The bad news came in overnight that British Airways will soon end the 4,500 point awards for US travel, making the minimum redemption 7,500 Avios.
Currently, flights up to 650 miles in distance get the 4,500 rate while flights from 651-1500 miles distance get the 7500 point rate. Under the new rules, all flights up to 1500 miles will get the 7500 point rate.
Key factors:
- The change goes into effect on February 2, 2016. Importantly, all flights booked before that date will be locked in at the lower rate, even for travel after that date.
- The change only affects the tier 1 redemptions of 4,500 points. The rest of the chart remains exactly the same.
- The change only affects US redemptions. The 4500 award rate remains for international redemptions.
- The change only affects American and Alaska redemptions.
This is really a hard hit on the currency as the sweet-spot redemption for Avios has been the American and Alaska short haul flights for just 4,500 per leg. It can still be a good deal in many cases, but we won’t be able to get nearly the same value as we get under the real current rules.
Nope, Lantean, Dee broke it. 🙂 AA has cut so much saver space domestically these have been harder to use recently.
Sad to see it go, I used 12 of these 4,500 avios this month, what a great deal it was.
we broke it… 😉