British Airways just emailed with news that the 4,500 Avios award for short-haul travel on American Airlines and Alaska Air is rising to 7,500 Avios. Granted, I’ve been intermittently on the grid for over a week, so perhaps someone knew this was coming. Here’s the text of the email I received. (Feature image credit: British Airways)

“We’re going to be making a change to the Executive Club pricing structure for shorter reward flights originating or terminating within the United States of America. From 2 February 2016, reward flights will start from 7,500 Avios, instead of 4,500 Avios, plus taxes, fees and carrier charges (“TFCs”) from $5.60 USD.

Only those reward flights that currently cost 4,500 Avios for a one way flight in Economy, 9,000 Avios for Business Class and 18,000 Avios for First Class plus TFCs will increase; to 7,500 Avios, 15,000 Avios and 30,000 Avios plus TFCs respectively. All other Avios reward flight pricing will remain the same as it is today.”

The 4,500 Avios award has literally saved me thousands of dollars over the years. I have only used these for short-haul awards when fares were astronomical, so I’m not impacted by the changes to first class award pricing, though I’m sure many are. I couldn’t help but think that the 4,500 price was so low that it would have to go up eventually. Now it has. You can read more about the changes on BA’s website.