Avios Points Boosting guide discussion

malkie76

In fairness it used to be more than 10k, and was reduced when they started the current zones approach. At one point the mileage upgrade was the same to NYC as it was to SFO, so you can see why they changed it.

10k each way was an absolute steal, and basically cost neutral with the earning on the base fair. I never understood why they let that happen.

Not a rip off, just an adjustment to something more sensible.

Drewmaxuk

Hi Jenny,


I had some Avios Points from flying with BA, but not enough to go anywhere decent. I read your page to get these points working for me. I signed up to the BA Amex Premium card, through Quidco so I got £70 cash back, which reduced the annual fee. I then got a Shell card and registered it to my Avios account as I live next to a Shell garage and use it regularly. I also got a Tesco Club card. Additionally I started using Gate 365 for my shopping at Groupon and John Lewis, which following some major Kitchen purchases and furniture gave me a good boost. Also, just before Christmas I recommend my brother and a friend to get the BA Blue Amex cards, joined them as friends in my BA accounts. This meant I got 2000 points for each recommendation and 8000 from each of them as they spent £1000 each within the first 3 months. I also got a BA Companion ticket.


There was other little tricks I did too to boost my points but the outcome is fantastic. In the next 12 months I am:


Having a weekend in Nice costing just £70 for 2 people, including BA flights & 2 free nights in the Holiday Inn.
Having 5 nights in Rome for 4. BA flights costing £140, plus hotel with 2 free nights accommodation.
and then the final big one, BA flight to Las Vegas, with return from San Francisco for 2 in business class, cost £1200 instead of £7500. Even if you and the cost of 2 years of annual fees that would bring all of this up by £240. Still all in all quids in.


I didn't really change my shopping, just linked everything together to maximize the Avios output. My brother and mate have both cancelled their Amex cards, so that we can do it again next year after the "new customer" terms. I still shopped around for the cheapest option, looked at the ways I could maximize my Avios then I allowed myself about a 5%-10% allowance where if I could get a good Avios boost from one retailer against another that was say £10 cheaper, then the difference in cash wouldn't add to the cost of the flight that much, but the points would.


We are already planning our next trip to Japan in 2 years time.

budgetflyer

callum9999 wrote: »

£240 worth of avios to upgrade from Premium Economy to Business Class is a "complete rip off"?

They are able to do it because they have more people paying cash for those business class seats now so don't need to sell it off cheap to frequent flier members.

In reality you can probably earn 24k Avios for under £100.
There is still value to be had. With some of the cheap business class fares available from middle East airlines driving prices down,I have noticed a few BA WTP fares for only a tenner more than Economy.

Nick_C

callum9999 wrote: »

£240 worth of avios to upgrade from Premium Economy to Business Class is a "complete rip off"?

Sounds like a bargain to me. I usually pay about £190 to upgrade from coach to PE.

PeacefulWaters

I then got a Shell card and registered it to my Avios account as I live next to a Shell garage and use it regularly. I also got a Tesco Club card

Filling up at Tesco, or even Esso (and using the Clubcard) will earn you many more Avios than topping up at Shell (and swiping the Shell Drivers Club card).

steve1500

I have 70k in Avios,- nearest airport Manchester.


So now collecting Virgin miles via T's & will use Avios for hire care


I my opinion Avios are only of any use if you live close to Heathrow or Gatwick, for those of us north of Watford Gap & that is the majority no good

callum9999

steve1500 wrote: »

I have 70k in Avios,- nearest airport Manchester.


So now collecting Virgin miles via T's & will use Avios for hire care


I my opinion Avios are only of any use if you live close to Heathrow or Gatwick, for those of us north of Watford Gap & that is the majority no good

I take it that's just a blind assumption you're making? Using Avios to fly from Manchester can take you to New York, Chicago, Guernsey, London, Billund, Gothenburg, Hong Kong, Helsinki, Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Belfast, Bournemouth, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Hannover, Inverness, Isle of Man, Jersey, Knock, Milan, Nantes, Newquay, Paris, Southampton, La Rochelle, Lyon, Rennes, Bergerac, Calvi, Verona, Norwich, Madrid, Agadir, Alicante, Barcelona, Enfidha, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gibraltar, Hurghada, Lanzarote, Larnaca, M!laga, Palma de Mallorca, Sharm el Sheikh, Tenerife, Venice, Verona, Almeria, Dalaman, Friedrichshafen, Gran Canaria, Grenoble, Ibiza, Innsbruck, Menorca, Naples, Rhodes, Doha and Philadelphia. (Sorry if there are duplicates, I just copied and pasted them)

Using Virgin miles you can go to Atlanta, Barbados, Orlando, Las Vegas, New York, Singapore and Munich.

On what planet is Virgin a better option!?

blindman

steve1500 wrote: »

I have 70k in Avios,- nearest airport Manchester.


So now collecting Virgin miles via T's & will use Avios for hire care


I my opinion Avios are only of any use if you live close to Heathrow or Gatwick, for those of us north of Watford Gap & that is the majority no good

You need to think outside the box-(well UK TBHO)

I've just redeemed internal flights in South America on TAM for RIO-Sau Paulo-Lima-Cusco-Lima-Buenos Airies-Iguazu Falls-Sao Paulo.

All easy to get (almost) and all very cheap (4.5K Avios + £4) some were more expenisve but not that much.


Also just got Moscow to St petersburgh one way 4.5K Avios + £4

The LHR-Moscow was £35 + 20,000 (IIRC) for first class.

I have used them for internal USA flights at a similar cost.

So-Forget the UK-somewhere- with Avios and use them wisely overseas.

PeacefulWaters

steve1500 wrote: »

I have 70k in Avios,- nearest airport Manchester.


So now collecting Virgin miles via T's & will use Avios for hire care


I my opinion Avios are only of any use if you live close to Heathrow or Gatwick, for those of us north of Watford Gap & that is the majority no good

What sort of places do you want to travel to?

Using Avios for car hire, hotels or transatlantic from the UK in economy is a terrible waste.

Think outside the box. Internal flights in other continents. Higher class of flight. Starting flights in Dublin (e.g. AER Lingus to Boston Route) where taxes are lower. Different airlines such as Finnair and Qatar can be booked out of Manchester using an Avios redemption.

richardw

blindman wrote: »

You need to think outside the box-(well UK TBHO)

I've just redeemed internal flights in South America on TAM for RIO-Sau Paulo-Lima-Cusco-Lima-Buenos Airies-Iguazu Falls-Sao Paulo.

All easy to get (almost) and all very cheap (4.5K Avios + £4) some were more expenisve but not that much.


Also just got Moscow to St petersburgh one way 4.5K Avios + £4

The LHR-Moscow was £35 + 20,000 (IIRC) for first class.

I have used them for internal USA flights at a similar cost.

So-Forget the UK-somewhere- with Avios and use them wisely overseas.

I picked up on blindman's tip as above many years ago and it really has saved me buckets on internal flights in the US. I'm doing a trip to Peru and have booked the internal flights using Avios saving hundreds compared to cash prices on Lan! Thanks blindman.