Yesterday I posted about the changes that British Airways will be making to the Executive Club program as of April 28, 2015. We’re seeing changes on both the earnings and redemption side, and not surprisingly, the changes mostly suck. But that’s kind of to be expected given the landscape of the industry in 2015.
The cuts on the Avios earnings side are in some cases huge. As a reminder, here’s a comparison of the old and new earnings rates for travel on British Airways:
However, how do the earnings rates change for travel on partner airlines? In other words, if you fly American and credit to British Airways Executive Club, will the number of Avios you earn per trip change?
Initially I figured I was missing something, because I couldn’t for the life of me find any reference to a change in earnings rates on partner airlines. But I figured I was overlooking something, given how sneaky British Airways is about these changes (for example, they buried in the FAQs that all partner awards price at the peak level).
Anyway, after doing some research it seems I wasn’t missing anything. British Airways hasn’t published new Avios earnings rates for travel on their partners.
Based on the information we have as of now, this presents a really interesting situation whereby you can earn a lot more Avios for flying a partner airline than flying British Airways on a particular route, which seems counter intuitive.
For example, if crediting to Executive Club and traveling between the US and Europe on a “Q” fare, you’d earn only 25% of flown miles on British Airways, while you’d earn 100% of flown miles on American. That’s a bit backwards, eh?
Do I expect earnings rates on partners will be adjusted as well? Almost definitely… it’s just a matter of time.
But if you couldn’t figure out the new partner earnings rates then don’t worry, you’re not missing anything.
Do you think British Airways will publish new partner earnings rates starting April 28 as well, or do you think it’s coming later?
Of course they will. It's the fashionable thing to do now.