British Airways has been very active in its promotions this year, what with its 100,000 bonus point offer for the British Airways Signature Visa and recent 50% bonus on transfers of AMEX Membership Rewards Points to British Airways miles.
Now, British Airways is offering a 50% discount on award redemptions [Expired].
Key Terms:
- 50% discount is only good on Coach (i.e. World Traveller), Premium Economy (World Traveller Plus), and Intra-European Business (Euro Traveller Plus), so you won't be able to get any discounts in Business or First Class.
- Only good on BA metal, you'll be hit with high taxes and fuel surcharges.
- Must book award travel by August 12 and complete your travel by August 3, 2012
To help figure out how good a redemption deal this is, we first checked a May 2012 NYC-Paris Premium Economy award, and it came to 37,500 miles + $551.19 in taxes:
We then priced out buying a May 2012 NYC-Paris Premium Economy award, and it came to $1537 + $554.20 in taxes, for a total of $2091.20:
So taxes were roughly the same (since unfortunately the 50% discount only applies to the miles required for the award, not to the fuel surcharges and taxes), making our British Airways miles worth 4.1 cents/mile–pretty good, although still not keen on those taxes which not long ago used to be the cost of a roundtrip coach ticket from the East Coast to Europe. Oh well–let's look at another British Airways award to see if 4.1 cents per mile is a good redemption deal.
Let's look at the Maldives, since it's one of the popular long haul business class British Airways redemptions, which we mentioned in Tips for Booking Award Tickets to the Maldives. Since it's quite hard to find available seats, we checked a one-way award in June 2012 from NYC-Male, which is half the miles and fees that a round-trip award would be, and came to 90,000 miles + 567.75 in fuel surcharges and taxes. Note that for the full roundtrip award, it would have been double this: 180,000 miles + $1135.50.
We then priced a June 2012 itinerary on British Airways from NYC-Male, which came to $8949 + $1146.68 in surcharges and taxes.
Once again, taxes were nearly identical to those on the award ticket, so essentially 180,000 miles were worth $8949, or 5 cents/mile.
So objectively the British Airways Business Class award to the Maldives, even without the 50% discount (since international business class fares aren't eligible) is still a better deal than the premium economy award to Paris with the 50% discount, since you're getting 5 cents/mile vs. 4.1 cents/mile.
Nonetheless, the true value is subjective–what would you actually pay for a Premium Economy ticket to Paris (or other British Airways destination)? What would you actually pay for a Business Class ticket to the Maldives?
Personally, my recommendations would be:
- Only take advantage of the British Airways 50% discount if you were planning to get a Premium Economy ticket anyway, and not for a “since it's such a deal” trip
- Don't bother with redeeming for Economy–with the taxes, it really isn't worth it
- Instead, use your British Airways stockpile to fly Cathay Pacific or JAL business class to Asia, or LAN to South America, especially Easter Island with stopovers, as Ben highlighted in the 10 Best Premium Cabin Award Redemption Values
If you enjoyed this, please follow TravelSort on Twitter, like us on Facebook or become a Member to be alerted to new posts.