Consumers are threatening to switch away from British Airways to rival airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair and easyJet due to changes to its frequent flyer scheme.
The way passengers can earn and spend miles under its Avios programme is changing by tying the number of points awarded to pricing tiers within cabins, rather than the number of miles flown.
Those paying for fully-flexible first-class and business tickets will earn more points under the new scheme, while economy class passengers buying the cheapest, non-flexible fares will see the number of points they earn slashed to a quarter of previous levels.
BA responded to criticism on social media by highlighting that the changes would also make it easier to book a flight using Avios points.
A lack of available reward flights is a common complaint among users of airline loyalty schemes.
“We believe those that spend the most on flexible tickets should see the greatest rewards,” a spokesman told Reuters, which reported protests on Twitter, with some travellers threatening to dump British Airways and switch allegiance.
BA, which is making the changes from April 28, said in a note to Executive Club members: “We’re making these changes to provide more opportunities for you to spend Avios on reward flights as well as to ensure that the Executive Club continues to deliver a competitive and rewarding loyalty programme for the future.
“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%.
“In Club World/Club Europe and our First cabins the Avios you earn will either remain the same as it is now or increase up to 300% per mile flown depending on the cabin and type of ticket.
“From 28 April we will introduce different Avios pricing for reward seats depending on the time of the year, the cabin and zone. At busy times of the year we will have a standard Avios price and for less busy times less Avios will be needed.”
BA said that more than nine million reward seats will be available on its flights, with a minimum of two Club World/Club Europe and four World Traveller/Euro Traveller. The change will create more than 500,000 extra reward seats.
“To do this we have needed to restructure the programme,” BA added.