NEW: You can now pay for BA Holidays packages with Avios

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• Ian says:

  6 Mar6 March 05:18

  Why would anyone spend 250,000 Avios to fly in Economy to Barcelona for 3 nights?

  Seems like a total waste of points.

  In any case, I seem to recall you saying that you should never go less than .8p per Avios, now .67p as that is the base level.

  Far better to book business on points and book a hotel directly.

  I appreciate that BA are paying for the post – so you can’t be totally dismissive.

  But I guess this is one scheme to help people spend Avios.

  Having said all this, with well over a million – unless I spend them they will go to waste. 😂

  • Andrew J says:

    6 Mar6 March 06:37

    Exactly your two last points – more choice is always good.

  • Thywillbedone says:

    6 Mar6 March 09:45

    I join you as someone with a mounting Avios balance and more vouchers than I can use. Tried to book Croatia in May for 3 using a voucher (cash prices very high) = failed. Trying to book Germany over Easter for 3 = failed (admittedly on relatively short notice). Been trying to get Thailand and other destinations in the Far East for a long time = failed. Have managed to book LA for summer, 3 people in J. But now looking at either paying Double Avios on Qatar or other such route to reduce my balance …could be considered heresy, but I don’t like holding onto lots of a weak currency for long periods.

• Lou says:

  6 Mar6 March 05:29

  I’d take them up on the anything up to 0.8p per avios. A nice new offering

• BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

  6 Mar6 March 05:59

  When had a look last week I was shown getting 1p per avios on some small amounts – £8 for 800 then £ 18 for 1,800 and then a rapidly descending list with the worst value for using all my avios.

  So the value can be had especially if you only have a small amount of avios which may otherwise be useless.

  • The Original David says:

    6 Mar6 March 07:22

    Yep, I had options for a booking last week of £8 off for 800 Avios or £15 off for 1525 Avios (and then many worse options). I took the £15 off.

• Freddy says:

  6 Mar6 March 06:29

  We all know Robs opinion on this if it wasn’t a sponsored ad….

  • Rob says:

    6 Mar6 March 06:46

    Same as it is written above. Not something I’d do myself but the option is there if you want it. I have a lot of respect for BA Holidays for supporting that message.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    6 Mar6 March 06:46

    As he wrote in the second last paragraph

    “ It obviously isn’t the most effective way of using your points but at the end of the day …”

    He’d probably use exactly the same words as well. Rob doesn’t let the fact an article has been paid for get in the way of his editorial.

    • Freddy says:

      6 Mar6 March 07:13

      Other redemptions at this level have previously been deemed as poor or abysmal in the past…Guess the article is a polite way of saying that

    • J says:

      6 Mar6 March 08:15

      We’d normally see a: ‘you’d be mad to redeem at these levels given…’

      • Rizz says:

        6 Mar6 March 11:51

        +1 😂😂😂

• Pj92 says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:14

  Does this mean that spending Avios on hotels and cars via BA.com is going to go then as surely these are the same thing and they were never reliant on award availability in the first place? They have a fixed value per Avios no matter the amount redeemed.

  • FFoxSake says:

    6 Mar6 March 07:42

    What’s BA Holidays excuse for not accepting the cash value of e-vouchers though, Rob?

    If BA can accept e-vouchers OR Avios for part-payment of flight-only bookings they should really be allowing either for holidays too.

    • Rob says:

      6 Mar6 March 08:25

      Seems very possible from the BA accounts announcement last week that it intends to wipe vouchers in September. Will release £500m IIRC.

      • No longer Entitled says:

        6 Mar6 March 08:29

        Odd way to put it, although I can see the logic when speaking to the balance sheet. Another way would be to say, keep £0.5bn of customer money earned without ever providing a service.

        • Rob says:

          6 Mar6 March 08:32

          Anyone with a voucher took it voluntarily in place of cash, or was on a flight which actually operated and where no refund was legally due.

          Bit tough on those who took a voucher instead of cash to help BA survive covid of course.

        • Jonathan says:

          6 Mar6 March 10:28

          At the same time, those people booked flights when a lot of countries weren’t letting people in, BA were essentially letting people buy flexible tickets (without the opportunity of cash refund unless flight was cancelled) for rock bottom prices, and prices were low because they wanted people to book despite knowing there’s a likelihood the flight would get cancelled, there were almost certainly many who accepted a voucher over refund for a cancelled flight, although BA didn’t make it very easy, forcing you to call up, spending long periods of time waiting before you put through to anyone in order to the get the refund processed

        • No longer Entitled says:

          6 Mar6 March 10:41

          I’d agree that accepting a voucher was voluntary but BA did not make it easy to obtain a cash refund. In fact, one might consider that they actually put obstacles in the way. For example, was it possible to obtain both a voucher or cash via the website/app?

• Paul says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:24

  Presuming you earn Avios for flights on these bookings unlike redemptions so need to figure this into the equation. Coupled with double tier points this offer def becomes more appealing especially for small amounts of Avios

  • Andrew J says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:24

    Yes, normal cash ticket earning, just like when you reduce by Avios the price of a cash ticket.

    • Jonathan says:

      6 Mar6 March 10:31

      The only part pay with Avios I ever do is lowest amount possible, which gives 1pence per Avios return

      Although I did get two vouchers after getting 2pence per Avios return nearly a couple of years ago, even by HfP standards, that’s a substantially good return

• L Allen says:

  6 Mar6 March 08:24

  Is the reason this is only available at the point of initial booking due to BA’s shonky IT? It’s a shame that it’s not possible to secure a future holiday with a deposit and then earn the Avios needed to cover some/all of the remaining balance.

• Spurs drive me mad says:

  6 Mar6 March 08:25

  What’s the cancellation policy on using points, if say you book and pay up several hundred thousand points at time of booking and then you have to cancel would you lose the points equivalent to deposit or would you lose all your points? Are points payments covered under travel insurance policies ?

  It’s another option which is always good, but I don’t think I would comment hundreds of thousands of hard earned points to a holiday I might book months out. I might risk 50k but no more.

  • Navara says:

    6 Mar6 March 09:07

    I once booked a cruise with Airmiles which I had to cancel due to illness. Claimed from insurance which paid out the cash price. Avios may be different

    • tony says:

      6 Mar6 March 09:19

      I think that’s a very specific carve out in travel insurance policies. Some will say they pay the cash equivalent for miles cancellations, others offer no cover at all.

      • Spurs drive me mad says:

        6 Mar6 March 09:35

        I think if I was going to spend a significant amount of miles I would want travel insurance in place that covers points. Wether such a policy exists is another matter, think that opens up a whole different can of worms in how much a point is worth. Had anyone actually booked and read cancellation t&c of this scheme?

        • Spurs drive me mad says:

          6 Mar6 March 09:41

          I looked up t&c on BA for part answer.

          When Avios have been used as part payment, the Avios will be refundable only where the holiday is refundable. Partial refunds of holiday payment will be credited to your Avios account up to the value of the original part payment, with any remainder credited to your original method of payment.
          In the case of a Household Account, current redemption rules apply regarding the debiting of Avios across the accounts of the Household members. However, Members of a Household Account can make Avios part-payment bookings for people outside of the Household Account.

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