More Marketing Crap

It's only been a couple of weeks since my rant about meaningless company name changes conjured up by marketing experts(?), and today I got an email from British Airways about improvements to their Executive Club frequent flyer program, including changing Air Miles to Avios Points. Just as I did, you're probably wondering "What the hell does Avios mean?". BA has anticipated that question and provided the answer in the FAQ section of their website:

Avios is the new name for BA Miles. The name reflects the valuable, global and distinctive nature of the currency that will offer members a more rewarding experience in the Executive Club. It is simple to pronounce and evokes travel and flight in many languages.

When I worked for an airplane manufacturer that formerly was based in washington state and treated its employees with respect, I accumulated a lot of BA Air Miles and a Gold Card. After I retired, C and I were able to use my Air Miles for a few trips to the UK in business class. Eventually my Gold Card expired and I reverted to peon status. It became more and more difficult to book trips using Air Miles and is now almost impossible, even a year in advance. I keep adding miles by using a BA Visa credit card but it seems pointless.

BA is inviting club members to comment on Executive Club changes. Comments are limited to 300 characters. It's hard to really vent in such a short note, but I tried. Here's what I wrote:

The BA frequent Flyer program is a sham. I can never book flights - even a year in advance. I want transparency. Tell us how many seats are allocated for reward travel and how many go to each member category. I doubt you'll do this. A lot of people might cancel their BA Visa accounts - me included.

I don't expect it will make any difference, but I felt a little better.

In fairness to BA, all frequent flyer programs have degenerated, for essentially the same reasons which I won't go into here. I Googled "worthless frequent flyer miles" and got 125,000 results.

Thanks to C for airplane ground handling.