For those who understand the Game of Thrones reference, Winter is Coming. British Airways last laid out award price changes many years ago.  British Airways Executive Club, the loyalty programme of British Airways, just sent out all customers who have ever redeemed miles for a partner award, announcing changes to the price of the mileage tickets from May 30, 2019, onwards. None of these Avios changes has been published just yet.

British Airways First Class Boeing 787-9

Here is the text of the messaging from British Airways,

From 30 May 2019, we’ll be changing our Avios prices on reward flights with the following partner airlines: Alaska Airlines, Air Italy, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Japan Airlines, LATAM, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, S7, Sri Lankan and Royal Jordanian Airlines.

The price of Avios upgrades on American Airlines only will also be changing from 30 May 2019. You will pay the difference between the Avios prices of your booked cabin and your upgraded cabin.

Don’t worry if you have an existing Avios booking with one of these airlines. It’s still valid and you can make changes or cancel it if you need to*. Our new Avios prices will apply to any changes or new bookings you make after 30 May 2019.

There will be no change to our Avios prices for reward flights and upgrades with British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia or Vueling. The Avios prices for our other services are also unaffected, so you can continue to benefit from spending your Avios on our wide range of hotels, car hire and experiences.

All Avios reward flight prices are subject to taxes, fees and carrier charges.

The actual changes are unknown at this moment, and everything is just speculation, but there is no good reason to know if British Airways will want to give everyone a heads up if they wanted to enhance the pricing. So, we should expect a devaluation at this point. Here is the webpage of British Airways that talks about these changes.

If you’ve dealt with the British Airways award chart before, you know about the sweet spots that the distance-based award chart of British Airways offers, for instance, the 4,500 – 7,500 Avios redemptions in economy on short distances, which is excellent.

Redemption rates on British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and Vueling will remain unchanged. Previously booked tickets will continue to be honoured at the old rates.

Bottomline

British Airways is a partner to all the big boys in the world of rewards, be it Citibank, American Express or HDFC Bank. So, if you have a redemption in mind, I’d advise you to pull the trigger on that in the next 30 days.

What do you make from the communication by British Airways?

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