News & offers: Avios devaluation, Swiss/Lufthansa companion First & biz sale from £500, Hilton offer

Avios devaluation

Yesterday many BA Executive Club members received a rather useless email stating that there would be a change in the number of Avios needed for partner airlines. I didn’t receive this email as it appears to be only sent to people who have previously booked an Avios redemption on one of the airlines mentioned.

Here is what the email said

From 30 May 2019, we’ll be changing our Avios prices on reward flights with the following partner airlines: Alaska Airlines, Air Italy, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Japan Airlines, LATAM, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, S7, Sri Lankan and Royal Jordanian Airlines.

The price of Avios upgrades on American Airlines only will also be changing from 30 May 2019. You will pay the difference between the Avios prices of your booked cabin and your upgraded cabin.

Don’t worry if you have an existing Avios booking with one of these airlines. It’s still valid and you can make changes or cancel it if you need to*. Our new Avios prices will apply to any changes or new bookings you make after 30 May 2019.

There will be no change to our Avios prices for reward flights and upgrades with British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia or Vueling. The Avios prices for our other services are also unaffected, so you can continue to benefit from spending your Avios on our wide range of hotels, car hire and experiences

One US blogger, Seat 31b has done some digging and given some more information based on phone calls with BA agents:

• Hawaii from US West Coast on Alaskan (a good deal) –  going up by 500 miles
• British Airways isn’t moving to variable pricing for partners
• Flights will still be priced per leg individually so the price for connecting itineraries is total of all of the flights
• All partner flights will cost the same across the airline
• Taxes and fees won’t change
• Business class will still be 2x and First 4x the economy class price

The prices in economy are believed to be:

• 0-650 miles: 6,000 Avios (previously 4,500 points)
• 651-1,150 miles: 9,000 Avios (previously 7,500 points)
• 1,151 miles-2,000 miles: 11,000 Avios (previously 10,000 points)
• 2,001 miles-3,000 miles: 13,000 Avios (previously 12,500 points)

If you are planning to book with one of these airlines then I would suggest you try to do it before 30 May to book at the old price.

The official BA announcement with details of taxes and charges can be seen here.

Swiss/Lufthansa companion offer

Swiss and Lufthansa have launched some excellent companion sale fares in Business and First class. You need to book by 19 May and the travel period is from 1 June 2019 to 30 March 2020. (For China 10.06.2019-14.02.2020). Obviously, you need to search for two passengers to see the correct fares and then make the booking for two people together to get the reduced price.

First class offers

Both Swiss and Lufthansa offer excellent First class products. I would probably go for Lufthansa for the ground services where you get a private First terminal at Frankfurt and driven to the aircraft in a Porsche! Both serve caviar on board too! I have flown Swiss first class and would highly recommend it too. It may not be as fancy as some of the Middle East airlines, but it is a sophisticated product with great food (including caviar) and service. Some of the prices are similar to what you would pay for a normal business class ticket, so they offer good value for money.

The Lufthansa First class companion offer page is here. 

The Swiss First class companion offer page is here. 

Business class offers

Given a choice, I would choose Swiss over Lufthansa for business class. You can read Claudio’s recent review of Lufthansa long haul business class here. 

The Swiss cabins have a sophisticated feel to them with light wood with dark accents and seats. There is one flaw, in my opinion. The business class seats are not very comfortable for sleeping on the older A330 aircraft. They feel like they have a slight slope and are very low to the ground. They also had quite large gaps between the seat cushions when in bed mode.

However, at these prices, you may well think it is worth it, even for the older aircraft. I found them perfectly comfortable for sitting. The new seats on the B777 are much better and a good quality product. The B777s are available on quite a few routes such as Zurich to Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong. You can see more about the Swiss B777 in this video.

The Lufthansa business class sale page is here.

The Swiss business class companion sale page is here.

Hilton Double points offer plus extra bonuses

Hilton’s latest promotion has been unveiled. Basically, Hilton alternate 2000 bonus points with double points for 3 months at a time. For most TLFL readers the new double points promotion is a much better deal than 2000 points per stay if you are spending a bit on your room. You need to register for the new promotion here but it will still count towards stays booked beforehand.

The offer is for double points starting from the second stay. This is annoying as they have not done this in recent promotions. However, there are also some additional bonuses if you stay a lot:

• 10 stays = 10,000 points
• 15 stays = 15,000 points (25,000 cumulative bonus)
• 20 stays = 20,000 points (45,000 cumulative bonus)

The promotion is applicable to stays from 6 May 2019 to 8 September 2019. The offer page is here.