Details: British Airways Avios award devaluation

Earlier this month, British Airways Club announced that award redemption costs — both for its own flights and partner airlines such as American and Qatar Airways — would increase on 15 December 2025.

However, the airline stopped short of revealing the exact extent of these increases, providing just two illustrations which suggested a fairly modest 8-10% hike. This caused a fair bit of jitters, especially since British Airways Club has no award charts, and the price is whatever they say it is!

Well, the revised pricing has now come into effect, and the good news, if it can be called that, is that there aren’t any nasty surprises here. Increases to short-haul awards, where most of the value in the programme lies, generally hover around the 10% mark. While it’s undeniably annoying, it’s far from Armageddon.

Besides, some of the best-value awards have escaped unscathed, such as Singapore to Helsinki on Finnair Business Class for just 62,500 Avios.

Details: British Airways Club Avios devaluation

While British Airways does not publish an award chart, we know that its prices are based on distance, with nine different distance bands. There are also separate award charts with higher pricing for Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines. 

The key use case for British Airways Club is for short-haul awards, so that’s what I’m going  to focus on below. But in case you were curious, the award costs for medium and long-haul travel (Zones 5 and beyond) have increased by roughly 10%. 

Award price changes (ex. Cathay Pacific & JAL)

There has been an increase of 8-14% for awards within Zones 1-4.

For example, it now costs 14,000 Avios to redeem a Business Class award on Malaysia Airlines between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (great for a oneworld lounge safari), up from 12,500 Avios. Likewise, a Sydney to Adelaide Business Class award now costs 18,500 Avios, up from 16,500 Avios. 

Remember: with British Airways Club, you always want to redeem non-stop flights because pricing is additive. For example, a single SIN-KUL-HKG Economy award on Malaysia Airlines would cost the same as separate SIN-KUL (6,500 Avios) + KUL-HKG (12,500 Avios) awards. 

Award price changes (Cathay Pacific)

Where Cathay Pacific is concerned, the increases are in the range of 10-13% (and keep in mind, since the last “official” devaluation in 2019, British Airways has devalued Cathay and JAL awards several more times without any notice).

For Singapore-based members, the most notable change is that a one-way Business Class award from Singapore to Hong Kong will now cost 36,000 Avios, up from 32,500 Avios previously. If it’s any consolation, you can still transfer Avios at a 1:1 ratio to Qatar Privilege Club and book the same award for 22,000 Avios, without any fuel surcharges.

If you’re looking to redeem awards on the popular Hong Kong to Taipei route, you should also know that awards will now cost 11,000 and 23,000 Avios in Economy and Business Class respectively, up from the previous 9,750 and 20,800 Avios.

Award price changes (Japan Airlines)

Award flights on Japan Airlines have increased by 11-14%. 

If you’re thinking about redeeming awards for domestic travel within Japan, these will now cost at least 12,000-12,500 Avios each way (assuming Economy Class travel; domestic Business Class is probably not worth the miles in most cases). To think, these once used to cost just 4,500 Avios!

Honestly, at these rates you’d probably be better off buying the cheapest Economy Class fare you can find and then redeeming Max Miles to get reimbursed via FlyAnywhere (at 1.8 cents per mile). For example, the KIX-CTS flight shown above would cost 12,500 Avios for an Economy redemption, versus 6,000 Max Miles if you were to buy a cash ticket (S$108/0.018).

No changes to Qatar and Finnair long-haul awards

For the moment, British Airways Club has not made any changes to the sweet spot redemptions for travel out of Singapore on Qatar Airways and Finnair. 

You can continue to book Singapore to Helsinki on Finnair Business Class for just 62,500 Avios + S$88, a sensational deal by any means. 

Likewise, Singapore to Europe on Qatar Airways continues to cost 70,000 to 75,000 Avios, though fuel surcharges in this case will be much steeper. 

What about changes to existing tickets?

Members with reward flights booked before 15 December 2025 will not be required to top-up Avios if they make changes to the time or date of flight.

However, the new rates will apply if they wish to change destination, cabin, or seasonality (e.g. changing from off-peak to a peak date).

Will this affect other Avios currency programmes?

In addition to British Airways, Avios are also the legal tender for Qatar Privilege Club, Finnair Plus, Iberia Plus and a few other programmes.

Avios can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio between all these programmes, using a British Airways Club account as a central hub (e.g. if I want to convert from Qatar Privilege Club to Finnair Plus, I must convert Qatar > British > Finnair). Historically, we have seen Qatar Airways harmonising its partner award chart with British Airways, though pricing differences still exist among Avios-based programmes, creating arbitrage opportunities.

At present, there’s no indication that the rest of these programmes will follow suit, though if they do, notice isn’t guaranteed (especially in the case of Qatar Airways!).

Conclusion

British Airways Club has revealed its revised award pricing, which sees an increase of roughly 10% for most destinations. There’s no such thing as a “good” devaluation, of course, but given that most of these prices had been unchanged since 2019, I suppose we were due one. 

Hopefully you were able to lock in some awards prior to the price increases, and do consider booking a trip to Helsinki with Finnair— that sweet spot may not last long!

(Cover photo: Plane’s Portrait Aviation Media)