British Airways Will increase Alaska Airways and American Airways Award Pricing

As soon as once more, British Airways Government Membership has devalued Alaska Airways and American Airways awards booked with Avios. 

As first reported by One Mile at a Time, award pricing for Alaska Airways or American Airways flights has elevated for the second time in simply seven months. In comparison with this time final yr, some award prices have almost doubled, whereas others have spiked considerably.

Thankfully, you could possibly ebook the identical flights for much less, both by utilizing a special flavour of Avios or by utilizing completely different loyalty packages altogether.

British Airways Devalues Alaska Airways and American Airways Awards Once more

In December 2023, British Airways elevated the price of reserving Alaska Airways and American Airways flights with Avios by as a lot as 32%. 

Sadly, the associated fee has risen but once more with one other no-notice devaluation of awards from British Airways Government Membership.

As a reminder, British Airways Avios have traditionally been nice to make use of for shorter-haul flights in financial system or enterprise class world wide. This used to incorporate flights with American Airways and Alaska Airways, that are each oneworld airways, to locations throughout North America.

British Airways not publishes an official award chart for journey with British Airways or associate airways; nevertheless, pricing had been in step with the earlier charts till the latest adjustments have been applied.

It seems that solely the primary 4 distance bands within the historic chart have been affected this time, which signifies that flights longer than 3,001 miles haven’t seen the identical devaluations.

The under chart reveals the previous price in Avios for financial system flights with Alaska Airways and American Airways in every distance band, in addition to the brand new costs by way of the 2 devaluations.

(Word that the proportion proven is the distinction between the unique pricing and the devalued pricing, and never incremental adjustments between devaluations).

The under chart reveals the previous price in Avios for enterprise class flights with Alaska Airways and American Airways, in addition to the brand new costs by way of the 2 devaluations.

As you possibly can see, the prices have risen by 29–94% in comparison with what they have been previous to the December 2023 devaluation.

Total, enterprise class award pricing has seen the sharpest complete rise, almost doubling in some circumstances, whereas financial system pricing has additionally seen a big spike. 

No-notice devaluations like these don’t instill lots of confidence from program members, because it sends the message that award costs can and can change with out advance discover.

Moreover, it illustrates the very best apply of maintaining transferable factors held in your account till you’ve a deliberate redemption in thoughts, since doing so may help defend you from sudden devaluations.

In different phrases, it’s finest to maintain your American Specific Membership Rewards, RBC Avion, American Specific US Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Chase Final Rewards (all switch companions with British Airways Government Membership) factors in these accounts till you want them for a particular, deliberate redemption.

E-book the Identical Flights with a Totally different Flavour of Avios

After these devaluations, your finest wager to ebook the identical American Airways or Alaska Airways flights are with American Airways AAdvantage miles or Alaska miles straight. That is particularly the case with Alaska Airways Mileage Plan, which lately underwent sweeping adjustments, and short-haul flights have the potential for wonderful redemption worth.

Nonetheless, each AAdvantage miles and Alaska miles are quite tough to accrue when in comparison with British Airways Avios. Due to this fact, for those who used Avios to ebook American Airways and Alaska Airways flights, chances are you’ll end up in a little bit of a bind.

One factor to remember is that six loyalty packages now use Avios as a foreign money: British Airways Government Membership, Qatar Airways Privilege Membership, Finnair Plus, Iberia Plus, Aer Lingus AerClub, and Vueling Membership.

Moreover, you possibly can immediately convert one sort of Avios into a special “flavour” of Avios on-line at a 1:1 ratio.

One technique to remember, particularly for those who discovered worth in redeeming British Airways Avios for flights with American Airways and Alaska Airways, is to evaluate award pricing between completely different packages that use Avios.

For instance, a one-way flight in financial system from Miami to Toronto prices 18,000 Avios plus $7.60 in taxes and costs if booked with British Airways Avios.

The identical flight booked with Qatar Airways Avios prices 11,000 Avios plus $10 in taxes and costs. 

Notably, 11,000 Avios is the associated fee that British Airways used to cost previous to the December 2023 devaluation. So, by changing your British Airways Avios into Qatar Airways Avios, which solely takes a couple of seconds, you possibly can profit from decrease, pre-devaluation pricing for a similar flight.

Equally, a one-way flight from Seattle to Honolulu with Alaska Airways prices 13,000 Avios in financial system or 38,750 Avios in enterprise class if booked with Qatar Airways Avios… 

Alternatively, you’d now must spend 20,000 Avios in financial system or 50,000 Avios in enterprise class if booked with British Airways Avios. 

In different phrases, you possibly can nonetheless entry the pre-December 2023 devaluation pricing in Avios by leveraging pricing by way of Qatar Airways Privilege Membership as a substitute of by way of British Airways Government Membership.

Word which you could ebook American Airways flights with Qatar Airways Avios on-line; nevertheless, you’ll must both name in or submit a request for guide ticketing to ebook Alaska Airways flights.

Conclusion

For the second time in lower than a yr, British Airways Government Membership has devalued awards with American Airways and Alaska Airways.

In complete, the associated fee for awards has risen by 29–94% over the 2 latest devaluations, which is unlucky information for anybody who redeemed Avios for these flights.

On the brilliant aspect, you possibly can nonetheless get Alaska Airways and American Airways flights for a similar value in Avios previous to the December 2023 devaluation by changing your British Airways Avios into Qatar Airways Avios, which occurs immediately at a 1:1 ratio.