Starting December 15th, BA miles will be devalued again

Today everyone received an email announcing that British Airways (BA) will begin devaluing its Avios miles starting December 25, 2025. Not only will the miles themselves be devalued, but the cash portion including taxes and fees will also be reduced. BA provided examples of popular off-season one-way tickets from London to Geneva and off-season round-trip tickets from London to New York, showing that the mileage portion will be devalued by approximately 10%, while the taxes and fees will also increase significantly (though not drastically).

The following are some FAQs regarding currency depreciation mentioned on the BA official website:

• All routes operated by BA will depreciate, by about 10% according to examples;
• The required mileage and additional taxes for redemption will increase;
• If you need to change your existing booking after December 15th, and it involves changes in destination, cabin class, or peak/off-peak season, the exchange rate will be calculated based on the depreciated rate.
• If you need to change your existing booking after December 15th, and it's just a change of time without changing the destination, cabin class, or peak/off-peak season, the exchange rate will remain the same as before the devaluation.

Finally, I must commend BA. Although it's a devaluation, they first gave advance notice, and secondly, they didn't use flowery language but openly admitted it was due to rising taxes, inflationary pressures, and overall increased costs, making devaluation unavoidable in the post-pandemic era. In contrast, some airlines have taken the approach of slightly increasing the value of one route while quietly devaluing 99 routes, then announcing—"We've significantly improved the user experience"—treating everyone like fools. From this perspective, BA at least made their point clear. BA miles are no longer the "king of short-haul flights" they once were. The days of easily redeeming super-value short-haul flights within Asia and the Americas are long gone. Now, redeeming Alaska Airlines or American Airlines within North America, or Japan Airlines or Cathay Pacific within Asia, starts at around 10,000 points. However, given the abundance of points in the post-pandemic era, simply worrying about devaluation is no longer important; what truly matters is whether you can still redeem a mileage ticket with a sufficiently high cost-performance ratio.