Avios devaluation?
 

Is there a reason why the BA website is jacking up the cash portion of an avios ticket? I usually pay 4000 avios +12.54 USD for DUB-LHR, but today the cash portion has increased to $31. It also shows 8000 avios + $1 as default price, rather than the usual 4000. Did I miss a recent devaluation or could it be a similar incorrect price issue with Aer Lingus on avios.com?

There’s been no devaluation it has been this was for many months. A basic reward is from 4,000 Avios and around £15-17 you can however spend more Avios and less cash starting from £1. See the below thread from last summer

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ly-2019-a.html

If you click through to the "Your price quote" page you should see a number of pricing options shown, one being at the 4000 level:

8500 Avios + £ 0.50
6750 Avios + £ 6.50
5000 Avios + £ 12.50
4000 Avios + £ 17.50
2950 Avios + £ 32.50
2200 Avios + £ 42.50

It used to be 4000 avios +12.54 usd, now it is 4000 avios +31 usd. I’m paying over 2.5x cash for the same avios level

There have been two devaluations from the original poster's point of view. Prior to the July 2019 change on this route you paid 4000 avios (off peak) and the lesser amount of either the taxes and charges or the Reward Flight Saver (RFS) fee of £17.50 (or equivalent). As taxes and charges from Dublin are lower than £17.50 it meant it was the taxes and charges that were paid.

When the new pricing came in July 2019, the prices started at 7500 avios plus £0.50, and there were various fixed price points above this. For this route at 4000 avios the cash element was £15.50. On many routes this was a £2 decrease on the old RFS fee, however, it is fixed pricing which no longer takes into account the real taxes and charges, therefore this was a disadvantage on routes like Dublin (and Luxembourg - where from what I recall the taxes were something like £2).

In the past couple of months there has been another devaluation. They have increased the number of avios required at the £0.50 price point by 1000, so it will now cost 8500 avios off peak. They have also increased the cash element required at other price points - for example at 4000 avios it has increased by £2 to £17.50. This has probably not drawn too much attention on here as £17.50 is the old RFS fee and I doubt if too many here redeem at the £0.50 price point as it is a poor return on avios (in this example you would be spending an extra 4500 avios to save £17 meaning you would be getting less than 0.38p per avios).

is the flight with EI rather than BA? If so the RFS that ba offer doesn't apply as it's not a ba flight so you have to pay the taxes and surcharges.

Has the account earned at least one avio in the last year? If it hasn't then you don't qualify for RFS pricing.

The last bug downturn the value of Avios increased significantly, redemption rates were cut and a massive 2-4-1 sale (combinable with Amex 2-4-1) took place.

Id assume while BA are desperate for cash and to get people flying again, similar is far more likely than a devaluation, which will have the reverse effect.

Which curiously means short-haul redemptions from places like DUB, LUX and FAO with low taxes and charges are actually cheaper than an RFS redemption. This must be an error, and the only way to see it is to log on to an Avios account not eligible for RFS.

The new system, which was supposed to be a trial, which has now been tweaked twice is, as I said then, a not very well hidden devaluation. And then look of you combine one of these RFS redemptions connecting to a long-haul redemption. They always use the higher avios value for the short-haul, added to the value for the long-haul and still charge full taxes and fees from origin to destination.

I believe the way this trial was done, was by lowering the RFS fee to be £0.50 per segment (BA's website can't handle transactions with cash value of £0.00); redemption costs has been increased to include avios for RFS; avios+cash options where adjusted to include the original value, e.g. £17.50 + 4500 avios for a peak redemption.

This led two a number of issues (ones I've encounter so far):
1) person eligible for RFS no longer has an option to pay lower taxes instead of RFS fee, since RFS is set to £0.50
2) trying to book Gold Priority Reward (double avios for any seat 30 days out) one has to argue that it should be 30k avios for LHR-WAW in Club, not 40k avios as quoted by the agent. Knowledgable agent will spot this and ask the supervisor for a permission (sic!) while some agents will incorrectly argue redemptions have gone up.
3) rebooking redemption done before the "trial" resulted in agents asking for extra avios, can happen with bookings made before being eligible for RFS too.

Terms and conditions have not been updated (at least last time I've checked) and they still mention £35 RFS fee for economy and £50 RFS fee for club redemptions. On some routes cash value is adjusted so it is £35/£50, on many others it's actually £36/£51 (assuming round trip).

While I appreciate BA is experimenting with new ways of getting their avios back (avios for RFS is a pretty poor value), this particular trial, in my humble opinion, has been handled in a very unprofessional way.

I still feel if you want the best value you should have the old school way. £17.50/leg and whatever avios.

But watch one thing. Lets say you want to go form A-B (obviously) and a normal price is £100 each way. You may see something like 45000 avios + £1. You will also see.
5000 avios + £130. What?????? Paying avios + MORE money????

So be careful those avios reductions are not always what they seem.

Depends. If £100 was a basic fare, than avios redemption would have advantage of included luggage, seat selection at check-in, and flexibility (£35 to change or cancel).