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British Airways rights a wrong

British Airways.jpg

British Airways is one of the few airlines that is notorious for having extremely low ‘earn rates’ for their discounted economy fares. I highlighted this in my article Fast Track to Elite Status. I actually earned 25% of actual miles flown as both redeemable miles (RDM) and Elite Status Miles (EQM) on an 15,000 mile round trip. This had made British Airways one of my least favorite airlines to fly. Now, don’t get me wrong, they are not alone. There are many airlines that even give zero miles for some ultra discounted fares.

But wait. Sanity has prevailed Harmondsworth, England. (Yes, that is where BA is headquartered.) They have decided to let the miles go. Here is an announcement from them in a email last week.

At British Airways, we are committed to finding ways of improving the Executive Club. So we are delighted to announce a wide range of new benefits that we hope will make your Blue membership more rewarding than ever.

Quadruple BA Miles and Double Tier Points

We’ve listened to your feedback and increased the BA Miles you’ll earn flying in Discount Economy. Quadrupled them, to be precise. So you will now be awarded 100% of the mileage flown rather than 25%.

Also, the Tier Points earned in Discount Economy will double from 25% to 50%. This huge increase will help you reach Silver membership, with all its extraordinary benefits, more quickly.

This is indeed great news, especially for us lowly ‘Blue’ members (non-elites). I always felt that they took the ‘Blue’ level too literally ’causeSan Diego Clouds.jpg that’s exactly how I felt earning only 25% of the miles flown all the way from USA to India.

Do you believe this is a good thing? Or do you believe that this depreciates the value of British Airways Miles? Leave a comment below…

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7 Comments

  1. In fact BA are one of the few (that I am aware of) European airlines than offer 100% miles on cheap economy tickets.

    I know things are different for US airlines.

  2. Euan,

    Almost all US based airlines offer 100% miles even on the cheapest fares. I have only seen non-US based airlines reduce the miles earned based on discounted fares.

  3. unroadwarrior, I agree.

    However, your following comment is a bit mis-leading IMO as the majority of non-US airlines don’t offer 100% earnings.

    “British Airways is one of the few airlines that is notorious for having extremely low ‘earn rates’ for their discounted economy fares.”

  4. This has got to be one of the funniest lines on your site. “I always felt that they took the ‘Blue’ level too literally ’cause that’s exactly how I felt earning only 25% of the miles flown all the way from USA to India.”

    That is hilarious. And yes, I see why you’d be “blue.”

    I mentioned before that I finally earned enough for a free international (coach) flight with my OnePass miles, but I had also been accumulating miles through the Thank You Network from one of my credit cards. I was 5,000 miles away from an international reward ticket and they changed their structure. It used to be 60,000 miles for an international flight, then they changed it and you have to have one mile per penny value of your ticket or something crazy like that. I went from needing 60,000 miles to needing 140,000 for a flight from SUF (in Calabria, southern Italy) to IAH.

    Talk about being blue!

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