We consider what it means for BA Reward Flights from Gatwick
It has been a bumpy ride but they got there in the end. British Airways has finally landed the union agreements it needs to launch its new Gatwick-based low-cost subsidiary, pending a few minor negotiations. This is great news for British Airways Avios collectors planning to travel from London’s second airport.
The new venture is to be called BA EuroFlyer and, as the name suggests, it will fly short-haul, European routes. The new name was registered at Companies House on November 10 and the first new-look flights are expected to take off in March 2022.
In a statement to employees BA chief executive and chairman, Sean Doyle said: “Our plans for a new BA subsidiary to fly short-haul at Gatwick are progressing well, and whilst we still have some further negotiations to sort, it looks likely that we will be up and running to fly the summer schedule.”
This is a relief not only for the airline but also for travellers within the South East as it looked for a while as if BA may be pulling out of London Gatwick altogether. Even before Covid hit, it was losing money at the airport. Changing its service to a low-cost venture was, it claimed, the only way to make its presence work at Gatwick where it is, after all, up against budget giant EasyJet.
How many LGW routes can we expect?
During the first wave of negotiations over the low-cost offshoot, when BA failed to reach an agreement with staff unions, it threatened to pull the plug on Gatwick, with a resultant loss of jobs. With the exception of a few domestic services, its Gatwick flights had, since March 2020, already been suspended or switched to Heathrow as an interim measure due to covid travel restrictions.
Meanwhile, BA may be under pressure to get its act together and start using its Gatwick slots again if it doesn’t want to have them taken away and bought up by its rivals. Since more travel restrictions have been lifted, Gatwick has been keen for the government to reintroduce the ‘use it or lose it’ rule for slots, a restriction that had been suspended over lockdown.
Now BA is playing the Heathrow versus Gatwick game again, only this time it’s not the unions but Heathrow management that is the target. Heathrow’s plans to increase the landing fees it charges airlines on a per-passenger basis have not gone down well with BA’s parent company (or indeed other airlines) so, now that Gatwick is back in play, BA is able to threaten to move some of its Heathrow flights there.
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So far no BA EuroFlyer routes have been announced but provisional schedules indicate that BA hopes to operate to 30 short-haul destinations from Gatwick for summer 2022. Jersey, Malaga, Glasgow, Venice, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Faro and Nice were its most popular short-haul destinations pre-pandemic.
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What does this mean for British Airways Reward Flights?
BA is still tight-lipped on most of its plans regarding EuroFlyer, including how Avios might be earned and spent. Industry sources have told Reward Flight Finder (RFF) that there are no plans currently to change the way in which BA Club members can redeem Avios for British Airways reward flights to destinations the airline serves from Gatwick. That’s the best-case scenario, however, not everyone is convinced. As EuroFlyer has been conceived to reduce costs, the rewards on offer could be lower.
Here are some of the possible restrictions BA could apply:
Offer lower earning rates for Avios
This seems unlikely for EuroFlyer as a whole, as even flying on BA’s Oneworld partners would earn you points in the same way. Earning rates do vary between fare codes, however (from 25% of the miles flown to 100% of miles flown within Economy) and it may be that the new budget structure will not allow for the full range of fare codes. For example, it could adopt the single cabin class approach of its low-cost rivals.
However, BA previously indicated that passengers of its new Gatwick venture would ‘continue to benefit from the same full standard of service that they currently receive’, hinting that it might keep a premium cabin on EuroFlyer as a point of difference from its low-cost rivals at the airport. If this is the case it should mean you will still have the option to earn higher numbers of Avios and higher numbers of tier points as a percentage of miles flown when you are on EuroFlyer in the way that you do when you chose a higher fare class on regular BA flights. (See British Airways’ earnings breakdown relating to fare classes here). Curious about how British Airways Tier Points work? You can find a full breakdown on our dedicated page here.
Offer fewer guaranteed reward flight seats on each flight
This is always a possibility but the greater reason for British Airways reward seat restrictions usually comes down to the popularity of certain flight routes and times i.e. BA would rather not be giving discounts for the seats it can most easily get full fare bums on.
Exempt EuroFlyer from having to accept BA Companion Vouchers
When used with a Companion Voucher, Avios can only be redeemed for British Airways ‘mainline flights’ where ‘BA’ is specified at the beginning of the flight code. We’re hopeful here because while this currently rules out some flights with BA’s Oneworld and franchise partners it does not rule out flights on BA CityFlyer, another British Airways subsidiary, which operates from London City Airport, and we expect the new BA EuroFlyer subsidiary to operate in a similar way.
- Exempt EuroFlyer from having to accept BA Gold Priority Rewards from those with British Airways Club Gold Status.
BA Gold Priority Rewards have previously allowed members to book any BA flight using Avios, so long as they were prepared to use double the usual amount of points. As BA CityFlyer is already exempt from the scheme, it seems likely BA EuroFlyer flights from Gatwick will also be.
At this point that is all speculation. Pretty much all we have is a name, but that name could be significant. BA EuroFlyer sounds very much like BA CityFlyer, the airline’s other wholly-owned subsidiary, and our guess is that it's a clear signal to passengers that BA will treat BA EuroFlyer in the same way. If we’re right, that means that whilst redemptions might work a little differently from the core BA product, most of the same rules and perks would apply.
More opportunities to redeem Avios points for reward flights
Any expansion of the destinations British Airways serves from London Gatwick will of course increase the number of opportunities for reward flight redemptions. Prior to the pandemic, Gatwick was the second most popular departure airport among RFF members who set availability alerts for reward seats. In the period since travel has opened up again, routes from London Heathrow have increased in popularity among our Avios redemption seekers.
Of course, RFF is keeping an eye out for new BA routes from Gatwick being and will keep tabs on how EuroFlyer affects BA reward flights. As soon as we know, you’ll know!
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