Avios points are pretty well useless now

stoneman

CM66 wrote: »

Sorry yes - omitted a few details, its an EX-Jersey and a BA 241 voucher!

So not the same thing at all then.

You had to spend £10K on your card, pay the £195 fee for the card, it would have cost you more than £200 more in fees than you stated, God knows what else you left out, probably having to position in JER, shall I go on?

Omitting details to make something sound good is a bit lame.

Nick_C

stoneman wrote: »

So not the same thing at all then.

You had to spend £10K on your card, pay the £195 fee for the card, it would have cost you more than £200 more in fees than you stated, God knows what else you left out, probably having to position in JER, shall I go on?

Omitting details to make something sound good is a bit lame.

Not the same thing as what?

What CM66 said was entirely accurate. It just too me a little while to work out how he achieved it!

Most people who collect Avios pay something for some of them.

My average cost is 0.236 p/Avios. That includes the cost of my BAPP card. So for me and my OH to fly to Toronto and back in J would cost £1026 cash plus £236 worth of Avios; ie £531 each. That is an absolute bargain for tickets that you would cost about £2K each.

Everyone's cost per Avios is different, depending on how you collect them. If you get them all via Tesco then they are costing you 0.42 each, so those Toronto flights (from London) would cost £723 each. Still a steal.

Avios may not work for everyone, but many people in the know find it an incredibly cheap way to fly in the front of the plane.

alfista

In the space of 12 months, I've used Avios to fly to Venice, Barcelona, and Corfu. Each of these trips has cost me £70 (two return flights for myself and my wife) plus "N" Avios. The Avios are free (I pay no credit card fees or interest in order to obtain the Avios), so that looks like a pretty good deal to me. Also, BA don't charge me to put a suitcase in the hold. What's not to like ?

Nick_C

I wouldn't agree that Avios earned through a credit card are free. You could use a different credit card that gave you cashback.

The Nationwide Visa gives you 0.25% cashback.

My Lloyds Amex card gives me 1.25 Avios per pound.

I cost my Avios from Lloyds at 0.2p per Avios.

(I also account for the annual fee, but this is more than offset by cashback deals such as shop small).

Avios earned from flying One World are free. I also count the ones I earn from surveys as free as my spare time has no monetary value.

Edit: Correction. I count the Avios I earn from Lloyds on foreign spending as free, as I've never had a CC that gives cash back on foreign transactions.

theonlywayisup

Nick_C wrote: »

I wouldn't agree that Avios earned through a credit card are free. You could use a different credit card that gave you cashback.

The Nationwide Visa gives you 0.25% cashback.

My Lloyds Amex card gives me 1.25 Avios per pound.

I cost my Avios from Lloyds at 0.2p per Avios.

(I also account for the annual fee, but this is more than offset by cashback deals such as shop small).

Avios earned from flying One World are free. I also count the ones I earn from surveys as free as my spare time has no monetary value.

Edit: Correction. I count the Avios I earn from Lloyds on foreign spending as free, as I've never had a CC that gives cash back on foreign transactions.

Amex Gold is free for the first year and comes with avios per £1 spent and a generous sign up bonus. Free avios in anyone's calculations is it not?

jpsartre

I guess you have to compare it with what you could get using other cards. If you're giving up 0.25% cashback from using a different card then that would be a cost.

theonlywayisup

jpsartre wrote: »

I guess you have to compare it with what you could get using other cards. If you're giving up 0.25% cashback from using a different card then that would be a cost.

But you aren't giving up cash back for "nothing". My Avios in the last 6 months have bought me F transatlantic that were (at the time of booking) £4k each and J europe during a very busy sporting weekend at £2k each.

So if you want to be a pedant, it's not what you earn in Avios, it's what you manage to trade them for, versus the cash back (or equivalent) on a card that gives £.

0.25% cash back isn't something I would get out of bed for. I get much more using them for what I want to use them for.

jpsartre

theonlywayisup wrote: »

But you aren't giving up cash back for "nothing".

Nobody said you were. You're giving up cash for something (i.e. Avios) which means the something isn't strictly speaking free.

theonlywayisup

jpsartre wrote: »

Nobody said you were. You're giving up cash for something (i.e. Avios) which means the something isn't strictly speaking free.

You said "If you're giving up 0.25% cashback from using a different card then that would be a cost.".

I am not giving up any cashback and there is no cost. The card is free and the return, is more than 0.25%.

jpsartre

theonlywayisup wrote: »

I am not giving up any cashback

You are in the sense that you *could* use a cashback card instead of an Avios/Amex reward card. Of course, both cashback and Avios are free in the sense that both are something that you wouldn't get if you made all your purchases using cash.

Here's an example: Say someone knocks on your door and offers you the choice between a brand new Ferrari and £500. You pick the Ferrari. Did you get it for free? Yes and no. You got it for free in the sense that you didn't have to offer anything up in exchange for the Ferrari. In another sense you paid £500 for it since you declined the £500 in exchange for the car.