My thoughts on the recent BBC TV piece on Avios award availability

If you have ever sat in your overseas hotel room watching BBC World News, you might have seen Fast Track, their travel programme.  This weeks edition included a six-minute piece on frequent flyer award availability.

There are three specific cases mentioned.  One was a British Airways member trying to get to Cyprus and Sydney.  The second is weirder example from a Singapore Airlines Krisflyer member, who ends up paying more in taxes (and to buy some additional miles) than a cash ticket would have cost.

In general, I have sympathy with people who struggle to redeem their miles.  Since my kids started school, and my ability to go away when we want has disappeared, I have even more sympathy.

However, it can be done – we have 4 Club World seats down to Dubai over Christmas (which may be cancelled, unfortunately) and four over October half-term.  In October, though, we are travelling down via Abu Dhabi – not a massive inconvenience, but still an inconvenience.  Coming back – although I am hoping for late availability to open up on a direct route – we are ticketed on Royal Jordanian (an Avios partner) to Amman and then Club World Amman to Heathrow.

I was also able to snag an airberlin business class ticket from New York to Germany for next week when I needed one, when I had absolutely no flexibility on dates.

The reality, of course, is that BA could open up every seat on certain flights for Avios availability at the start of the school holidays and would still not be able to meet demand ….

I have slightly less sympathy with the guy in this programme, though.  A BA Gold holder, for example, can always fall back on ‘guaranteed Avios availability’.  I admit that it is poor value, at 200% of the normal Avios points and with no 2-4-1 vouchers allowed, but it is an option.  Cyprus in peak Summer season is also a route where you would expect to struggle to find seats.

(It would have been more interesting if he’d been wanting to fly to the US and the BBC had shown the vast gaps in Avios availability over the next few months.)

I WOULD have sympathy for him if he had followed Simon Calders advice, though!  Because it is NOT possible to buy the cheapest possible Economy ticket on BA and upgrade it.  Economy tickets must be semi-flexible or flexible before they can be upgraded, and these are substantially more expensive than non-refundable tickets.  (World Traveller Plus and Club World tickets CAN be upgraded if they are non-refundable, though.)   And, of course, availability for seat upgrades comes from the same ‘box’ as normal Avios seats, so if you can’t do one then you can’t do the other.

This story does remind you of one key point, though.  A loyalty programme which frustrates the majority of its (casual) customers is far worse than having no loyalty scheme at all. 

And, whilst it is easy to criticise the man in this clip for not putting in the time to learn how to exploit Avios properly, in a perfect world he wouldn’t need to.  If he’d asked me, I would have routed him on Royal Jordanian via Amman!

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)