Dear BA frequent flyers,

Please note that this is in now way a general rant about BA - I've had most of the times pleasant experiences flying with British Airways, as demonstrated by my 7-year long Silver tier (less pleased with customer service but that's another discussion!).

However, since 2022, it basically has been impossible to redeem Avios (no availability, and when you try to ask if it's possible to double upgrade because you just can't spend your Avios, that's "out of policy") with availability disappearing, for both booking and upgrades, always as soon as a year in advance for long-haul flights (the bulk of my travel). Last summer, I cancelled my BA Black Amex card because I had 3 companion vouchers that expired, and took the platinum cashback card instead with a much lower APR and no fees - which actually with the cashback accumulated I managed to get a free Club Europe return flight for this summer for two.

I now have 88k Avios left with all the upcoming flights I could that have been upgraded with Avios. I can't even spend those Avios on Round the World fares. What am I supposed to do with those Avios? Is this something that you are also all noticing?

Before those past 9 years in the UK, I used to live in France where I had the Air France Platinum status and, although redeeming miles was "expensive", I could always do it. It wasn't restricted to 10% of the seats per flight.