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Hi
I’d love some advice.I have a companion voucher and a pile of avios, and I want to use them to travel as a family of 4, business during one of the school holidays. Every long haul redemption I look at carries over £1000 of taxes and fees per person. For example, I could redeem 4 business tickets return to Boston or Trinidad on dates that work for us, but in each case I only save £2000 in total over buying the tickets outright.
In past years we have successfully used one or two vouchers with avios for significant savings. Is it the routes I am looking at or have things changed significantly?
Thanks in advance, Claudia
Yes the cash element is quite significant. You can pay more Avios to lower the cash element but that doesn’t mean it’s always good value to do so. That said I have found that the most Avios and least cash was best value on my last redemption. You need to select more options to see what you’re offered.
The other issue you have with a family if 4 is you need 2 vouchers in your name to be able to get the best saving. Or try doing two separate bookings if both vouchers aren’t in your name. Plus the obvious issue of having to find availability for 4 passengers. You may need to be more flexible with dates and destinations.
Of course with loads of people unhappy about the new BAC and upcoming changes to TP earning and very high thresholds to achieve status availability may increase in the future. In the interim I suspect award availability may actually be worse as people use their status and run down their Avios pots.
Every single time I used my vouchers for North America, I regretted.
But if you don’t have any other big trip coming along, it is still better than not-saving.
Only advise I can extend is flexibility. Off-peak redemptions may make a difference.
“only save £2000”? is that supposed to be little money now?
“only save £2000”? is that supposed to be little money now?
The Avios come with an opportunity cost.
“only save £2000”? is that supposed to be little money now?
On 4 business class tickets that’s £500 per person. It is indeed very little vs paying T for a cash ticket and getting avios and TPs.
The reward tickets can be cancelled however so that is worth something.
I just bought a SH EU ticket that was £500 with BA for 9,000 avios and £35 very last minute. Their true value seems to be there and not on LH (in cases like these).
“only save £2000”? is that supposed to be little money now?
But surely £600 needs to be deducted for the two card fees, and unless AVIOS is acquired for very little spend there is a cost there as well?
Where are you getting over £1k of fees pp? RFS pricing in CW to east coast USA starts at around £350 return with the highest avios option selected. Agree you need to factor in the BAPP fee, but that still doesn’t take it to £1k.
Cash fares to the US can be very reasonable so booking award seats doesn’t always give great value, but CW to the Caribbean is usually £2k – £3k pp so is usually a good use of avios and 241’s.
Just had a look out of interest, and CW to Trinidad in August is coming out at £2578 pp, so over £10k for a family of 4 (assuming children are over 2). Having done similar redemptions for the past few years, and managing to mainly get seats on the handful of off-peak dates in school holidays, I’ve always got 2p+ per avios.
Where are you getting over £1k of fees pp? RFS pricing in CW to east coast USA starts at around £350 return with the highest avios option selected. Agree you need to factor in the BAPP fee, but that still doesn’t take it to £1k.
Cash fares to the US can be very reasonable so booking award seats doesn’t always give great value, but CW to the Caribbean is usually £2k – £3k pp so is usually a good use of avios and 241’s.
Thank you for all the comments and inputs!
This is the question I was trying to get insight on – I am looking at LHR to anywhere Caribbean or North America (but limited by school holidays) and when I see availability (e.g. Boston or Port of Spain) the cost of redemption for 4 is very high. The cost of redemption to the Port of Spain was £6900, and buying the tickets outright was just over £8600. As someone rightly points out, £2000 is not a trivial amount of money but I used to be able to redeem business class tickets at much less than their cash value, and I’d be reluctant to buy them for a family holiday.
Is there a resource somewhere that shows the typical redemption cost to an airport? Or does it fluctuate?
Just had a look out of interest, and CW to Trinidad in August is coming out at £2578 pp, so over £10k for a family of 4 (assuming children are over 2). Having done similar redemptions for the past few years, and managing to mainly get seats on the handful of off-peak dates in school holidays, I’ve always got 2p+ per avios.
Ah intriguing – Maybe it was a weird combination of dates and availability – I’ll go trawl again!
Just realised POS is a LGW departure, so possibly the BA system is showing non-RFS connecting flights if you’re trying to search from LHR? There have also been a few pricing glitches reported recently.
Using highest avios/lowest taxes, the cash element would be £475 pp. BOS probably around £100 lower, and fewer avios, but possibly not as good a use of avios.
Is there a resource somewhere that shows the typical redemption cost to an airport? Or does it fluctuate?
https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/08/29/how-many-avios-do-i-need-to-fly-to-2/
That gives the highest avios/lowest cash options (and it’s been updated to reflect the recent cash increase). But you also get other options with fewer avios and more cash. These can vary in terms of the value you get, but can be useful if you haven’t got enough avios to cover the full cost of pay the highest number.
I’m wondering what pricing OP is seeing?
Always Dublin or Madrid
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