Without free flights, will you say “adios” to Avios and Airmiles?

I have just tried to find flights from Edinburgh to Paris direct expecting the airmiles to be 750 no chance 1250 airmiles are required. Going London Heathrow to Paris direct 750; try Aberdeen to Amsterdam it’s 1250 for direct flights. Are we in the same zone or not? Try finding airmiles flights from Shetland to the UK mainland even September 2012 and all you get is:- “There is no availability in your chosen cabin class for the dates you selected”.

ADIOS to AVIOS

I do not expect anything in life for free and living within 1 mile of the Airmiles offices at Birchwood in Warrington I do know people who work there. Unpredictably, people who work there, friends of mine, have spoken candidly about disappointed callers.

I agree BA have made a fatal error and undermined customer confidence. I too have collected and spent Airmiles on trips to the Far East, Europe and North America. I understand some of the logic applied to these changes, but AVIOS or AIRMILES/BA do not take it for granted I will carry on collecting when shopping at Aldi/Lidl as opposed to Tesco means real savings each week – savings which mount up considerably.

Interestingly and by coincidence I have been continually emailed by Ebay, Currys, Hotel Chocolat – amongst others and mailshot/emailed by Tesco offering special points deals because I have turned away. I hardly use my Lloyds TSB Airmiles DUO card.

I should imagine customers of these outfits will cotton on too and eventually the companies concerned will withdraw. It is inevitable and tragic.

New scheme is barely worth it. For long haul you now have pay ‘taxes, fees and charges’ which adds hundreds of pounds to the cost and you may be able to get a cheap flight elsewhere.

For Europe/North Africa there is a ‘Reward Flight Saver’ where you just pay a flat £27 to cover taxes, fees and charges on top of the points. However on many routes you may get the flight cheaper on a budget airline once you count the cost of collecting the points, so it’s only worth it in very high season or on a route with high fares and little or no competition e.g. Tunis, Tirana, Moscow

IT begins to look as though I will never use my Avios points. I collected them as Airmiles and from time to time I have spent them on flights from Glasgow to Orkney, Shetland, Outer Hebrides; & from Manchester to Guernsey. But NOT on flights to European destinations or further afield. I now have 39000 avios and a voucher for a further 3000 . I live in Cumbria. I want to fly to Orkney, from Glasgow but it is impossible to find out if this is still possible with Avios. Similarly, I would like to use my Avios to fly from Manchester to London; or Manchester to Jersey. But there seems to be no way to find out if this is still possible. The Avios website is useless.
Any answers , please? or any solution?

It was obvious when BA announced the outsourcing of BA Miles to Avios points that the IAG (BA) management had grown bored of BA miles as a marketing ploy. Having experienced these types of hand-offs before it is no surprise to see the real value of the residual points to be diluted.

The bad news for BA is that I always punish such management duplicity by withdrawing my custom by demoting BA in the list of vendors. In my case it will cost BA a great deal more than they save with this cost cutting measure and their competitors will gain. My gold card business can easily go elsewhere on most flights. I’ve seen this from hotel chains in the past and they lost as a consequence.

Business managers will continue these games for as long as the bulk of consumers and business customer continue to let them get away with it.

In the past I’ve used airmiles for short domestic ( and therefore relatively expensive ) flights – eg to Outer Hebrides or Orkney or Shetland – all from Glasgow.
Since Avios took over I haven’t looked at the situation closely, because I haven’t needed domestic flights recently; but I did notice how difficult it was , on the Avios site, to get info about such flights.

Paying a small amount is not a major issue – when I first used Airmiles I had to pay some sort of tax, I remember; it’s only recently that money didn’t come into the equation. But I want to fly where I want to fly – which is not necessarily where Avios is prepared to take me. So I will now investigate more closely and if Avios are not giving me the benefits for which I joined airmiles, I too, like others, will be walking away.

We are now boycotting the organizations that offer Air Miles. Perhaps a Class Action lawsuit would force Air Miles to do the right thing?