Best way to use avios

bitsnbytes

I've managed to accumulate around 40,000 odd points which I was ideally hoping to use for a long haul flight as money is a bit tight
But anything I search comes around the same price if not mmore expensive

I understand from researching people generally use the avios points to bump to first class etc but that may be ok for people who have the luxury of having extra cash, I'm trying to save money

Some of the things I've searched:
Flights - BA flight comes to £320 with avios, but I can get a cheaper flight using skyscanner for around £319 albeit with stopovers.
Ferries - More expensive using avios
Euro train - again more expensive using the avios

As of now I think the flight is the best option as it gives a bit more convenience with the direct flight, but not money saving really

Anyone else withe same problem? What beats me is why would someone pay extra cash + avios when you can get it cheaper without avios. Or possibly they rely on people just assuming they get a good deal because they are using the avios. Really confused

Any help will be gratefully appreciated

PeacefulWaters

The British airways section of the Flyertalk forum and the Headforpoints web site are your best place for hints and tips.

Avios are rarely good value for economy long haul, although they do buy flexible tickets which the prices you're comparing against aren't.

With a relatively small number of points such as yours I'd be looking at London to Europe options for best value where you pay points plus £35 and that includes hold luggage.

Caz3121

problem is you are not comparing apples with apples and long haul economy is probably the worst use of avios
1) an avios booking is refundable up until 24 hours before the flight (less £35 admin fee) whereas the cheaper tickets are non-refundable. You would need to compare the fare of a refundable ticket to get a real comparison
2) Majority of economy fare is made up of taxes and fees, these are still applicable on award tickets

there is a handy guide here http://www.headforpoints.com/2015/08/17/beginners-guide-to-redeeming-avios/
I tend to use mine either for short haul european flights or for upgrading

dickydonkin

Upgrading is arguably the best use of Avios, however, certainly with BA, some economy fares cannot be upgraded.

I 'buy' Reward Flight Savers with BA as these are really good value and I use this option for positioning flights into Europe prior to a long haul trip.

For example, a Heathrow to Madrid return in May will cost £35.00 and 13,000 avios - obviously if you live in the regions, the avios required will likely be around 20,000, and it can sometimes be a little cheaper if you book two single trips.

As mentioned upthread, using Avios for redeeming economy flights is not the best way to burn them and due to the amount of Avios you have, perhaps the RFS option might be the best option for you.

bitsnbytes

Thanks everyone, how do I go about booking reward flight savers?
I've heard about them but never seem to find any place I can book them from

dickydonkin

bitsnbytes wrote: »

Thanks everyone, how do I go about booking reward flight savers?
I've heard about them but never seem to find any place I can book them from

This should help.

https://www.avios.com/gb/en_gb/spend/reward-flight-saver

bitsnbytes

Thanks it still shows me 36000 avios and £249.80 cash for the four of us
When it says you need to collect at least 1 avios point, would a transfer from my amex count as a collection? I've recently transferred my points from my BA exec club to avios so I would have thought that would count as a collection. Or perhaps I'm mistaken

budgetflyer

A minimum transfer from Amex should do it.

dickydonkin

bitsnbytes wrote: »

Thanks it still shows me 36000 avios and £249.80 cash for the four of us

What destination are you looking at?

The band of the destination and the date of the trip can vary the price/redemption.

bitsnbytes

Thanks budgetflyer and dickydonkin
I was looking at CDG (France)
I can transfer some points from my amex card and see if that reduces the cost.
There don't happen to be any deals on the eurostar would they?

I normally drive to disneyland in paris and it works out around £250 including fuel, ferry etc. Not sure if the flights would save much as it would be £140 for the flights but then I'll have to cater for parking at the airport and then transfers from CDG to DLP. Might save a bit of time though I guess
Eurostar would be ideal I think as they have straight trains to DLP

Apologies for being a bit picky, but I just don't see the moneysaving aspect for regular folk such as me

phatbear

There are times when avios is the cheapest way to go longhaul in economy.

Consider a family friend of mine is getting married in new york this week and ive only just found out i could have gone so i look on ba to see how much the flights are and a return for me alone in economy is £1738 however if i book through avios, on the same flight i would need to spend 26000 miles and £360 in taxes etc, thus saving me almost £1400.

One of the other issues is you are almost dividing your miles by 4 so really each of your travelling party only has 10000 miles each which isn't going to get you very far.

My advice sit on the miles look at getting a credit card which will help your end goal, for example a lloyds avios card which if you spend £7000 in a calendar year will get you a return ticket in the next class up, sadly you cant upgrade to first but business on ba is nice.