British Airways Avios Peak analysis - 2024 dates

Today Head for Points obtained the unreleased calendar of 2024 dates when British Airways are charging top dollar (Avios) for redemptions.

This has a big impact - for example an off peak redemption from London to Innsbruck is 4,750 avios (plus fees), whilst the same redemption on a peak day costs 5,250 avios (plus fees).

The first key take away is that the number of peak days in 2024 is identical to 2023 - so in that respect we're not getting screwed over by BA !

2020  138
2021  138
2022  140
2023  139
2024  139

For 2022 redemptions BA made a shift into reducing the number of peak days in Summer months, and this carrier through to 2023 redemptions.  This has mostly held for 2024 redemptions apart from a noticeable increase in August - back up to 27 peak days.

The other big change for 2024 is October - now just 5 days are classified as peak - the first time it's been in single digits.  April is also now a better time to redeem your avios, with just 11 peak dates.

For 2022 redemptions British Airways reduced the number of peak Wednesdays throughout the whole year, with Tuesdays gradually reducing across 2022 and 2023.  For 2024 there seems to have been a change of heart about Wednesdays - with a big jump in peak dates from 5 to 15.  Tuesdays are now the better time to use your avios - with just 5 peak Tuesdays throughout 2024.

You also have four more off peak Fridays in 2024 compared with 2023 redemptions.

Conclusion

The clear winner for 2024 are people who can redeem their Avios on a Tuesday and those redeeming during October.

The big loser for 2024 are people who want to redeem their Avios in August.

Caveat

Whilst this calendar applies to British Airways redemption flights, Aer Lingus and Iberia have their own calendars.  This causes problems for British Airways' shoddy IT on routes where both BA and EI fly - for example London to Dublin.

For example Friday 9th February is a BA peak date (school half term), but in the redemption screen under the date BA claim it's an off peak day - but the off peak badge is missing from the individual BA flights, and if you click through, you need 5,250 peak avios (instead of 4,750 off peak).

On routes which are only flown by Aer Lingus the off peak sticker is missing from the dates, but is correctly displayed on the individual flights.

On the London to Madrid route the 9th February does have an off peak sticker - but both BA and IB are charging peak avios.

So for these routes, you need to ignore the claim under the date, and just look at the individual flights.  Your mileage may (literally) vary!

Last bus to Ischgl

Whilst I love skiing in Ischgl, one of the challenges of getting there under your own steam is that it's not on a train line - you have to get a bus up the mountain from Landeck-Zams railway station.

And whilst the bus is fairly frequent, it doesn't run very late - so this post looks at how late you can leave London / northern Europe and get to Ischgl without using a taxi.

In Winter 2022/23 the last 260 bus from Landeck-Zams station to Ischgl departed at 19:10 each evening (page 2 of the pdf).

INN to Landeck-Zams

Travelling by train from Innsbruck station the latest connection departs at 17:52 arriving into LZ at 18:56 but there's also a faster 17:47 departure arriving into LZ at 18:31 which looks like a safer option.

The F bus departs the airport every 20 minutes (at 17, 37 & 57 minutes past the hour) and takes just 17 minutes to get to the train station.  So the 17:17 bus from the airport, arrives at the train station at 17:34 in time for the 17:47 train.  The traffic in Innsbruck has always been ok when I've travelled through it, and Innsbruck station is well laid out to get to your platform quickly.

Earlier this year when I made this journey I bought a through ticket including the F bus, the train, and the 260 bus for just 19 euro - which was considerably cheaper than paying for each segment separately.

In order to be outside Innsbruck airport by 17:17 it means that you would need to leave London by around 13:30 ... which is unfortunate since there's a British Airways departure from Gatwick at 14:25 which is scheduled to arrive into INN at 17:30 ... but with the need to clear immigration (they don't separate EU and non EU arrivals) and collect your suitcase ... it's just too tight to catch the last train that connects with the last bus!

SZG to Landeck-Zams

Travelling by train from Salzburg station the latest connection departs at 15:56 arriving into LZ at 18:31 (stopping at Innsbruck on the way).

Bus Number 2 departs the airport every 15 minutes and take 22 minutes to get to the train station - although you can save a few minutes if you swap to the tram.  You could theoretically get the 15:30 bus from the airport and get to the train station at 15:52 to catch the train - but that's probably too tight!

In order to be outside Salzburg airport by 15:15 it means leaving London around 11:30 ... which is fairly civilised.

ZRH to Landeck-Zams

Train connection from Zurich airport aren't that frequent, so the latest departure from ZRH is at 14:23 (two changes required) arriving into LZ at 18:02 ... which would the connect with the 18:10 and 18:40 buses up the mountain.  There's also a 14:15 departure from ZRH which requires just one change of train (in Zurich Hauptbahnhof) arriving into LZ at 17:25 and connecting with the 17:40 bus to Ischgl.

With Zurich airport having it's own train station it eliminates the need for a bus connection.  In order to be down at the station underneath ZRH for the 14:15 train you would need to leave London around 11am ... which is also fairly civilised.

MUC to Landeck-Zams

Whilst Munich airport has good transport options (roughly every 20 minutes on the S8), it does take a good half hour to get into the city.  Departing the airport at 15:04 delivers you into the Munich East station at 15:35 connecting with the 15:44 departure to Innsbruck.  This arrives into Innsbruck at 17:18 giving plenty of time to get to LZ.  If you were to miss the 15:44 Innsbruck train, there's a slightly later departure at 15:58 which requires two changes (Rosenheim and Kufstein) which gets you into LZ at the same time.  If you missed the 15:58 train, the next ones are at 17:50 and 17:58 - so don't miss it!

In order to catch the 15:04 train from Munich airport - you would need to leave London around 11am ... which is still fairly civilised.

FDH to Landeck-Zams

There's two flights every Saturday from London to Friedrichshafen ... a 9:40 Easyjet flight from Gatwick and a 13:50 Lufthansa departure from Heathrow.

In order to make the last bus to Ischgl you would need to catch the 14:35 train from the airport station - which takes you the two stops into the main station, and connects with the 15:32 train to LZ.  Even if you chose to catch a taxi the short distance into the town station, the 15:32 is the last train which gets to LZ in time for the last bus.

This means that only the Easyjet flight will get you into FDH in time to make it to Ischgl.

Conclusion

In order to catch the last bus to Ischgl, you need to leave London around 11am for Salzburg, Zurich or Munich or 1pm for Innsbruck - which means that lots of flights are just too late.

The moral of the story is that it would be really helpful to have some later buses up the mountain to Ischgl from Landeck-Zams station - especially at the weekend when most people arrive.