British Airways | Sales & Marketing Speaker | Avios

As an International Sales & Marketing Speaker that does about 40 international flights a year, I have tried to stay faithful to British Airways.

A number of years ago Avios took over their frequent flyer programme and since then it has been a disaster.

Today I received their motivational newsletter that rewards their faithful travellers (I am a Silver member) and advised that from April they would be reducing the Avios miles on economy (unless you pay the most expensive option of travel) by 75%. This is stupid, crazy and will be chasing away many of their loyal travellers.

Take a look at the message below from their newsletter

Changes to how you earn your Avios.

We’ll make earning Avios on flights more aligned to the cabin you fly in and the different types of fares within that cabin. In practice this means that if you pay for a flexible ticket you will earn more Avios than the lowest priced ticket in the same cabin.

Our lowest priced tickets in Euro Traveller and World Traveller will award a minimum Avios of 25% per mile flown instead of 100%.

As a Silver member I was rewarded with 100%, this now changes to 50%

Changes to Silver Tier Bonus.

Silver Members’ Tier Bonus will change from 100% to 50%.

All this is happening as it is almost impossible to use your air miles. I tried booking a trip in July and there is no availability in any class to any airport on the Eastern side of America.

Every time I try to use my miles, almost the only class available is economy (if available), business and first never. Why should they reward their loyal customers when they can sell those same seats at rip-off prices.

I am now changing allegiance back to Virgin Atlantic who at least have some scruples and when I was on their programme I could always use their miles.

I feel so strongly about this message that I will be sharing it on all my social networks (about 1 million followers) making a video for my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/salestips (3 million views) and most importantly sharing this story with thousands of people in my audiences around the world where I speak about customer service and the companies that get it wrong.

If you feel the same, please comment and forward this to as many people as you can. Let the numbers speak and maybe (doubtful) British Airways will listen,

Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in financial services sales and sales management. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 53 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com and for resources take a look at http://www.frankfurness.com and http://www.technologytoolsforbusiness.com

 

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