 Poster: A snowHead
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I've slowly amassed about 70k Avios.
I optimistically looked into flying the family to Canada (Calgary) next Feb/Mar half term. Offer on the BA website will give me 500 euros off for about 40 000 Avios.
Not sure I've ever spent Avios in my life - last time I looked it was all so confusing. At least here I just click a button and man-maths then says my holiday is 500 euros cheaper.
But the websites say it's terrible to fly via London (I'm in Lisbon, I don't seem to have much choice; and I have two children in school) and terrible to use them on long-haul, so I'd just be burning them.
Burning them and saving 500 euros seems to be better than waiting for the mythical perfect trip which never arrives?!
Anyone any thoughts?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Orange200, I think you can transfer them to Iberia which might give you more options for departure airports than flying via London. There might also be different calendars for peak and off-peak redemption of your Avios than flying with BA, so worth looking in to that.
I think that longhaul gives you better value for your points than shorthaul, but I guess that depends on individual circumstances. We manage to accumulate enough miles, when coupled with a 'companion voucher' from our Amex card, for a couple of longhaul flights each year in either Club or First Class cabins. Saves a little bit of money over the cost of flying economy, and is a much over way to start and end our summer holiday.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Avios is ending / changing soon ? Had a recent email that I have not read properly yet that says it is to merge with / change into BA executive points or something ?
Quite soon too I think.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Sounds like its going back to the old BA air miles? Used to be in the BA executive points scheme until it changed to Avios only a few years ago. Think they like change just for the sake of it, gives some numpty in an office something to do.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Yep, but it's really just an administrative change - you won't lose any points and credit cards, etc will just start adding your points to your new BA account rather than your old Avios one.
There are more changes due down the line, no details yet but seem to be aimed at making it easier to spend with a points vs. pounds slider rather than the current set points/pounds points.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Had a look at the mail that came, seems to confirm what @Mjit, says :-
What you need to know
After 21 May 2018 we’ll start creating your new British Airways Executive Club account. Please bear with us as this can take several weeks. In the meantime, you can collect and spend Avios as normal.
The British Airways Executive Club will be in touch with your new account details and how to activate it when it’s ready.
Please note your balance will not transfer over into your new account until the Avios Travel Rewards Programme officially closes. We will be in touch to let you know when this is happening.
You can opt out before 20 May 2018. However, if you do, your account will close in 6 months, in which time you’ll need to spend all your Avios or lose them.
To find out more about opting out, as well as answers to the most frequently asked questions including information about the British Airways Executive Club, please visit avios.com/travelrewards
Thank you for being a valued member of the Avios Travel Rewards Programme and for your continued loyalty.
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@Orange200, It's usually bad value to spend them on longhaul economy. Do a comparison search on skyscanner or something and find the cheapest/best option on whichever airline, and then compare the cost to BA with the €500 discount. Often in cases like these you're in reality still paying about the same or only slightly less than just using a different airline. There are always exceptions though.
As a rule of thumb I only use them for redemption bookings rather than a discount and always get 1p per point of value, if I can't get that value then i'll just pay cash instead. The best value usually comes from flying shorthaul on BA in Europe (to or from London - especially to the alps as it's in band 1 and fights are often expensive at certain times), and longhaul in business or first on BA or the partner airlines, and sometimes shorthaul on the partner airlines eg JAL in Japan or LAN in Peru as two specific cases where I've made great savings.
If you're able to get a €500 discount for 40k Avios that's actually reasonable at just over 1p per point. Usually they give substantially less than that if using the points for a discount rather than making a redemption booking. If BA is among the cheapest airlines anyway before the discount then i'd say that's a pretty good use of them.
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i would not waste the avios for the sake of using them.
You can prob get the flights just as cheap with another airline.
UK has high passenger duty, so its quite common for people in the uk to fly to dublin or amsterdam or madrid, etc & go from there.
you may even get better redemption options on a codeshare flight like Iberia or american airlines or aer lingus. quite a few in the one world alliance.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| @Orange200We manage to accumulate enough miles, when coupled with a 'companion voucher' from our Amex card, for a couple of longhaul flights each year in either Club or First Class cabins. Saves a little bit of money over the cost of flying economy, and is a much over way to start and end our summer holiday. |
That's exactly what we do with BA Amex card. Haven't travelled economy to Canada in many years. Usually go Club World or occasionally First when the upgrade cost is cheap. The companion vouchers and premium BA Amex card (the £150 version for extra Avios rather than the free one) are the key things here for maximum effect.
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The Avois seem really poor value for flights. The Tax for three BA flights paid withAvois was about £40 less than booking the whole flight with Easy Jet! I tend to use them for hotels, much better value.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| MelH wrote: |
| The Avois seem really poor value for flights. The Tax for three BA flights paid withAvois was about £40 less than booking the whole flight with Easy Jet! I tend to use them for hotels, much better value. |
Agreed if talking about short haul economy flights, I wouldn't bother either. But a very different story in business/first long haul flights. Then Avios are great value!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| MelH wrote: |
| The Avois seem really poor value for flights. The Tax for three BA flights paid withAvois was about £40 less than booking the whole flight with Easy Jet! I tend to use them for hotels, much better value. |
they are poor value for hotel.
Best used to upgrade economy to business or first.
however avios is now changing to a system where points just take money off, rather than a free flight
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@MelH, @uktrailmonster, Often they are good value for short haul.
I'll pay 8000 Avios (or 9000 peak times) + £35 for a return London - Geneva including 23kg luggage.
Considering the luggage benefit, it's usually worthwhile when not booking very far in advance. Sometimes it's worthwhile for advance bookings when you consider the Avios are refundable. I might be going out to the alps next week and there's Avios seats available, but flights are at least £200 return.
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You know it makes sense.
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Thank you very much to everyone. Some conflicting advice there so I don't feel quite so stupid!
So here are all the facts today. I have nearly 73 000 Avios, 135 Tier points and 1070 Lifetime Tier points. I have no idea what the latter mean. I have 78 000 Avios in a family account. Some of mine came from one or two Iberia transatlantic flights (this was a complication a couple of years ago). I don't have an Amex card, just got a Visa which came with my bank account and hardly ever use it. I think I can only use them to upgrade if I already pay for premium economy, and that's quite simply another grand or more out of my bank account for which I don't gain VFM in my opinion.
Ideally I want one stop (no direct flights), within Europe. I refuse to transfer via USA with their paranoid security checks.
Skyscanner suggests various including TAP but they don’t show directly via TAP. Most of the cheapest are variations of Air Canada or BA/Iberia, with the latter just codesharing onto a BA plane. Ignoring sky scanner’s bucket shops, Lufthansa site ask for 3500 euros for the family. Air Canada ask for 4519CDN, which translates to about 2900 euro (I confess that was one day earlier which showed up as cheaper). The BA site offers me 2900euro via LHR, and then offers me €416 off for 58 000 avios, so sorry I was a bit inaccurate earlier. An adult fare is €505 plus €260 fees and taxes. (BTW Iberia site offers stupid options like changing in Madrid and then LHR, for more money.)
I just see this as a possible way to get rid of the "monopoly money" avios that I don't understand (but clearly they're of great value to some) to save me 400 bucks. Reasonable or bonkers? All opinions welcome!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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if your happy to use them, then use them.
You 'could' get a BA Amex card (£150 fee is waived in the first year)
Use that to book the flights
£3000 spend triggers a 25,000 avios bonus
BA give 3 avios per £1 spent with them.
So if you spend £2000 booking the flights, you only need to spend antoher £1k to hit the bonus as well as collecting 7500 avios
Thats 32500 avios back out of your 70,000
Also spend £10k in a year you will get a 2 for 1 voucher to be used on a future flight.
I have 200,000 avios currently.
down to 30,000 virgin miles (spent a load to goto SF next month)
& a bundle of hilton honors points (though I find Wyndham rewards better value for me)
mostly collected via credit cards & flipping them.
ie hit the bonus. cancel & get a card elsewhere.
Will be starting my partner doing the same as I have used all my offers up & need to sit out 12 months before doing it again.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Orange200, Seems a reasonable use of them to me as a regular Avios user.
My experience concurs with the advice you've already received - i.e. maximum value is either short-haul peak routes (LON<->GVA at Feb half term saves me a fortune every year and enables me to take flights at respectable times) or premium cabin long-haul routes. Absent that, getting about 0.6p/Avios when you consider them worthless isn't a bad answer. I'd suggest the tradeoff for you is whether they're better used on wine/car rental/hotels, all of which are other typically "low value" usage options.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Orange200, Have you tried booking it as a redemption booking rather than a cash booking with a discount?
I don't know what dates you're looking at so you might struggle to find enough Avios seats available, but if you're going off peak you can pay 15,700 Avios + £452.84 for Lisbon to Calgary via London, per person which works out a bit cheaper than the €505 + €260 fare. Plus it's refundable.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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If you're looking for 2 adults + 2 children:
For LIS - LON - YYC - LON - LIS
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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You can ring them and they are very helpful at booking flights for you, or just telling you what is possible. I use them for Man-LHR-Van return frequently and just end up paying the tax and a load of points.
All quite easy..... however they only have a few seats on each flight that have the avios options on them so you do have to book very early to get the flight you want.
They also use partner airlines (so not all) speak to them.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Orange200, Avios booking website is to "merge" with BA Executive Club sometime before the end of May. Any Avios left will automatically move to the BA site and can be merged with existing Exec Club accounts. This will simplify things for BA, but could complicate any existing "Household" accounts in both BA and Avios if they are not able to become merged straight away.
I've got 40k miles spread across the two sites, ready to book 2 lots of 2 return flights next season. It's simple enough, and not as complicated as the screen print above, especially if you fly out of Heathrow to Milan, Geneva, or Zurich, given the considerable number of flights each day. Ski carriage can fall within the 23kg hold allowance if you can do so.
Forgot to say I've used Avios this season for Manchester to Malpensa BA/Flybe, and for Heathrow Zurich with BA. Usually get 35k - 40k miles each year just shopping at Tesco and Tesco Petrol. AND LGW to Dalaman return this coming summer!!
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@snowdave, Not interested in wine, car rental, hotels - so if those were the best alternatives, I'll run with this 
@musehead, I didn't know there was any difference between part pay and redemption, so I will look into that, thank you very much!
@skimastaaah, probably 80-90% of my avios are from BA flights so I hope that's not a problem (household also), there are just a couple of transatlantics in there from Iberia that I hope they don't object to.
I think these have been amassed over 7-8 years so as you can see I don't value them highly, and using them to convince myself of another 2 weeks in Canada when I'd normally drive to Andorra seems as good a use as any!
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@Orange200, the Avios miles can be really useful for European ski flights. I reckon my BA Amex brings in another 20k Avios each year which I part-ex for summer flights
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FAQ
