Best Strategy for spending Avios

[hmg]

I’m in the lucky position to have loads of Avois to use.

I usually transfer these to BA executive club where I can use them for flights and hotels/ experiences..They can be transferred to quite a few hotel providers and airlines as an alternative.

Hotels are relatively easy but I really fancy trying to use these towards a premium class long haul flight somewhere a bit more further afield.

I’ve managed a New York one in the past with BA and I usually have a companion voucher to use..The problem is it’s very difficult trying to get availability on club/ first seats.

Has anyone got any thoughts on the best strategy to pick up theses seats and how to best use the Avois ?

Edited by hmg on Sunday 9th October 14:14

[LimaDelta]

Personally, Avios --> Nectar, Nectar --> eBay, eBay --> rubbish I can't justify spending actual money on.

I've never actually found them that useful for flights.

[boombang]

Booking way in advance, being very flexible on where you are willing to go and accept it may be mixing classes each way.

[tim0409]

The best use of points (in my opinion) is to first check availability for club world seats on the aforementioned reward flight finder and then check the price of premium economy on the same flight, and then upgrade to club. You do pay a hefty upgrade fee though, so if you have plenty of points perhaps compare that to a straight CW redemption. A one way flight to New York is 100k avios in club, whereas to upgrade from PE to CW is 48k.

The best deals I’ve had have been buying premium economy in a sale then using a avios to upgrade (you can only upgrade a single class).

It seems a long time ago now, but I once booked club world from Oslo to New work for £800 in a sale when the euro was around 1.35, then upgraded to first both ways and it was a great experience - the concorde lounge, then dining with my wife right at the front of a 747 in 1A….I doubt those kind of deals will be available again though!

[mondie]

Just sell them if you're not sure. I've used Points King in the past.

[SunsetZed]

Use them with a companion voucher or on short haul flights booked way in advance or on less popular routes.

I just used 66000 and a companion voucher for a return to Bahamas for £300 and as a family of 4 we flew in the school summer holidays to Porto (booked a few months in advance but not ridiculously early!)

[GCH]

I now generally use them only for one way F redemptions LHR-JFK. Taxes/fees render many things not so great value anymore, especially ex-JFK where the taxes & fees are insane for redemptions, so I'll often use my virgin points for JFK--> LHR, and then BA back home.
I do sometimes use them for domestic US redemptions on AA, which can be good value as you pay like $2 of tax per redemption.

It also depends which companion voucher you have. If you have the amex premium plus ones, then the newer vouchers can be used for 50% redemption cost for a solo traveller, which can make it even better value.

I'm also firmly against the book in advance thing, primarily I can't plan that far in advance, and also because there are specific dates where more seats open up for award use very close to travel. Never failed me yet (and I'm not trying to redeem to sydney )