NEWS & OFFERS: BA switch to The Club, BA and AA offer to give up London slots and New search feature for Reward Flight Finder,

British Airways switches to The Club

It is ironic that BA chose 1 April as the date to switch over to the new version of their loyalty program which is now called The Club. Everyone is now aligned into the same TP year of 1 April to 31 March, so your tier points should be showing as zero. However, BA warn it is going to take some time to sort out all the changes including the progress to the next renewal/tier.

Here are some key points on the changeover:

• Your lifetime balance should be updated by the evening of 2 April.
• Everything booked before 30 December will still earn the old tier points which will then be converted to the new TP by multiplying them. 
• Double TP Holiday bonuses will still apply if you booked before 30 December and will be converted to the new points
• Between 31 March and 2 April  it will take longer than usual for any flights you have taken to be awarded. Allow 7 days before submitting a claim.

There is still no word on earning Tier Points with the Amex BA card, which I think is very poor form from BA. In effect, no one can plan their year unless they already plan to spend at least the minimum spend as we have no way of knowing what the offer will be. Hopefully, it will be similar to the offer they trialled in early 2024. This should mean that a £25000 spend is required to get the full 2500TP.  Word is that discussions between BA and Amex have stalled. How you can announce something as concrete when there was no actual agreement in place, I have no idea. The BA website still says “More details of this offer will be announced closer to the launch date.”

BA has launched an FAQ page with answers to some of your questions about the changeover. You can find the page here (the “Updaqting your account” section is at the bottom). 

Reward Flight Finder launches specific flight availability and alerts

Reward Flight Finder, the first independent, dedicated British Airways reward seat tool, has launched its biggest new feature since it began 10 years ago.

Reward Flight Finder Gold members can now see and monitor reward seat availability on a specific flight basis rather than just seeing the entire day’s worth of availability. This has long been a bug bear of mine when you need a particular flight time, so it is a very welcome addition. Until now, you would get an alert every time a seat on that date was available, which is unhelpful if you need a specific flight.

With the old day-to-day availability, there are certain limitations. Users are unable to:

● see the exact number of seats available on each particular flight
● limit alerts to the flight times that work best for them
● see availability for a specific airport within a city, instead of a broader city group. For example, only for London Heathrow (LHR), not all London airports (LON).
● get an Alert when a new flight becomes available on a day that already had availability on another flight
● track availability for a specific flight on a specific date; useful for coordinating travel with companions or seeking upgrades on existing bookings.

Now Gold RFF members can:

Travel at preferred times:
Filter for specific flight times when running a search or creating an Alert. Gold members will only be shown and notified about flights at times they want to travel.

Fly from preferred airports:
Limit Searches and Alerts to specific airports. This is beneficial for routes where British Airways serves multiple airports within a city, such as London to New York.

Pick a flight number for a favoured aircraft or seat type:
Restrict Alerts or Searches to particular flight numbers, which can be useful for identifying flights with a preferred aircraft type or seat configuration, such as the British Airways Club Suite.

Track existing bookings for upgrades:
Watch a specific flight number on a specific day that you’ve already booked, and get notified when seats become available in a higher cabin, so you can bag an upgrade with Avios points.

Monitor a specific flight and date to join family or friends on board:
Set up an Alert for a specific flight number on a specific day, and be notified when a seat becomes available on that specific flight. 

Reward Flight Finder Gold members can access the specific flight reward seat availability and set Alerts through the website, rewardflightfinder.com, or the Reward Flight Finder mobile app, available on iOS and Google Play. This new feature allows members to plan their Avios travel in more detail before booking with British Airways.

Douglas Rose, CEO of Reward Flight Finder, said: “Providing the best service possible for our members, and giving Avios collectors and BA Club members what they really want from a reward seat tool is our primary goal as a business. By having flight-by-flight availability at their fingertips, people can use the tool to their advantage to get ahead of the crowd, particularly on reward seat routes to places such as the Maldives, Bangkok and Singapore, where it’s increasingly difficult to snap up British Airways reward seats.
Over the last 10 years, we’ve helped thousands of people save thousands when flying in premium cabins; this feature means we’ll be able to help more people, more effectively, than ever before. Flight-by-Flight is the most impactful change we’ve made to Reward Flight Finder ever.”

BA and AA offer to give up London slots

Both British Airways and American Airlines have offered to give up Heathrow airport slots on three transatlantic routes. This would allow other airlines to apply for slots at Heathrow and Gatwick to Boston, Miami and Chicago. They have also agreed to carry a minimum number of passengers between London and Dallas. BA recently cut its own Dallas service and transferred its passengers to AA instead (me included, sadly missing out on what would have been my last Concorde Room visit as a GGL). 

The airlines hope that these actions will address concerns raised by a UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation into the Joint Agreement, which includes another three airlines, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Finnair. The airlines cooperate on transatlantic flights, including setting of fares. The committee will make its decision at a later date.

Meanwhile, United has announced that it will scale back international flights and retire several aircraft early due to the decreased demand for travel to the US.