IMH

That's far too sweeping. "Probably a fairly substantial devaluation for those in NA who don't want to redeem on BA" is more like it -- and that strikes me, with a home in NA, as fair enough.

shanshan

I have no doubts about the maliciousness of the timing. I also fell for the MR transfer and transferred much too many points. I'd flown the transcon occassionally but not enough to rack up serious points... so beefed with the MR offer. And BA just robbed me outright. And now we have the nice BA customer service rep now on FT explaining the changes. So nice indeed!

But this is my fault. Should have known that 50% transfer bonus was done with negative intentions. I will avoid BA for cash paying tickets in the future. My mini-revenge, which over the years will add up... but not add up to anything they or anyone else will really care about.

As an aside, the europeans are partaking in a little to much schadenfreude on this board for my taste... guess it tastes better with an afternoon tea.

saacman5033

You're being a bit too optimistic. 60/120/180 only gets you a one way trip JFK-HKG

beachfan

Perhaps because there are plenty of biases against West Coast US passengers already:

1) Award availability from West Coast US to LHR is loaded a month before LHR - Europe/Asia/Africa miles. So I saw J award space in LHR-MLE which I wanted for my 30th anniversary, but they didn't load LAX-LHR until a month later (which by that time it was gone).

2) Because they charge more YQ on the same flight when booked in dollars than in pounds (they implied exchange rate is over 2:1).

3) Because the YQ for 1 person LAX-JNB is $1200 for one F ticket EXCLUDING taxes (i.e., pure YQ) already. The maximum YQ for a flight out of LHR is half that if booked in dollars and less than half that if booked in pounds. I know LAX-JNB is far, but is it double the longest route ex LHR?

dw

Yes.. r/t should be 100/200/300 under the multiple partners chart, I believe.

DYKWIA

Give an example...

bernardd

Ditto a domestic redemption on AA - pricing the 182 miles AUS-DFW as AUS-LHR-DFW would render BAEC a laughing stock. What I am expecting to see is more harmonization of earn & burn rates between AA & BA. Does that imply AA will soon introduce different redemption rates from US east & west coast cities to Europe?

Prospero

As DFW and AUS will probably remain within the same band, the redemption amount probably will not change at all, or if it does, then not by much.

JFK and LAX we know will be in two adjacent bands so this redemption will probably cost a little more than a redemption between two NA cities in a common band

littlefish

Don't understand.
USA-EZE on AA may go up from 40/80 to maybe 50/100 with Avios (given LHR-LAX is still 50k and further). But your 50% bonus translates from 40k to 60k, so you're quids in to the tune of 10k even IF there's a new higher rate.
You need to explain the "negative intention" and "robbery" here? Surely you are better off, all in?
Even if LAX-HKG goes to 75/150/225 its a push, after the 50% bonus.

and, what's cash tickets got to do with it. You'd rather pay $4k for AA F over $3.5k BA F were that choice ever offered (unlikely I'd admit ... but why rule it out?)

beltway

I beg to differ:

• North America-Far East: 50K vs. 120K
• NA-SW Pacific: 80K vs. 140K

Any suggestion that there is "little difference" in these amounts aligns rather poorly with the facts.

Euan

The two main concerns (from here and various blogs) from North American members are what will the redemption rates be for North America to Asia and North America to South America.

JFK-HKG - 8,000 miles, currently 100,000 miles in J
JFK-EZE - 5,200 miles, currently 80,000 miles in J

If you base on similar distances to what BA announced today ex-UK...

JFK-HKG - 1,000 miles further than LHR-SIN which is 140,000 miles in J - an increase of 40% if you assume the same rate.
JFK-EZE - roughly same distance as LHR-LAX which is 100,000 miles in J - an increase of 25% if you assume the same rate.

Not catastrophic but the potential for a big increases in two popular routes from NA.

Note - I have nothing to back my assumptions... it could range from 0-100% correct

bernardd

Alternatively BA could treat JFK-LAX as equivalent to LHR -> (say)DME (I hope that's about the same distance?) and charge a radically different rate for that compared with AUS-DFW or JFK-BOS in place of the current blanket US domestic award.

There's a logic to that approach however it would hardly increase alignment with AAdvantage, which I believed was one ultimate goal of the JBA. Again, are we going to have BA charging different rates LAX-LHR than BOS-LHR while AA has the same redemption rate for both routes?

azepine00

I am not aware of anyone here in California asking to increase what appears to be pretty much every single international award, in some cases almost 3x.


Geee I can feel the joy already.

I will send a note to Chase to let them know that BA miles they market to me are about to drastically decrease in value making it pointless for me to use chase card and collect them. I am pretty sure most of us here on the west coast face the same issues and BA will lose a lot of members from this region (just in time for SAN-LHR launch)

BAHumbug

And Yanks accuse the British of being cynical...

For the first time in ages BA have made an announcement that, on balance, is pretty good news and I cannot believe the amount of whinging on this thread.

Airmiles collectors I think have a genuine gripe. Everyone else - take the rough with the smooth. I for one think it's a good announcement and deals with an awful lot of the inequalities and oddities in the program as it is now in a fair way. I'll wait and see what the next couple of months bring, but so far I'm fairly pleased with what I see.

BAH

Prospero

The zonal model will still exist so you will not be penalised for a multi segment reward within a single zone. However jumping between the east and west coasts will be more expensive than it currently is. Without the full matrix it is difficult to quantify the exact differences.