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05
Sep
Your Story
Please share with the community your story about the great Airmiles Rip off and how it has impacted on you.
Have you made lifestyle changes to boost your Airmiles?
Did you stop shopping in Sainsburys and move to Tesco with the Airmiles program?
Did you take out a Lloyds credit card to collect Airmiles? and did you go premium?
Let us know your story below, as we are a new site we may have some glitches so we would suggest that you write it first offline then post it all in one go (just in the event that you session times out) if prefer then you could email us on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will post it on this page for you.
Comments
They should not be allowed to change the rules at the drop of a hat to such an established rewards scheme.
I’ve shopped at Tesco when I didn’t need to, I’ve driven for miles on “empty” waiting to find a Shell garage & I’ve used a Lloyds Credit Card when I could have got a better deal with someone else.
All for what? To be ripped off by the likes of Lloyds, Tesco, Shell, and all the rest of them, just because they've got their sums wrong and decide they can’t afford it anymore.
We’ve currently got 7,200 Air Miles saved up as a special treat for our 40th Wedding Anniversary next year so now instead of the promised “completely free trip” to the destination of our choice we now find that we can’t afford to go were we originally planned and it’s going to cost us even more to go somewhere that we didn’t really want to go to in the first place. It’s a disgrace.
It’s just like the old Hoover promotion years ago where they promise you something, they get your business & then, just when they decide it’s become too popular, they pull the plug on it & treat you like rubbish.
I have saved and enjoyed using airmiles for some time. It's marvellous not to have to pay any surcharges when you book a flight.
I decided some time ago to start saving airmiles for a trip to Australia when my husband retires. Zero pounds zero pence for the flights is wonderful. I have over twelve thousand miles so I thought I'd have enough to cover two flights and be able to book in enough time for when my husband retires. I do realise that 'airmile' seats are limited but hoped to be able to book over twelve months in advance.
We aren't visiting friends or relatives... just a trip after a well earned retirement.
Now the goal posts have been moved. I've had my sights set on this goal for some considerable time. What a dilemma. Do I set my sights on different horizons and use up the airmiles quickly or do I keep saving and hoping?
We are getting a double hit too as Belfast is not considered a regional airport(??) We would have to book an extra flight to get to the mainland or go by ferry-------another expensive story!
We are both retired and for years have saved airmiles with a view to getting to Australia next year, We have saved over 36.000 through Tesco's shopping and credit card. Every time I have tried to book flights to anywhere long haul they are not available, no matter what date we pick. What is going on?
I am thinking of ringing their booking line and asking where we can go and when. I don't believe the seats are all taken, just being kept from Airmiles users.
Friends who didn't opt for Airmiles through Tesco have converted points to flights several times and look to have made the right decision at the time.
Have done so one’s before to Australia with hotels ,so we thought we try doing it again for our 30 anniversary to Hong Kong
We have been loyal customers to Tesco, shell and used e store to buy most birthday and Christmas presents with Lloyds credit card .
Well not anymore, sent credit card back to Lloyds , will shop at Morison’s even though its further away and will fuel up there too.
The air miles we have, we will trying using them to get hotels with and we will fly with Cathy pacific who will be cheaper than giving avios miles and paying air taxes, fees and charges with British airways.
With the credit crunch , you would think that Airmiles and British Airways would of come up with a better idea .
They most know people will go to a cheaper airline we are not stupide as to say hold on a minute I’ve got avios miles and I don’t mind paying whatever just to fly British airways .
I’m all for flying the flag ,but not when it hits my pocket not once but twice
8
I have saved since the scheme began,
I am Mrs average UK user..I have gone out of my way to use the shell, or buy my family’s food only at only at Tesco..We even bank with Lloyds. I have used the scheme twice in the past once for a long weekend break to Paris, and once for a trip to America. he whole experience was fantastic,It made me more keen to collect, i even kept my hoard and took cheap last minute flights because i wanted to save the air miles for a big experience. I even had a couple of flights with BA and did not use them.
I was saving hard for my second trip, planning this time to use it with regards to a wedding anniversary to visit a dear friend, then the letter arrived. On the surface one thinks mmm not too bad 1 airmile for 10 points, then I looked at the site.
Well lets just put it this way, Avios should have a horse called Black Bess, because my hard saved 13,000 air miles which become 130,000 mean I now have to stump up a vast fortune if I use them.
In fact, for the surcharges that are going to be charged re long haul, I could get a better value by waiting for last minute flights and be quid’s in.
I used the air mile site, I rang them, and basically to get the best value for my 13,000 I had best go mad and book silly indiscriminate dates on multiple flights to Europe. Even then BA and its associated airlines do not cover all the airports.
For instance when I rang saying I want to go to Brittany, I have to fly From local airport change at London then go to Paris…and then get a train or hire a car part with more cash and air miles…yet I can drive to East midlands and get a flight to Brittany for peanuts.
Now surely when we signed and became members of this scheme we had a contract as to what we would get for saving. I.e. FREE. Because I am sure we had to register our details with air miles back when it was paper miles. Just because the company is changing why we the loyal should be discriminated against compared to some one who is just joining after the 16th of November I have sent my letter to the bank. Is there a letter to send to tesco one can copy? because lets face it the card we carry says Loyalty card, surely Tesco should side with the Loyal who shop with them, they make mega profits from us weekly and daily shoppers.
So to the big brother organisations, and the dream factory who came up with this idea
I may be Mrs Average UK, but I have a pair of scissors and can cut up my cards, I have a car that can get its petrol any where, and I can choose to go shop else where.
And at the end of the day, there are plenty of airlines desperate for customers.
One way to sort is those who are registered get a promissory letter honouring our hard saving, so that we can use them FREE…when we choose, that’s the only way its going to retain its customer base, and given recession etc for every one I think it’s the only hope it has of staying in the air if you pardon the pun! Ou know who and where I am because you sent me a letter telling me what you where going to do.
Very annoyed Lanchi
How can they do this? ordinary people being scammed.
It will now cost us too much to go.
I am a Tesco shopper because I convert ALL of my points to Airmiles and also have taken out the Lloyds TSB Duo Aimiles Credit Cards. I have also shopped at a number of companies solely because of the ability to accrue airmiles.
Over the last year I have also purchased top-up points through Airmiles directly. I currently have just under 6000 miles and was saving to be able to go and see my extended family in Australia. With the change this has completely screwed up those plans. I had hoped I'd have enough points in the next couple of years to take my trip. With the additional costs being levied I will be better off just looking for a cheaper flight with an alternative carrier.
Many thanks to Airmiles for messing with your customer base! Thanks also to Tesco and Lloyds TSB for not having the balls to tackle this situation whilst they had a chance!!
I have been saving airmiles for about 20 years! And they didn't even bother to write/email to warn of these changes! HOW do these companies get away with it I ask? I can't believe I came across this by CHANCE!
I used 900 miles once for a flight to Paris with my then husband. I am now a single Mum, and have been saving the several thousand I have left for a flight to Oz or somewhere similar in about 5 years time when kids are old enough to look after themselves for a couple of weeks. Oh I am gutted. I am a low earner, and most of my money goes on my kids. I was looking forward to something for ME!
Feel quite sick about this. Just another load of hassle/another of life's rip-offs to deal with.
No shame these people, NO shame! No morals, no honour, no backbone.
I also dedicated my shopping through the BA Executive Club portal which doubles and quadruples your miles rewards with their dedicated partners.
I have about 23000 miles at the moment which I will quickly be redeeming though I resent having to book notional journeys at a random time in 2012 when it might eventually prove an inconvenient time to travel.
I will no longer dedicate my shopping to Tesco or prioritise my credit card spending with American Express.
BA Airmiles have no loyalty and now desrve no loyalty.
I have been collecting airmiles since the scheme began in the eighties and jointly with my partner Eddy since 2002. I collected them with Natwest and also through Sainsbury’s where I did my weekly shop. Over the years as and when and when the scheme moved and changed partners I tried to follow, changing my shopping and spending habits to suit the scheme, I gave Tesco the benefit of my custom and took out one of their credit cards to in preference to others in the knowledge that this would slowly increase my airmiles balance and therefore I would see some benefit for my loyalty.
In the twenty three years I have collected ,I have used my airmiles for a couple of trips to Europe but in our case the main reason for collecting was to enable us to get to places that would otherwise be beyond our means, as was the case in 2008 when we had wonderful trip to Sri Lanka, So for us the scheme had worked perfectly, we gave the sole benefit of our custom to airmiles scheme partners and in return we would received vouchers or points that could be redeemed against flights of our choice at a time of our choice, brilliant!......or so we thought.
In 2009 I developed breast cancer and am currently unable to travel especially long haul as I have been informed by my doctor that this is inadvisable due to the side effects of the medicinal cocktail which is now part of my daily routine.
We had set ourselves a goal of Canada in 2014 for our next trip, by this time I should be discharged from hospital care and should be able to travel once again, or if we were really lucky maybe 2013 might be achievable as this would have coincided with Eddy’s 40th birthday. This would also have given us four or five years to collect enough airmiles and save enough spending money, brilliant! ...... Or so we thought.
Now we have been told by Airmiles that unless we use our hard earned miles by 16/12/2011 they will be turned into Avios seeing their value to us drop quite considerably as well as adding £638.43 (at today’s prices) payable in cash only to our planned journey. I feel very let down by this as I was given the impression that within this scheme these fees would be covered and not payable at the point of redemption as is soon to be the case.
Our airmiles balance currently falls short of our planned trip, but for us it is not so much the amount of airmiles being the problem, more the ridiculous timescale in which we have been given to use them, making it impossible for me to see the benefit of their current value. That is of course unless I waste them on unwanted chocolates or bottles of wine.
I feel pressured and bullied into using them now,other than for their intended purpose of travel in the near future and think that Airmiles are being both unreasonable and unfair.
I agree all the five points you are making to Airmiles.
I've always found it best to focus on one scheme for as much shopping as possible, and that programme's been AirMiles. I DID switch to Tesco when Sainsbury's went with Nectar - and I've always begrudged it, in that I vastly prefer Sainsbury's! This proves the fact that I've been driven to retailers I might not otherwise use, to boost Miles.
Well, that's over now. I might just try to round off my Miles to the next thousand, before I redeem against all my 2012 travel plans rapidly - thank goodness I know the dates and destinations now!
I've opened a Nectar account, Nectar Amex, Nectar-earning Sainsbury's Gold Mastercard, and also now use BP or Sainsbury's not Shell.
(I had a Lloyds TSB pair of cards a few years back - but their customer service was so bad that, even with AirMiles, I couldn't stick it!)
Farewell, AirMiles - and I will not be darkening Avios's doors beyond any residual points I can't use up before the end of this year.
Rewards are about loyalty - and that cuts both ways.
Had I known that "this exciting news was about to be revealed' I certainly would not have done that. I have effectively thown away a free flight to the US. Under normal circumstances I would be able to start saving AM again but this is not the case now. This is particularly sad for me as I have a son and DIL who live in Colorado and they are expeccting their first baby in the New Year. I could really have used these wasted miles for that trip ...... if only I had lnown this was going to happen.
The reason for being an Airmiles collector was simple – I could earn Airmiles on everyday spending, half forget that I was even a collector and watch my miles grow until I had enough for free flights. And Tesco, Lloyds TSB and Airmiles all advertised it as such – FREE FLIGHTS.
I had a free flight to Morocco about eight years ago and a free Eurostar return to Paris 2 years ago. I am a very keen traveller and have been fortunate enough to indulge my backpacking hobby over the years. So instead of frittering my Airmiles on short trips I decided to save them all for the “big trip”. I'm intending to take a career break in 2013 for a few months to visit South America and friends in Australia. Saving my Airmiles seemed like the ideal way to defray the costs. I now have almost 12000 airmiles, more than enough for a return flight to Buenos Aires and looking at my collecting patterns I'm sure I would have saved the remaining for Australia by 2013. So you see I already had a lot of time and money invested in this.
Well Airmiles and British Airways have pulled the rug from under mine and millions of others' feet. The money I have already spent and which they have gladly taken has now been devalues by up to 90%. I been promised fee s by Airmiles for several years and now they have decided they do not wish to honour that promise. I call that fraud.
Airmiles have said that their new scheme, Avios, will now be effective from 16th November 2011, and that I have until mid December 2011 to book flights under the existing terms. We that's just not a reasonable period reasonable notice for anyone … but is even more difficult for me as I work in emergency services on 24 hour shifts and all my leave has to be approved well in advance so we don't go under minimum staffing levels.
I have started to try and spend my airmiles, but there is now no availability in the next few months to destinations I want to travel to.
I feel like I have fallen victim to am enormous confidence trick. Airmiles and British Airways have taken my dreams and a lot of money from me (more than £1700 if the figure of 15p per mile is used).
At the very least Airmiles should honour peoples accrued Airmiles under the existing terms and conditions for a reasonable period, say five years. Airmiles members' anger toward the new scheme may then be greatly reduced.
I have been collecting Airmiles for years, mainly through Lloyds Amex card and by converting Tesco Clubcard vouchers, and have had a number of holidays with them before. I have also booked package holidays and cash flights with them as my preferred travel agent, so that I would add more miles to my balance.
I never expected the scheme to end so suddenly and I could have used the points this year for my holiday to Orlando, but chose to pay cash this time and to save the miles for Christmas 2012, hoping to visit my cousin and her new baby in Australia.
It is a disgrace that Airmiles have been building their brand and loyalty to their partners over the years, only now to signal its end with a few weeks notice. Having recently become self employed and having contracts with my own clients as to when we will take our holidays and close the office (mainly Christmas/NY periods) I honestly don’t have a way of spending my miles before their final travel date of December 15th 2012.
I had always enjoyed knowing that I had these miles on my account and that I could use them on a rainy day. I have encouraged friends to join the scheme and collect, and they too opened Lloyds Amex cards and switched to shop at Tesco where they could. In the past I have even changed energy company to join an Airmiles partner scheme.
The tone of the communication from Airmiles about the change to Avios is all positive, they make no apology to the customers who will be worse off as a result. They are making fools of us.
I have been through the Airmiles T&C's with a fine tooth comb... nowhere does it say that they can transfer our miles to another scheme. It does say they can change the scheme and products and services provided (rule 7a), but not that they can amend already-earned miles. It also says (3a) that they will maintain an account that records our Airmiles transactions. SO... where is the right to turn these miles into something we don't want? WE SHOULD BE GIVEN A CHOICE!!!
More than anything it is the lack of notice and the deadlines which I find completely unacceptable. If Airmiles does not apologise and act fairly, I really want to see them face a ruling in court. I'm just not in a position to abandon my business so I use up my miles within the surprise deadline!
Having moved to Shetland a few years ago and at that time without a Tesco ….my Airmiles collection plan became more focused.
Any trip across to mainland Scotland …… it was a must to fill up with Tesco fuel and before heading back to the North Isles the car was stacked to the roof with Tesco shopping.
On-line shopping. ……Where possible was through Airmiles Partnership members websites.
I have had a trip to Canada (with Taxes) and a few to London however I have been saving for about 11 years to visit friends in Australia – that was the aim.
A family friend was also saving as well and we were to join our miles together to go on our trip of a lifetime to meet up with friends.
So together we were 1800 short ……
Therefore our trip to the Land Down Under is now utterly squashed – as we were saving to go in 2013.
With much dissolution I booked a flight to Toronto.
Oz was dashed. No availability for Vancouver for the period we were looking for… Nothing for Calgary so the 4th option was Toronto. We hope to book a cheap flight to Vancouver to meet up with friends.
Do we feel let down? I agree that terms and conditions change but the two and a half month period to lead-in– well its beyond belief.
I feel I have thrown away my past eleven years of extremely hard savings – especially as I was very limited with opportunities to attract points because of my location.
The major disappointment is perhaps the lack of consultation by Airmiles and their lack of respect for customers and their failure to respond to the concerns raised.
Will we change our shopping habits and loyalties – most definitely!
In 1989 I moved into my first flat. I shopped in Sainsburys and bought my clothes and household goods in Debenhams to collect Airmiles. At this point, I had no idea whether I would ever collect enough miles to go anywhere, or where I would end up going.
I got a Nat West credit card and put all my spending on there. When my job changed and I travelled for work, I put all my expenses on my personal credit card, rather than using the company card I’d been issued with.
In 2000, my mum retired. She’d always said she’d wanted to travel the world, so I decided I’d take her somewhere to celebrate her birthday. She had a few Airmiles of her own and between us we had enough miles to travel to the USA. I even managed to use some Airmiles to hire a car. The taxes and charges we had to pay were negligible compared to the cash price of the tickets and car hire.
I continued collecting with Tescos – from 2002, all my clubcard points were converted to Airmiles. I switched my gas and electricity supplier to one that gave Airmiles, I bought my petrol at Shell or Tescos and I used online shops that gave Airmiles.
In 2007 I had saved enough Airmiles for a trip to New York, where I met new friends. Since then I’ve been building up my Airmiles to be able to visit the US more. I have bought cash flights in the last few years, wherever possible through Airmiles in order to collect miles on my purchases. I've even bought Airmiles for cash in order to boost my balance.
My current balance is 11,600 Airmiles, which would have been enough to fly to the US for the next 2 summers while I was amassing more miles. The idea was that by careful collecting, I should be able to collect enough each year to get a return flight each summer.
The change to Avios has meant that I will have to use up my Airmiles or see them devalue massively. The cost of taxes, fees and charges is a significant portion of the cost of a flight to New York – around £300 on a ticket costing £396 – so there is no point in me continuing to collect Avios.
I’ve just booked a trip to New York in October and will have to book a speculative flight for next May and hope that my friends’ plans can fit in with my trip.
I’m sure the change to Avios will benefit some people who want to travel within Europe, but if I wanted to fly to European destinations, I’d probably be able to find a better deal through the cheap airlines. Nor do I want to spend Avios on days out or booze, so I can see no reason to continue with the scheme. I have cancelled my Lloyds TSB credit card and taken out a cashback card. I have switched from Tescos to Aldi for my shopping and will bank the money I save. The local Sainsburys petrol station is consistently cheaper than Tesco petrol, so I can save money there, too. All the money I save through not paying to collect Avios will go towards paying for future flights.
Airmiles is not a frequent flyer programme; it is a loyalty scheme where the miles are both earned through purchasing from the right partners and by contributing actual cash values. The change from Airmiles to Avios is effectively reducing the value of the cash we have put into the scheme. If the scheme has to change, collectors should have been given more warning and more time to book the trips they have been saving for over the years. The 10 weeks' notice of the change is really not sufficient to give people time to book time off work next year. Although I will be able to use up the bulk of my miles, I feel betrayed by Airmiles and their partners that they are not concerned by these petty details. It seems our loyalty is not reflected by the partner companies who have benefited from our custom over the years.
year, nothing really happened with my account. However, since then I have topped up with nearly a years worth of Tesco clubcard vouchers, and i bought a few miles to give me enough miles to get a discounted flight to the states (1500) on a part payment/part miles deal.
My girlfriend lives in America, so these are the only flights i make. We only get to see each other 2 or 3 times a year, and in these tough financial times, affording flights is not an easy business. After booking the discounted flight, I often looked at getting Lloyds credit card to earn airmiles, but just didnt see my spending amounting to anything I could use. And then (just one month ago!) this special offer for 500 bonus miles if i got the credit card. I wanted to make sure any application I made for a credit card would be beneficial to me to make it worth having another card on my credit report and rating.
So i signed up - with this intro bonus, perhaps some miles as a birthday gift and adjusting my spending to putting more on my credit card (not something i normally do to keep better keep track of my spending) then i'd get enough miles in a year or so to get some money off a flight again. I made a detailed plan of how to use my new card with your scheme to get the best out of my modest spending on it.
And then, it all changed. Under the new scheme this flight would cost me my miles, but probably double how much i would have to pay in cash.
To me this change of scheme is not just 'oh you've ruined my holiday plans' - it could affect whether I actually get to see my girlfriend - the flight is part of maintaining my relationship, not just a place in the sun. Having made this huge plan of how to do this, budgeting etc and then it all suddenly change, it is like a rug has been pulled from under me and i'm sitting shellshocked on the floor wondering what to do.
it seems the theme for reward schemes is to change the benefit that everyone is enjoying and offer you 'fantastic' offers on things you neither need or want. From my personal cicrumstance you will see I do not want to go on eurostar or have family days out, that would cost me money in the day out etc. I just want to save money on US flights.
I am still dumbfounded by how such a drastic shocking change can be marketing as 'exciting' or 'better; - I'm not sure who airmiles consulted when devising this new scheme - but pretty sure it wasnt anyone reading the facebook/website campaign pages!
Danielle.
I've been collecting Airmiles for about 20 years and haven't spent one of them in that time.
The reason being was that I was saving them for my retirement so that my wife and I can continue to enjoy holidays at a time when we are less able to afford holidays.
I have a total of 12,300 miles that has been accumulated by buying the right fuel (Shell), using the right bank account (Lloyds) staying in the right hotels (Marriott) shopping in the right supermarket (Tesco) etc. etc. Airmiles are dragging their so called partners through the mud its time they took a stand or they will be losing customers big time.
Anyway back to the Airmiles web site to use up what we've got.
I have swopped my shopping and spending habits around over the years to maximise my collecting potential. This includes swopping from Sainsbury’s to Tesco when Airmiles changed their partners. Taking out a Lloyds duo card and upgrading it to the premier card at a fee of £50 per year as it is a better rate of miles and if I managed to spend £15,000 on it, I would get a free companion ticket (no taxes to pay either).
Over the years I have collected in excess of 30,000 Airmiles. This has been at some cost as I have chosen to shop at more expensive stores such as Tesco when I could have shopped elsewhere for cheaper. It has cost the £50 fee in the Lloyds Duo card. I could have also been using a different credit card which would have had better terms or even given cash back. I have chosen Airmiles over Nectar where I could have benefited from tangible goods. I have even bought a package holiday from Airmiles using my card, simply to get the Airmiles, even though the same holiday was cheaper elsewhere. So as you can see over the years, it has cost quite a bit of money to collect the Airmiles.
I collect Airmiles for the specific reason of long haul flights as I do not think the short haul ones are cost effective to use Airmiles for, especially with the likes of Ryan and Easyjet around.
The impact of the new scheme to me is devastating. I have enough miles for six return flights to the USA plus 1 companion ticket. A return flight the USA is now going to cost me the equivalent of £500 which is £200 worth of Tesco shopping vouchers plus £300 in taxes. The same flight on BA’s website is only £396 in many cases. This is the best case scenario, worst case is more than likely to be Australia which is somewhere we were considering as well as India.
Unfortunately because of the time constraints put on by Airmiles, we are not going to be able to book all these in tile for their deadline and therefore going to be out of pocket by literally thousands of pounds. Even best case scenario it would be £1800 if we only flew to the USA. We are not able to afford that and as such, our Airmiles will just be wasted.
We mainly collect thru LLoyds TSB but also use shell, southern electric and sometime tesco... These will all be most likely losing my business in the future
The whole point of doing all this was to obtain Airmiles for free flights. In the past we have enjoyed the benefits of Airmiles – a Eurostar trip to Brussels and a flight to Rome, both of which were fantastic, especially because that were free. We were saving for a trip to Florida in 2013, but now we will have to find alternate means as we are nowhere near our total to be able to book before the change, and the amount of money and effort it takes to collect really isn't worth it when you have to pay taxes and charges. Overall, I am disappointed that a company who has provided a great loyalty scheme, cannot show loyalty to it’s own customers, especially now when more people cannot afford these types of luxuries.
But we have been cured of our addiction thanks to a new wonderdrug called Avios! There are some side effects, such as an allergy to Tesco, Lloyds, Play.com and Shell, to name a few. Tesco,with its clubcard voucher exchange scheme, and I use the word scheme deliberately, is a particular badboy...
So let us begin on our twelve-step recovery programme. Step one... Tesco. bye bye...
Amen.
Subject: Tesco rewards - Airmiles
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 13:03:09 +0100
From: Dawn.Angliss@TescoFreetim e.com
To: Matthew
Dear Matthew
Clubcard rewards
Thank you for your email to our CEO concerning the Airmiles scheme. I am sorry that as a regular collector of Airmiles you are unhappy by the changes being made.
The Airmiles scheme is owned by The Mileage Company and following the merger earlier this year between British Airways and Iberia they have decided to create a more unified loyalty scheme with Avios as the new currency. The Airmiles currency will cease to exist from the 16th November 2011 and any Airmiles in your account on that date will be converted into Avios.
The Mileage Company are in the process of emailing or writing to each of their customers to explain the changes in detail. This information explains that you can still book travel with Airmiles under the current Terms & Conditions up until the 15 December 2011 for travel up to 12 months in advance (subject to Airmiles availability).
The Mileage Company has been a successful partner of Tesco for many years and Airmiles is one of our most popular Rewards. Whilst we understand that some customers may be disappointed by the changes to the Airmiles scheme, we believe many of our customers will want to collect the new Avios currency with their Clubcard points and therefore we do plan to continue our partnership with them.
I note from your email that you have been saving your Airmiles for a trip to New York. Collecting Avios through Clubcard will be the fastest way to collect the new currency and I hope that you will continue to use your rewards for Avios towards your planned journey.
I assure you we will continue to work with Avios to create some exciting new promotions and extra value.
We will be liaising closely with Avios to ensure that customers concerns are addressed and we would like to thank you for your feedback on the changes that are taking place. If you have any questions about using your existing Airmiles then you can speak to The Mileage Company by calling 0844 49 333 99 or visit their website www.airmiles.co.uk/avios.
Kind regards
Dawn Angliss
Customer Relations Manager
Tesco Freetime Limited
Thanks Dawn,
But this is not good enough or fair, I have put my life though tesco to get enough airmiles to fly to New York to say that tesco does not own the schme is true, but I do not have enough to book before the changes came in but Tesco sure as hell promoted the scheame I want me clubcard points back or I want my terms and conditions kept the same this is not fair, it is not fair that I pay the taxes on a scheme that never had taxes I have put in up to £200.00 of club card points at the moment and to say that I would then have to pay for the taxes of £300 is just not good enough your response is luke warm and I intend to post this on the fight the changes website.
If possible I will look to take Airmiles to the small claimes court, if this is possible I will make sure tesco and clubcards name is rubbed as much as possible there is so much damaging press about this why are you not doing something this is in noway fair and do have influance over Airmiles and I would hope that you would do more than just sit on the side lines and suffer.
I am very much dissapointed.
Matthew
When they started including t&c they put the airmiles for this route up to 5,000 miles, but at least you didn't have to pay any extras so everyone was happy.
When Natwest and Sainsburys stopped doing Airmiles, I switched, of course, to Lloyds TSB and Tesco who have had my dedicated custom ever since. A couple of years ago I was surprised to discover that we had 15,000 airmiles, which with a part cash payment of about £400, the four of us could fly return to Antigua, so we did, and rented an apartment for two weeks, probably at this stage the best holiday of my life! From that point on we became more dedicated collectors. I upgraded to the premium duo card, paying the annual fee, so I could get the worldwide companion ticket, and put my husband on as second card holder. We have paid for EVERYTHING with these cards since. When they started taking cards at McDonalds, we we even started paying for happy meals with the Amex ha ha... All our shopping and fuel purchases were Tesco... I do a lot of internet shopping and shop through the estore where possible (I'm not stupid, I wouldn't buy something through the estore if it was cheaper elsewhere, but when comparable, the estore would get my business. I have shopped at 26 different estores in the last year, buying anything from clothes to catfood!
We have also booked Keycamp holidays the last couple of years in the school holidays through airmiles, to get the 1 mile per £1 rate, and have just had nearly 1500 miles from that allocated this year- I think it was more than that last year. We will no longer holiday with them either, it will free us up to shop around ha ha... It was a very good rate of exchange, though, when airmiles were worth something!
We are now in the 9,000+ mark again, with a worldwide companion ticket to be used by the end of Feb. We were hoping to use them in part payment to visit my brother-in-law in South Africa after Xmas 2012 (knowing there wouldn't be any availabilty before xmas) so I guess that plan has been blown out the window!
I have been looking on the airmiles site to see if there is anywhere we could go next summer (in a safe developed country!) and can find nothing. What's a girl to do?
We are not hard up by any means, and most people probably wouldn't care that we're losing the value of our airmiles, but frankly, guys, as far as I see it, my airmiles account at present is worth about £1500 of travel which I can't use! I have worked hard and spent hard to get those miles, my holiday fund, and I am entitled to use them!!! So I will fight!
I realise there is an economic downturn and companies have to change to accommodate. I know Airmiles terms and conditions say they can change anything at anytime but it also says you have to give reasonable notice and I would argue this is not reasonable and there is not enough time for me to collect enough airmiles for the flight I want. Airmilese made 10.7 million profit last year, some of that was my money and now they have made my airmiles nearly worthless as flights to the US are very cheap and the taxes, fuel surcharges (which in themselves are a scam and go straight to the airline coffers) are high. This is not fair nor reasonable. I know I can use my airmiles for other things but I collected them for a specific thing and I don't want anything else. If I went to a shop to buy a pair of shoes I would not be happy if they took my money and then insisted I left with a handbag! All of this is very annoying but not the thing that has upset me the most.
Only 3 weeks ago Airmiles were running a promotion to encourage people to buy airmiles and get up to 30% extra for their money. I asked my Mum, who is a pensioner and does not have much disposable income, to 'gift' me £75 worth of airmiles as a birthday/Christmas present. These are now not worth the money she spent on them and I feel sick to my stomach that Airmiles knew they were about to devalue their product and ran a promotion to encourage people to buy it. I can only view this as a form of fraud.
I want my Mums money back!
I've been collecting airmiles for 2 years. I changed my shopping from Asda to Tesco online delivery. Sometimes I went out of my way ordering things I didn't really need just to get extra clubcards/airmiles, causing major arguments with my husband sometimes. I refurnished 2 bedrooms from tesco direct (spending over 1000 pounds on mattresses, bedframes etc.) sometimes compromising on style/design or paying higher price as it would have been at Argos/Ikea and so on. Even though he grumbled about my spending, he changed his habits too, ( changing his refuelling from a cheaper local one to shell). I also ordered many things from their e-shop partners, all of this with the hope to save up for a nice holiday one day in Australia or somewhere we could not otherwise afford. I don't want to spend my miles on european holiday as one can go almost everywhere in europe with easyjet/ryanair for less then 50 pounds, and I don't have enough miles yet for anything big worth using my miles for. I only have 3500 miles but I'm completely disgusted they can devalue our miles like this. It would only be fair if we could turn them back to tesco vouchers, where they would even worth 3 times their face value (in my case 175x3 525 pounds) I can only imagine what people with tens of thousands of airmiles can feel.
I have used Airmiles several times in the past and never had a problem. I have just booked a family trip to the USA for next summer, using Airmiles only.
I have a remaining 2000 Airmiles which I intend to use before they change to Avios. Then that's it! I will no longer support the scheme. For me it's all just too big a change introduced too quickly with too many negatives.
Airmiles was a great scheme which deserved loyalty. It gave an end product which could be completely free if savers set their mind to building their stash of Airmiles. Too bad it's gone! perhaps its demise is yet one more example of how corporate greed wins again?
I have the lloyds TSB credit Card, we as a family shop at Tesco. I do alot of shopping through e-stores on the Airmiles website all ina bid to have a holiday that i can afford with my family.
The reality today is thats not going to happen. To now have to pay the extra ontop of the miles has really put this dream out of reach. When you multiply the taxes by four its a hugh difference on a family budget.
Airmiles have cheated me of my dream by turning what I have earned and contirbuted towards into a worthless, useless waste.
I will in future be more cautious in choosing loyalty programmes as i feel it will take a long time for the bitter taste in my mouth to disappear.
I shop at Tesco and have over the years spent thousands of pounds in order to gain Tesco clubcard vouchers to turn into Airmiles. In order to boost the amount of clubcard points I collect I have also changed my energy supplier to Eon, having to be on a certain tariff, which if I weren’t collecting airmiles I could switch to a cheaper tariff or supplier!
I also have a Lloyds TSB credit card, which I use to collect miles on a regular basis. This to me is now entirely pointless and the cards will be cancelled.
I have bought many miles in the past, and have also sent mobile phones in to be recycled in exchange for airmiles, I feel like by doing both of these things I have just thrown my hard earned money down the drain.
I have on numerous occasions bought an item through the airmiles estore which I could possibly have got cheaper elsewhere, but in order to gain the points I have paid the extra cost.
All of this has been done to collect enough miles for me to buy flights to Florida for me and my younger sister in 2013. I had 8462 miles, and was only 4538 miles of being able to afford the flights. However the tight rules Airmiles have placed on having to use your miles under the old scheme by December, and only being able to make a booking a year in advance is no good for myself. Even if I had enough miles to be able to afford the flights I still could not go until 2013 for health reasons and other commitments. Airmiles have taken away my freedom of choice, I should have a right to choose when I can use something I have worked hard to gain, and also paid for the privilege of collecting. I also do not feel that it is value for money having to continue to shop where I gain points then be expected to pay the airport fees and taxes!
I like many others have made the decision to use my miles and will be taking a 3 day trip with them, this was not what I was saving them for, nor is it what I would have chosen to do with them but for being forced into it. I am thoroughly disappointed with Airmiles and find it an utter disgrace how a company can treat loyal customers. I however will no longer be collecting Airmiles and will be taking my loyalty where I am more valued.
I used to collect Airmiles with Sainsburys and when they moved over to Tesco I stopped shopping and Sainsburys and moved to Tesco, I found that I was paying a higher price for some items but felt that on balance it represented good value when you converted the points into Airmiles.
I spent so much money with Tesco that they moved me to the Premium Airmiles rate and I was able to collect even faster.
I started to look at other ways to collect with them and decided to move my hone phone service to Tesco, my car insurance and my mobile phone and tesco wine club.
I then moved my from British Gas to Eon so that I could collect more miles.
I converted thousands of pounds of Tesco vouchers into Airmiles so that I could get free flights and now I have been told that my Airmiles are to be devalued.
I was planning to do a return trip to Japan and Australia in 2013 with my partner and visit some places that we have never been before and was so happy that it would be in effect FREE.
I have been forced to either accept that my Airmiles are to become worthless or spend them, so I have decided to spend them now as I am not prepaird to allow Airmiles to take advantage of me like that.
I will not be using Tesco as much as I have done before and I will not be collecting Avios, once I use all my points on my Free flights then that it is, Im done with them.
I will not be in such a hurry to change my shopping habbits for a loyalty program again.
I have saved enough for 2 more trips which I now fear will not be worthwhile. The really annoying thing is that I have gone out of my way to collect Tesco points wherever possible, even paying the council tax with their credit card, yet now I find I would have been far better off exchanging the points for some of the many other excellent Clubcard deals such as the current one where you get 3 times the face value off already cheap train fares with red spotted hanky.
In July 2011 I had enough miles to fly to Trinidad (6500 airmiles) for a holiday so the holiday was completely free after years and years of collecting. I am now told that I will need 50,000 Avios and £301 to pay in taxes if I want to do the same journey again!!!! I was gob smacked! Good bye Airmiles - it is no longer worth my while, I shall collect nectar points and go to Alton Towers for my holidays instead!
Ann Bradshaw
I signed up to Airmiles because of the free flights offered now to be told that on top of the airmiles required, although this is a decrease, I will now have to pay the taxes. This will cost me a least the same, if not more than buying flights direxctly with an airline! I realise that taxes are very high these days and prehaps changes have to be made but surely we should be given at least a year to collect the airmiles we neeed at the present rate. I really feel cheated and would never have bothered if I knew that this was going to happen.
When purchasing a flight with an airline, the addition of all these fees on top of the flights are in many cases unfair, and generate more profit for the airlines than is necessary. I saw the Airmiles rewards scheme as a way of circumventing these charges, making a better deal for myself and my family.
I joined Airmiles in 2010 and was in it for the long haul. As the company had been around for many years, it was my impression that I had a good few years to build up my rewards to redeem against a long haul flight for me and my family.
I switched all my spending habits to enable me to collect Airmiles to build up the rewards. I switched my online shopping to Tesco, as well as petrol - despite the fact there is an alternative petrol station yards from where I live.
I also purchased all items online through the e-store where there was an Airmiles partner. This meant that I was no longer using Quidco - a cashback website - as my main portal to purchasing online. I therefore feel I have lost out on cash I could have received from Quidco.
When I heard of the news that the reward scheme was changing, I was outraged and felt let down. The clear devaluation of Airmiles is apparent, but has not been acknowledged by the company. Yes, there are other advantages such as one way flights, but who wants a one way flight?
It is my intention to boycott all Airmiles partners short term, and revert to my original spending habit before I joined Airmiles.
I have written letters and emails to the main partners expressing my dissatisfaction along with my intention to boycott their services.
The Airmiles I have collected so far are useless, as by the time I have enough for a long haul flight, it would be cheaper for me to buy a cheap flight elsewhere.
Shame on your Airmiles. I sincerely hope you reconsider the changes, or at least amend the terms in favour of the current scheme.
Matt 1, Avios 0.
Having 3 young boys, we were saving hard, and earning Airmiles at every opportunity, to make a trip to Disneyland Florida in 2012 or 2013.
Having to now pay charges and taxes, this trip is now outwith our means.
I am very disappointed, as are my young family aged 8, 6 and 4.
My name is Olaf, and I have been collecting Airmiles for a few years
now. I didn't have a target destination in mind when I decided to
collect airmiles. I just thought it was nice to have the opportunity to
be rewarded for my loyalty to the likes of Tesco and Shell by getting a
free flight every now and then.
I'm not a big spender by any means. But I managed to save up enough
Airmiles by November 2010 to go to Belfast for a long weekend break as a
birthday treat. I used a little over 2000 Airmiles for the flight and
part payment towards a hotel. 750 of those miles were for the actual
flight, which was totally free. I was lucky enough to find a flight from
Exeter, my local airport.
Since November 2009 I have converted around £110 in Tesco Clubcard
vouchers alone (by my calculations that’s 11,000 Clubcard points, or at
the x2 rate £5500 spend in Tesco). I used Eon to get extra Clubcard
points to boost my Airmiles. I also used Tesco to get 4 new tyres
through Tesco Tyres. The cost was £40 more expensive that the cheapest
quote I got. But I thought that the benefit of having the extra Clubcard
points outweighed the cost saving using the other supplier. I have also
used the other Airmiles partners like Play.com, Ebay, Waterstones and
more recently their survey partners, e-Rewards.
I feel cheated by the Airmiles change. Airmiles have told be it's an
exciting change. But I fail to see how it is. Sure, regional supplements
have been reduced. But the addition of taxes, supplements and other
charges is ridiculous! The £27 cap for regular savers on zones 1-3
flights seems good. Until you read the small print and see that this is
only for flights on an IAG airline. Namely BA or Iberia.
If I want to take the same flight to Belfast from Exeter, not only would
I have to use more miles (9000 under the new scheme) but I will also
have to stump up about £100 on top of that for the taxes, surcharges and
other charges as Flybe is not a member of IAG group. That's a flight
that previously was totally free, using less miles.
Just for I fail to see how this is a good deal for me. Let alone for those people
who have been saving for even longer than me to achieve their dream
holiday. Some of them will have to pay hundreds of pounds on top of the
Airmiles they have already paid for to achieve their dreams.
While I appreciate times change and offering totally free flight might
be too costly, I feel that my loyalty and custom to these brands has
been for nothing.
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