First Class Avios redemptions are now cheaper than mixed First / Club flights!

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• T says:

  13 Dec13 December 07:48

  Other airlines are available!
  I guess the question is, how much are you willing to pay for loyalty to a product that in my eyes is no better or worse then their direct competitors. I for one used all my points to order 128 bottles of red wine.2x 2 4-1 lapsing soon, just no interest anymore flying BA regardless of more or less miles or money needed.
  With NCL connected to FRA, CDG,AMS, and soon ATH with aegean, sweet spots at great rates are more accessible then ever!! Just booked AF to DXB for £2550 for 2 in J. As I only take 2 holidays a year, I just look for a good deal once we know when we want to holiday! It’s almost liberating to just look for a nice product at good rates, to a destination you want to explore!

  • QwertyKnowsBest says:

    13 Dec13 December 07:51

    Well put T.

  • Russell G says:

    13 Dec13 December 08:16

    Care to share how you found £2550 2xJ DXB seats on AF? I see those rates on LH but haven’t found anything similar in AF. Is this ex NCL, CDG or LHR? Appreciate learning more alternatives to BAs fun and games! 😉

    • T says:

      13 Dec13 December 10:42

      Hi Russell,

      These fares appeared for 3 days last month. I use the map function on Google flights twice daily with NCL as starting airport, with all J fares worldwide nicely displayed. OTA had them for sale cheaper, but booked direct with AF.

    • T says:

      13 Dec13 December 10:46

      Keep an eye on ATH on Aegean. From Athens J with Saudia to the far east is at€850 return for plenty destinations. With competitors following suit at times.

  • Harry T says:

    13 Dec13 December 09:02

    What were the dates for those AF flights? I’m a fellow NCL resident.

    • T says:

      13 Dec13 December 10:49

      Found them last month, available at that rate for 3 days only, Flying Jan 2023.

      • Lady London says:

        13 Dec13 December 18:33

        @T how many weeks ahead of your flight did you book? Lots of us are desserting BA since they dropped so many flightts from NCL

        • T says:

          13 Dec13 December 21:49

          4 or 5 weeks ago. It does require twice daily google flight map check to quickly see fares popping up. I got the same fare in June this year. That was a KLM/AF combo. LHR with SWISS or LH was cheaper for my dates, but not keen travelling down South in winter time.

  • flyforfun says:

    13 Dec13 December 10:59

    You don’t have to be outside London to take advantage of EU hubs. Flying LCY to Australia tomorrow via FRA. The connection time is less than what it would take me to get to LHR and the associated wait beforehand. My Y fare for xmas flights, was £1k for a fully flex ticket. Would have been £800 if I made it non-ref/non-can but wanted flexibiltiy just in case.

    Of course there is the risk of a misconnect which, with the current snow, is giving me a few sweaty moments!

    • T says:

      13 Dec13 December 11:13

      You are correct in saying living down South, you have a choice too. Up North however for a long time that choice was not there. you were pretty much driven towards Flying BA to LHR to then connect to EU, or cut out the hassle and go BA all the way. Its great to see other airlines going competitive on the long haul feeder flights from the regions! It gives us all ( South and North) a better choice. Have a great trip tomorrow!!! Bet the weather will be a tad warmer!!

      • jjoohhnn says:

        13 Dec13 December 14:15

        There’s been choice to other hubs for a long time. KLM fly to 17 UK airports and took over Air UK originally back in 1997 which a lot of became KLM Cityhopper for feeder to their long haul network.

• AndyC says:

  13 Dec13 December 08:02

  Ive just redeemed a “new” 2-4-1 voucher to Dallas Fortworth for nxt Nov booking CW return. 4 First seats appeared a few days later so i thought id extend the trip and upgrade for return leg. The system only allows me to change to CW even though F is available – anyone know why or is this yet another misanonamlie?

  • Mike says:

    13 Dec13 December 08:07

    I had the same issue a couple of weeks ago, no option to change the class online. I had to call.

  • A pedantic reader says:

    13 Dec13 December 08:11

    AndyC, i love your new word, ‘misanonamlie’. I think you mean anomaly… but your new word must mean a double BA f***-up, anonymous in its origin

• Russell G says:

  13 Dec13 December 08:03

  First is now better value than it was, unless you are using 241 vouchers, in which case it is now considerably worse value than it was. For example, prior to the changes, NYC F/F on 241 was 160k avios + £1700 taxes for two. J/J on the same flight was 120k avios + £1700 taxes. So only 40k avios difference for two return. Now, F/F is still 160k avios + £1700 taxes, but J/J is 180k avios + £700 taxes. At 1p per avios rate, previously F/F cost £400 more than J/J, now F/F costs £800 more than J/J. So many interesting quirks to these changes!

  • babyg says:

    13 Dec13 December 10:52

    “First is now better value than it was” only compared with BA’s crappy and now more expensive options… avios can be spent on much better value (well just simply better) options…

    • Mark says:

      13 Dec13 December 11:35

      To be fair, in this case it isn’t more expensive. If you have the Avios it is cheaper to fly CW to JFK return with a 2for1 than it was immediately prior to the changes. As to whether BA CW is crappy, that”s a subjective view based on personal experience. Personally, having flown with ~10 airlines now in long haul business class, I’d put BA somewhere around the middle of the pack.

• Will says:

  13 Dec13 December 08:07

  Note it is only the headline price that is inverted. The other options are usually cheaper (more cash less avios if you use 1p as your avios value)

• David says:

  13 Dec13 December 08:11

  I wonder how long it will take for this cheaper redemption in First will remain open before, until the gap is effectively closed 🙂

• Rolf says:

  13 Dec13 December 08:25

  Hi Rob, does this recent devaluation have an impact on your valuation of Avios (1 p rule of thumb)?

  • Rob says:

    13 Dec13 December 09:30

    Not if you live in the US or UK. Big fall outside those countries.

    Exceptions in the UK include those who use Gold Priority Rewards, GUF2s or tax avoiding loopholes.

• Wotsit says:

  13 Dec13 December 08:32

  FOR ROB – Do you have a list of flight destinations where Reward First Class seats are even an option please? I actually thought that they’d disappeared altogether, but your Heathrow to Newark example shows otherwise. Thanks.

  • NorthernLass says:

    13 Dec13 December 08:50

    There’s nothing official, you just have to keep checking! Most likely is east coast USA, plus a few Central/South America, and, oddly, Bermuda!

  • The real Swiss Tony says:

    13 Dec13 December 09:06

    The reward flight finder in the app is good for this. You can search by region, travel class and number of seats, so over the next year I can see that WAS has 130 outbound dates and 156 inbound dates with at least 2 F seats.

    Singapore has one day with 2 F seats inbound only, and that’s next week….

    (Note the app doesn’t help with finding the new 2-4-1 J class availability)

  • Rich says:

    13 Dec13 December 09:22

    YVR is another destination where F availability pops up regularly.

  • Russell G says:

    13 Dec13 December 10:58

    Here’s a snapshot of all destinations that have some outbound availability in F from London: Atlanta, Bahrain, Bermuda, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Riyadh, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle.

    • Russell G says:

      13 Dec13 December 11:03

      Sorry, missed off the end of the list: Vancouver and Washington

      • Nick says:

        13 Dec13 December 13:27

        YVR will likely lose F next year. The airport has asked BA to stop sending A380s so it will be replaced by an alternative aircraft. Which one is yet to be decided, but it’s likely to be only 3-class.

        • jjoohhnn says:

          13 Dec13 December 14:21

          Interesting. Why is that?

        • Mark says:

          13 Dec13 December 18:16

          Interesting. Use of the A380 was a useful consolidator for BA, allowing them to maintain capacity on a single daily flight during the summer season as opposed to two flights most days previously. A380 capable gates/stands require more space so maybe that”s a factor. Not sure if BA is the only airline flying them there.

• S says:

  13 Dec13 December 10:32

  I’m not sure what’s going on today but I’m now seeing pricing like “160000 Avios + £ 1,693.80” to the East Coast US in CW with my old style 241!

  • S says:

    13 Dec13 December 10:40

    Wasn’t pulling through new RFS pricing. Logging out and using a new tab fixed it.

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