‘Part-Pay With Avios’ launches TODAY – use Avios to pay for cash tickets

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• Trevor says:

  29 Oct29 October 09:50

  I too am disappointed that the valuation is on the low side, though it would always be as they are giving low-balance members a foot in the door, and traditionally you will always get worse value when only exchanging a few points for a redemption (ironic then that you actually get worse value for long haul redemptions). A bigger shame that there is no long haul option to complement it. I was a participant in the survey regarding this some months ago. While I can’t remember the options suggested, I do recall I was disappointed then and pointed out that I saw this as an option for BA to devalue Avios.

  On the plus side, it helps those with low balance, and gives “redemption availability” where there would previously have been none. That said, I’ve generally found good availability for RFS redemptions, and considering this is only offered short-haul, that’s all it addresses. RFS seats within South Africa are few fewer, so it would be beneficial there by offering greater availability and redemption options.

  Notice that if you can get £10 discount for 1,500 Avios, while that translates to an initial valuation of 0.67p/Avios as mentioned above, in reality on a redemption/RFS you would earn no Avios for the flight, while here you do. So on a short-haul earning 500 Avios oneway, it is effectively a redemption of only 1,000 Avios for the £10 saving, hence you are getting 1p/Avios value – not bad. Likewise, the £20 saving option is effectively 2,500 Avios or 0.8p/Avios value, while the £30 saving option is effectively 4,000 Avios or 0.75p/Avios. It doesn’t take a genius to see that far better value is attained from the smallest redemption option, namely £10! So if anyone is that short on Avios that they can’t afford a RFS, then they can still get 1p/Avios value through £10 redemptions and of course using less Avios per flight means being able to spread your low balance across more flights. The savvy flyer will realise that while a proper RFS or redemption earns no status points, this way you can achieve the same redemption value, yet also earn status.

  So as long as this isn’t the “beginning of the end” for redemptions, and while RFS options do still exist, there are benefits for all.

  • Phillip says:

    30 Oct30 October 07:31

    At the other end of the scale, the longer shorthaul flights to places like Athens, Istanbul, Paphos and Larnaca, can also prove of good value… With one way fares on these routes starting at £85 ish, and earning a minimum of 1500-2000 Avios each way, you can pretty much replenish all the avios used to get the discount in the first place!

• Adam (sigma421) says:

  29 Oct29 October 10:25

  Remember as well guys that this can be used on any flight not just ones which have Avios redemption seats 🙂

• Rob says:

  29 Oct29 October 10:34

  I think that is too cynical. This move is primarily an attempt to win back short-haul leisure traffic which has been lost on price grounds to the low cost carriers.

  For the same reasons, I don’t see it being extended to long-haul and am a little surprised to see it on Club Europe short-haul.

  • World Traveller says:

    29 Oct29 October 18:46

    It’s definitely an attempt to win back short-haul leisure traffic. One of the key messages in the press release is:

    “It enables them to realise real cost savings – as much as 38 per cent off in some cases – on European flights, so flights to somewhere like Barcelona could cost as little as £48 return and 4,500 Avios for someone on a hand-baggage only fare.”

• richie says:

  29 Oct29 October 10:52

  absolutly no interest to me. i do not save avios points with the grand aim of saving £30 off a short haul flight. Im in it for the long haul, business and first travel. althoughi am considering transfering some tesco points over to virgin as their 30% bonus looks quite attractive. And they have low economy taxes. iv been waiting too long for a ba bonus, and im sitting on £600 tesco points.

• Koshka says:

  29 Oct29 October 11:14

  My current feeling is it’s a useful option to have but I’ll only ever use the 1500 option to maximise value (I usually fly London-Stockholm which earns 900). I lost Bronze this year after using too many redemptions so this should enable me to get some sort of status back. I’ve also found that RFS availability has crashed on my preferred route until June so this is another short-term benefit for me.

• Frenske says:

  29 Oct29 October 11:33

  Not too bad. Basically this a permamently £10 discount on my regular return flight to Oslo since it earns about 1500 Avios. Unfortunately flights are usually ridiculous expensive.

• littlefish says:

  29 Oct29 October 12:51

  This initiative, and RFS, will need a good chunk of targetted marketing if BA is going to entice people to make a value call to BA from the LCCs.
  I just can’t see enough new punters using their 3,000 avios balances to save £20 to make this work for BA. But here’s hoping.
  For the rest of us this is normally going to be too much of a marginal proposition to make the BA business case.
  One thought:
  This might work as a way to keep large balances live past 3 years, by making a small 1500 avios spend whilst saving for a big redemption;

  • Richie says:

    29 Oct29 October 13:15

    Good point but the chances are you would use ba to fly once every 3 years

• Oly says:

  30 Oct30 October 18:47

  Data point:

  MAN – LHR – MAN for a sunday to Wednesday in Feb. hand luggage only

  £89.99

  – £10.00 for 1500 avios
  – £20.00 for 3000 avios

  This booking will earn you 1000 avios

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