Only a week after Virgin Atlantic Flying Club devalued award flights on Delta Airlines we see British Airways Executive Club doing the same for awards on American and Alaska Airlines. As first reported by Award Wallet these unannounced changes are already live and affect routes on both airlines out of Canada.
It was only a few short months ago we were heralding the return of American Airlines Halifax to New York route as an excellent Avios redemption option but now that route will cost more. In fact all of those good short haul options from Eastern Canada to the Northeastern U.S. now run 8,250 Avios one way, up from the 7,500 (and much higher than the 4,500 we enjoyed years ago!)
It’s not just short haul economy that has gone up in price, but the price bands for the first four distance zones have all been increased for both economy class and business class awards. The increases range from 10% to 32% which are pretty significant increases. Rewards Canada reader Chris C. pointed out of the routes with a 32% increase. He was looking at Miami to Antigua which was 44,000 Avios previously and now it’s up to 58,000. Here are all the changes:
| Distance Zone | Old Price Economy | New Price Economy | Old Price Business | New Price Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 650 miles | 8,250 | 12,000 | 16,500 | 24,000 |
| 651 to 1,151 miles | 11,000 | 16,000 | 20,500 | 32,000 |
| 1,152 to 2,000 miles | 13,000 | 18,000 | 29,000 | 40,000 |
| 2,001 to 3,000 miles | 16,000 | 20,000 | 42,000 | 50,000 |
Wrapping it up
Here we have another unannounced change to award flight pricing that affects the Canadian points and miles market significantly. British Airways Executive Club is one of the more popular non-Canadian programs for Canadians not just for flights across the ocean but for flights in North America thanks to their partners Alaska Airlines and American Airlines. Award flights on those partners just became more expensive including the very popular short haul awards from Eastern Canada to the Eastern U.S., which are widely used as positioning flights for high end award travel out of cities like New York.
Surprisingly though, those short haul awards being increased by 10% to 8,250 Avios each way for economy class still represent a good redemption option but now they are not as good as they were just a few days ago.
Title image via American Airlines