Realistic Avios redemption cost to NYC – BA and Aer Lingus – question!
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Just wondering what a sensible price in Avios would be for a Business Class return from UK to JFK through either BA or Aer Lingus?
Looking to travel late April 2026 for 4 nights to coincide with missus’ 40th birthday. From experience looking in January 2025 for April 2025 Avios bookings for Aer Lingus were showing at around 200,000- Avios and £750 taxes for 2 – which is fine.
Nothing available on Aer Lingus yet for Apr 2026 but looking at BA Club World from LHR to JFK for that time period there are Biz reward tickets but its showing as 320,000 Avios (ridiculous!) + £750 taxes. I might get to 230,000 avios but not 320,000!
Is this just because I am looking so far in advance as seems really unreasonable?
Would prefer to do the DUB-JFK route (I live in Warrington so a cheap flight from LPL or MAN to connect and I like the fact I can do US Preclearance) but was willing to consider going via LHR – at that avios price I’m not!!!
Not sure what you based your expectations on, but £375 + 160K Avios is the standard BA Club off peak reward cost per person for New York, so nothing ridiculous about it. Apart from peak vs off peak the prices are fixed and don’t vary regardless of when you book.
Not sure what you based your expectations on, but £375 + 160K Avios is the standard BA Club off peak reward cost per person for New York, so nothing ridiculous about it. Apart from peak vs off peak the prices are fixed and don’t vary regardless of when you book.
Thanks for the info and feedback, saw some other posts re Avios prices for various destinations and they all seemed a bit lower 100-120K avios. Plus I know I saw the Aer Lingus prices substantially lower at 100K.
Guess I will have to keep my eye out for those and try and accumulate more Avios in the meantime over the next 3 or 4 months, got about 173,000 plus 21,000 MR points currently. Worse case scenario I may have to buy some more or look at doing 1 leg PE if I do BA.
Avios prices are fixed and don’t vary (other than being peak or off peak) depending on how far in advance (or not) people book.
You could try using one of the use fewer avios but more cash options.
EI is noticibly stingy in releasing rewards in business and at times 1 reward is a stretch let alone 2 so I wouldn’t rely on that being availble.
Do you know that if you book MAN-LHR-JFK return, you pay nothing for the domestic legs?
BA has an 8 am flight back from JFK, which should connect to the latest MAN departures; it’s about 6 1/2 hours flight time so it’s totally doable in PE.
Rather than buy avios id look at cash fares from dublin
Do you know that if you book MAN-LHR-MAN return, you pay nothing for the domestic legs?
BA has an 8 am flight back from JFK, which should connect to the latest MAN departures; it’s about 6 1/2 hours flight time so it’s totally doable in PE.
Yeah I have looked at that @NorthernLass, know about the free leg to MAN and I remember when I asked about redemptions a few months back you recommended the early flight back from JFK as better for jet lag reasons too. I actually think you are 100% right. And if this was a work trip I would be choosing that option!!
HOWEVER 🙂 ….I’ve only been to NYC once 23 years ago as part of my Uni course and the missus has never been, we have always done Euro holidays till now. And this is a (very rare!) holiday without our kids (10 and 7) The early flight back means we lose a whole day in NYC, I will trade feeling like crap /extra leg from DUB /worse jet lag for an extra day there!
Plus we are flying out on her actual birthday so Biz for that leg is clearly what we would prefer!
I’ve never travelled anything other than economy before so trying to get the best bang for buck (and given we want to take the kids to Florida in late 2026 I can’t justify paying cash prices to go Business)
Thanks for all the advice all 🙂
The early flight back means we lose a whole day in NYC, I will trade feeling like crap /extra leg from DUB /worse jet lag for an extra day there!
It’s not that clear cut due to NY traffic. My shuttle pickup time for the 16:55 JFK-DUB was 11.50am. Even if you got a cab from midtown you couldn’t leave much past 1pm to head for JFK.
That flight gained an hour due to the jetsteam, so flight was only around 5 hours, scheduled arrival time was 04:25am. Aer Lingus lounge was pretty much devoid of anything but coffee until 5.30am which was very disappointing as boarding for the Man flight was 6am, and it’s a very long walk from the lounge to the far gate.
If it were up to me, I’d do Aer Lingus Dub-JFK out, then you get to sit in 51st and Green for a while and also pre-clear at Dub so no immigration headache at JFK. Then choose a later (than 5pm) BA flight for the return where you’ll get a better BA lounge experience at JFK and a reasonable LHR lounge experience whilst waiting for the shuttle to MAN.
The early flight back means we lose a whole day in NYC, I will trade feeling like crap /extra leg from DUB /worse jet lag for an extra day there!
It’s not that clear cut due to NY traffic. My shuttle pickup time for the 16:55 JFK-DUB was 11.50am. Even if you got a cab from midtown you couldn’t leave much past 1pm to head for JFK.
That flight gained an hour due to the jetsteam, so flight was only around 5 hours, scheduled arrival time was 04:25am. Aer Lingus lounge was pretty much devoid of anything but coffee until 5.30am which was very disappointing as boarding for the Man flight was 6am, and it’s a very long walk from the lounge to the far gate.
If it were up to me, I’d do Aer Lingus Dub-JFK out, then you get to sit in 51st and Green for a while and also pre-clear at Dub so no immigration headache at JFK. Then choose a later (than 5pm) BA flight for the return where you’ll get a better BA lounge experience at JFK and a reasonable LHR lounge experience whilst waiting for the shuttle to MAN.
Some good advice here @davefl – I hadn’t considered going back via LHR, while keeping to the MAN/LPL- DUB-JFK outward trip!
Agree that NYC traffic clearly a factor… I was looking at 1930/2000 flights home from JFK meaning I could meaningfully make use of the day till early afternoon. I don’t fancy arriving at Dublin at 4am and getting a 6am flight to Manc either, and as you say with jet stream factors it could be a pretty short flight back.
Some food for thought!
Some food for thought!
Not sure if you’ve seen my recent posts, but it’s now over $110 for a cab from JFK to midtown, $35 per person for a shared shuttle (expect 3 hours door to door), approx $18 for Airtrain/subway (fastest).
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