BA to trial new Avios upgrades.
Back to Forum- This topic has 20 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 4 Dec 2014
at 17:19 by FaroFlyer.
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rfergusonParticipantFrom 1st-16Dec BA is trialling a new upgrade by Avios scheme. ‘Targeted members’ with bookings will be phoned by the Exec Club call centre with the offer to upgrade to the next cabin for Avios even when there is no reward availability to do so. The catch? It will cost more Avios than the usual redemption.
An example. a W – J upgrade using reward availability on a zone 3 sector is 5,000 Avios. However providing you are one of the selected members, you will be offered to upgrade to a flight with no reward availability for 20,000 Avios. Quite a premium on the usual redemption.
Thoughts?
29 Nov 2014
at 13:12
MartynSinclairParticipantThanks RF for the heads up.
if you had written about a new targeted initiative by BA to enhance the travel process or product, I think there would be many whooopppeeesss being expressed.
A targeted campaign to try and take a few avios out of circulation by overcooking the usual number of avios required to upgrade, bewilders me about how much these clowns get paid to think up these ideas.
Far better to come up with a scheme that actually permits the scores of loyal customers who have avios to use them, outside of Europe.
29 Nov 2014
at 13:28
rfergusonParticipantI agree Martyn.
What concerns me most is that if the trial is deemed a success, will BA be inclined to restrict normal reward availability in the premium cabins so they can flog more at inflated avios ‘prices’. Reward availability is already very scarce – i’m looking for destinations for NOV 15 and there is none to anywhere of the five destinations i’d like to go in F or J. Any further reduction in availability would be really disappointing.
29 Nov 2014
at 13:40
MartynSinclairParticipantJust out of interest, what kind of manpower do the exec club have to cold call passengers with this kind of offer. I would imagine that an offer of this sort would be UK based, but it seems to me that the biggest expense could be the manpower (including cost) to actually make these calls………. unless……….. oh no……… please tell me …no……….. the calls are coming from Peter in an Indian call centre….
29 Nov 2014
at 13:45
seasonedtravellerParticipantMartynSinclair
In response to your first post above.
Exactly the way I feel – couldn’t have put it any better.
29 Nov 2014
at 14:10
KarlMarxParticipantAs economists say, Structure/Conduct/Performance, in other words, in a free market, firms will try to compete using different gambits, to increase their revenues/profits, so not unexpected.
Will it affect me? No, I have some Avios, but can use these for hotels if flights are not available and having recently changed my business travel (all shorthaul, so no big mileage earning) to Swiss, I won’t be earning any more from BA. As we tend to use easyJet for our breaks, impact is really low, but I can understand how it may be high for others.
29 Nov 2014
at 15:37
Gold-2KParticipantI wonder what is the criteria to be targeted? Many of my work colleagues often pay to upgrade with money on long haul when checking in. I’m guessing they won’t be on the target list if there is a chance of getting real money out of them? So will it be less frequent travellers sitting on a big avios balance who now only fly occasionally with BA? Will be interesting to see who is targeted as “special”?
30 Nov 2014
at 14:44
STORMIN'ParticipantI would imagine that this is an attempt by Budget Airways to reduce what must be a significant contingent liability on their part in terms of the unused Avios mileage in circulation – it’s a pity that they have chosen to try and reduce this liability in this manner but, perhaps, not unexpected. As many have said before, there is little availability to use Avios conventionally for flights, other than in Europe – perhaps best use them for hotels, etc and focus on Skyteam or Star Alliance with whom I have had reasonable success in obtaining reward flights in premium cabins long-haul
30 Nov 2014
at 20:50
KarlMarxParticipantSTORMIN’
I see a commercial organization trying to gain advantage, so no surprises there and nothing to criticise the company for, as it exists for the benefit of the shareholders, not the customers. The customers have the choice whether to accept the behaviours or not.
Recently BA decided to reduce the seat pitch in Club Europe by 4″, which would affect me on the regular trips I took to Switzerland, so I spoke with our travel department and am now being routed via a competitor.
So I agree with your conclusion and if enough people change their buying habits, BA will get the message and react, but there is little point expecting a multinational corporation to have the same degree of customer focused thinking as a corner store in a village, where the intimacy of the relationship provides instant feedback, as opposed to the post hoc analysis of big data, coupled with the provision of special deals for corporate customers providing insulation from the customer reaction in the short term.
1 Dec 2014
at 07:49
peter19Participantagree with many of the comments above i suspect they are taking advantage of less busy flights on certain routes to test but will be a shame again that this may impact on the general availability. Anybody that knows anything about the reward seats will not go for an over inflated avios redemption but continue to play the game…just a shame you don often win when you want to..for long haul anyway.
1 Dec 2014
at 10:47
cityprofessionalParticipantReally? Why is everyone being so negative about it? It sounds like a “space available” (rather than “award space available”) upgrade for an additional number of Avios to reflect the fact that these seats could still be sold as upgrades on MMB or at check in
Sounds like a nice initiative, and if they don’t trial it, they will never know if customers like it or not… If you don’t want the upgrade then don’t take it. Sooner or later BA will adjust the number of Avios required so it has the right number of takers to fill up whichever seats they need filling
I have a couple of (paid) CW flights coming up with no F Avios upgrade or MMB paid upgrade availability, and I certainly would pay a higher number of Avios (of which I have plenty, and have real difficulty using) to secure a seat at the pointy end…
1 Dec 2014
at 11:01
MartynSinclairParticipantnot sure if its still around, but don’t BA currently run a scheme where avios seats “may” be released for 3 times the number of standard avios?? Wonder what the take up was for that scheme..
1 Dec 2014
at 11:04
peter19ParticipantCityProfessional, thinking about it a bit more my first reaction was no because of what seems like an over inflation of avios for value but thinking from your perspective on a space available scenario then i don’t think i would be against this. it’s up to us how we spend our avios and equally I’m sure many others face the same issue of how do i spend these? I have been buying cases of wine just to use some up in the past few months. Equally im happy also saving to take advantage of some rewards later on when i don’t fly so much and i feel like i would get benefit from using them.
1 Dec 2014
at 11:20
TimFitzgeraldTCParticipantThis could be a reaction to HMRC (possibly) investigating the liabilities that BA has put against Avios and the fact that at current redemption levels they simply aren’t worth what BA say they are worth. So if this is a way of allowing passengers to then burn points at a level which is financially prudent to BA to mitigate against possible action then I wouldn’t be surprised.
1 Dec 2014
at 11:22 -
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