Not only has British Airways been devaluing their program this year (early on it was long haul flights and just last week it was short haul in North America) but we are seeing smaller transfer bonuses to the program! Over most of summer you could transfer Amex Membership Rewards Points to British Airways Executive Club with a 25% when in the past it was 50%. Same with the famous RBC Avion transfer bonus, it has always been 50% for as long as we have run this website (well the website is older than the offer but it sure seems that long!) and now the twice annual bonus has been cut to only 30%.
This offer is for all of you RBC Avion cardholders (Infinite and
Platinum) and runs from today to December 15th, which is the same length as the 50% offer earlier this year but roughly two weeks
shorter than we normally see. Despite the BA devaluations, this transfers bonus is still a decent deal as BA Avios are a great option for flights to
Asia (via Cathay Pacific), short to medium haul within North America
until February and even after that despite the increased redemption rate (short haul offer is great on Alaska Airlines, TAM or American Airlines see this post here) and even though huge surcharges are
added to their UK/Europe redemptions they can still be an alright value
because of this bonus transfer based on your spend with the credit card
(see my post about Earn & Burn
for an explanation). As always though with any frequent flyer program
you will have to be flexible in your options when redeeming due to seat
availability issues (ie it may be hard to get tickets to Europe in
Summer etc.) so take this into consideration before transferring.
Overall in the light of the all changes, do you still find value in BA Executive Club or will you now be hesitant to convert based on the devaluations and the decrease in this bonus?