use Avios or not

dcfc67

Over the last 18 months i have accumulated not far of 250,000 Avios.
Currently if i pay £150 i can fly west coast USA for 70000 Avios.

So 3 return flights for 210,000 Avios and £450. (value in nectar £1680)

I could also convert all the points into nectar and have £2000 worth of free shopping.

Damn hard choice, any other ideas most welcome

IvanOpinion

Someone once told me that the best value for Avios is upgrading on a long haul flight - no idea if that is the case.

Sandtree

IvanOpinion said:

Someone once told me that the best value for Avios is upgrading on a long haul flight - no idea if that is the case.

Upgrading or booking higher tiers makes little to each other but tends to give a much higher pound per point value than booking economy or using them to discount fares.

In terms of pounds saved per avios then most the time you get the best value by booking a first class flight, business second, then premium economy etc. For a laugh we flew back First from Hong Kong and if you did a calculation we saved something like 7p per Avios which is amazing value... @DCFC79 on the same rate would get £14,700 of free shopping.

The reality is though we'd have never paid the full price value of the tickets and so can we really say that we saved £15,000?

Caz3121

dcfc67 said:

Currently if i pay £150 i can fly west coast USA for 70000 Avios.

what is the cash price for these tickets?

dcfc67

£2200 using same flights as Avios quote, 
Avios are worth £1750 when i factor in the £450.

Hardly a bargain 

Matt8888

It's down to the individual. What would YOU value most for the Avios? For me it would be upgrades every time. For others, it would be something else. I don't think other people can answer this question for you.

Sandtree

dcfc67 said:

£2200 using same flights as Avios quote, 
Avios are worth £1750 when i factor in the £450.

Hardly a bargain 

No but presumably that is flying economy.

At the end of the day you say they are worth £1,750 this way or £2,000 as shopping so it seems fairly straight forward. It is representing 0.8p per avios which is above the often quoted hurdle rate of 0.5p. I tend to aim higher though because we tend to use the points for higher cabin flights where the cash saving is greater.

couriervanman

Back in the good old days I sold a shed load of Avios points and also prior to those a huge chunk of airmiles on ebay........you sold the log in details after making sure the email and mobile number associated with the accounts were temporary/throwaway

dcfc67

Thanks for all the advice, i may well book a cheap flight and use points for an upgrade,

Sandtree

Remember you cannot upgrade economy tickets in fare class Q, O and G and can only upgrade one step so on long haul economy gets to premium economy etc

dcfc67

thanks for the heads up.