Avios vs Virgin Flying Club

pnw72

Hi.

I'm hoping to have around £900 in clubcard vouchers next year.

Can anyone advise if Avios or VAFC would be the best deal for a trip to LA for 4 adults in August 2014?

I realise these flights won't be advertised yet, but wanted to get an idea which one would be best value.

It's quite hard to see how much it would cost as i'm a member of neither.

I realise that taxes etc cannot be paid with the miles.

Thanks for any help.

Best regards

bb69

Hello

Sorry I cant be of great help although I do have avios but not redeemed against a flight yet.

Have you seen this? (Copied and pasted from Ba newsletter)

Your Tesco Clubcard Vouchers could be more valuable than you thought. If you exchange them for Avios before 31 March 2013, you could be in with a chance to win an incredible 1 million Avios – enough for you and a partner to travel with us in First to anywhere in the world.

To enter, simply exchange a minimum of £10 worth of Tesco Clubcard vouchers for Avios before the end of March.

Even if you don’t win the 1 million Avios, you can still earn reward flights to any of 30 European destinations including Amsterdam and Paris, by simply exchanging your Tesco Clubcard vouchers for Avios.

You’ll collect 600 Avios for your first £2.50 Tesco Clubcard voucher. So if you exchange £37.50 worth of Clubcard vouchers you’ll collect 9,000 Avios – that’s enough for a return flight to many of the exciting destinations in Zone 1.

Thomas_Hardy

Don't exchange any vouchers until they have a better offer on, they do a double up offer at least once a year.

Which cabin are you looking to travel in? August will not be an easy time for availability.

jpsartre

I've got no experience with Virgin's programme but I think you will struggle to find 4 reward seats with BA in premium cabins on that route in August. *Maybe* in First if you're lucky but you'd need 600k points for that.

bb69

I have tried to do a dummy booking for this year mid August for you and having trouble with getting any availability unless go and return the same day! Or at least an 8 days gap. How long are you planning on going for?

Thomas_Hardy

There is another option - if you only have sufficient miles/ availability to get award seats in one direction, Air New Zealand do very reasonable single tickets (around £300 in economy). Again, finding them in August is likely to be a problem, but may work if want to combine it with a single award ticket.

InsideInsurance

pnw72 wrote: »

Can anyone advise if Avios or VAFC would be the best deal for a trip to LA for 4 adults in August 2014?

What cabin do you want to go in?

Economy is rarely worth paying for using points because tax represents 80%+ of your price and as tax is payable by you there is little if any savings.

To give you an idea of booking with VS there LHR to LAX rates this year are:

Upper Class 100,000 miles & Taxes from GBP 545.45 to 654.54
Premium Economy 70,000 miles & Taxes from GBP 425.45 to 510.54
Economy 47,500 miles & Taxes from GBP 358.45 to 430.14


And BA is:

First Class 150,000 & taxes ~ GBP 572.21
Business Class 100,000 miles & taxes ~ GBP 572.21
Premium Economy 75,000 miles & taxes ~ GBP 452.52
Economy 50,000 miles & Taxes ~ GBP 385.15

Availability will be the challenge but book as soon as the tickets are released and it should be ok.

You'd need to cross compare buying and upgrading to just buying depending on the class you want

callum9999

InsideInsurance wrote: »

What cabin do you want to go in?

Economy is rarely worth paying for using points because tax represents 80%+ of your price and as tax is payable by you there is little if any savings.

To give you an idea of booking with VS there LHR to LAX rates this year are:

Upper Class 100,000 miles & Taxes from GBP 545.45 to 654.54
Premium Economy 70,000 miles & Taxes from GBP 425.45 to 510.54
Economy 47,500 miles & Taxes from GBP 358.45 to 430.14


And BA is:

First Class 150,000 & taxes ~ GBP 572.21
Business Class 100,000 miles & taxes ~ GBP 572.21
Premium Economy 75,000 miles & taxes ~ GBP 452.52
Economy 50,000 miles & Taxes ~ GBP 385.15

Availability will be the challenge but book as soon as the tickets are released and it should be ok.

You'd need to cross compare buying and upgrading to just buying depending on the class you want

In low season yes, but not in high season - which LHR-LAX in August is right in the middle of! Standard fares (excluding taxes) seem to be around £512 this August (which makes the taxes etc. roughly 40% of the ticket price) - so you'd be spending 50,000 miles (or £140 odd Tesco vouchers if there's a 50% bonus) to save £512, which is pretty decent.

Though that obviously relies on them actually getting those seats and assumes there aren't any sales etc.

InsideInsurance

callum9999 wrote: »

In low season yes, but not in high season - which LHR-LAX in August is right in the middle of!

It would still be a saving but with early bookings, sales, cashback etc then I wouldnt expect the difference to be that book. Even looking to book today I can see flights LHR-LAX with open choice of airlines coming in at £800 pp inc. With better planning etc I'd except £700 -v- the £550 for taxes and buying miles.

Ashtonmerseyred

Another option is to convert your vouchers to virgin miles and then convert these to Hilton Honors points at a rate of 1 mile to 2 honors points. This is what I did this year as after trying to use points to fly to Orlando, with the taxes on top it was better value to book flights elsewhere and have used the points for 12 nights in Hilton Orlando for myself ,wife and 2 children.

pnw72

Thank you for all the replies.

callum9999 wrote: »

In low season yes, but not in high season - which LHR-LAX in August is right in the middle of! Standard fares (excluding taxes) seem to be around £512 this August (which makes the taxes etc. roughly 40% of the ticket price) - so you'd be spending 50,000 miles (or £140 odd Tesco vouchers if there's a 50% bonus) to save £512, which is pretty decent.

Though that obviously relies on them actually getting those seats and assumes there aren't any sales etc.

I wonder how many seats they allow for miles customers? I'll wait until there's a bonus offer & perhaps phone BA then.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It would still be a saving but with early bookings, sales, cashback etc then I wouldnt expect the difference to be that book. Even looking to book today I can see flights LHR-LAX with open choice of airlines coming in at £800 pp inc. With better planning etc I'd except £700 -v- the £550 for taxes and buying miles.

Yes, maybe not a good deal after all. We went last March & the 4 of us paid just over £1700. Although the first week was outside school hols. Seems a bargain now!!

Ashtonmerseyred wrote: »

Another option is to convert your vouchers to virgin miles and then convert these to Hilton Honors points at a rate of 1 mile to 2 honors points. This is what I did this year as after trying to use points to fly to Orlando, with the taxes on top it was better value to book flights elsewhere and have used the points for 12 nights in Hilton Orlando for myself ,wife and 2 children.

Thanks for the info, but we're staying with relatives.