Trip to the US in July – looking to get the most out of Avios

[n166]

Hi guys, I haven’t booked a long haul flight with my Avios before. Flights are looking pretty expensive and I’m looking to go from London to Newark in July (after Independence Day)

On the BA website I’ve found an option that costs 50k avios + £100 charges or 38k avios + £180 charges. I’m wondering if there are any other tips/tricks to get the avios/charges down by any chance?
FYI cash flights are looking around the £450-£500 mark. It may make sense to just book with cash but there’s a chance I’ll have to throw in a journey to LAX, which bumps up the cost a lot. I’m trying to reduce cash outflow right now!

Thanks

[NorthernLass]

If you’re flying with BA then there’s not much scope to reduce the charges. What you’re being quoted for economy is the newish RFS fare on some long haul routes – Rhys did an article on it a bit back. If cash fares are very high this can be a good use of avios but £450 is very reasonable, especially in the summer holidays, you would be getting under 1p per avios of value which is a poor return. PE would very likely be much better value and a better experience.

Economy long haul redemptions are usually viewed as a bad option; if you’re fairly new to this you might want to read the HFP articles on getting best value from your avios and then decide whether it would work for you or not.