Avios - Worthwhile or Worthless?

colinjd

Hi all, first time poster here.

Sorry for the repost, I put this in the wrong thread originally.

I've been collecting Avios for years, mainly through Tesco Clubcard, and have managed to collect over 60,000 but am being constantly frustrated by the quality of their website and iPad app as well as the lack of available flights.

Eg. I'm planning an adventure on the Trans-Mongolian Express in the summer, starting at St Petersburg and ending in Beijing. Can I find a flight to St Petersburg? No chance. On investigation there are only 2 flights available between April 2013 and January 2014, one in October and one in November.

So what's the point of collecting Avios if I can't use them to go where I want, when I want (within reason)? Points or Pointless?

Can you tell I'm frustrated?

Any advice would be welcome, thanks.

Colin

jpsartre

Some routes have extremely limited availability so yeah, if you're locked into flying on one of those, Avios may well turn out to be of no use. The key when it comes to redeeming points is flexibility, both with respect to routes and travel dates.

InsideInsurance

Personally find the British Airways Executive Club website is much better for spending Avios points and the points can be freely transferred between the two schemes as long as all registration details match perfectly.

There does seem to be flights from Lon to LED but they arent direct.

With our flights to Maldives this year we spent 70,000 points and saved £1,500 which isnt brilliant but not bad either. You do need to look at the different options though as often its better to buy tickets and upgrade with points but occasionally its better to buy with points.

colinjd

This is where I have trouble with Avios' advertising and the way it sells itself.

I want to go to St Petersburg and I have more than enough Avios to do it, I don't want to fly into Moscow or some other such alternative city. The fact they only have 2 flights available in a 9-month period (both of which are in the Russian winter) is a disgrace.

They're happy enough for me to convert my Clubcard points to Avios because they realise that it's almost impossible for me to spend them on what I want!

This is going to have a knock-on effect with Tesco as well, as it's the collecting of Avios that makes me shop there. If I no longer want the Avios, I no longer need Tesco.

Has any serious investigation of Avios ever taken place?

silvercar

You either need to have flexibility on destination or dates or you need to be ready to book as soon as the tickets become available. This can mean booking 364 days ahead.

Plenty of advice available on the flyertalk BA forum.

shaun_from_Africa

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Personally find the British Airways Executive Club website is much better for spending Avios points .

I agree.
Although I've not yet used any of my Avios to make a booking, I have used them on many occasions to upgrade when flying.
My last one was a couple of days ago when I upgraded from WT+ to club world on a transatlantic flight.
It was 12,100 points and £42 which considering the difference in ticket prices was about £1800 was IMO, a very good deal.

colinjd

I'm in the process of transferring my Avios to the BA Executive Club account now, so thanks for the advice everybody.

budgetflyer

I'd search availability b4 transferring, otherwise it's pointless.

malkie76

Flights come from the same pot from BA.com and Avios.com - you won't find greater availability.

You need to be flexible and be prepared to book a year in advance on routes where there aren't many flights.

Routes with lots of flights (eg NYC) it's easy to get flights.

Remember you need to pay tax and surcharges, so economy usually isn't good value long haul, but gives you a flexible ticket worth 3x normal economy fares.

It's these things you should check *before* joining a loyalty scheme.

[edit]

I've bought 4 First class long haul returns in the past two years worth £20k with Avois I got for 'free'. Definitely not worthless in my opinion.

jpsartre

colinjd wrote: »

The fact they only have 2 flights available in a 9-month period (both of which are in the Russian winter) is a disgrace.

Why? I don't believe there are guarantees as far as availability and in any case, we don't know how many seats have been snatched up already.

If Avios tries to give the impression that you can go wherever you want, whenever you want, I'll agree with you that this is misleading. My Avios go directly to my BAEC account so I don't normally pay much attention to the Avios website but looking at it right now I wouldn't say they do this. I'm afraid your unrealistic expectations is the main culprit here.

Caz3121

I have a BA account, I am gold so I do get some additional availability showing and can see direct economy flights on at least 4 days out of 7 during July and August from LHR to LED but not sure how many of these are the 'extra availability as Gold'