BA airmiles program is a total con

[eddielizzard]

i have been loyal for years. saved up loads of avios (ooer what a clever name).

i have NEVER been able to book a flight using them. they magically never have flights on the dates that i need or for the route that i need.

so this time i bought economy seats for the 5 of us, longhaul. cost an arm and a leg to visit my elderly ailing mum (sob story blub etc.) and thought i'd upgrade us.

oh no. apparently i can't upgrade because i have the wrong fare class. i just booked them through their website! i didn't choose a specific 'fare class'. one that didn't allow upgrades using avois.

it's such a con. and i will not be flying ba by choice ever again.

Wobbly US Airways has been owned by American Airlines for a long time so its program might not change very much.

I spent my points on wine at Christmas.
It was lovely.

My DH does approx 250 flights a year for work, so the miles rack up pretty quickly. We must've been lucky because we've managed to get flights wherever and whenever we've wanted booking with Avios. We've also used Avios to book hotel accommodation and car hire - it's saved us loads.

My DH does approx 250 flights a year for work

Good grief. How is this possible? Does he make a connecting flight to work every week?

In this case he's undoubtably super-elite status on the airline. Back when I was flying every week for work in the US they had a separate pool of awards flights for elite members, so I was almost always able to fly whenever I wished. I really wish someone knew if it was easier once you make status on BA to book award travel...?

I've got about 3800 BA miles that I'd sell. I'm never going to use them.

I wish he was super elite! Sadly no - just a silver card holder.

We stay in Scotland and he flys to London for work stuff. He can be back and forth 3 or 4 days a week, so 6/8 flights. We've just booked our Avios flights on the BA website, maybe we've been lucky with our dates.

Wobbly US Airways has been owned by American Airlines for a long time so its program might not change very much.

No idea where you got that info from? They merged December 2013 and the global alliance (oneworld) begins March 31st 2014.

www.usairways.com/en-US/aboutus/pressroom/arriving.html?c=glmus_21225&re=1

candycrushhater, it might be that you've got SO MANY avios that they would give you your own aeroplane!

I take it back. I've got a nice trip to Amsterdam over Christmas.

I mean I've used up all my Avios and paid £90 for flight and hotel combined for 4 nights.

We've been first and business to India and all over the US, even with the kids. Yes I'd prefer more availability (esp to the Far East and beyond) and I sometimes have to be flexible on dates but I'm pretty happy with it. Yabu.

I have a BA gold card and over 300,000 miles that I can't bloody get rid of. Not one business class seat to San Francisco to be had in all of September

So, just because there aren't any seats in Club World in one particular month to one particular destination you are annoyed?

There will always be fewer or no seats available on routes that are very popular - are you surprised about this?

There are economy seats available to San Francisco in September.

Otherwise you can get plenty of business class flights to New York, Houston or Austin with Avios and then get a cheap onward flight from these cities to San Francisco.

There are always ways to spend your Avios

I was going to top mine up with the offer they have on. Is it not worth buying any extra then?

Manchesterhistorygirl

Sign up with the Avios website:-

www.avios.com/gb/en_gb/

and you can transfer your points for free and use them for other things like days out or cases of wine

United airlines has a better program but I expect it will change because DH, who has their top tier status, was #9 on the upgrade list when flying from Houston to Newark for an upgrade to business. They are part of the star alliance too so you can use the points with quite a few airlines.

And only one day needed of annual leave from work. Result.

Thanks Nicky! Wine is always good.

Never been able to use ours for flights, because we need them for school holidays, so over the years we've used them for car hire with Avis. We try not to save in these schemes, they could become worthless overnight!

Let me just say what a huge con BA avios are!! I have done the exercise many different ways and no matter how you look at them they are the biggest con!
I looked at booking flights to Dubai, the first thing I did was log in through my BA account and I currently have in excess of 90 000 avios. This what they came back with: for 4 people 50 000 avios and £1895.00. I then went on and tried to book the exact same flights without logging in to my account in other words not using any of my air miles and they came back with a total of £1650.00!!!! Why on earth then would I want to use air miles and pay more!!!! It is the biggest sham, we especially got a credit card affiliated with BA and it has been a huge con!!

I've never had an issue using them.

Best to buy over the phone by phoning executive club.

With BA points the best way I’ve found to get good deals are using them for upgrades rather than reward flights. Availability is there but you need to book way in advance. I’ve 000’s of points but we blow them once a year on a long haul special trip. Booking on the phone Is way easier than the website.

I use my BA airmiles for short haul only and speculatively i.e. no fixed date or destination. The odd time I've checked with very inflexible dates/destinations, I've never found anything.

So basically, I use them for European city breaks!