Discussion - Business Traveller

Kalman36 - 06/01/2011 11:26 GMT

I recently travelled first class on Etihad to Abu Dhabi and as a result I received 20k Etihad miles/points. For a while these points remained dormant gathering dust. Then one day I received an email from Etihad reminding me they have an online shop where I can spend the points. It turns out this online shop is amazing and has an extensive range of products for all ages, sexes etc. In the end I bought, fairly randomly, a football goal for my kids and six Bodum glasses.

I have two questions. Firstly why doesn’t BA have a similar online shop? Most people are stuck with lots of BA miles they will never spend. Having an online shop would encourage people to earn more miles and ultimately spend more money. I think Lufthansa also have a similar online shop; I therefore don’t understand why BA don’t have one too. Secondly I seem to remember that in the distant past BA did have a similar system where you could spend you BA miles on other things other than flights. Does anyone else remember this or is it a figment of my imagination?

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DisgustedofSwieqi - 06/01/2011 11:43 GMT

Kalman36

BA does have a shop, but it does not seem to accept points in payment.

http://www.highlifeshop.com/

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Charles-P - 06/01/2011 11:49 GMT

Kalman36 is right Lufthansa does indeed have an online shop for Miles and More card holders and l have used it. Good range of gifts, charity donation options and of course travel choices.

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Kalman36 - 06/01/2011 12:25 GMT

If you can't use your points there's not much point having an online shop. Why would anyone buy anything on the BA on-line shop when there are hundreds of other online shops out there? BA are really missing an opportunity here.

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VintageKrug - 06/01/2011 13:05 GMT

BA does have one of the better miles earning retail stores:

www.ba.com/estore

It is not possible to spend miles here, but then I suppose BA sees more value to be gained by awarding miles to incentivise purchases, rather than facilitating spend.

Etihad has a signiifcantly smaller network than BA, and does not have the multiple airline miles spending opportunities which BA's oneworld affiliation offers, so it makes sense for Etihad to offer a non-flight redemption opportunity to its customers.

I don't recall BA having a site where you could spend BA Miles on non-flight purchases, though there might have been something connected with hotel stays which allow payment with BA Miles.

It is very easy to redeem BA Miles online for redemption seats, upgrades, miles & cash fares as well as oneworld awards with other/mixed carriers and with a modest amount of application using BA Miles in this way can be a better value proposition than redeeming for superfluous retail purchases.