400K Avios + 100K MR + 2 Companion Vouchers, no kids – what to do?!

[simonbarker]

My wife and I started on the Avios collection train in June and have amassed the amounts in the title. We’ve been fortunate to get the BAPP signup bonuses and the recent Platinum SUB as well but since this train nearing the end of the tracks we are starting to ask the question:

What to do with them?!

We’ve never flown anything other than economy, the fanciest we’ve gone is extra leg room coming back from honeymoon a decade ago.

We like a beach, the sun, and exploring a city (which rules out Maldives I feel). Beyond that we have no other constraints other that “Not the USA or Dubai”.

We would like to fly first (Not all routes have first?) and ideally experience the best BA/Iberia currently have to offer. If we are going to blast through most of our Avios then I figure we might as well get the best possible from it.

Ideas we’ve had are:
– Mauritius – all in one destination? No first class though?
– Santiago – add a hop to Peru for some Inca stuff
– Tokyo – fails the beach aspect

I think the Avios + companion vouchers will cover our flights, so then I wonder if there is anything we can do with the MRs for accommodation? My one experience in the Uluwatu Marriott wasn’t enjoyable though so nervous about using the MRs on the big chain hotels if thats a thing people do?

I realise this is pretty vague so understand if suggestions are thin on the ground. I’m essentially saving “first class, anywhere in the world, 14 days, sun, sea and city. Trip of a life time”

Suggestions very much welcome.

[NorthernLass]

Firstly you need to narrow down your options! F will do this for you, as these seats are not guaranteed to be released to any destination. SeatSpy can do a wide search for you to show you where there’s currently F availability.

Some pretty guaranteed options are MEX (which would open up Latin America), and major US cities like JFK/BOS/IAD, from where you can also connect to multiple destinations. Far East options tend to appear later and get snapped up very quickly. You can set an alert for these.

Also have a look at threads on here with similar titles to yours as there will already be a wealth of information in those.

I personally also like a city break followed by lounging on a beach, so have done many US/Caribbean combos. F to the US on BA then a connection on AA (cash or avios) to the many destinations available.

Note if you can fly from DUB or another non-UK city, the surcharges are much lower in F. There are also threads and articles on how to do this!

[NorthernLass]

If you take some time to look at your options, you can get very creative. For example, in December we are flying MAN-DUB, spending 2 days there, then flying DUB-LHR-MEX in F. Saved £600 on BA F surcharges by starting in DUB. Doing 5 nights in Mexico City then using Virgin Atlantic points to PVR where we’re doing 12 nights on the Pacific coast, then return PVR-MEX followed by MEX-LHR-MAN (in CW with the “other half” of the companion voucher). Booking the 2 legs of the 241 journey separately meant that we saved on surcharges and can return to our local airport, which is MAN, rather than having to go via DUB again.

All the flight bookings have been made with points for this trip, though we often mix avios and cash if that works better.

Again, the more you read up on this kind of thing, the better experience you’ll eventually have.

[Froggee]

Well firstly, if you want two seats in First then you are limiting yourself somewhat but for starters I’d be getting a Seatspy subscription and be ready to pounce.

Santiago ain’t that exciting from my memories of it in 2009 and peeps have said similar more recently.

I would have thought Singapore and Hong Kong might be of interest. Both are proper cities and are hoppable to beach destinations.

I’m not huge on first class. I’ve only flown it a couple of times but on a long haul flight I want to be left alone and find that food on a plane is never going to match food on the ground and I am yet to find an airplane bed that is even as comfortable as my sofa. Maybe I’m weird. Well I am weird but, whatever.

If @JDB appears I imagine he’ll recommend Beijing and Mexico City and if he has the time, will make some further recommendations. Both have a much better chance than normal for First although I think you’ll struggle to find a beach near Beijing.

The MR points aren’t a huge stash. Personally I’d use them for flights.

[aseftel]

Singapore is the first place that comes to mind (you’d probably want to hop to a nearby island for a beach though). First availability will be the limiting factor. You could do F outbound 18th April and back in business on 1st or 4th May (using the companion voucher to open up additional business availability).

[NorthernLass]

@aseftel, that itinerary booked in one go would seriously mess up the surcharges (see my post above for how to get round this). OP would need to somehow book separately – an amenable BA agent might be able to book the inbound and “see” the extra CW availability if the standard avios seats have gone.

[RK228]

simonbarker wrote:

Tokyo – fails the beach aspect

There might not be beaches in Tokyo, but there are some great beaches in Japan.

Fly to Tokyo using the voucher, spend some time there and/or nearby areas/cities, and then fly to Okinawa. With JAL, it’s no problem to pay cash or Avios to fly to Okinawa and some of the beaches we visited there were amazing. We had a great time exploring Okinawa this past summer.

There are some first-class seats available on the LHR-HND route too, although not necessarily at the time seats are first released. For this upcoming summer, I booked Club World at T-355 and have a Seat Spy alert set up (and also manually check periodically) waiting to see if first class seats become available (one did, but it was leaving one day earlier, so elected to stay with Club World).

[simonbarker]

@NorthernLass – that’s quite the itinerary! Not sure I’m at the level of being able to balance those levels of connections in my head but that’s a great example to show what’s possible.

You’re right about reducing our options, at the moment it’s too broad and like you say, using First will start us down that path.

US onto Latin America is a good idea. I have a relative in Florida I should probably visit and then hop down from there. Main reason for ruling out the US is the cost when there.

@Froggee thanks for the Santiago intel, I only know one person that’s been and they enjoyed it but I think it was part of a larger trip if memory serves. We’ve done the Singapore to Bali hop a couple of times so we’re thinking of broadening out. Beijing would be a tough sell to my wife after three work trips to Shanghai this year (she’s not keen) but perhaps could be sold on Hong Kong. I might not like first either but I’d like to be able to speak from experience 😉

@aseftel hadn’t thought to mix classes for different legs. Good suggestion.

[simonbarker]

@RK228 ah good to know, realistically we wouldn’t spend the whole trip in Tokyo so knowing Japan has some good beaches bumps up the appeal. Thanks

[phantomchickenz]

2 companion vouchers could mean two trips? One beach, one city, rather than compromising and trying to find one location that tries to do both.

[Froggee]

I liked Santiago but only did a couple of nights there in betwixt Rio and Easter Island.

We visited a vineyard and had a tour (with guide) of the old bits of Santiago. It didn’t feel like we missed much as far the city goes.

[aseftel]

NorthernLass wrote:

@aseftel, that itinerary booked in one go would seriously mess up the surcharges (see my post above for how to get round this). OP would need to somehow book separately – an amenable BA agent might be able to book the inbound and “see” the extra CW availability if the standard avios seats have gone.

That’s what I was expecting to happen, but it didn’t actually make a big difference when I priced it out (unless I made a mistake somewhere) – just a hundred pounds or so.

[simonbarker]

phantomchickenz wrote:

2 companion vouchers could mean two trips? One beach, one city, rather than compromising and trying to find one location that tries to do both.

Unless I’m mistaken don’t we need to use the two companion vouchers to make a return happen for two people? One person gets the return and then then one voucher per leg? Or can a single voucher do a return?

[Froggee]

One single Amex companion voucher is for a return for two people.

You pay return Avios for one and return fees/surcharges for two.

[simonbarker]

Ooooh, I don’t know how I got that so wrong! Well that just doubled our effective travel possibilities … now I have two problems to solve, this trip and the next one!

[Man of Kent]

NorthernLass wrote:

If you take some time to look at your options, you can get very creative. For example, in December we are flying MAN-DUB, spending 2 days there, then flying DUB-LHR-MEX in F. Saved £600 on BA F surcharges by starting in DUB. Doing 5 nights in Mexico City then using Virgin Atlantic points to PVR where we’re doing 12 nights on the Pacific coast, then return PVR-MEX followed by MEX-LHR-MAN (in CW with the “other half” of the companion voucher). Booking the 2 legs of the 241 journey separately meant that we saved on surcharges and can return to our local airport, which is MAN, rather than having to go via DUB again.

All the flight bookings have been made with points for this trip, though we often mix avios and cash if that works better.

Again, the more you read up on this kind of thing, the better experience you’ll eventually have.

I’d be interested to know whether the £600 saving is after the cost of flying to DUB, accommodation, meals etc or whether you are treating it as using the £600 to fund the trip to DUB?

[Birdy]

I recommend Cape Town for beaches, sun when it’s winter in the UK, and great city plus lots to see and do in Western Cape. BA fly first to Cape Town (though award flights seem virtually non-existent) but Jo’burg has better availability in first and is only a two hour flight to Cape Town.

Flights are overnight in both directions though, so first enjoyment is a bit limited unless you don’t want to sleep. We prefer flying direct in CW over first and connecting in Jo’burg.

[simonbarker]

Hadn’t considered SA at all, thanks @Birdy – think I would go for CW if overnight. I usually never sleep on planes but on the off chance I did in First I feel like it would be a waste

[RV]

Not first class seats, but Iberia offers excellent availability in Business to Colombia and Peru. And with the companion vouchers you’d still end up with a lot of avios to spare.

Did Colombia in 2022 and loved it. Going to Peru in June and super looking forward to it!

[simonbarker]

@RV we had a full Peru trip planned out that we were about to pull the trigger on in Feb 2020 …. maybe we should resurrect that?

[Sandj]

I would recommend south africa too. Fab beaches in cape town and lots to do. Then a cheap internal flight to Johannesburg and from there a safari in kruger.

[Sip]

As a fan of Japan, I’d also suggest Tokyo with a nice beach holiday in Okinawa. You can do a nice snorkel or diving trip there..food is amazing…and it’s surprisingly foreigner friendly giving the history with the army base.
There’s also a very amazing aquarium there (one of the few ones with whale sharks I believe).

Tokyo will offer you a really exciting city to explore and the contrast with Okinawa will be great fun. You can also fly first via JAL for relatively cheap tickets with JAL and experience domestic first class, it’s good fun.

My other advice is…you don’t have to spend ALL the points on one trip!

[NorthernLass]

@Man of Kent – Dublin city break was planned anyway! MAN-DUB is 4k avios plus £56 each on EI, 2 nights at the CP DUB for 50k points, and more than enough spending money left over (even at the famed Dublin prices, lol).

Even if we spent the entire £600 saving on the Dublin break, it’s still a much better use for it than paying BA surcharges 😂

[tiriavpo]

Also, using one voucher, you can go out to, and back from different places – eg out to Jo’burg and back from Cape Town or out to South Africa and back from Mauritius etc.

Flyertalk has a good BA forum which has loads of info on 241 vouchers and how they can be used.

[marshy11]

Try and sell Hong Kong to her. It does tick all your boxes. It has F and some fabulous lounges for the return. The city itself will give tons to do and see and the beaches are not too far away. We only had five days but packed it all in including a day at Repulse Bay. We totally loved it.

Don’t do Mauritius, it’s a long flight and old CW and whilst there are one or two decent hotels the others are rather stuck in the ‘need refurbishment’. However the beaches are stunning and snorkelling/diving is a delight.