Comments on: What is an Avios point worth?

By: Andrew.

In reply to Nick.

Uhm:-

“Alex and Nicky”
“Jez and Louise”
“Charles and Vicky”

All gender fluid names.

I’m working with a Chinese chap who called David and a strapping 6’8″ African-American called Andrew. I’m only 6’3″ so he’s “Big Andrew” and I’m “Wee Andrew”.

By: Alex

Great to have those examples. Some people think that you get free travel which is not true if you are UK based. Furthermore, saving on Economy seat tickets are minimal and rarely worth it. Club world tickets is where this becomes a good value. Consider it an upgrade in travel if you usually fly economy, otherwise get sainsburys coupons.

By: dougzz99

In reply to Nick. So that people like you can invent some anger around a non-existent issue.

By: Nick

Why are all these examples white heterosexuals?

By: Rob

In reply to Richard T. True. I have expanded on this with an extra paragraph.

By: Richard T

The other key advantage of Avios not priced in to the article is that you can cancel an Avios flight and get the Avios back, which is not always possible with flights paid for with money.

By: Genghis

In reply to Geoff 1977. But would impact your numbers on whether you should keep the BAPP for next year / let spouse get one.

By: Geoff 1977

In reply to jj. I’d argue that you don’t need to include the £250 in your value per avios as once you’ve held on your BAPP for a year you’re paying that £250 regardless of how you use the voucher.

By: Russ

In reply to Andrew. Business class also gets you lounge access with food and an open bar, priority boarding and usually a meal of sorts. This pushes up the value of avios.

By: John

In reply to Andrew. The value of your avios is whatever price the flight would have had to be, for you not to redeem (minus any avios earned from the cash flight / credit card). Flights go from Heathrow / City / (Gatwick) to Ingliston and take 2 hours, Lumo goes from Kings Cross to Waverley and takes 5 hours. If Lumo is a realistic alternative then yes the value of your avios would be £69 plus travel to the stations minus travel to the airports.

By: Andrew

I (normally) just use mine when weekend, or August, domestics are silly money.

When a LON-EDI domestic return starts nudging the eye-watering £500 for HBO or £700 for Business, being able to redeem 9,000 to 18,000 Avios + £35 (various pts+cash options are available) you soon realise the value of holding a stash of Avios or Nectar points.

But, then am I mis-valuing an Avios by comparing the pts against the cash price for the flight when I could compare it to the maximum £69 e/w journey on Lumo?

By: jj

Laura and Jason are taking their bikes to the Canaries for a sporting holiday. They would normally pay for Club class as sporting equipment is included in the price, making the premium over economy class very small. Low cost airlines are more expensive than BA due to the additional baggage charges.

The cash fare for their preferred dates is £490 each. Using a 2-4-1 voucher, they pay 35,500 avios and £100, valuing their avios at 2.5p each. Valuing the voucher at £250, the annual fee for the card, the value received per avios is 1.8p each.

This is a real-world example based on one of my upcoming trips. If you would ordinarily pay for Club Europe, reward flight saver pricing can give some very high value per avios.

By: Geoff 1977

In reply to David. But then you’d need to work out how much those 10k avios are going to be worth based on the next possible trip by which point the whole thing “pence per avios” thing starts to get silly

By: David

It’s worth noting that in scenario 6 Avios would also be collected on the WTP fare, resulting in increased value per Avios (net). For example, a Blue BAEC member travelling LHR-LAX return would collect at least 10,912 Avios (plus 180 tier points, which may or may not also be useful). This is not insignificant and the benefit is even greater if the traveller has BA status.

By: Russ

Not all about airline redemptions. I’ve had great hotel suite redemptions were I just couldn’t justify paying cash.

By: Reney

In reply to Rob. I feel like HFP has helped me to find savings in other aspect to compensate for the travel costs. I learnt about Airtime Rewards here, started to use PAW more seriously, use Amex Offers better, improved my offer stacking/spotting skills. These all help to reduce normal/boring spend to make space for travel and other luxury.

By: NorthernLass

In reply to Rob. Totally agree, and what I have noticed is that if you can increase your budget even modestly you can get a hugely better experience. Previously we'd spend about £100 pn on fairly mediocre accommodation with no perks, now spending (usually) still under £200 pn but the added value definitely makes up for the price increase. For me, it's all about the value.

By: David S

The most negative issue for me in comparing cash to Avios is the distinct lack of availability to use your points, particularly to use a 241 voucher. On the other hand, there is a significant upside whenever BA open a new route or increase capacity

By: Rob

In reply to FFoxSake. Yes, anyone who thinks that reading HfP will lead to a reduction in their travel spend will end up disappointed - they will end up spending more, but getting a hugely better experience for the money!

By: John

In reply to Grant H. But you can't rely on avios seats being available

By: Mikeact

It certainly helps of course if you are Avios or other Airline Miles ‘rich’ which is our fortunate situation. Nevertheless, we still look for Avios etc., value, whether that be MultiCarrier or ex EU departures, and are quite happy ‘down the back ‘ for shorter RFS redemptions.
The big one for us is the untold memories we have had from our travels to off beat places around the world, which you cannot put a price on, and without ‘Miles’ would generally have not been possible.

By: FFoxSake

In reply to Phil W. +1 well summarised

By: Steve

Irrelevant but you flew to the real post Christmas Canadian lock down instead.

By: Phil W

This is quite an interesting article for me as a Procurement professional as it provides real world examples of the difference between Cost Avoidance and Budget Savings.

Most of our redemptions are First/Business to SE Asia via LHR using a 2-4-1. Without this site, I would not have anticipated that these types of holidays were within our gift to achieve. Arguably we pay out more money on travel now than we did before visiting this site because we discovered we could travel, relatively affordably and enjoyably. Consequently we are not really achieving Savings. I would argue however, we achieve a great deal of Cost Avoidance and have a life time of memories because of it.

By: Grant H

One of the most valuable uses of Avios not outlined above is the ability to use them for last minute flights that would otherwise be extortionate.

A real example from myself is a last minute trip to Canada to spend Christmas with my other half rather than risk to the potential post UK Christmas lockdown (which hasn’t happened).

London to Montreal economy price (return) we’re around £1000. The premium economy price (return) was around £1750.

By using Avios I was able to select an option of around £750 & 24,000 Avios to fly return in world traveller plus.

In both outcomes (economy or premium economy) I achieved a ‘real’ saving, either by comparison vs economy (around 1p per Avios and the improved flight service of WTP) or 4p per Avios if the WTP price of £1750 was under serious consideration.

Given that I hold silver status (lounge access) and my concerns regarding proximity to other passengers with the Omnicron Covid situation being what it was days before Christmas (and spending time with elderly people), it was something I would have genuinely considered paying for.