Avios fares “poor value” to N America

[berneslai]

Firstly, apologies for going over old ground but can someone explain the apparent poor value in using Avios for North America? I keep seeing the comment but don’t know if that’s versus equivalent uses of Avios, versus cash prices or both?

I’ve seen a few HFP articles/forum posts about it but I haven’t seen the maths anywhere. I totally understand that its a poor value use versus, say, flights to Johannesburg but I’m interested to know whether I should be using Avios for a 2025 long haul to SFO or whether I keep them for a ‘better’ use.

[NorthernLass]

I don’t know where you’ve seen this? Award flights are priced by distance so the only reason for them to be poor value is in respect of cash tickets to a particular destination. So an award seat on a very competitive route like JFK will probably give poorer “value” than one to the Maldives.

But cash prices fluctuate wildly so you can’t ever say that destination A is always better value than destination B.

[Londonsteve]

An example: an Economy return to New York is 50,000 Avios + £100, in other words, the equivalent of £600. Unless you’re looking to fly one way for half this amount, you can easily pick up a return cash fare London-New York for less than £600, so in this case, using Avios represents poor value.

[AndrewT]

Economy and Premium are usually poorer value than Business, and the cheapest cash fares (not always available at those prices, pay up front, no cancellation) are often cheaper than reward fights, so price only is not really comparing like with like.

New York also just happens to be one of the cheapest US destinations, so hardly representative.

[berneslai]

OK, thanks both. All makes sense and I’ve got no trouble with my desired flights being of worse value than to a destination I’ve got no desire to travel to.

[yonasl]

@berneslai you are not wrong as LON-USA flights in economy (the lowest fare) can be VERY cheap. I was for instance checking LON-LA NY-LON and it was coming at £450. No combination of avios is that low. Now, this is with no refund, no seat selection and no luggage. Start adding those if you have no status and the price will start going up a lot (since the ticket is so cheap). On the example from before the fare is £50 to the airline and £400 in fees & taxes!

PS: You can fly to LA/SFO in PE for very little (~£800) if you combine that with a car on a BA Holiday you get double tier points and only “lose” the deposit if you need to cancel. In that respect BA provides very good value. (even adding hotels can be cheaper than booking them alter on).