Ancient Observer

PR?

Spin?

Whoever would have thought that BA would do that?

Meanwhile, back to the Empoyee Relations of BA and how they treat their people.......................

Raffles

To be fair, this is an Avios Group initiative and the cost is presumably coming off their balance sheet. It just that the emails are coming from BA and the donations page is on ba.com.

Ancient Observer

Raffles,
As you well know, it is neither fair nor honest.

smokie36

Plenty of fellow NHS staff collecting Avios so 60000 will be gratefully received I'm sure.

This is a nice touch for staff who have been working very hard in tough conditions.

JAXBA

60K Avios could still get 5 people to Europe or another part of the UK (depending where they start from), with minimal additional cost. There's a use for them, but some recipients will enjoy them more than others, especially if they already happen to collect Avios.

Sorry your glass is half empty.

malkie

I lean towards this being a bit of a PR stunt at no immediate ‘cost’ to BA / Avios Group.

However, given Avios can be traded for a discount on any ticket, then it could present value to anyone. I appreciate just using 60k Avios to get Ł100 off a TATL is poor use of Avois, but easier to redeem for someone not a master of the system.

Confus

Don’t forget that a bucket of Avios could be used for the ‘poor value + 50p option’ (rightly) ridiculed on this site, but for the staff concerned probably still a bargain.

Raffles

If someone offered me Ł300 of wine or champagne then I'd happily take it without any complaints and I'm sure this will be seen the same way.

Worth noting that if it was all used for wine or hotels then Avios Group is paying out Ł1 million to third parties, so it's not exactly a cheap publicity stunt. And if the NHS workers do use them for what we see as 'bad' redemptions, like wine, it actually has a bigger financial hit to IAG overall than any of us redeeming for a First return (no cash leaving IAG, a huge pile of taxes on top).

rockflyertalk

Whether it’s Avios, BA, IAG or whoever, it’s clearly, here’s a voucher, so you can give us that back at some point.

What would have been positive and on top of the good spirits of delivering PPE, as well as asking customers if they would like to donate Avios, would have been a Ł1-10million donation to a part of the NHS.

If a senior member of the population can walk up and down his garden against the state of his health and raise Ł30M, then a group of Board Members whose combined balance sheet is into the Łbillions then Ł1-10m cheque isn’t too much to ask.

One of the richest females in the UK, whom owns a gambling company managed to donate Ł10M to the NHS and I think that’s poor on her behalf based on her wealth, I compare that to someone of a very similar wealth who is donating Ł1BN to CV19 amongst a few other causes.

Sadly this is where and when capitalism fails hardest now. I’m no socialist but the balance is off.

Engineering Travel

Fair point ...
Do the Maths from BHX, on very average wages..

...

frandrake

I might be a bit cynical here, but am I the only one seeing this as a fast way to get some liabilities out of BA's balance sheet?

NWIFlyer

Ignoring the complexities of who owns the liability for Avios, at worst case this is a neutral transaction - Avios balances are not being written off, they’re being transferred. So the liability in the medium term, at least within IAG, remains unchanged.

That short to medium term is where any concern will lie - get through this and all the group’s airlines will recover, so they won’t be quite so worried about the long term liability.

Add on the seed fund donation made by Avios Group and actually the liability increases.

smokie36

On reflection perhaps this money could be used to restore the free cheap tea and coffee we used to enjoy on our short breaks throughout the day rather than cases of wine for a few lucky staff.

fotographer

Just wondering.. Why does BA have rely on its customers to donate miles? BA just give the NHS staff and other front line workers Avios miles they need to book tickets,
and please dont charge them the fees that you would normally collect.
otherwise.. it would probably cost them more in cash to fly your airline then your competition.

Raffles

Eh? BA IS donating 210 million Avios. If customers want to top that up, they can.