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Very much trying to figure this all out, and I expect this isn’t a good use of points, but I’m not sure what else to expect!
Looking at booking off peak flights from Dublin to Orlando for next year, 2 adults, 1 child and 1 lap infant. Flights currently showing at €2600 with aerlingus. I booked last year for the same party and around the same time of year and originally the flights were showing at this cost, but I waited it out and managed to get them for €1700. Due to our small children we’d much prefer to do a direct flight (have done indirect lots in the past and normally not bothered). We also do not have any massive desire to go above economy with young kids as from what I have seen, the money added towards avios use is the same or more as just paying for normal flights with no avios, and for us we’d rather be using them to save money.
Today when I look at reward flights we can use 78,000 avios and pay £1094 towards them. Obviously with the current cost of the flights it’s a big saving, but I’d be hoping to pay less if I choose to wait and not use avios. Is this a really terrible use of avios? As an fyi we normally do one long haul flight like this every year/every other year. Aerlingus are the only ones to do the direct flight as far as I can see
Sorry not sure if I understood correctly but you want to decide between 2600 euros or 78000 avios + £1094?
That’s about 1.4p per avios which is pretty good, unless you have other firm plans to use the avios for something else which doesn’t seem to be the case. If the cash price drops you can cancel the redemption for £35 per person
I assume you mean 78k avios + €1094, not £1094.
At current prices of €2600 you’re getting nearly 2¢ per avios, which is very good. If, and that is a big if, you could get flights for €1700 then the rate is not awful still (approx 0.77¢ or 0.66p an avios).
If these are true redemption flights then you will have the option to cancel and rebook at a cheaper rate. If cash +avios then that is not an option of course.
Also, think of the mental space and time you are freeing up by booking now. You can just forget about it and put your energy towards something more useful/relaxing. Plus, those cheaper flights may never appear.
You have an excellent example here as you have an indication of the ‘value’ to you in that you were prepared to pay 1700EUR last year.
Use the standard minimum target of 1p per avios and 78000 + £1094 equates to 1874GBP / 2200EUR.
Would you pay for the cash flights if they dropped to 2200EUR? If so, it is a good use of Avios.
I’d recommend rerunning the above sums with the different combinations of avios + money as displayed during booking, but I’m not familiar with how they change for economy flights from Dublin.
Also consider flexibility – you can book Avios flights and cancel (with a cancellation fee) if a better offer comes along.
EDIT: If as per the above you meant +1094 EUR then the sum changes to equal 1700GBP/2000EUR. And the question changes to ‘would you pay 2000EUR?’.
Thanks to everyone, this is really really helpful. I’ve changed between euros and £s just based on the website. I’m in NI, but we don’t have direct flights outside of summer so normally fly from Dublin. When I use the AerClub rewards website it shows in £s, whereas the aerlingus website comes up in €s as our departure is from Dublin.
If our flight was to drop in price, does the amount we would pay combined with the avios drop? Or does it stay the same? So if I booked today with 78k avios and paid £1100 and that €2600 flight dropped to €1300 (for ease of maths), would that mean jr would be 78k avios + £550? Or does that amount not change? Good to know you can just pay the cancellation fee
If it’s an award booking (as opposed to reducing the cash price with avios, it’s still not 100% clear to me), the avios price won’t change proportionally.
I don’t know if EI award flights have the same cancellation terms as BA?
If you could bear to go from Belfast via London on BA, economy seats would be 60k avios plus £150 each, if you could find an off-peak date, though you don’t say how many avios you have in total.
*Though I don’t know if that would involve a messy transfer between LHR and LGW which you probably don’t fancy doing with kids!
Thanks northern lass. It’s an award booking I’m looking at. I have around 78k on my account, husband has 54k on his but we can’t combine them annoyingly. Will have another look at the BA stopover flights actually, last time I looked it involved an airport change which we definitely don’t want to do!
Thanks northern lass. It’s an award booking I’m looking at. I have around 78k on my account, husband has 54k on his but we can’t combine them annoyingly. Will have another look at the BA stopover flights actually, last time I looked it involved an airport change which we definitely don’t want to do!
You should be able to combine them by creating a Household Account on BAEC
I tried that wiseoldman, but unfortunately as I’m combing and then trying to transfer to AerClub it won’t let me take his for the transfer!
You can book EI redemptions via BA, however the surcharges may be higher.
Also – have you considered using avios for 2 of you and booking a BA Holiday for the other 2 (or any combination)? I’m pretty sure EI options are included, and you may get a decent deal if you need a car or accommodation as well as flights.
Book it! If prices reduce I think you’ll pay £105 cancellation cost, so if it reduced £500 then a good trade-off given you’re getting a lot more than 1pp Avios. I think you might struggle to get a better deal!
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