Discussion
//j17 said:
Best value for Avios tends to be on short haul flights.
Maybe so, until you look at the "applicable taxes, fees & carrier charges", then go and compare the all in price on Easyjet!
Just as one quick example, fancy a long weekend in Geneva in May?
BA flight from Heathrow on Friday morning, returning Sunday afternoon = 8,000 Avios & £35.
Flying with hand luggage on Easyjet from Gatwick at similar times = no Avios and £47.46.
Surely there must be ways to make 8,000 Avios worth more than £12.46?
EddieSteadyGo said:
I don't want to keep on about rewardflightfinder.com but if you enter the dates you want into their system, they will email you if avios seats become available on the dates you would like.
That way you get to hear directly rather than relying on someone to let you know. The service is also free, if you want the daily update service.
I used it last year to get first class flighs to Delhi which weren't initially available when I first checked.
Thanks, that's really helpful. Just checked the site and there's 14 flights LGW to MLE in January, and on 13 of them there is availability to upgrade to PE with Avios. You can guess which one I'm on That way you get to hear directly rather than relying on someone to let you know. The service is also free, if you want the daily update service.
I used it last year to get first class flighs to Delhi which weren't initially available when I first checked.
BRISTOL86 said:
EddieSteadyGo said:
I don't want to keep on about rewardflightfinder.com but if you enter the dates you want into their system, they will email you if avios seats become available on the dates you would like.
That way you get to hear directly rather than relying on someone to let you know. The service is also free, if you want the daily update service.
I used it last year to get first class flighs to Delhi which weren't initially available when I first checked.
Thanks, that's really helpful. Just checked the site and there's 14 flights LGW to MLE in January, and on 13 of them there is availability to upgrade to PE with Avios. You can guess which one I'm on That way you get to hear directly rather than relying on someone to let you know. The service is also free, if you want the daily update service.
I used it last year to get first class flighs to Delhi which weren't initially available when I first checked.
Then used said website to keep tracking seats. What I noticed was that, on a rolling basis, they normally released 2 more First seats at 48 hours ahead ie saw that happen each day. Unfortunately that didn’t happen for the day we were flying out bit we did then snag 2 seats in First on way home doing this.
Kermit power said:
Maybe so, until you look at the "applicable taxes, fees & carrier charges", then go and compare the all in price on Easyjet!
Just as one quick example, fancy a long weekend in Geneva in May?
BA flight from Heathrow on Friday morning, returning Sunday afternoon = 8,000 Avios & £35.
Flying with hand luggage on Easyjet from Gatwick at similar times = no Avios and £47.46.
Surely there must be ways to make 8,000 Avios worth more than £12.46?
I'm not saying it's brilliant, but it is more than worth £50 plus a few avios.
EddieSteadyGo said:
Your comparison isn't really fair. If you are booking a shorthaul avios ticket, you book a Club Europe for £50 return. Which gives you slightly more space, priority boarding, two case luggage allowance, and lounge access at both ends.
I'm not saying it's brilliant, but it is more than worth £50 plus a few avios.
Done exactly this with 2 Club returns to Tenerife in Jan. on a 4 hour flights, wider seats, proper food and champagne makes it feel worth And then you get the lounge and the free bags.. all for £50 each. Aside from the fact you’d not get any of that stuff on a budget flight, you’d likely be paying a lot more than £50 too. Of course this is good value in the extreme given it’s about as far as you can go in Europe (with all flights attracting the same £50 for club (just £15 more than Economy)) but we regularly do the same when going to Rome.I'm not saying it's brilliant, but it is more than worth £50 plus a few avios.
gl20 said:
Done exactly this with 2 Club returns to Tenerife in Jan. on a 4 hour flights, wider seats, proper food and champagne makes it feel worth And then you get the lounge and the free bags.. all for £50 each. Aside from the fact you’d not get any of that stuff on a budget flight, you’d likely be paying a lot more than £50 too. Of course this is good value in the extreme given it’s about as far as you can go in Europe (with all flights attracting the same £50 for club (just £15 more than Economy)) but we regularly do the same when going to Rome.
Yep, that's a great example. I'm flying back from Geneva early next week - our season skiing will be over so I need to bring back a ton of ski gear, skis etc.
I have booked 4 x Club Europe seats from Geneva to Heathrow for the princely sum of £81 (one way) using avios. And I'm bringing half a garage worth of kit with me, all included in this price.
Plus we will all get a meal of sorts on the plane and a glass of wine. It's a good use of avios imo.
EddieSteadyGo said:
gl20 said:
Done exactly this with 2 Club returns to Tenerife in Jan. on a 4 hour flights, wider seats, proper food and champagne makes it feel worth And then you get the lounge and the free bags.. all for £50 each. Aside from the fact you’d not get any of that stuff on a budget flight, you’d likely be paying a lot more than £50 too. Of course this is good value in the extreme given it’s about as far as you can go in Europe (with all flights attracting the same £50 for club (just £15 more than Economy)) but we regularly do the same when going to Rome.
Yep, that's a great example. I'm flying back from Geneva early next week - our season skiing will be over so I need to bring back a ton of ski gear, skis etc.
I have booked 4 x Club Europe seats from Geneva to Heathrow for the princely sum of £81 (one way) using avios. And I'm bringing half a garage worth of kit with me, all included in this price.
Plus we will all get a meal of sorts on the plane and a glass of wine. It's a good use of avios imo.
I've for lounge access anyway, and have eaten far too many airline meals over the years to actually choose to do so on any flight less than about six hours, and I can't drink on flights unless I want an eight pint hangover after a single pint (no idea why, but such is life) and hate having to check hold luggage, so the value of Club Europe is lost in me, especially now that the seats are no wider.
Kermit power said:
To each their own, I suppose!
I've for lounge access anyway, and have eaten far too many airline meals over the years to actually choose to do so on any flight less than about six hours, and I can't drink on flights unless I want an eight pint hangover after a single pint (no idea why, but such is life) and hate having to check hold luggage, so the value of Club Europe is lost in me, especially now that the seats are no wider.
Your point was that you didn't think using Avios was good value vs Easyjet. Hence why I presume you were using the "rofl" in your post. I've for lounge access anyway, and have eaten far too many airline meals over the years to actually choose to do so on any flight less than about six hours, and I can't drink on flights unless I want an eight pint hangover after a single pint (no idea why, but such is life) and hate having to check hold luggage, so the value of Club Europe is lost in me, especially now that the seats are no wider.
But you have been given two examples which shows it can be a very good use of avios, and which would be much better value than Easyjet.
Just because you happen to have lounge access via another source or that you get a hangover by drinking on a plane isn't really relevant.
recordman said:
GT03ROB said:
I seem to remember there weren't any fees & good availability
The last time I used Avios on QF was in Feb 2018 and these were the feesCHC-BNE £34.00
BNE-CNS £16.10
CNS-SYD £15.60
EddieSteadyGo said:
Your point was that you didn't think using Avios was good value vs Easyjet. Hence why I presume you were using the "rofl" in your post.
But you have been given two examples which shows it can be a very good use of avios, and which would be much better value than Easyjet.
Just because you happen to have lounge access via another source or that you get a hangover by drinking on a plane isn't really relevant.
Of course it's relevant, even if it's only to illustrate why the thought of flying Club Europe just didn't even enter my thought process.But you have been given two examples which shows it can be a very good use of avios, and which would be much better value than Easyjet.
Just because you happen to have lounge access via another source or that you get a hangover by drinking on a plane isn't really relevant.
gl20 said:
Found this site very useful for our St Lucia holiday last year. No available avios club or first (or even PE) seats so we booked avios Economy so we at least knew we were definitely going and could then book accommodation.
Then used said website to keep tracking seats. What I noticed was that, on a rolling basis, they normally released 2 more First seats at 48 hours ahead ie saw that happen each day. Unfortunately that didn’t happen for the day we were flying out bit we did then snag 2 seats in First on way home doing this.
BA release 2 CW seats 355 days out on each flight. PE, additional CW & 1st tend to be more load rellated. 1st especially will see late releases. They expect late bookings into 1st so do have a tendency to hold these back. I've had CW seats booked, in the past then seen 1st come up the day before travel & switched. Our St Lucia ones last year I booked 2 weeks out, It's therefore often as well to take what you can get then keep tracking releases & change as needed. Change fees are modest anyhow.Then used said website to keep tracking seats. What I noticed was that, on a rolling basis, they normally released 2 more First seats at 48 hours ahead ie saw that happen each day. Unfortunately that didn’t happen for the day we were flying out bit we did then snag 2 seats in First on way home doing this.
Kermit power said:
Of course it's relevant, even if it's only to illustrate why the thought of flying Club Europe just didn't even enter my thought process.
You were making a general point, presumably which you thought would be widely applicable, hence your comment about "have you checked the taxes, fees and charges" and adding the "rofl", implying "I can't believe you could be so stupid" for typing that.Now maybe for your very specific circumstances, you don't think it is good value but I'd suggest that isn't relevant to your original point as they don't apply to most people.
EddieSteadyGo said:
Kermit power said:
Of course it's relevant, even if it's only to illustrate why the thought of flying Club Europe just didn't even enter my thought process.
You were making a general point, presumably which you thought would be widely applicable, hence your comment about "have you checked the taxes, fees and charges" and adding the "rofl", implying "I can't believe you could be so stupid" for typing that.Now maybe for your very specific circumstances, you don't think it is good value but I'd suggest that isn't relevant to your original point as they don't apply to most people.
1. I don't believe using Avios to fly Economy class with BA to a destination that Easyjet fly to is ever value for money, and when I wrote that, it never for one moment entered my thoughts that people might use them to fly Club Europe because...
2. I don't believe BA Club Europe is ever good value for money, even if you are using Avios for it.
I've lost track of the number of BA Miles / Airmiles / Avios I've earned over the years. When our kids were younger and the thought of flying anywhere with them in long haul was too grim to contemplate, they just racked up and up through business travel without ever being used. Then they became Airmiles, and all of a sudden I could use them for hotel accommodation, car ferries and all sorts of other stuff, and I burned through them over a few years getting massively discounted family holidays. Now that was value for money!
Now that I've recently started travelling on business again and the kids are approaching the point where we'll no longer need to take them with us, I'll just save the points up for CW or First whenever possible with my wife, as again, that represents value for money.
I would be interested to know what value you assign to having lounge access? If my flight is on time, I'll generally have at most about 20 minutes to spend there before heading to the gate on a short-haul flight. Hardly great value.
Also, what value do you assign to the CE cabin? The seats used to be wider, but that never seems to be the case any more, and the food is s
t. Granted, it's less st than in economy and you don't have to pay for it, but frankly I'd rather either pay for something decent before I take off or after I land. Again, hardly great value.The only place I can see any value at all to flying CE is maybe if you're checking luggage. Indeed, the last time I did so - and paid for the ticket, no points involved - was on a return to Geneva when for some bizarre reason, CE was actually cheaper than either BA Economy or Easyjet once you'd paid for a bag. Again, though, not great value use of Avios when it was peanuts to pay for.
Kermit power said:
2. I don't believe BA Club Europe is ever good value for money, even if you are using Avios for it.
Well, you have now been given three specific examples where using BA Club Europe with avios gives excellent value for money. The fact you are still being so categoric it isn't ever good value just shows you are not listening particularly well.
EddieSteadyGo said:
Well, you have now been given three specific examples where using BA Club Europe with avios gives excellent value for money.
The fact you are still being so categoric it isn't ever good value just shows you are not listening particularly well.
My wife is going to Italy for a week or so and needs hold luggage. £50 and some avios for business return, bargain. We live just over an hour for Heathrow but it can take up to two if traffic is sThe fact you are still being so categoric it isn't ever good value just shows you are not listening particularly well.
t so she’ll likely have an hour hour to kill in the lounge. I think it can be a good spend in certain circumstances like these.EddieSteadyGo said:
Kermit power said:
2. I don't believe BA Club Europe is ever good value for money, even if you are using Avios for it.
Well, you have now been given three specific examples where using BA Club Europe with avios gives excellent value for money. The fact you are still being so categoric it isn't ever good value just shows you are not listening particularly well.
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