The BIG LIE of British Airways Avios

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Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 34 total)

  • FrDougal
    Participant

    I earn on BA and Burn on everyone else but BA.

    Works great for me.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    [quote quote=900107]Never found any on BA to HKG in J, but Avios has steered me to CX and found them on there, which I would rather fly anyway[/quote]

    Steve – I accept the quirks of the BA scheme, but why would Cathay permit BAEC member to burn BA avios on Cathay when BA have such a restrictive allocation.

    If there is a cooperation between OW to spend miles on each others airline, should the airlines agree to release the same % between them.

    Presumably a Cathay miles member would have the same issues burning miles on BA as well… (i.e. no seats offered)…


    Henryp1
    Participant

    When I have tried to make a long haul booking at short notice it doesn’t always work out, but planned bookings seem to be fine, using the 241 seems to go well too.


    nigelchism
    Participant

    Well it seems I’ve just been lucky. Far east (KUL) last year, US this year (DEN) both in F and SAN the year before in J. Shorter haul, just booked IST for the new year – CE only £50 with reward flight saver.

    For long haul only CPT and SYD have eluded me – but I probably didn’t try very hard!


    stevescoots
    Participant

    [quote quote=900179]

    Never found any on BA to HKG in J, but Avios has steered me to CX and found them on there, which I would rather fly anyway

    Steve – I accept the quirks of the BA scheme, but why would Cathay permit BAEC member to burn BA avios on Cathay when BA have such a restrictive allocation.

    If there is a cooperation between OW to spend miles on each others airline, should the airlines agree to release the same % between them.

    Presumably a Cathay miles member would have the same issues burning miles on BA as well… (i.e. no seats offered)…[/quote]

    I don’t know what CX members points availability on that route is but I would assume that as they are 5 cx flights a day now vs BA 2 i would think CX have capacity. I burn the rest of my points on HKG-SGN and HKG-SIN, always availability on CX via avios site


    Raffles99
    Participant

    This is all nonsense, of course! Apart from Sydney and Cape Town most routes are ok in premium cabins.

    I have taken a family of 4 to the Middle East numerous times, Japan, China and Singapore in CW or First with little bother.

    Flexibility is key. Want Tokyo but nothing? Go to HK and use Cathay on Avios to connect. Want Dubai? Go to Abu Dhabi and pay £40 for a taxi.

    Book on new routes when announced (headforpoints.com covers them all – my site) and every flight, every day is available.

    And that’s before we start on partners.

    Do you know taxes on long haul are 75% lower if you use Iberia and book off their website? New York is £170 return and as low as 68,000 Avios return in Business.

    Did you know Aer Lingus taxes to the US are under £100 but you need to book by phone?

    Try half an hour on HFP and you will change your view.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    This is all nonsense, of course!

    Flexibility is key. Want Tokyo but nothing? Go to HK and use Cathay on Avios to connect. Want Dubai? Go to Abu Dhabi and pay £40 for a taxi.

    As I wrote in an earlier post, makes a good hobby.

    On business, I tend to book to go where I need to go, not somewhere in the general vicinity.


    rferguson
    Participant

    [quote quote=900917]This is all nonsense, of course! Apart from Sydney and Cape Town most routes are ok in premium cabins.

    I have taken a family of 4 to the Middle East numerous times, Japan, China and Singapore in CW or First with little bother.

    Flexibility is key. Want Tokyo but nothing? Go to HK and use Cathay on Avios to connect. Want Dubai? Go to Abu Dhabi and pay £40 for a taxi.

    Book on new routes when announced (headforpoints.com covers them all – my site) and every flight, every day is available.

    And that’s before we start on partners.

    Do you know taxes on long haul are 75% lower if you use Iberia and book off their website? New York is £170 return and as low as 68,000 Avios return in Business.

    Did you know Aer Lingus taxes to the US are under £100 but you need to book by phone?

    Try half an hour on HFP and you will change your view.[/quote]

    I agree. I use Avios often to ‘fill in the gaps’ when travelling on leisure.

    If I want to fly to BKK but find a stellar fare on QR to say SIN or KUL i’ll buy that then use Avios to fly to BKK. Likewise last time I flew to Australia – MEL was my destination but found a great fare on MH to PER. Then a quick Avios hop on QF from there to MEL.


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=901075]I use Avios often to ‘fill in the gaps’ when travelling on leisure.[/quote]

    ‘Leisure’ being the key word.

    Back to the OP’s point, reward savers are usfeul for business travel, as they have decent availability – long haul redemptions in premium cabins are harder to find, thought there is good availability in economy.


    mkcol74
    Participant

    Try using the BA redemption finder to play around with. Makes it very simple to quickly find what you’d like.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    Be interesting to hear BEAC status of those accessing long haul F / J redemptions.

    Clearly GGL will be able to use their Jokers, whilst there is ‘meant’ to be extra allocation for mere Golds.

    As for the GUV, these BA loyalty thank you’s are generally unusable for long haul upgrades.. (except probably NYC)…


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=901254]Clearly GGL will be able to use their Jokers, whilst there is ‘meant’ to be extra allocation for mere Golds.[/quote]

    Yep, but I think that refers to Y seats, not premium classes.

    I have no problem finding long haul economy seats, but I don’t want to fly economy on long haul business trips. W/J/F redemptions are like rocking horse droppings – it’s okay as a hobby, booking them 355 days ahead, via Timbuctoo, at 0100 GMT, live and let live, but for Raffles99 to dismiss claims that it is difficult to find long haul premium seats as ‘nonsense’ is looking through the rose coloured spex of a leisure traveller and quite a lot of people like to use their hard earned points to redeem for business.


    PeterCoultas
    Participant

    Very sensible of BA to make Avios bookings for business & first class difficult. Leisure travellers can still find such seats as they can be date flexible while those really on fixed day business trips will pay for their flights in most cases (or perhaps have them paid by someone else). Must admit I can’t feel too sorry for business travellers who do not pay for their own tickets.


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=901281]Leisure travellers can still find such seats as they can be date flexible while those really on fixed day business trips will pay for their flights in most cases[/quote]

    Peter, this is my experience.


    AlanOrton1
    Participant

    I’d echo what most other posters have commented on. Flexibility often being the key word.

    I do make use of my Avios for some business travel, though do not rely on them for this.
    There are examples of where this works quite well, for example intra Asia one way legs on CX and booking in WTP and upgrading with Avios to J when flying from JFK, EWR back to LHR.
    Other routes I fly on business are nigh on impossible and I just see that as being what it is. Routes with less flights and higher redemption demand, eg HKG, SIN and MIA.

    I used to be a big fan of the Amex 2-4-1, but have become less so given that to get a premium class ticket to where you want to go and when you want to go can require planning this almost a year in advance. Plus BA’s fees, I think, are a bit naughty compared to others. That said, there are many ways to burn through Avios.

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 34 total)
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