How many extra Avios do I need?

[sandman]

Hi I’m a new member and I’d really appreciate some help.

I’m buying BA flights and using my Avios to reduce the cost.

I have 61000 points but the most the BA site is letting me use is 45600 to save £220.

I have a load of unused Nectar points that I could use to top up my Avios but how can I find out how many extra Avios I need to save more than the £220.

I hope that makes sense. Thank you!

[nectar collector]

If you’re new to HfP, not sure if you’ve come across this article which Rob wrote about using Avios to part pay

https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/07/25/part-pay-with-avios-british-airways-flights-worth-it/

There is a limit to how many Avios you can use to reduce the cost, and using a lot of Avios in this way may not always be the best value, but that’s always a bit subjective!

Where are you planning to fly and when?

[ed_fly]

Have a look through these pages – https://www.headforpoints.com/category/avios-redemption-university/

[sandman]

nectar collector wrote:

If you’re new to HfP, not sure if you’ve come across this article which Rob wrote about using Avios to part pay
<snip>
Where are you planning to fly and when?

Thanks for that. I did have a read through the article but I was curious if there was a way of working out exactly how many points I’d need for the next step up in savings. If I try to price the trip without being signed in, it says “Reduce your flight price by up to £660” so I was assuming that would have been the most I could save but when I sign in, it drops to £220.

I’m travelling to the US in August. Total flight price is £1750.

[sandman]

ed_fly wrote:

Have a look through these pages – https://www.headforpoints.com/category/avios-redemption-university/

Thank you. I did check that out before posting but couldn’t spot anything too specific that helped.

[nectar collector]

sandman wrote:

nectar collector wrote:

If you’re new to HfP, not sure if you’ve come across this article which Rob wrote about using Avios to part pay
<snip>
Where are you planning to fly and when?

Thanks for that. I did have a read through the article but I was curious if there was a way of working out exactly how many points I’d need for the next step up in savings. If I try to price the trip without being signed in, it says “Reduce your flight price by up to £660” so I was assuming that would have been the most I could save but when I sign in, it drops to £220.

I’m travelling to the US in August. Total flight price is £1750.

If you’re happy to share your exact destination dates and travel class, I can try a dummy booking to see what the max Avios discount it gives me – my Avios pot is currently pretty full so would expect to be offered the max discount option

[phil-lavin]

It sounds like you’re trying to book cash fares and discount them with avios. This is rarely a good idea. What you want to do is book reward flights either by paying with avios or by paying cash and upgrading with avios. Get yourself the BA Executive Club iPhone/Android app and look at the “Spend” tab or use this site: https://www.britishairways.com/travel/redeem/execclub/_gf/en_gb?eId=106019&tab_selected=redeem&redemption_type=STD_RED

[phil-lavin]

As a point of reference, US reward flights in August (peak time) are somewhere around 70k avios for economy, 130k for premium and 190k for business . You’ll also pay taxes of 100-450 pounds on those.

If you have a BA Amex 241 voucher you can half the avios required – taxes stay the same.

[AJA]

I think BA doesn’t allow you to use any amount of Avios to reduce the price of a fare. In other words in this instance BA will only allow you to use a maximum of 45600 Avios.

But why are you doing this? This is not the best use of Avios. If you value Avios at 1p each you are using Avios with a value of £456 to get a discount of only £220. In other words instead of getting 1p of value per Avios you are only getting just under 0.5p of value per Avios.

That said if you don’t want to spend your Avios getting better value out of them then go ahead.

[The Savage Squirrel]

Do you really not have any use for Nectar points? Surely there is SOME use you can find for Nectar points that is a direct cash saving for something you would have bought anyway? Ebay sells literally everything on earth and Sainsburys sells food which you definitely do need 😀

If you want to use your Avios to help with the cost of this specific flight (fair enough) then you are actually better off transferring points in the Avios -> Nectar direction, spending Nectar points on essentials rather than cash, then using that hard cash saving you made to help cover flight costs.

As a bonus, cash also gives you the choice of every airline on earth rather than just the Avios-using ones.

[sandman]

Thanks so much for the advice from everyone here.

I haven’t tried purchasing with avios and paying extra for ages as there never seemed to be availability for when I wanted to travel. However, I called and tried booking over the phone and managed to save a load by doing it this way.

All booked now and saved about £500 extra. Just waiting for the Avios points to be credited to my account now.