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Apparently, British Airways didn't go far enough when it devalued American and Alaska Airlines awards last December. As uncovered by One Mile at a Time, British Airways took another hack at short-haul awards — and the results are gruesome.
Here's what you need to know about the latest no-notice British Airways devaluation, plus what you can expect to pay the next time you redeem Avios for an AA or Alaska award ticket.
Short-Haul AA and Alaska Awards Now Cost up to 56% More Avios
British Airways called the same play this time as in December 2023. The airline dramatically hiked the pricing on short-haul awards in four distance bands — and by no small margin. To make matters worse, British Airways didn't provide advance notice and just loaded the new pricing into its systems.
So, yes, you'll see much higher prices the next time you redeem Avios for American Airlines or Alaska Airlines flights. Here's a comparison of the old and new prices and the percent change for good measure:
| Distance/Zone | Old Economy | New Economy | % Increase | Old Business/Domestic First | New Business/Domestic First | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 650 miles (Zone 1) | 8,250 | 12,000 | 45% | 16,500 | 24,000 | 45% |
| 651 to 1,151 miles (Zone 2) | 11,000 | 16,000 | 45% | 20,500 | 32,000 | 56% |
| 1,152 to 2,000 miles (Zone 3) | 14,500 | 18,000 | 24% | 29,000 | 40,000 | 37% |
| 2,001 to 3,000 miles (Zone 4) | 16,000 | 20,000 | 25% | 42,000 | 50,000 | 19% |
Awards that cover more distance in excess of the 2,001 to 3,000-mile distance band were unimpacted by this slate of changes. And a recent cursory search suggests that other Avios-centric programs, such as Qatar Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus, haven't followed suit in any capacity — at least not yet.
But to be on the safe side, you should book sooner rather than later if you're eyeing a partner award on one of the aforementioned carriers.
Final Thoughts
The short-haul end of British Airways' partner chart was a honey hole for budget-friendly domestic awards — even after the December 2023 changes. Now, maybe not so much. The prices aren't so cheap anymore, and that's likely by design. Compared to this time last year, most short-haul American Airlines and Alaska Airlines awards require over 60% more Avios!
This devaluation is a good reminder that loyalty programs can devalue at any time. And this news should renew your focus on transferable points — to protect yourself against the downside risk of your points or miles becoming instantly worth less. British Airways has shown you time and time again it'll devalue without notice. It's probably past time the airline is taken seriously.
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Noticed something curious the other day about how American doles out award availability to itself and its partners, when searching Houston to Bogota, Cartagena, and Medellin space (since UA nonstops often charge like 45k economy 90k biz ONE WAY). For any given day:
– Some of the available itineraries would be on each of Alaska, British, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Qatar, BUT each showed different itineraries from the others, whether economy or biz. Yeah, I should prolly be checking Iberia and Aer Lingus too but I did not. But I also checked Point.me, PointsYeah, AwardLogic, AwardTool, and I seem to recall one or more of them noting Iberia as the source for some itineraries.
– ALL itineraries were also available on aa.com
– BUT the lowest points requirement for any given itinerary would be on either aa.com OR the partner, BUT NOT BOTH.
– Almost any American redemption is available at or close to the lowest points levels – but you have to check all partners to find which partner has the lowest point requirement for any particular itinerary.
– Oh, and Etihad shows only nonstop American route redemptions. So showed nothing from Houston to Colombia, but did show Dallas to Colombia and Miami to Colombia – and of course Houston to both of those cities availabilities. So an American itinerary could be redeemed segment by segment via Etihad, but the points required were not worth it, only potentially worth if for nonstop routes.
– Going through all of this online searching netted single connection biz class Houston to Columbia for 25k-35k several choices of flight times versus 45k economy on UA, the best UA nonstop biz on any dates was 40k. The greatest selection of 25k-35k biz was through Alaska and 2nd most through Qantas.
– British and Qatar had very little inventory, at least on Houston to Colombia routes, compared to Alaska, Cathay Pacific, Qantas (and of course aa.com).
“And this news should renew your focus on transferable points — to protect yourself against the downside risk of your points or miles becoming instantly worth less” Love the play on words “worth less”.