  
  TXL-LAX: 29500 (up from 25000)
  TXL-MIA: 25000 (as before)
  TXL-LGA: 20000 (down from 25000)
  
  The first two destinations are in the same Zone but only one requires an additional 4500 Avios. Is this a System error or am I missing something?
  
  These prices are correct – the difference is your arrival point. Prices for rewards to the East Coast of the US have reduced to 40,000 Avios return. Please let me know if I have misunderstood your question.
  
  
• On the calculator. If this is going to be the dispositive way of calculating miles, some additional options or flexibility will need to be built in for complete clarity. For example:
  
  Entering HEL-CDG into the calculator returns a required Avios of 10,000 one way in Y. However, this obviously must only be for the HEL-CDG direct flight offered by FinAir, correct? As I understood it HEL-LHR-CDG would be the sum of HEL-LHR (7500 Avios) + LHR-CDG (4500 Avois) = 12,000. Note, confusion is compounded by the fact that the calculator does indicate the mileage listed is good for BA only flights "with up to one connection" (so, if I used the calculator, I'd expect the 10,000 to be the correct mileage for either a direct FinAir flight or a fBA flight with a single connection in LHR...and I'd also expect to get my free stopover in LHR as well. :-D )
  
  Can you clarify?
  
  I think this is the same issue peterrabbit identified with TXL routings.
  
  You are correct in that the calculator will tell you the price if a partner operates the route directly and to calculate indirect flights on BA you need to add the sectors separately. I will continue to monitor feedback on the calculator to see if there are ways we can improve this and maybe the explanations around it.
  
  
• If I book AMS-HKG there is a direct flight on CX which is 60K in J (one way). However, if the direct flight is not available I am 'forced' to take a detour even if I don't want to. I am charged for this detour as well. I thought the chart was based on distance between point of origin and destination but it is on actual miles flown even if BA can't offer the direct flight?
  
  The price is based on the distance of each sector – so in the case of a direct route it would need to be calculated based on origin and destination. For indirect routes this would be calculated on a sector-by-sector basis. The only exception to this is wholly domestic connections on BA and IB within UK and Spain. The price of the domestic sector is included in the price of the flight you are connecting to.
  
  
• I know that the Prices for East coast from London have reduced. But my examples were all from Berlin. So for the ex-London legs it should be
  
  LHR-LAX: 25000
  LHR-MIA: 25000
  LHR-LGA: 20000
  
  But then for the Berlin to London flight another 4500 should be added if I understood the new Model correctly.
  
  Therefore the overall prices should be
  TXL-LAX: 29500
  TXL-MIA: 29500
  TXL-LGA: 24500
  
  but that is not what the Calculator shows.
  
  Apologies I misunderstood this. The TXL-LAX is correct on the calculator. The TXL-MIA and LGA prices are correct as this is what we would charge for Air Berlin who operate these routes. The calculator will offer the lowest price for the most direct route followed by indirect routes on BA.
  
  
• Since F is not offered on LHR-CPH could one not just use miles for two separate tickets, western US to LHR in F and LHR-CPH in CE with less than 24 hours between so no extra UK taxes incurred? That would cost 68000 miles?
  
  Downsides? irregular ops, flight late, any possible luggage allowance discrepancy
  
  Why can't you now price flights based on what class one REALLY flies in ie, there is no F in CE?
  
  If this is what you are calling segment pricing why can't the segments be "sold" according to their true class?
  
  This is a bug in the calculator – you will not be charged an F rate for a Club Europe cabin connecting to F. Apologies for this.
  
  
• LKR-BKK direct on BA is now 180,000 (as opposed to 240,000)
  If I cannot get direct flights (as is often the case) and use BA F and CX J via HKG it is now 210,000 (as opposed to 240,000)
  
  Now the main question - is the extra 30,000 because I am ticketed on a partner or because of the extra segments?
  
  Also, what would the price be if I had CX in F for LHR:HKG return (with CX J for HKG:BKK segments)?
  
  The additional cost is incurred due to the additional segments. The price for your last journey would be 180,000 for the LHR-HKG-LHR on CX and 30,000 for the HKG-BKK-HKG sectors.
  
  
• Can we expect that "other airline partner" routes will be added to the calculator? There are several routes served by Alaska Air that it would be useful to price. Same goes for Kingfisher.
  
  Unfortunately these will not be added for the moment.
  
  
• If not going to be added, how do we know what these will cost?
  
  We are looking at ways to update this as soon as possible.
  
  
• For the purposes of the "Avios costs for multi-carrier reward flights" chart, what actually constitutes a single reward flight (with connections between two or more oneworldŽ airlines)? As the chart covers journeys up to a maximum of 50,000 miles, it seems as if the chart could cover some quite complex itineraries, including Round-the-World trips. Is this correct, and, if so, would there be any specific stopover restrictions?
  
  The oneworld multi carrier reward chart has not changed. This will apply to 2 or more oneworld carriers in the same flight itinerary.
  
  
• While I appreciate that the searching for partner airline rewards is easier than before, I wonder if there is a way to find out how much each routing costs. The only solutions I can think of is trying to make a booking and then start from a scratch to check the for the following routing option. Of course one could search every possible sector using the Spending Avios Calculator but it is quite cumbersome.
  
  We are currently working on our new zone map to try and help with some of these issues. Please bear with us in the interim.
  
  
• What are the Avios costs for YVR to (SEA, PDX, LAX) using the most direct nonstop on Alaska Air?
  
  The prices for YVR-SEA and PDX are 4500 Avios one way and YVR-LAX would be 7,500 Avios one way. I will review how we can make this information easier to access online – if you need anything else in the interim your local service centre will be able to help you.
  
  
• Two more AS related questions: 1) When will we be able to book Alaska flights and what is the Avios costs for SEA-HNL on Alaska? I am looking to book some Alaska flights asap using Avios miles and the inability to do so right now is inconveniencing me. Thank you.
  
  You can book Alaska flights over the telephone with your local service centre. This is the same as before 16 November. The team will also be able to give you the prices for these flights too.
  
  
• Why do JFK-HKG and SFO-HKG cost the same in Avios points? Shouldn't JFK-HKG be more since it spans a much greater distance than SFO-HKG?
  
  We have tried to react to some of the concerns around routes that are important to members in particular markets. North America to Asia falls firmly into this category and so we have made some (very few) exceptions to the purely distance based model.
  
  
• How about the great disparity with the so-called F awards on domestic routes with AA? BAEC is charging F for what is really a business or Club Europe product. Anyone knows that it is not worth 3x the points to take a short-haul in domestic F on AA. It is now cheaper to go F/business to the Caribbean or to Canada than it is to take a domestic F flight within the USA.
  
  This will not change under the relaunch – the agreement we have with AA is that this is an F cabin and we should charge as agreed for an F award. I will feed this back though.
  
  
• If I wish to book a LHR-SYD F redemption and expect it to cost me 150,000 points o/w: this will only be true if I can book BA15 LHR-SYD. It will cost me 165,000 if availability forces me to book BA11 LHR-SIN and BA15 SIN-SYD??
  
  This is a result of the sector based pricing. We will review this.

Stopovers

• What were the old rules regarding stopovers (to make sure I understood correctly) and the new ones? Using or not using partners, if it makes a difference
  
  We still permit stopovers as we did before but as the pricing method has changed to charging by sector it could make a difference to the price depending on your journey.

Upgrade using Avios

• MFU question from Euan
  
  I’m sorry if the information is misleading – I will review this ASAP. The pricing methodology is the same as before – ie 0.5x the standard reward price for economy to World Traveller Plus, x0.5 from World Traveller Plus to Club World and x1 for Club World to First. So for example, LHR-JFK is 20,000 Avios – an upgrade to World Traveller Plus would be 10,000 Avios – yesterday it was 12,500 BA Miles. I hope this is clearer now but please let me know if not.
  
  
• This has been long-mooted, but I feel we should ask given all of the recent changes:
  
  Can we use Avios to upgrade Travel Agent bookings?
  Can we use cash to upgrade Travel Agent bookings?
  
  If not, why not?
  
  Upgrading using Avios for Trade bookings – we currently plan to deliver this in 2012. Upgrading using cash – we are always looking for ways to enhance this – I don’t currently have an update but I will come back to you if I do.
  
  
• I was under the impression that sector wise upgrades even on through fares are now permitted, but when I spoke to the GGL desk in India today they said no. So for example if I were to purchase an I class ticket MAA-LHR-JFK-LHR-MAA (transit only at LHR) and wanted to upgrade the LHR-JFK-LHR portion only to first (since MAA is a 3 cabin flight), previously it would cost 45,000 miles (i.e. the whole oneway journey had to be upgraded irrespective of whether or not I would be availing on both sectors - i.e. 45k miles for a oneway upgrade).
  
  Is it correct that now I can upgrade individual sectors based on availability / suitability for upgrade and Avios used will only be for the upgraded sectors (i.e. 20,000 miles oneway for LHR-JFK, even on a MAA-LHR-JFK ticket? or not?
  
  It is correct that you can upgrade on a sector basis and you will only be charged for the sector you upgrade (as opposed to the whole journey regardless of whether it is available or not as was the case before yesterday). I will send a communication reiterating this with our service centres.
  
  
• Do MFUs/UUA still need to originate in the "Home Country" of the BAEC Member?are y
  
  I can understand that the ticketing (and hence the currency) still need to be in the Home country. But now that you've moved to a sector based redemption model you should also allow People to make their own way to the nearest Hub if they have a cheaper or better way, i.e. my "Home Airport" is served by bmi directly to LHR whereas AB is only flying to LGW. Therefore I would like to start my Flights and UUA in LHR directly rather than driving to another Airport that is served by BA or having to make my way from LGW to LHR
  
  You can partial UUA – so if you only wanted to UUA your return sector for example, then you can do this but you will be charged in the currency of the country where you reside if there is any additional collection.
  
  
• The terms and conditions state that flight and hotel bookings made directly with BA are eligible for UUA, specifically:
  "Upgrading using Avios Points is permitted where flights are sold as part of a package holiday or where flights and ground arrangements, such as prepaid hotels, cars, transfers and experiences, are booked and paid for in the same transaction."
  
  I called the NA Service Centre on Friday to upgrade a flight on an existing booking, but they didn't know about it and when they checked with "London" they were told it was possible but had to be done by "London" and hence transferred me to the UK Service Centre. After further discussion, the UK Service Centre said that it had to be done by the NA Service Centre and so transferred me back. I was then told (after nearly an hour on the phone) that it is only possible when done over the phone and at the time of the original booking.
  
  Please can you confirm the exact rules and if UUA should be able to be applied to existing flight and hotel reservations (as the terms and conditions suggest).
  
  Thanks in advance for your help
  
  We can currently do this for UK originating flights or bookings made within the UK but I have asked the tean to review ASAP and to see if we can quickly roll this out to the rest of the base.
  
  
• We've been told that when flying for example CPH-LHR-LAX we could chose to upgrade only segment e.g. LHR-LAX. I see no way of doing that online, if I choose book with cash upgrade with Avios there's no option other than upgrading the whole trip.
  
  If the connecting flight is also available you cannot currently upgrade on a sector only basis online – this is only possible if the CPH-LHR sector is not available for example. We are reviewing this as a future development – until then your local service centre will be able to help.
  
  
• I want to confirm that MFUs (especially JBA's ones) are sector based. E.g. if I go JFK-LAX-HNL (where there are no direct flights) I'd be charged the respective number of miles for each sector?
  
  Yes that is correct – we will only charge for the actual sector upgraded.

Other topics

• Couldn't BA roll back the requirement that awards price by segment for a period of time so that customers, now in possession of the correct information, have a chance to redeem their miles under a structure conforming to what was represented by the company?
  
  I’m afraid the changes took place from 16 November – we will not be reverting to the old system.
  
  
• I am trying to book North America-LHR-SYD using Avios and 2-4-1. Every time I am rebuffed with "Partners are not permitted with 2-4-1"
  
  I thought BA flies LHR-SYD. What am I missing?
  
  Can you PM me with the details of this so that I can look into this for you. It doesn’t sound accurate – can you also confirm which 2-4-1 voucher you are using?

Last updated: 25 November 2011