British Airways made the move to revenue-based earning last year for its loyalty currency- Avios– and I had a quiet prediction for flyers like me, it only could spell bad news.
But like everything, I needed hard data to play with – and rather than asking for it – I needed to gather my own.
Unless you are paying top whack for fares, expect not to earn as many Avios as you might have had in the past – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
Thankfully, I have just made a long-haul trip, and the numbers are in… sadly, anyone who thinks collecting Avios via flying is the best way…. may need to reconsider their options unless they are on full-fat fares.
What is the potential to earn Avios under the British Airways programme?
For British Airways passengers, it boils down to Revenue fare. This number is made up of the ticket you purchased, plus any services directly from the airline (be it seat assignment or luggage). Deductions are then made for non-airline taxes and fees, such as airport charges and government taxes.
Then a multiplier is applied to that Revenue Fare depending on your status:
- Blue – 5x
- Bronze – 6x
- Silver – 7x
- Gold – 8x
These have big implications – and you are going to need to be careful when doing the mathematics to ensure you are getting value.
How I calculated my earned and lost Avios.
I have used the publicly accessible Tier Point Calculator – which handily gives out the old Avios values you can earn at https://www.britishairways.com/travel/flight-calculator/execclub/_gf/en_gb.
In terms of presets, I have applied my Silver Status to get the correct values for my account.
The numbers awarded are what British Airways put into my Club Account.
Revenue numbers were based on what the airline awarded in GBP, whilst the fare paid was the cash that came out of my credit card.
London Heathrow to Switzerland.
| Origin | Destination | Ticket Class | Pre-Change | Post Change | Revenue Value | Difference |
| London Heathrow | Zurich | G | 159 | 264 | 33 | -105 |
| Basel | London Heathrow | G | 146 | 264 | 32.99 | -118 |
| Fare Paid | 133.88 | |||||
| Revenue value | 65.99 | |||||
| Unearnable: | 67.89 |
I am amazed by this example – I benefitted on this trip, with a net increase of 223 Avios – even if the tier point earning is pitiful. So far, so good.
Dublin – San Francisco.
Let us look at a long-haul example, on a sale fare to the United States of America, with me starting in Dublin. This is a five-segment fare.
| Origin | Destination | Ticket Class | Pre-Change | Post Change | Revenue Value | Difference |
| Dublin | Philadelphia | I | 6384 | 3,583 | 447.9 | 2,801 |
| Philadelphia | San Fransico | I | 4917 | 1,715 | 214.35 | 3,202 |
| San Francisco | New York JFK | I | 5043 | 1,619 | 202.36 | 3,424 |
| New York JFK | London Heathrow | I | 6743 | 3,507 | 438.31 | 3,236 |
| London Heathrow | Dublin | I | 562 | 179 | 22.40 | 383 |
| Fare Paid | 1443.97 | |||||
| Revenue value | 864.61 | |||||
| Unearnable | 579.36 |
Yikes. From a previous possible 23649 Avios, I earned 10,603. A haircut of 13,046 Avios or a drop of 55% in earnings, compared to the previous mileage award model.
Only a fool earns Avios via flying.
It’s been clear that Avios Loyalty doesn’t want you to earn miles by flying for some time, with earning through other methods (be it through BA Shopping, their credit card partnerships with Chase, Barclaycard and Amex), Uber and Nectar… and in the examples show that whilst sometimes, they can work to your favour – at other times, especially on discount fares, you will be punished.
Because how dare you not pay full price to fly with an Avios earning airline. Only when you are sending as much cash as possible (and probably on someone else’s purchasing card) with fully flexible tickets.
And a chance to reconsider my options…
With my status locked in for 2024 and early 2025, I now have a lot more options for what to do – however, revenue-based flying is coming to other airlines (such as Finnair), as well as a lot of other airlines adopting the same model (American, United Airlines, Delta, KLM, Air France, KLM and so on).
It is food for thought as I hover my fingers over a button to book a ticket, knowing I can be actively punished at the points level for daring to book a lower-cost ticket.
And right now, I am considering my options very carefully, as well as where to credit them.
Because a move like this does not inspire loyalty.
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Ultimately, how can you blame them? The airlines are not paid a fixed amount per mile flown.
They are paid in GBP or USD etc and they are offering you 6-9% rebate to your account.
It does not matter who purchases the fare – you or your company – they are giving you the rebate.
In the US it starts at 5% – so starting at 6% is accounting for the GBP value over USD
It is not reasonable to ask them to give you a 6% rebate on UK APD and LHR taxes
– perhaps Avios should ask the UK govt to make Avios a partner?
They were giving away too much value and that was ok before competition – when BA, AF and LH were kings of the skies. Now you have the ME3 with cheaper labor and newer planes.
If planes were not sold to any country outside site of manufacture then the airlines can be in monopolies.
If you want to keep the factories of Airbus humming, it needs more sales all over the world and that lowers BA profits and UK FA workers salaries.
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I worked on modeling the impact of the switch to revenue based accrual at one of the big US airlines and wanted to put it out there that the switch did not lead to a meaningful reduction in the overall miles earned by flying. It just redistributed the miles for the most part. You could argue that people who pay those kind of fares probably do not care for the miles but we did see premium traffic drop when we were uncompetitive with the other big airline which made the switch to revenue based earning before we did
The lesson is to earn Avios via credit card spend only. Purchase your tickets from the airline with the best available fare and product (unlikely therefore to be BA). For me therefore BA becomes a redemption only airline. So I think in the long run this move will result in a loss of brand loyalty by many fliers, apart from the top dollar full fare brigade. It will be interesting to see whether it serves BA’s goals in the long term ….. not sure myself….. really nothing to stop me flying ME3 or low cost intra Europe if I’ve got to pay for it but I’ll continue to earn the Amex 2:1 for my business class redemptions. The other option is to switch to VS who haven’t gone revenue (yet)