No more Avios points earning or redeeming on Flybe flights from 30th April

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• SB says:

  31 Jan31 January 06:36

  If Virgin are buying Flybe at 1p per share, I can’t work out why is the current price 4p….

  • Shoestring says:

    31 Jan31 January 06:55

    usually a mix of things, incl shareholders/ buyers hoping for a higher bid, shareholders too stubborn to accept that their share worth 40p a year ago is now only worth a penny etc

  • Rob says:

    31 Jan31 January 08:34

    Quite a bit of press coverage on why this is, if you search.

    • Shoestring says:

      31 Jan31 January 10:16

      28/1 [Flybe (FLYB) shares, meanwhile, soared 23.5% after its largest shareholder, Hosking Partners, urged the airline to remove its chairman Simon Laffin and investigate its cut-price sale to a consortium.]

      You get this kind of thing when shareholders realise they’ve been stuffed! Can’t see they’ll end up changing the 1p, though.

      • Charlieface says:

        31 Jan31 January 14:30

        Arguably if Flybe PLC sell it’s almost only asset of worth (Flybe Airline) for a pittance, the directors haven’t done their duty. There may be conflicts of interest, business interests or bribes going on as well. I’ve said before, if I was a shareholder I’d definitely be suing the board.

      • Fred says:

        31 Jan31 January 22:16

        Suspect Avios are cutting their loses and distancing themselves from a potentially sinking ship.

• Ruth Grint says:

  31 Jan31 January 07:06

  That is probably going to be the end of my Acios collecting hobby. Over the last few years points have been used for short haul FlyBe flights from Manchester, mainly when we have been taking luggage. I now have 48,000 avios without the realistic prospect of using them for flights, or being restricted to the very limited options from Manchester.

  Maybe time for an update and re-run of the article about redeeming points from regional airports?

  On the upside we have Virgin points sitting waiting so fingers crossed for a fully integrated system.

  • TripRep says:

    31 Jan31 January 07:23

    Ruth, hop across to Dublin and use your Avios from there.

    • Ruth Grint says:

      31 Jan31 January 07:26

      Hubby hates flying so any extra flight is going to mean no holiday at all. Plus with a soon to be toddler extra flights would be a nightmare.

      • Shoestring says:

        31 Jan31 January 07:51

        Why don’t you open up some more flying options by flying from Heathrow?

      • Andrew says:

        31 Jan31 January 08:43

        Holiday without him!

        My old boss was terrified of flying, many a time we found him at his desk on a Monday morning when he hadn’t had enough whisky to go on holiday.

        His family just left him at the departure gate – they quickly learnt that the best way was to pack all his luggage into two carry-ons so there was no delay retrieving his bags from the hold.

      • Scaredy Cat says:

        5 Feb5 February 00:44

        Ditch him! (Unless his name is Dennis Bergkamp?)

  • Bonglim says:

    31 Jan31 January 07:28

    When I started I used cards for Avios/flights and continued to pay for hotels.
    Then I went the other way around and spent points on hotels, paid flights.
    Now I do a mix of both.

    Anyway it is never the end, just a little adjustment if targets or strategy. I would guess focusing on hotels is prob better value than Avios on Flybe!

  • sunguy says:

    31 Jan31 January 11:14

    Ruth,

    You could always gift them to me – Ill add you to my family account 😉

    Seriously though, use them as an upgrade from LON to PE – or a few RFS for you, hubby and the little one for a holiday – use for business class even to Europe….(or back to ABZ for fun!).

    S

    • Ruth Grint says:

      31 Jan31 January 12:54

      It’s a four hour trip to Heathrow, five hours to Gatwick, 45 minutes to Manchester. It really isn’t worth the bother!

      • Shoestring says:

        31 Jan31 January 13:45

        If you live in Cornwall (or the South West), Heathrow is often the nearest airport.

        Same 4 hours as yours only we don’t get a choice!

      • Anna says:

        31 Jan31 January 17:28

        With a toddler you could use the direct BA Cityflyer weekend flights from MAN to the Med and have no issues with availability as you could travel in term time. Though having said that I had no problem bagging 4 reward seats to Nice and back last May half term. For 3 of you it would be 45,000 avios plus £105 in economy with checked bags and F & B included, which is a very decent deal and you have the convenience of direct flights. We were very impressed and hope the service continues.

    • Jon Martin says:

      31 Jan31 January 13:17

      I’m with Ruth on this one. The FT/HFP mindset is relatively unusual compared to most of the public. Most people put far less value on lounge/cabin experience and far greater value on direct routing and easy travel with as little time spent driving or hanging round airports as possible. This applies x10 with small children involved.

      • Richard says:

        31 Jan31 January 13:35

        +1

      • LewisB says:

        31 Jan31 January 13:59

        I’m with Ruth too. I’m surprised that KLM / Air France doesn’t get much mention on here, not only do they cover virtually everywhere in the regions but they offer generous monthly award discounts, as much as 50% in business.

      • Shoestring says:

        31 Jan31 January 14:05

        KLM/ AF might be OK for LH (ie using Paris/ Amsterdam as your hub) but for European direct SH travel they’re a PITA given the time involved with the change of planes, we’re far better off driving 4 hrs to LHR than 2 hrs to Bristol where KLM/ AF option is concerned.

  • Meghan says:

    31 Jan31 January 20:24

    Don’t waste your Avios. What about hotels, car hire, wine, days out? Flights are just one option.

• Pgw says:

  31 Jan31 January 07:49

  I pretty regularly use the Manchester to Milan service using avios which is not only better value than RFS through Heathrow but also takes a fraction of the journey time. This is bad news for those starting out from other than London airports.

  • Anna says:

    31 Jan31 January 17:30

    Is that a Flybe route?

    • PGW says:

      1 Feb1 February 03:50

      Indeed it is. Manchester to Malpensa with sensible flight times in both directions.

• Claire says:

  31 Jan31 January 08:03

  We also received notification yesterday that the staff discount we have (airport staff at one of FlyBe’s UK bases) has ceased with immediate effect. Looks like they’re tidying up all the loose ends quite quickly.

  • Fred says:

    31 Jan31 January 23:14

    More likely stashing whatever cash they can. They’re clearly hemorrhaging money and trying to claw it in where they can. Flybe has to be small fry to IAG (Avios) just kept around to appease those of us outside the South East. Given the Virgin deal hasn’t gone through yet I don’t really understand Flybe’s arrogance saying they’ll have a club soon. They’ve been promising that for a long time now. If they’re still in business in a year I’ll be surprised.

    • Rob says:

      1 Feb1 February 07:44

      It is a little odd given that the Virgin deal is not legally done.

      • Alex Sm says:

        2 Feb2 February 15:01

        maybe it is but not yet public?

        • Rob says:

          2 Feb2 February 16:19

          Flybe is a quoted company, you can’t complete the sale of the assets without announcing it!

• NB says:

  31 Jan31 January 08:37

  OT – Qatar seemed to have released additional promo fares overnight – flight price I was watching from CWL dropped overnight

  • LewisB says:

    31 Jan31 January 12:07

    Details? I’m looking to use Qatar this year out of CWL, just don’t know where yet! 🙂

    • NB says:

      31 Jan31 January 16:37

      I’m only off to Doha for a bit of Feb half term sunshine. Have been price watching since Christmas and promo fares were suddenly added overnight £410 return. not sure about other routes. Staying IC Doha and got great upgrade due to Ambassador status. Gotta love head for Points

• Zac says:

  31 Jan31 January 09:36

  Sorry, a bit off-topic, but is it just me who seems to have dreadful offers across my Amex cards or is it everybody? They just haven’t been the same enticing offers since the last 4-6 weeks or so. I have Amex Gold and BA PP cards, main and supplementaries.

  • jamie says:

    31 Jan31 January 09:50

    Yes agreed, AMEX offers are sh1t right now.

    A similarly OT query about Amex points…is it possible to transfer MR points from my wife’s Gold Amex account across to my BAEC Avios account???

    • Shoestring says:

      31 Jan31 January 10:02

      has been done, you’d probably need to delete any reference on your own Amex a/c to that BAEC number, then put very similar BAEC details to your own into her Amex rewards thru airline section, if you shared an initial it would be easy, maybe she just changed her first name (which you can do legally at any time in the UK)? And make sure BAEC/ Amex details such as address/ email align across both places

      • Cuchlainn says:

        31 Jan31 January 10:18

        I believe that MR portal requires a “M/F” query as obligatory ? Other alternative is create a HH BAEC A/C and share deducting Avios when booking flights..

      • jamie says:

        31 Jan31 January 10:20

        Okay tanks…I should say that she is already part of my household account…but that will mean that I can only access a proportion of her avios right??

      • Shoestring says:

        31 Jan31 January 10:23

        @Cuchlainn I had to re-input my BAEC number this morning as it happens – there’s no ‘other’ or ‘prefer not to say’ – which seems somewhat remiss, these days…

        perhaps she is a he underneath?

      • SimonW says:

        31 Jan31 January 10:23

        no jamie. you can rinse them all for yourself. they just empty both pots proportionally

      • Shoestring says:

        31 Jan31 January 10:25

        @ jamie – yes – points are taken in proportion until 1 a/c runs out of points

        you can get round that by transferring your points somewhere else (avios.com/ IB), burning her points, then switching yours back

• youngtraveller says:

  31 Jan31 January 11:17

  if i have around 5k avios on avios.com am i better off keeping them there or transferring to iberia or ba? thanks

  • Rob says:

    31 Jan31 January 11:25

    You must move Avios out of avios.com by 30th April if you avios.com account is linked to Flybe. You can check this my going into My Account and seeing if a Flybe logo appears under the menu.

    BAEC is the easiest solution.

    • youngtraveller says:

      31 Jan31 January 11:33

      I created the account with Flybe, but I have both flybe and aer lingus linked to it. I think I’ll do as you said and just transfer it to BAEC. Thanks

• ADS says:

  31 Jan31 January 11:44

  since Flybe added quite a bit of “liquidity” to the Avios search results on BAEC, i wonder if the loss of Flybe will encourage BAEC to integrate Aer Lingus reward flights (rather than having to phone up to book them) ?!

  • Meghan says:

    31 Jan31 January 20:26

    Don’t hold your breath. The BA website is already shaky! Plus if you book online we might end up paying more fuel surcharge as it’s cheaper on Lingus now.

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