British Airways has announced that beginning February 2, 2016, short haul one-way awards originating or terminating in the US will begin at 7,500 Avios points rather than the current cost of 4,500 points. Bookings made prior to February 2 (even for travel after that date) will continue to price at 4,500 points each way for nonstop short haul routes on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. No other point redemption rates will be changed (yet).
Full details can be found here.
Hat Tip: Dev
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[…] Iberia Avios As An Alternative To British Airways – Good information to know considering the recent announcement about the elimination of many 4,500 Avios BA […]
Certainly a bummer but at least they didn’t change all the other tiers! I am planning to book a trip from Phoenix to Maui nonstop on American using Avios for 25k points per person. That is still an amazing deal! I was worried something would change with this route since US Airways is now officially gone and they had Phoenix as a hub. So far so good!
Darn!!! 4500 points to NYC from NC made for quick, great getaways for a show or shopping.
Definitely makes Southwest more necessary in the toolkit.
With this new development, does it even make sense to continue to meet the $20,000 spend requirements for the 100,000 avios bonus?
That depends entirely on how you would use the points. Most options haven’t changed. There are still lots of good deals at 7500 points each way, or more. And, the 4500 point option is still available in other countries (e.g. fly from London to Dublin for 4,500 points)
[…] HT: Frequent Miler […]
I fly a 4500 route very frequently so this sucks for me. Almost double the cost is crazy! I’m going for the CP at the beginning of the year though so looks like I will be flying SW more anyways.
This really sucks. On the other hand Southwest is still flying many short routes for around that number of points. This makes Chase UR points even more important since that’s the only one that transfers to Southwest.
So what if you book a flight now for march and then need to change the date? Would you need to pay the extra 3000 avios for that?
Yes. In fact, best bet at that point is to cancel (and lose only the $5.60 TSA fee) and rebook
It was always and outlier and I think no one is surprised. As long as they keep the other bands the same, I can live with this.
I think we all saw that coming. At least they gave us plenty of time..
Just my luck….. I received my Chase British Airways Visa in the mail three days ago.
Wait…… that would explain the 60,000 miles offer – they knew of the devaluation.
Anyway, anyone who has used the 4,500 avios flights should have known this was coming.