Airline loyalty programs quietly devalue miles as redemption prices climb

Quick summary

British Airways Club members who book a qualifying British Airways Holidays package from 12:00 GMT on November 24, 2026 will earn 6 Avios per £1 of the total package price, regardless of when the trip departs. The rate covers flight-and-hotel and flight-and-car bookings, and every membership tier earns the same.

Reservations completed before that cutoff keep the old structure permanently. The catch is allocation: the award is split equally across travellers, so one missing membership number shrinks the household’s return.

British Airways is changing how its loyalty members earn on holiday packages, and the switch flips at midday on November 24, 2026. From that moment, qualifying British Airways Holidays bookings pay out 6 Avios per £1 of the total package price. The rate applies regardless of when the trip actually departs. Anyone holding a British Airways Club account qualifies — entry-level members and Gold card holders alike.

There is no premium-status gate and no minimum spend published.

The change covers flight-and-hotel and flight-and-car packages booked through British Airways Holidays. Standalone hotel or car reservations sit outside it and continue to earn 1 Avios per £1. Bookings completed before the noon GMT cutoff stay on the old structure permanently.

The airline confirmed that a holiday taken in 2027 still earns under the pre-November rules if the reservation was made earlier. For families and groups, the mechanics of who actually gets paid are where this gets interesting.

What the 6-Avios rate actually covers

British Airways’ Club guidance on Avios holidays draws a hard line between two product categories. A qualifying package bundles flights with a hotel or a car, and the entire eligible price feeds the calculation. A standalone hotel or car booking does not qualify, and stays on the separate 1 Avios per £1 arrangement. Travellers weighing a package against separately booked components need to know which category their reservation falls into before estimating the return.

The award is then divided equally among the travellers named on the reservation. Each person must have a British Airways Club membership number attached to receive a share — a small administrative detail that quietly decides how much the booking is worth.

Every tier earns the same 6 Avios per £1; the change is not reserved for frequent flyers.

The airline’s media centre announcement confirms the cutoff keys off booking time rather than travel date. A reservation completed at 11:59 GMT on November 24 keeps the old rules; one completed at 12:01 GMT does not.

Why the booking timestamp matters more than the departure date

Most loyalty changes are judged by when you fly. This one is judged by when you click confirm. A package reserved before noon GMT on November 24 keeps the previous earning structure for its entire life, while an identical package reserved an hour later uses the new formula — even if both trips leave on the same morning.

For multi-person bookings, the revised model is more predictable because the calculation runs on the whole package rather than on components travellers have to track separately. Its real pull sits with families and groups, where several people can each receive an allocated share. The trade-off is administrative: a missing membership number reduces what the household collects overall. And there is no appeals route — a booking made before the cutoff cannot be shifted onto the new rate afterwards.

A Household Account solves part of that problem by pooling eligible members’ balances into one pot, and Air Traveler Club’s airline promo monitoring tracks 150-plus carriers’ sales in near real time if you are timing a booking around a fare event.

How to protect your Avios before November 24

The cutoff is a hard timestamp, not a grace period — anything completed after 12:00 GMT on November 24 is calculated under the new formula.

• Attach every membership number. Add each traveller’s British Airways Club number to the reservation before you complete the booking. A missing number means a missing share.
• Check your booking date. Existing reservations appear in Manage My Booking at ba.com; anything dated before the cutoff stays under the previous rules.
• Confirm your product type. Flight-plus-hotel and flight-plus-car packages qualify. Standalone hotel or car bookings do not, and remain at 1 Avios per £1.
• Pool balances in a Household Account. If several family members travel together regularly, combining balances makes the allocated shares easier to spend.
• Decide which side of the line you want. If the old structure suits your booking pattern better, reserve before noon GMT on November 24.

Watch: whether British Airways extends the package rate to standalone hotel and car bookings in a future Club update — that would change the maths for travellers who book components separately.

Questions? Answers.