Avios- Is there a better alternative

Caz3121

nono26 wrote: »

I wrote AVios to tell them a breakdown in a nutshell. expedia and Avios will give us the same flight Prices to the USA from Manchester UK with no value added
:mad:

It is well documented that economy redemptions are poor value

The added value is the fact you can cancel up to 24 hours before for refund (less small admin fee unless Gold status) you should be comparing the prices with tickets that can also be cancelled up to 24 hours before

examples for the same dated
LHR-JFK.
1) Cash booking £514 no changes no refunds
2) same flights, Avios booking 40,000 miles + £357 refundable
3) same flights cash booking flexible £1,578

the comparison should be with 2 and 3 and not 1 and 2 (but as said redemptions on economy are often poor due to the fact the taxes are such a high % of the regular fare

You should read the links listed in this thread

phatbear

oddly was just gonna make this point that the comparisons aren't legit as people are comparing non exchangable tickets to avios tickets.

my attitude is its something for pretty much nothing so cant really complain.

dont get me wrong i much prefered the old airmiles structure as me and the ex managed to get flights to LA and back for nowt, well when i say nowt there was a lot of frozen roast beef buying from tescos etc. However last year me and the new upgraded g/f had a couple of nights in ams and flew BA out of city, which was booked only a couple of weeks before hand and they were £70 for the pair of us + miles but the same tickets were hundreds of pounds due to our late booking times.

blindman

phatbear wrote: »

me and the new upgraded g/f

How many Avios did that cost?

What did you upgrade from :eek:

phatbear

blindman wrote: »

How many Avios did that cost?

What did you upgrade from :eek:

Oddly no avios if anything it feels like ive got a refund on my life.

and the upgrade is a younger, prettier far more intelligent model

marsman802

We've had some great European avios redemptions in the last 13months and one of those was a fantastic day trip to Milan (I'm a bus ride to heathrow). In fact I booked the Milan trip 4 days in advance for a Saturday in August - amazing value.

I think I would use on economy tix but only using avios+money redemptions as I can see a good saving on a Las Vegas flight in September here. I'd save a few hundred quid over the full cash fare and it would only cost about 15k avios I think. I would never use my avios as a full redemption.

I would never use on hotels myself.
I have used for a car hire redemption for two days which therefore cost me nothing in cash and a small amount really in avios.

We are now saving for an outbound First, return Club World redemption to New York.

If u can make the avios last you will get long term value. So top up fares with cash where you can if you can afford to. I'm expecting them to come in handy for my family in future for euro trips in the main.

simongregson

wilko116 wrote: »

I concur with the originator that the Avios sheme is not a patch on the old Air Miles especially for people living in or around London or Manchester. Are there any similar schemes thar can be used on Easy Jet flights

You can use nectar points for easyjet flights. However, they are only worth 1% of the value. On the other hand you can use them to pay for the taxes however and if a flight is on the website it can be booked with points at the same price. If you shop at sainsburys at least once a month then you can get 10% of the points back. You can also top up with cash if you don't have enough points


There is a nectar American express card offering 20000 bonus points with a £2000 spend in 3 months, and £30 cashback via quidco/topcashback, which might be worth getting. There is a £24 fee for the card per year.


However, you would be better long term value wise to get the American express platinum credit card and using the cashback to pay for the flights or short term get the American express gold card which gives 20,000 bonus points with the same £2000 spend - you can transfer these to nectar for £100 off an easyjet flight or transfer to BA executive club Avios and then transfer to your Avios account to book short haul flights. The card is free for the first year but then has a £125 fee so cancel once the years up. You also get 2 free airport lounge passes which are worth about £15 each.


As you'll see it's quite complicated and you really have to decide what reward you want and then plan a credit card/loyalty card strategy to get it!

budgetflyer

Nectar must be the worst value redemption of Amex reward points

simongregson

budgetflyer wrote: »

Nectar must be the worst value redemption of Amex reward points

I agree, it works out at 0.5p per point however the advantage of there being no limit of availability for redemptions on easyjet coupled with the bonus signup offers means effectively a free £100 off a flight. Admittedly you could get 2xBA flights for the points (£70 fee) if the availability was there.

Latour2008

Don`t forget that for those converting from Tesco, GBP250 of Tesco vouchers is like a grand at Pizza Express or GBP750 to spend in Goldsmiths so you are definitely foregoing a lot more than the face value if you change up via Tesco.

zerog

budgetflyer wrote: »

Nectar must be the worst value redemption of Amex reward points

Nectar is 0.495p

Statement credit is 0.45p, and some vouchers are 0.4p

Also you can redeem for headphones or some worthless merchandise.

Nectar is the best way to use up your last <500 points before closing a card.