Sometimes the oddest Avios redemptions can be the best value

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• JK says:

  3 May3 May 06:29

  Excellent use of points 🙂 We used NIKI for a flight from MXP-VIE a while back (paid flight, it was very cheap). The weird thing is it was a Meridiana codeshare, which gave us seat selection and checked bags for free, whereas booking on NIKI we would have had to pay for all that. Check in was handled by AB, so we used my QF Plat (OWE) card to get priority check in. The in-flight experience was good, the hosties were young Austrian girls wearing jeans which made for a casual atmosphere, but in a good way. I think there was a snack and drink but can’t remember – you can preorder decent food though. The downside was that they lost our bags, and you get directed to AB for that – who are notoriously awful at handling lost baggage. We only got our bags after 4 days by leveraging a contact at the airport. Good luck and hope the holiday goes well!

• Waribai says:

  3 May3 May 06:40

  Nice work Raffles! Have you booked your accommodation? Mallorca prices seem to be fairly high this summer.
  I think 300 euros is to be expected. After all Easyjet are charging £250 from LGW in August.

• Londonbus says:

  3 May3 May 06:47

  Well done. I suspect the best use of Avios is for one way short-haul flights – on days like this.

  Devaluation has seriously reduced the value of long-haul premiums – and wih the possibility of cheap cash ex-EUs on Qatar or Cathay – looks better value to pay there.

• James67 says:

  3 May3 May 06:54

  I had a similar experience with BA. My partner needed a return flight from Edinburgh to Bangkok on specific weekend dates to meet commitments both here and in Thailand, and as usal insisted on BA (yes really!). After( a lot of grumbling I burned 111000 avios plus almost £1100 booking the flight far in advance, a CW redemption out and WTP-CW UUA for the return. In my view it was a total waste of avios given revenue fares available on other carriers at the time. However, as it happened, the flight filled up fast and soon after booking BA were already charging an astonishing £2000 WT and over £6000 CW for flexible tickets on the same dates. I still think it is a bad option compared to competitors revenue fares but at east now take some comfort that I got great vkue ehen compared to BAs own revenue fares for the flight.

• Henry C says:

  3 May3 May 06:57

  Less obscure, but I was surprised how cheap US domestic redemptions on AA are compared to back home.
  Also I can highly recommend the Es Molí hotel in Deia if you’re looking for somewhere to stay in Mallorca. Deia is a beautiful village too, give it a go.

• Nick says:

  3 May3 May 07:08

  V impressive! I just booked 3 tickets from my local airport DSA to jersey middle of August to visit family. Fully expecting to get nothing locally on flybe I couldn’t believe it there was 9 plus seats most days. Even Saturday had 4 seats showing on avios.com. Cash price for the hop would have been close to £500 with a bag , but 27k avios and £100 was a fair price to me. Threw in another 5k avios I got a car from Avis for £75, cash price £175. So all in I hit 3 flights plus car for a week for £175 in August in jersey. I was pleased to use on a route I expected availability to be be on existent on. Only negative is I had to pay for seat selection to be certain sitting together.

  Avios on line chat also told me that I can use for Thomson package holidays didn’t know about that!

• timezonehopper says:

  3 May3 May 07:15

  I recently had to fly my wife and daughter from Hanoi to Tokyo in Business class (my daughter had had knee surgery and needed a flat bed configuration seat). The one-way JAL flights were an eye-watering £1100 each. I paid 37500 Avios and £20 for each flight.

  • Gavin says:

    3 May3 May 07:27

    8500 Avios and £17.50 in charges one way to Larnaca when Y fares are over £300 is my best redemption, getting EC261 compensation and 3000 avios back as service recovery made it profitable!

    • Danksy says:

      3 May3 May 17:15

      I’ve done exactly the same for 5 of us this summer return flights!

  • tony says:

    3 May3 May 10:32

    Was just going to add, we picked up some great value redemptions in Asia last summer. One way cash fares in premium cabins seem quite punchy (£500-£600 for a 3hr flight) and availability was prolific!

• Paul L says:

  3 May3 May 07:23

  Could be good to run an article on how BA Gold status carries (lounge access, baggage allowance etc) across other One World partners… And including airlines such as Alaska.

  • Topp2015 says:

    3 May3 May 23:13

    +1 or site development

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