The new British Airways Executive Club fare structure - Partner flights

To the point After notifying its program members a few weeks ago, British Airways Executive Club has just introduced a new fare structure effective May 30, 2019, applying for flights on Oneworld partner airlines. Details.

A fixed fare structure for British Airways Executive Club

It could have been worse… While many frequent flyer programs tend to move towards “flexible” fare structures (based on the market rate), British Airways Executive Club has decided to keep a fixed fare structure.

The program has also retained what is in fact its particularity: fares in air miles according to the distance traveled.

cathay pacific yvr jfkdsc00349 new1 — First Class on Cathay Pacific

However, all these rates have been re-evaluated upwards.

Here is the new British Airways Executive Club fare structure for flights on Oneworld partner airlines (excluding British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling).

Zone	Distance (miles)	Economy	Premium Eco	Business	First
1	1-650	6,000	9,000	12,500	24,000
2	651-1150	9,000	12,500	16,500	33,000
3	1151-2000	11,000	16,500	22,000	44,000
4	2001-3000	13,000	25,750	38,750	51,500
5	3001-4000	20,750	41,250	62,000	82,500
6	4001-5500	25,750	51,500	77,250	103,000
7	5501-6500	31,000	62,000	92,750	123,750
8	6501-7000	36,250	72,250	108,250	144,250
9	7001+	51,500	103,000	154,500	206,000

Note that in North America, Zone 1 does not exist.

However, the cost is the same as before for flights of less than 650 miles (e.g. Montreal – New York) or 7,500 one-way air miles.

As a reminder, here is what the fare structure was before the changes (this fare structure continues to apply for flights with British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling):

avios charter 1

The changes

The biggest changes concern short-haul flights:

For zone 1 in economy, the increase is 33% (4,500 to 6,000 air miles)
For zone 2 in economy, the increase is 20% (7,500 to 9,000 air miles)
For zone 3 in economy, the increase is 10% (10,000 to 11,000 air miles)
For the other areas, it is about 3-4%.

These short-haul flights remain interesting, especially in Asia (with Cathay Pacific) and particularly in Japan (with Japan Airlines).

united iad destinations

For example, here are some plane tickets I booked a few days before the changes, for a flight between Seoul (ICN) and Taipei (TPE), in 2020.

The cost was 7,500 Avios + $55 in taxes per person.

icn tpe details prices without date

While at the paid fare, this same flight is 435 CA$ / person.

icn tpe google flights without date

Here I managed to remove:

($435 – $55) / 7,500 miles * 100 = 5 cents / mile avios

With these fare changes, that same flight is now 9,000 miles, which would give:

($435 – $55) / 9,000 miles * 100 = 4.22 cents / mile avios

Knowing that we estimate the value of a mile avios around 1.7-1.9 cents, the operation is still interesting!

The American Express^® Gold Rewards Card Welcome Bonus earns 25,000 Membership Rewards points or 25,000 Avios miles. And while you’re waiting for the right time to convert your Membership Rewards points to Avios miles during a redemption promotion, you can get a lot more!

The latest one from American Express(September 2018) allowed for 30% more avios miles! This means that the 25,000 point American Express^® Gold Rewards Card welcome bonus was then earning 32,500 avios miles!