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With my Air Tahiti Nui flight from Tokyo to Tahiti cancelled, it looks like I might have to fall back on my Auckland-Tahiti back-up flights.
I haven’t quite reached the spend on my new BA card. Could someone who has please check for flights from EDI-SYD or INV-SYD for, say, 24-29 August. Need to be in Auckland for the 31st.
Wouldn’t mind even just to Doha – I see QR have double points availability for 1st Class on the A380 DOH-SYD!
With my Air Tahiti Nui flight from Tokyo to Tahiti cancelled, it looks like I might have to fall back on my Auckland-Tahiti back-up flights.
I haven’t quite reached the spend on my new BA card. Could someone who has please check for flights from EDI-SYD or INV-SYD for, say, 24-29 August. Need to be in Auckland for the 31st.
Wouldn’t mind even just to Doha – I see QR have double points availability for 1st Class on the A380 DOH-SYD!
You did not mention class or number of people, vouchers etc, the only one I can see is:
EdI to SYD – 2 economy on Qatar on 26 aug 2023
Thanks Reney,
Sorry, I should have said 2 people in Business or First.
Thought only Rhys travels in economy to Oz!
Understood that there was extra availability with the new Amex 241, but you can only see it when you actually have the 241 – so before using Billhop to pay a couple of grand to HMRC to hit the target immediately, thought I’d ask if other can see any availability.
I’ll have a look after tea, @Colin, though the ones which show on SeatSpy have been getting snapped up PDQ. Incidentally, we travelled to Oz (actually further than, that, also to NZ) in economy in 2009, with a 4 year old! Obviously before we discovered HFP.
Not sure if it’s practical for you, but Qatar do have 45k availability on 17 March for Adelaide to London
Oh, thanks! I’ll have a look and see if I can make it work.
Qatar flights London – Melbourne return on your dates are showing £330 reduction for using 77k Avios , the nearest option to your 90k, so this isn’t a great exchange rate compared to the approx £600 you could get by cashing them out to Nectar and spending them in Sainsbury.
You can book cash plus miles using Asia Miles on Cathay but not sure they offer cash and miles with Avios.
Thank you but I don’t shop at Sainsbury’s enough to make use of the £600. I’d rather use it for flights as I consider points as an added bonus to my otherwise normal spending!
Does anyone have Cathay or AirAsia miles that could possibly check for me? I’d really appreciate it.
@Colin, just had a quick look during a lull in cooking. Nothing showing outbound LON-SYD (I think throwing domestic connections into the mix at the search stage might add extra complications). Interestingly, if you select the stopover option it show that SIN-SYD is available on August 15th, so I’m guessing it needs availability on both sectors to show any kind of result on a straight search.
I did use the new 241, but I imagine that August being school holidays in many UK regions, avios seats will be like hens’ teeth. There always seems to be plenty of BA availability to DOH, though.
Ignore!
With my Air Tahiti Nui flight from Tokyo to Tahiti cancelled, it looks like I might have to fall back on my Auckland-Tahiti back-up flights.
I haven’t quite reached the spend on my new BA card. Could someone who has please check for flights from EDI-SYD or INV-SYD for, say, 24-29 August. Need to be in Auckland for the 31st.
Wouldn’t mind even just to Doha – I see QR have double points availability for 1st Class on the A380 DOH-SYD!
Hi Colin – just had a look and there are currently 2 seats from INV-SYD on August 24th 2023 if searching with the new style BA voucher:
Wow – I got nothing, I will add the domestic connection next time! I thought the extra availability from the regions only covered the winter period but I only skimmed Rob’s article, TBH. @Colin better get spending 😃
Thanks Jamie.
Have now spent the cash – £50 to Billhop for an early Xmas for Rishi!
The rest was used for some fine dining at The Pompadour in Edinburgh. May be of interest to you Anna?
https://www.itison.com/Glasgow/deals/dean-banks-at-the-pompadour-tasting-menu-2
Thanks for the help!
Qatar, for my dates, I can only get one way tickets at 45k. The return is always priced at 90k which is annoying.
Qantas, it is asking for 200k for reward flights.
I am trying to work out how to see how much 90k would be ‘worth’ in a miles plus cash payment. Unfortunately without miles for either, I cannot see.
I wouldn’t mi d going via the US as I love flying VA but once again, I can’t see the flights in the website. It crashes when I try, which isn’t handy!
I’ll try again. I have seen Cathay is the cheapest in cost (just over £1k). If I could see how much 99k would take off in a miles plus cash scenario, I would be interested.
Thanks again for your help.
I think for Qatar the 90k for the return would be their double Avios to guarantee a reward seat, as there’s now no availability on 17th March from Melbourne.
On 25th Feb for LON-SYD, its 51,500 avios plus £367 taxes on Qantas, but seeing as you only have 90k points, you may need to go for the next option, which is 41,200 avios plus £452, to ensure you have enough points for the return.
If you are willing to return on 16th March instead, there’s still good availability from Melbourne.
On Qatar/BA, it’s 42,250 plus £159 taxes.
On Malaysian, it’s 57,000 plus £91 taxes, or 45,600 plus £196.
On Qatar only, it’s 45,000 plus £138.
Edit: Just to add that I found this on BA website
@Colin – sadly it expires before our next trip at the end of April but I’ll keep an eye on the site, thanks for reminding me!
Thanks Jamie.
Have now spent the cash – £50 to Billhop for an early Xmas for Rishi!
The rest was used for some fine dining at The Pompadour in Edinburgh. May be of interest to you Anna?
https://www.itison.com/Glasgow/deals/dean-banks-at-the-pompadour-tasting-menu-2
No worries! Fingers crossed your voucher is credited in a speedy fashion. It looks like there is also availability from Edinburgh on both the 24th and 25th if that suits better (albeit for an extra ~£400 in taxes!)
Well this made me laugh – BA’s bots are clearly hard at work tonight as shortly after I did the dummy search to SYD with our new 241, I got an email suggesting I use it to visit Turin instead 🤣🤣🤣
Thank you but I don’t shop at Sainsbury’s enough to make use of the £600. I’d rather use it for flights as I consider points as an added bonus to my otherwise normal spending!
You can spend Nectar at Argos or Ebay too. There’s almost nothing you can’t get from those two outlets. Within a year I’m certain you could blast through £ 600 of Nectar.
As to your point about “added bonus”, I agree. It’s horrible to spend points on non-aspirational nonsense like tins of beans and toasters. However, despite holding out for years against spending points for anything other than leisure/holidays, this is what I do:
– I have a Chase holiday savings account
– If I transfer Avios to Nectar (or make any other non-holiday redemption from Amex) I put the equivalent sum in the savings account
– I spend the savings account funds exclusively on non-essential holidays and leisureunfortunately, post-pandemic, this unsexy way of spending Amex/Avios can clearly be the best way.
Thank you but I don’t shop at Sainsbury’s enough to make use of the £600. I’d rather use it for flights as I consider points as an added bonus to my otherwise normal spending!
You can spend Nectar at Argos or Ebay too. There’s almost nothing you can’t get from those two outlets. Within a year I’m certain you could blast through £ 600 of Nectar.
As to your point about “added bonus”, I agree. It’s horrible to spend points on non-aspirational nonsense like tins of beans and toasters. However, despite holding out for years against spending points for anything other than leisure/holidays, this is what I do:
– I have a Chase holiday savings account
– If I transfer Avios to Nectar (or make any other non-holiday redemption from Amex) I put the equivalent sum in the savings account
– I spend the savings account funds exclusively on non-essential holidays and leisureunfortunately, post-pandemic, this unsexy way of spending Amex/Avios can clearly be the best way.
That’s not a bad idea. I’ll keep it in mind if I do t find a decent redemption/discount for my Australia flights!
With my Air Tahiti Nui flight from Tokyo to Tahiti cancelled, it looks like I might have to fall back on my Auckland-Tahiti back-up flights.
I haven’t quite reached the spend on my new BA card. Could someone who has please check for flights from EDI-SYD or INV-SYD for, say, 24-29 August. Need to be in Auckland for the 31st.
Wouldn’t mind even just to Doha – I see QR have double points availability for 1st Class on the A380 DOH-SYD!
I believe late August is peak for BA, where they will want 300,000 Avios for a return flight on a 241.
QR will want 360,000 Avios for a return flight for two and you could fly straight into NZ if that’s your ultimate destination
We much prefer QR for heading to Australia if we aren’t stacking vouchers, QSuites the whole way and if travelling on peak BA dates the points are basically the same. While its 60,000 more, you’re essentially paying 60,000 for better flights and to save your 241 for another redemption
There are a few off-peaks dates in August, I managed to get F to BDA flying out on the 22nd – most Mon/Tue/Wed seem to be off peak that month.
I’ve had a look on the BA website for Qatar redemptions fights and the taxes are cheaper for the outgoing flight. For the return flight, there are no reward flights so I will pay with points and cash. I have 2500 Avios in the account right now, but when I go to check out and say to reduce the costs with points, it says only 1000 Avios will be applied to reduce the cost by $18 AUD. Does anyone know why this is limited? Thanks!
Sorry I don’t know why that’s happening, but isn’t booking a one way flight disproportionately expensive?
The outbound flight is 45k + £250 fees. The inbound flight is $1270 AUD, which is approx £700. If I can pay for some of it with my remaining 45k points and then pay the rest by cash, it should be about $810 AUD/£450. Which means return flights with Qatar on the days I want with the timings I want at 90k + £600. It might be more expensive than a return flight but it’s the best I can get, unfortunately. All I need to work out is the max/best way to use the Avios to pay for it.
I’ve had a look on the BA website for Qatar redemptions fights and the taxes are cheaper for the outgoing flight. For the return flight, there are no reward flights so I will pay with points and cash. I have 2500 Avios in the account right now, but when I go to check out and say to reduce the costs with points, it says only 1000 Avios will be applied to reduce the cost by $18 AUD. Does anyone know why this is limited? Thanks!
I’ve tried that Sydney – London cash economy dummy booking on 17 March and it’s showing the part pay with Avios offers starting at A$45 for 2800 Avios – so maybe it’s because you only have 2500 Avios in your account?
And various increments including A$387 off for 43000 Avios….I have lots of Avios in my account currently
I’ve had a look on the BA website for Qatar redemptions fights and the taxes are cheaper for the outgoing flight. For the return flight, there are no reward flights so I will pay with points and cash. I have 2500 Avios in the account right now, but when I go to check out and say to reduce the costs with points, it says only 1000 Avios will be applied to reduce the cost by $18 AUD. Does anyone know why this is limited? Thanks!
I’ve tried that Sydney – London cash economy dummy booking on 17 March and it’s showing the part pay with Avios offers starting at A$45 for 2800 Avios – so maybe it’s because you only have 2500 Avios in your account?
Oh, that’s interesting! It’s only showing me $18 off for 1000 Avios, so I thought it would go straight to 2500, but maybe not! So I guess this means transferring everything remaining and hoping for the best that I can use them all?
Does BA also restrict Avios + cash redemptions to 50% of the cost, as Qatar does?
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