Business Class to Cairo is it worth -Avios

steve1500

I have a load of Avios / Airmiles & am thinking of using them in December to fly business class instead of the usual cattle class from London to Cairo.

For 4 1/2 - 5 hour flight is it worth it giving up so many?

Thanks

blindman

steve1500 wrote: »

I have a load of Avios / Airmiles & am thinking of using them in December to fly business class instead of the usual cattle class from London to Cairo.

For 4 1/2 - 5 hour flight is it worth it giving up so many?

Thanks

Ask at Flyertalk.

The folks there are way more knowledgeable :cool:

kipperman

Generally accepted wisdom is that it is a better use of avios to buy premium economy (WT+) and use them to upgrade to business class, known as upgrade using avios (UUA)

The catch all for this ( and directly using avios with out UUA) is that there has to be redemption availability. There is a tool on the ba.com that allows you to explore availabilitiy for the travel period you are interested in.

A pure redemption will not earn any avios, whereas the UUA will earn avios (and tier points) for the class that you originally paid for.

Whether it is worth it or not is down to you. Business class is certainly more comfortable, and will allow lounge access. 5 hours in economy equally isn't the end of the world.

HTH

Doshwaster

kipperman wrote: »

Generally accepted wisdom is that it is a better use of avios to buy premium economy (WT+) and use them to upgrade to business class, known as upgrade using avios (UUA)

The catch all for this ( and directly using avios with out UUA) is that there has to be redemption availability. There is a tool on the ba.com that allows you to explore availabilitiy for the travel period you are interested in.

On popular routes there is often virtually no redemption availability year-round at the time of booking but if you do book WTP and keep checking your online booking in the days before travel, UUA upgrades to Club often open up - but it's a gamble.

Personally, I prefer to save my Club upgrades for longer flights so I can enjoy it for longer. For a shorter flight of 5-7 hours, it's debatable whether it is worth it.

Mr_Wang

Ive flown Business to Cairo with Swiss and it was a nice, pleasant experience. But not really worth it for the length of the trip.
For instance, I flew from Luxor to London a fortnight ago and flight time was only around 6 hrs.

cockaleekee

kipperman wrote: »

Generally accepted wisdom is that it is a better use of avios to buy premium economy (WT+) and use them to upgrade to business class, known as upgrade using avios (UUA)

The catch all for this ( and directly using avios with out UUA) is that there has to be redemption availability. There is a tool on the ba.com that allows you to explore availabilitiy for the travel period you are interested in.

A pure redemption will not earn any avios, whereas the UUA will earn avios (and tier points) for the class that you originally paid for.

Whether it is worth it or not is down to you. Business class is certainly more comfortable, and will allow lounge access. 5 hours in economy equally isn't the end of the world.

HTH

Assuming the flight is still operated by an A321 in December, there is no WTP on this route.

kipperman

cockaleekee wrote: »

Assuming the flight is still operated by an A321 in December, there is no WTP on this route.

My bad- I did a dummy booking in April which did show WT+. In which case OP needs to double check that an economy ticket is in fact upgradeable; not all are.

schoolrunmum

Although CAI is a route that swaps equipment fairly often-it was on a 744 when I went...very nice F class on that. Agree with earlier poster, perceived wisdom on Flyertalk is to buy WTP and use them to U/G...