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Hello,
I’m very much a novice when it comes to using my points so wanted to ask for a bit of help and guidance to get the best value.
I’m looking for return flights from London to New York at the end of October. I’d like to go business or even first. Someone said in passing to me that sometimes better deals can be had flying indirectly with a partner airline like Iberia from Madrid for example…
If anyone could give any pointers of advise it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
MM
You’re leaving it very late to book reward flights (if you mean next month!), however NYC has some of the best availability unless it’s a super-peak travel period, on BA, anyway. IB don’t release as many seats so if your dates are fixed you’re probably better looking at what’s actually possible before making a decision.
SeatSpy is showing 1 F seat from NYC to London on October 24th, so you might want to do some quick reading up on here about surcharges and combining cabins, then decide. Plenty of J/business class.
MAD-NYC on Iberia is 68k avios return in business IIRC, and very low on the taxes, so potentially significant savings can be made if you book a separate outbound to Madrid, and return. You’ll have to factor those costs in when deciding if you want to do that, but BA direct is 160k avios plus £375 in business (off peak), so it’s a huge saving.
Remember that whilst flying with IB via MAD can cost you less avios & cash than flying BA direct ex LHR you need to include the costs of the additonal flight to/from MAD and possibly a hotel in assessing if that is the ‘best value’.
There is also the additional time taken in getting to/from MAD etc which can eat heavily into the time of your break.
I’m currently looking at a trip to NYC next year and currently working out if the cash costs of getting to DUB is worth the savings of flying DUB-LHR-NYC against the inconvenience of flying there agaist just flying direct from LHR especially as I don’t need the Tier Points as I’ll also need at least one and possibly 2 extra nights of a hotel.
Total no-brainer – go on Iberia.
Alternatively, look at Aer Lingus out (because you can clear immigration in Dublin) and Iberia back, because you’d have the day to get back to the UK with no hotel needed.
Iberia will be overall cheapest though if you do them both ways.
Plenty of availability in Oct from MAN on Aer Lingus, 50k each way for Business, £337 out, £107 back for the taxes.
That’s IF the Avios transfer from BA to AE works.
It’s great to fly Business or even First.
But, if you’re trying to maximise Avios value, a New York trip might not be the best option for that. The thing is, East Coast USA is a relatively short flight, especially the return which can be under 6 hours, so you might be using up your stash of points to achieve a lie flat bed for just 3 hour’s sleep.
Be mindful that there are daytime flights from New York (along with Boston and others), and cash fares in economy/premium economy are still available from £400/800 at the end of October. Personally, I’d much rather have a good night’s sleep in a NY hotel, have a lazy breakfast then grab the 11:00(ish) American flight to London arriving at 22:00 (ish) then head home to bed.
Is there any IB availability this close to the travel dates?
I’d personally save some avios and cash and get a day flight back in economy – what is AA pricing? The BA 8 am departure is also a good option at 25k avios (unless in Oct half term), plus £50.
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