British Airways

nugby

Hey guys, I feel like I must be missing some obvious thing, but what's the point of collecting Avios points? I'm looking to go to Berlin from London, but the 'taxes' if I use Avios Points is more than the ENTIRE COST when I just view the same flights on Skyscanner.

I.e. looking to go from London to Berlin return, and it's 9,000 points AND £104.88 in taxes, or £93 pounds for the exact same flights (and same economy seats) on Skyscanner.

Feeling very confused.

Voyager2002

Well, follow the links on Skyscanner and do a dummy booking to find out whether that 93 pounds is all that you would actually pay.

The other factor is that if you have flown with BA at all in the previous year, they offer you Award flights for an all-inclusive fee (plus points) rather than asking you to pay taxes, and that fee can be as low as 15 pounds. Those deals are generally worth getting.

Caz3121

Get some activity in your BA Avios account and you will pay 9,000 miles + £35. (called Reward Flight Saver)
You can actually buy the £93 fare on BA but note it is a hand baggage only fare (£113 would be the equivalent with bags)
In your case and you do not believe that you will have any need to change or cancel your flight (which you can do with the Avios booking) I would book the cash ticket and save your miles for a time where there is an actual benefit (by flying the cash flight you will have activity on your account so will have access to the £35 return taxes for future flights)

InsideInsurance

nugby wrote: »

Hey guys, I feel like I must be missing some obvious thing, but what's the point of collecting Avios points?

As, for example, I got 2 business class return tickets to Delhi at short notice for around £1200. Paid for Economy and used the Avios points to bump up to Club World with only a couple of extra quid to pay for the taxes.

All airmiles schemes require you to pay the taxes/ fuel surcharge. These represent 90% or more of economy tickets when flying from the UK, particularly shorthaul flights, and so you never use the points for this (with one exception). They are at least semi-flexible tickets so can actually be more expensive than a non-flexible ticket bought cash only.

They come into their own when either you are using them in higher classes of flight (or to upgrade your lower ticket) or when you are flying out from a country with lower taxes than here (eg Germany or Ireland)

The one exception mentioned above is the Avios Reward Flights that are £35 for european flights + Avios based on distance which can be OK value.

nugby

Voyager2002, came out as £92.88, with zero extra fees if paid using my Visa debit (extra £2.32 if i'd used my Amex, though that WOULD provide me with free Travel Insurance).

But thanks (and to caz3121 and InsideInsurance) for telling me about Award flights - that was exactly what I'd been failing to grasp. I might have to just book a BA flight somewhere, unlock Reward flights and THEN use the Avios points my Amex is accruing with work expenses.

steve1500

One of the easiest ways of collecting Avios is via Tesco CC

mariposa687

We recently got 2 return flights for £70 to Europe using Avios, including checked baggage with British Airways. The Avios points are mainly from food shopping. We've had loads of good deals but usually book at least 6 weeks in advance.

Plus British Airways allows 2 cabin bags and you get a free snack so personally I don't mind paying a few quid more.

PeacefulWaters

Keep your account active.

Top up by doing online shopping via their website or, as others have said, Tesco Clubcard points.

Best value for spending your points tends to be:

1) cheap flights to Europe. £17.50 each way plus 4,500 points.
2) very cheap USA internal flights. Often £1.50 plus points each leg.
3) Club class tickets long haul (esp if you start the journey outside the UK). Still gave taxes to pay, often similar to an economy fare.
4) Booking WT+ for cash and upgrading to Club with Avios.

Others may have another view. The sites "Flyertalk" and "Headforpoints" are well worth investigation to get points savvy and maximise value.

Avoid long haul economy flights, hotels and car hire as point spending options unless they are in some sort of sale.

budgetflyer

InsideInsurance wrote: »

As, for example, I got 2 business class return tickets to Delhi at short notice for around £1200. Paid for Economy and used the Avios points to bump up to Club World with only a couple of extra quid to pay for the taxes.

I thought you could only upgrade to the next class using Avios
ie economy to premium economy, or premium economy to business

dickydonkin

budgetflyer wrote: »

I thought you could only upgrade to the next class using Avios
ie economy to premium economy, or premium economy to business

That's what I was thinking.

Furthermore, many Y tickets on BA are not upgradeable, however, as they were apparently bought at short notice, perhaps there was more flexibility.

That said, I understand that you can only upgrade one class and I wonder if the 'upgrade' was from WT+ to club world.

Doshwaster

dickydonkin wrote: »

That's what I was thinking.

Furthermore, many Y tickets on BA are not upgradeable, however, as they were apparently bought at short notice, perhaps there was more flexibility.

That said, I understand that you can only upgrade one class and I wonder if the 'upgrade' was from WT+ to club world.

That's my understanding too. Only the most expensive economy ticket (full Y) is upgradable and then only to WTP. Since you can often get discounted WTP cheaper than full fare WT then it is usually a bad deal.

Far better value for money is to book a discounted WTP and then upgrade that to Club. All WTP tickets are upgradable and the cost is usually 15,000 avios per sector plus a few pounds extra in taxes. Do that and you can typically get Club returns to US west coast or the Far East for under £1000 return. For flights under 8 hours I'm usually OK with WT or WTP but the flat bed is really nice on longer routes.