Wobbles in Crawley? Unprecedented 50% bonus for buying Avios launches tomorrow

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• Worzel says:

  22 Feb22 February 09:15

  John 9:01 am:
  Had the same survey request- suggesting this would take about 10 minutes.
  The survey took me just 1 second as I pressed the DELETE button!

  • shd says:

    22 Feb22 February 09:49

    Hmm … I’ve been enjoying completing the surveys 🙂

• dac says:

  22 Feb22 February 09:27

  I have 220k Amex MR points and now in two minds how to use them. All we need is Virgin to offer a like for like on their credit card and i’d never fly BA again

  come on Virgin, take advantage of this Avios devaluation!

• j peters says:

  22 Feb22 February 10:31

  Personally I feel there are some sweet spots that makes sense with Avios, but much less so under the new scheme April ->
  I prefer to purchase Avios on the grey market, which does not impose any purchase limitation, and when I can see seats.
  A more sensible approach is sometimes to utilise fellow OW partner USAirways, you can get much more quality airtime for less using their scheme which enjoys friendlier YQ’s, but it has to be round trip.

  • david says:

    22 Feb22 February 11:03

    Hi , define grey market ?

    • Matt says:

      22 Feb22 February 12:13

      Click the link on his name 😉

      The alternative is to buy Tesco CC vouchers on eBay and get the seller to transfer them to your Avios account. You can often get them for 1.5-2x face value which works out at ~0.6-0.8p per Avios.

• David says:

  22 Feb22 February 09:43

  I’ll buy at that price (partly because it’ll trigger a credit card bonus, partly because it’ll take me over a certain number of Avios to get somewhere I want to go). I tend to get better than 1.09p per point because I do a lot of weird open jaw trips (Cancun to Chicago business class just cost me 20,000 Avios + £31, Antigua to New York was 20,000 + £28) and often need to pay for flights in peak season. When flights to the US are over £900 in July, using Avios for an economy long-haul redemption suddenly makes massive sense.

  I *do* think the changes to the scheme make it worth completely reevaluating strategies. Continuing along the same ones as before is probably a mistake. Treat it as a new scheme, and pick where the best value is, and they’re still worth having.

  • littlefish says:

    22 Feb22 February 10:25

    True, for those on ET (RFS) and redeeming intra USA (AA and AS; maybe US too not done that); then >1.0p per avios is still probably achievable often enough to plough on.
    Long-haul in CW is no longer a sure plan. I have re-evaluated to 0.75p per avios on my normal CW routes, which is not far off simply using avios for the co-pay on regular fares. Of course, the BAPP 2f1 bumps that up for 200k avios a year but ties me to avios/BA and costs £150 plus I lose out on 5,000 avios due to 1.5:1 earn rate. So somehow they’ve even managed to remove the Amex BAPP as a value proposition!
    Virgin is the better deal right now for redemptions, availability is better and they have a Tesco conversion bonus.

  • Paul says:

    22 Feb22 February 14:37

    Wow £900 for Y to the states!? Why? Most years I can get J from the EU to the U.S. for between £1000 and & £1500 depending on whether it the East coast or HNL.

• linda says:

  22 Feb22 February 10:20

  As just an occasional leisure travellers as we are retired, we collect as we can via BAPP, Tesco and buying what we require to redeem. We actually have managed to get three reward flights with BA coming up this year(have never flown BA)so will be interesting on how they compare with Virgin.

  Have both Avios and BAEC accounts with not a lot in as per the redemptions, If I have read all the reports and comments on the devaluation of Avios after the 28th April, can I book a reward seat before the change date and then change it to when we want to go. Example would be to Denver in Club, book say in April 2015 for March 2016 and then hopefully change to June 2016 when we would like to go and only incur the change fee. We also have a 2-4-1 sitting in the account just accrued which we were hoping to use for the year after 2017 for a first to Toronto could we also book this in March for April 2016 and keep changing till the date we want comes up,(don,t know if this allowed and how many changes are permitted.) Hope this is not too confusing as i confuse myself with all the rules sometimes.

  • Alan says:

    22 Feb22 February 10:38

    Although you can change date with no increase in Avios cost after 28/4, you can’t move outside the 12- month validity of the ticket once you redeem, so it won’t help you get to June 2016 I’m afraid.

  • louie-m says:

    22 Feb22 February 11:09

    Also you have to fly your outbound on a 2-4-1 by the 2 year expiry date (assuming this is a BAPP 2-4-1).

• Jamie Doook says:

  22 Feb22 February 10:21

  hopefully this will be first of many offers!
  However, always need to remember (at current valuation) with part pay Avios + cash you will be buying the avios for less than 90p most of the time.

  • Jason says:

    22 Feb22 February 13:27

    90p per avios sounds quite expensive 🙂
    Do you mean 0.9p?

    • J Dook says:

      23 Feb23 February 06:51

      Doh! Indeed!! Cheers 8

• Jamie Dook says:

  22 Feb22 February 10:30

  Also, great site. First read every morning!
  I’m from the regions and you’ve helped me over past 2 years to Madrid numerous times, Paris and a super saving on flights to World Cup in Brasil!

  Every time we are in lounge in T5 we say “Slanj to Raffles!”

• PETER01 says:

  22 Feb22 February 10:47

  I’ll be purchasing the Avios in this offer. Although there is no doubt there is a devaluation there are still some very good offers for using them on OW flights. Considering what a First Class ticket costs in cash in for example with JAL, CX etc.Avios still represents excellent value. in this regard. I’m planning on doing an LAX-NRT in JAL F as an example.

  I am no doubt in a minority here regarding this as the straight redemptions on BA are just not worthwhile and haven’t been for some time.

  • James67 says:

    22 Feb22 February 16:34

    A little caution needed here though. If you are heading East it is particularly important to compare the cost of your redemption not just against the cash price of the carrier you plan to redeem on but all carriers in the market place. Remember too you will be gaining some rewards currency for flights taken so you have to factor in net value in terms of miles you plan to use versus those you stand to gain. Going East there is often great value revenue fares to be had on AY, MH and UL where you would earn avios. If you are regular flyer to far East then consider a one way there and then book revenue returns far East-Europe-far East as this usually provides better value. Even if they are not available from the place you need, a positioning flight with a LCC can be very worthwhile if you have the extra time to spare. For the last decade I have flown almost entirely on miles. However, since the demise of BMI and my switch to BAEC I am under no illusions as to the real value I am receiving from avios in relation to best value revenue fares. The margins are often very small so I need to consider very carefully my strategy going forward after the devaluation kicks in. I have been harping on over past year it was time to burn avios, now my new mantra is let’s not get conned by our hobby; the loyalty scheme managers are no longer the fools they once were, they have learned the hard way. Fortunately HfP is here to help us best exploit the opportunities and avoid the pitfalls.

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