Forget moving mountains, British Airways moved an entire **** city, just to rip off customers hoping to use their miles. How does that happen one might ask? Because when it comes to using miles and drawing maps, they, British Airways, make the rules and they can. So HA! As far as low blows go, this may be one of the most humorously low, if it weren’t so frustrating. Here’s the story of how British Airways devalued one of the last really great uses of their miles and then did it again…
The Ole’ Dublin To Boston Trick…
Any super savvy traveler will tell you that one of the best deals in the “using your miles” world came in the form of Aer Lingus’s Dublin to Boston (and vice versa) flight. You could use British Airways miles (Avios) to book it for a mere 50,000 points round trip in business class or half that for economy and you even got to avoid the surcharges (annoying fees) British Airways adds to all their own flights booked using miles. When British Airways devalued last year they somewhat chipped away at the age old trick, raising the rates to 37,500 each way for business, which was still a total steal for a flat bed with no surcharges; but apparently that wasn’t enough to officially piss customers off…
It Was STILL Too Good, So They Moved The City Of Boston…
Forget tectonic plates, science and all that. This was nothing documentary worthy. This week British Airways just decided that for the sake of their corporate interest (and making it harder for people to find value with their miles) that they would draw a new map and make Boston, yes, an entire city, 14 miles further away. It just so happens that all calculations for the “how many miles you’ll need for a flight” are done by distance and guess what…. Yeah. You guessed it, 14 miles is just enough to move Boston into a new distance category, which now requires 50,000 miles one way off peak and a whopping 60,000 one way for peak (most of the year) travel! Yes, effective immediately.
So To Recap, Things Have Doubled And The Flights Are Hard To Book Using British Airways Miles…
Can you believe it? Of course you can, unfortunately. What used to cost 50,000 round trip is now a minimum of 50,000 one way only on off peak dates. To make things worse, you can’t even find Aer Lingus availability or book it on British Airways website. To book, you either need to search using British Airways partner, Avios.com, which shows availability, or call a friendly BA agent, insist that they waive the phone booking fee, since it can’t be booked online, and have them check out space for flights on their partner Aer Lingus. It’s a decent offer now, but it’s certainly not what it used to be. What’s next, moving London to Eastern Europe?
RapidTravelChai also provides great coverage, including a funny bit about HeadForPoints…
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