British Airways and Avios Points

Next November, I'll be taking back-to-back cruises with Royal Caribbean for the 2nd time. I decided to see just which airport I was likely to fly out of: Baltimore Washington International or Washington Dulles. I found out for flights ultimately ending in Venice, Italy which where the 2 cruises will start from, Dulles would be at least $300 cheaper. Another attraction of flying out of Dulles was that I could use the 200,000 plus airmiles now called Avios points. British Airways made a big thing about the change over to the new points. I would find out they didn't change anything when it came to trying to use them.

I figured I should have a good shot at either getting a free Business Class ticket or paying cash and getting a guaranteed upgrade to Business Class since I was going to book the flights 10 months out. Why is Business Class so important to me? Because I know I can get some sleep in those seats. I can't sleep for crap in Economy seats. To my surprise, I couldn't get a free seat on the dates I needed to fly out and, I couldn't get a guaranteed upgrade with cash. This reminded me of the fiasco I had when I tried to get a free seat to Copenhagen and back from Oslo in connection with a Globus tour I was planning to take of Scandanavia (Denmark, Sweden and Norway). I couldn't get a free seat then and, that wasn't the last time I had this problem. I was so pissed off by the experience I cancelled my British Airways Visa charge card. I told the lady at the charge card center there wasn't any point in having the card and paying the yearly charge if I couldn't use the airmiles when I wanted. Keep in mind too that even if you managed to get free seats, British Airways made you pay a stiff fee of supposed taxes. When I did to fly Business Class to Paris in advance of the Globus La France tour I took, I had to pay British Airways over $700 for my supposedly free ticket. British Airways claimed this was a deal. In my opinion, no it wasn't considering what I had to do just to earn the airmiles. By the way, concerning the Paris tickets, I got lucky to get those as it turned out after I booked the ticket British Airways changed their flights making it impossible for me to get back. Luckily for me, I didn't find out till I finished the tour and arrived at Charles de Gaulle ready to leave only to find out I wasn't. Thanks to a great and understanding British Airways ticket rep, I did make it home. However, if I had found out about the change, I might not have been able to use my airmiles AGAIN. grrrrrrr

This latest fiasco over trying to use the new Avios points has guaranteed I won't be flying British Airways when I travel to Venice. Also, to add further fury, I found out that in the new great Avios system British Airways came out, they devalued their airmiles AGAIN. According to Tim Winship at Frequentflier Blog (http://blog.frequentflier.com) on November 17, 2011, the new Avios points will be yet another devaluation i.e. it'll cost even more points/airmiles for many U.S. travellers who want to use them on British Airways. I haven't forgotten when British Airways devalued my airmiles back in 2006. Their reason then was they wanted to get all their U.S. members on par with other members in other countries. Apparently, British Airways wanted to value us as little as they did their other members worldwide. Now, they've put the screws to its U.S. Executive Club members again.

Because of this latest devaluation, I know what I'll be doing. Once I can travel again (sometime in April 2013), I'll book whatever flights I can where I can get a free ticket with British Airways just so I can use up my Avios points. Once I do that, I won't be flying British Airways again. They've stuck it to me too many times. I would advise other U.S. travellers to do the same. Happy travels all.