An Avios flight redemption bonanza to parts of Asia …. if you’re up for travelling at the moment

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• Shoestring says:

  18 Feb18 February 22:50

  O/T so are we going to gave another occasion in quick succession where Avios are on sale under 1p on Iberia – and HFP refuses to cover it, citing pressure of articles etc?

  • Jamie says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:34

    Where can I find these sub 1p Avios?

    • Shoestring says:

      19 Feb19 February 12:12

      Iberia

  • Doug M says:

    19 Feb19 February 08:11

    But mostly it’s barely under 1p, and that only if you get the exchange rate prompted, which is often not the case. An awful lot of people don’t think that buying Avios at 1p is much of a deal. I get it suits those you have a 241 and struggle to raise the Avios, because they don’t fly that much, and there are certain routes/holiday times where it pays off. But Avios at 1p is frequently not a good deal, especially if you fly and are earning plenty of them. Cash is king.

  • Rob says:

    19 Feb19 February 08:37

    A BA one usually follows with no issues over FX fees, transfer issues etc. For eg Avios now seem to be blocking HHA transfers to BA.

    • Shoestring says:

      19 Feb19 February 12:30

      we know the BA price will be £3215 for 300K Avios (it always is!)

      whereas you could prefer to pay EUR3601 = £2993 right now on a FX fee-free card

      obvs the average HFP reader would prefer to waste the difference (£222) because they can’t be @rsed to buy at Iberia instead of BA – and transferring the points back to BAEC is so arduous

      • Anna says:

        19 Feb19 February 14:32

        Also it can be a good way of helping trigger a 2 4 1 or other bonus which outweighs the extra cost.

        • Crafty says:

          20 Feb20 February 20:04

          You’d voluntarily pay an extra £200 for the same product to trigger a 2-4-1?

          Now this is the customer Amex are looking for…

  • Lady London says:

    19 Feb19 February 11:27

    OT hey Shoestring have you any idea where the people that quoted you got their 50x from? J am wondering if that is from industry tables that are amended from time to time or the quoter’s discretion

    Also wondering is the risk of having to honour the existing arrangement and pay out each year is so high, when normally they’d only have to do for, say, 25. So wondering where does the 50 come from? Or, is it just a number of years value that is obliged to be stated and only so high as the value is temporarily so high due to low interest rates.

    Have a feeling I might get 51 and wanted to know is this an indicator of high risk passing from quoter to me that the 50/51 is an indicator of or purely due to interest rate phenomena (which I would regard as temporary)

    • Shoestring says:

      19 Feb19 February 12:11

      I assume it wasn’t from any published tables but would have been the fund trustees agreeing a ‘fair’ formula with their retained actuaries. Tideway told me they know many funds are still extremely keen to get their numbers of deferred pensioners down sharply, so are deliberately erring on the side of generosity. In theory, ISTR that the trustees wanted to be scrupulously fair about it, ie taking the present discounted value of money into account, somebody dying at average age eg 80 would have cost the fund exactly the same whether they stayed in or not – adding in any scheme variables such as does surviving spouse get 50% or 67.7%?, how good is the annual increase eg CPI or RPI? etc

      Also I mentioned nearly 50x but that was not taking into account annual increases for remainers, so obvs a fair bit less in reality

      • Shoestring says:

        19 Feb19 February 12:19

        weekend papers had the usual string of pre-budget rumours about adverse changes to pensions – but there is one persistent story that keeps coming back and has even the right wing quality newspapers saying they can’t understand why it’s lasted so long in its present generous unlimited format – the 25% tax-free lump sum

        • Lady London says:

          19 Feb19 February 13:05

          15% within about a year I would say so Nov or next Mar, possibly with provision for lower later.

          Guessing first budget esp of new Chancellor has to focus on confidence post Brexit.

      • Lady London says:

        19 Feb19 February 13:02

        Thanks for your reply Shoestring. The quoters are in the 10pc of db funds in UK that don’t give any annual increases at all. My accrual is pre 1997 so they can get away with it. Even for post 1997 they have given increases in 2 years only. They have publicly stated their policy is to give no increase unless they are legally compelled. Other countries compel and that’s all they pay. For sure they are in deficit. Any recovery made by improving investment returns will just reduce company payments into fund accordingly. They’ve been sued for not paying any increase contrary to previous promises and it failed.

        So no increases not even inflation no-brainer to get out and even a tracker fund should do better. Yet I am being advised by.a savvy.ex boss to stay. The only downside i can see is transaction charges because tracker fund should make back management charges and inflation as this is the UK. So highly unlikely interest will ever be negative – quite the opposite is the case. So wondering what am I missing as getting out asap seems a no brainer

• The Streets says:

  18 Feb18 February 22:59

  Fees and taxes seem to be creeping up for reward flights. Last week I booked two one way First Class flights to HKG at £396 for later this year. Today, booked three more one ways this time to Bangkok in Business which broke the £400 mark. Can’t remember it being this high before

• Lumma says:

  19 Feb19 February 03:11

  In Japan at the minute and flying to Seoul this afternoon. Can’t see why either place is any less safe in relation to Coronavirus than remaining in Europe as things stand

• Alan H says:

  19 Feb19 February 06:49

  Question. If I book a reward flight with BA using Avios and a BA/Amex Companion Ticket, (Rob’s article – An Avios redemption bonanza to parts of Asia …. if you’re up for travelling) and I cancel the flight what happens to the Companion Ticket, which in my case would have expired ie the date by which it has to be used. I have assumed that it will be lost, and not extended?

  • AndyW says:

    19 Feb19 February 06:55

    You have to fly the outbound by the expiry on a companion voucher anyway, it’s a use by, not book by date.

  • Anna says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:00

    I presume you mean companion voucher (both tickets would be cancelled)? Normally it’s lost once it’s expired but BA has been known to extend them under exceptional circumstances, so if your flight was cancelled by BA, say, due to coronavirus fears you might persuade them to extend the voucher.

    • Lady London says:

      19 Feb19 February 11:31

      Someone reported in past 3 days or so BA did reissue a voucher valid for a further year after a flight was cancelled. I think the original voucher was a Lloyds upgrade voucher though.

• Anna says:

  19 Feb19 February 06:52

  On a night flight I’m going more and more towards Y or PE to save avios. I don’t find BA flat beds particularly conducive to sleep and don’t really take advantage of the F & B.

• Nick says:

  19 Feb19 February 07:09

  There will also be an Avios bonanza to the US tomorrow… watch this space!!

  • Jamies says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:39

    You know of something coming? Or is this just a guess

    • Nick says:

      19 Feb19 February 08:37

      I know what’s coming, it’s tomorrow but not sure what time. There are some on here who’ll want to be ready to pounce.

      • Jamie says:

        19 Feb19 February 08:43

        Can you give any details?

  • Anna says:

    19 Feb19 February 09:00

    So a taxes and fees bonanza for BA also? 😂

    • Lady London says:

      19 Feb19 February 11:06

      Yes if BA is not selling the tickets they need then based on the so-called ‘taxes’ they charge (which are money kept by British Airways to a large extent, and not by the government) then for an avios ticket BA gets more money from you than you would have to pay outright in the market to buy that same ticket for cash.

      BA also gets to take your miles off you as well as the fake ‘taxes’ so win-win for BA.

  • lebron 23 says:

    19 Feb19 February 10:44

    already gone live today

    have a look on seatspy and all will become clear

    • Rob says:

      19 Feb19 February 11:17

      So it is … thanks

      PM noted!

    • Sarah says:

      19 Feb19 February 11:42

      Care to fill the rest of us in? I’ve been looking at F availability in April to the US, which doesn’t really seem to have changed – looks like there’s a fair amount of CW availability through the year, but I’ve not been monitoring it to see if thats changed

      • Sarah says:

        19 Feb19 February 12:17

        Thank you – didn’t think to look for an extra article!

• AndyK says:

  19 Feb19 February 08:48

  OT. I booked an open jaw reward flights using 2-4-1 yesterday. I can see the booking under my account as confirmed but I also can still see the voucher.
  I was under impression that voucher should disappear immediately.
  Any advise? Shall I call again to check?

  • Anna says:

    19 Feb19 February 08:57

    Do you mean the BA voucher? It shouldn’t be possible to book an open jaw online with it, have you checked how many avios have been deducted, i.e. has the voucher been applied to the booking?

    • AndyK says:

      19 Feb19 February 10:02

      Yes, I booked over the phone as impossible online and asked to wave the phone booking charge.
      No BA voucher or Avios were taken from account.
      However I have enough Avios to book only with the voucher. I find it very strange.

      • AJA says:

        19 Feb19 February 11:10

        As long as you can see the confirmed booking in your account but neither voucher nor Avios have gone out I’d wait a couple of days. It should catch up.

        Do you see the taxes and fees on your Amex account that you paid with or is that still pending? If still pending tomorrow then I’d phone to make sure the transaction has gone through.

        • Lady London says:

          19 Feb19 February 11:37

          I wouldn’t phone! I’d just look online to ensure the ticket has been issued.

          Sadly though Ive never seen a report of a voucher not being taken if used so I think the admin will catch up.

        • AndyK says:

          19 Feb19 February 11:59

          It’s still pending on Amex so waiting for now

    • Ralph says:

      19 Feb19 February 11:31

      I’ve booked Open Jaw with a BA Voucher before – it just needed to be within the same zone (Spain and Portugal in my case). I tried one in different zones and got denied.

      • Anna says:

        19 Feb19 February 12:12

        How did you book it though? It’s always had to be done by phone AFAIK.

• Graham Walsh says:

  19 Feb19 February 08:56

  I saw my alerts go mad for HK over the last few days. Decided on an open jaw to New Orleans and Phoenix plus a trip to Vegas to use up a 241 in CW.

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