250k in Avios – BA website makes me wanna throw laptop out of the window!!
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We have never used our Avios points before and have 2 companion vouchers to use before April 2024.we have so far accumulated 260k points
I honestly can’t believe how bad the BA website is!! And the app.
Sorry this is more a rant than a question but surely this some kind of national scandal how Amex is conning people into getting their cards and thinking you can use vouchers and points but the reality is nothing is available and the rules so unclear layfolk can’t understand them.
Am thinking we could pay someone to help us book a once in a lifetime trip (starting point either Edinburgh or Inverness) (perhaps to Australia, maybe even round the world if possible) then we give the card up.
Does anyone know of someone offering this type of service and how much it would cost?
Thanks!
Somebody mentioned this sort of service the other day.
You may want to start by paying a few quids for SeatSpy and try to find what is available the days you want.
The Amex voucher only works with BA, Iberia and AerLingus.
Most people book the first leg of the trip with the voucher as soon as flights are available (360 days in advance) and then book the second part independently. You then call BA and they put them together and refund half of the Avios for the return. (Plenty of posts on how to do this)
Avios flights can be hard to grab for some destinations but others are pretty easy to get.
Take a deep breath. Rather than pay someone, why don’t you give us a clue as to what sort of dates you have in mind, where you’d fancy going and how much flexibility you have?
For instance you could fly to Sydney from Edinburgh in Club using a 241, 270,000 Avios and paying £1,700 flying out on the 6th of March and coming back on the 25th.
But you might say I will only go for a fortnight Saturday-Saturday and I’d say good luck for Sydney!
There is plenty availability to plenty places. You just need to spend a wee bit of time but we’re happy to help.
You are a lucky chap since Edinburgh a great starting off place!
The new Amex 241 vouchers – not the Barclaycard ones – give “extra” availability from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness.
And the new Reward Flight saver long-haul fares mean you don’t even have to go to Inverness to save APD.
In December, I was able to cancel a 241 Inverness to Sydney (via LHR) for the end of August and replace it with an Edinburgh-LHR-Sydney. One BA with a new-style Amex 241. But there was no availability for just LHR-SYD.
So sometimes it all depends on how and where you look.
We also booked Madrid to Panama at Christmas – just six weeks in advance. Why Panama – well, it was one of the few routes available! But we got some great winter sun.
Hey, you can always cash in for Nectar points.
What everyone should do before trying to book avios flights is invest a bit of time into reading the excellent articles here on using avios, the various credit cards and vouchers, and the limitations of all of these (e.g. the companion vouchers can only be used on certain airlines so a round the world trip might not be feasible). It requires a good bit of knowledge, patience and flexibility to get good value out of award bookings, which is the reason why it’s a bit of a niche thing – a lot of people just don’t have the time or patience to pursue it like the hobby is it really is!
Also – you only have to take the outbound before the expiry date so you may have more time than you thought.
“Am thinking we could pay someone to help us book a once in a lifetime trip (starting point either Edinburgh or Inverness) (perhaps to Australia, maybe even round the world if possible) then we give the card up.”
Unless you have a clearer idea of what you want you’d just be wasting the time of the person you’re paying (as well as your money) in coming up with possible options.
And except for a small number of routes there are plenty of reward seats available to all sorts of destinations if you are willing to be flexible and work at doing the searches.
The people who complain most that the vouchers are useless or a scam or a disgrace (I’ve heard all the names) and there is nothing available are those that aren’t prepared to be flexible and have no clear idea of where they want to go.
And haven’t done their homework! It took me 2-3 years of trial and error with avios and BAPP and Lloyds (back in the day!) vouchers before I started getting the maximum value out of them.
Again though, if it was easy everyone and their dog would be doing it and it would be even more difficult to get a decent redemption.
For instance you could fly to Sydney from Edinburgh in Club using a 241, 270,000 Avios and paying £1,700 flying out on the 6th of March and coming back on the 25th.
But you might say I will only go for a fortnight Saturday-Saturday and I’d say good luck for Sydney!
There is plenty availability to plenty places. You just need to spend a wee bit of time but we’re happy to help.
GaryA, Froggee has done the job you were going to pay someone to do in less than an hour and for free. That would be a great and sensible length of trip to exactly the place you wanted to go. You can buy the extra Avios – it’s worth it vs the cash saving. You can send Froggee a cheque via the website, he has children to feed 😉
Many thanks for everyone’s tips and suggestions!
@Northernlass agree it does seem like a hobby and I don’t mind putting in the work to research, but why I was getting frustrated was mostly the BA website and app. Even buying an ordinary flight with BA is an awful experience on their labyrinth website so I should have perhaps braced myself for an even worse experience on their rewards flight booker.We will continue looking and remaining flexible. We just want to fly once in our lives long-haul business or First Class 🙂
@ColinMackinnon – Thanks for your comments! Did you have to phone BA as cant see Edinburgh as an option on reward flight finder? (unless you want to fly to London or Southampton)
@Frogee – Your cheque signed with my invisible quill is in the post! 😉
All BA long-haul flights leave from London airports, so the reference to EDI means for a connecting flight. This is another reason to do research prior to booking, people otherwise end up wasting lots of time searching for flights from their local airport which don’t actually exist!
As long as you do it on one reward booking, you don’t have to pay any extra for a connection to a long-haul service.If you’re dead set on a weekend to weekend flight to a specific destination or two, at peak Easter, half term Xmas hols or summer school hols then you will need to plan 1 year ahead.
The more flexible your are more the voucher opens up the world.
A slight follow up on this topic….
I live in London and yes there are reward flights Sydney to Edinburgh available but nothing comes up Sydney to London. As the Sydney flight arrives at LHR and the connecting flight to EDI leaves from LCY and you have to make your own way there. Is there any terms/restrictions of just not getting on the connecting flight and ending the journey in London??
@GaryA Reward Flight Finder only shows general availability, if it works!
The only way to check the special Amex 241 availability is to have an unused Amex 241 – so a bit of a pain if you book with yours and then want to check other availability to change flights!
So we have one in our daughter’s name just for checking flight availability!
Yes, nothing will happen if you miss the LAST leg, but you must take the first one, (if you are booking a return trip). LCY is especially convenient for doing this as your luggage is automatically offloaded at LHR.
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Has anyone been penalised for missing the last leg of an Avios flight? Eg collecting luggage at LGW when the connecting flight is LHR to EDI.
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