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Those of us who have been playing around with miles and points for a while generally know that using Avios for long-haul Business Class flights can be an expensive proposition and that using Avios for long-haul Economy Class flights is usually a terrible idea….but I still get a lot of questions about this from those newer to this game.
On my travels I’ve met a lot of people who, after finding out about this blog, either admit to knowing absolutely nothing about miles & points (nothing wrong with that), know a bit about miles & points and want to know more or who want to share stories of their own miles & point experiences.
This last group is the one that fascinates me most because at least one in three stories I hear is recounted as a big win for the traveler when in reality it really wasn’t a very good deal at all.
Before I carry on I should point out that I’ve always been of the opinion that an award redemption is a good one as long as it allows you to do something you may not otherwise have been able to do.
If booking an Economy Class award gets you flying somewhere you wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford to fly then good on you – that’s what the miles & points are for and no one should be telling you otherwise (if they do, ignore them).
But what I’d like to address here doesn’t fall into this category.
What I’d like to address here is an example of an award that can actually cost you more to book than booking your flights with cash and, judging by the people I’ve been meeting recently, a scary number of travelers don’t appear to realise this.
Avios Long Haul Economy Class Redemptions Are Bad…And Here’s Proof
British Airways launched a promotion last week in which it’s offering 50% off Economy Class Avios bookings to 90 long-haul destinations and, while that may sound very nice, it actually threw up the perfect example of why such bookings are often a very bad idea.
I think we can all agree that award bookings are meant to save us money…right? But what if I was to show you how an award ticket could actually put you out of pocket?
Let’s take the example of a roundtrip flight between London and New York for March next year.
A cash fare for a 7-day trip departing on 8 March is currently pricing up at £367.80 on BA.com (that’s the cheapest option):
Let’s assume that I’m cash poor and Avios rich so, despite the fact that this isn’t exactly an expensive fare for the route, I’d like to use Avios to pay for my flight (nothing unreasonable about that).
On exactly the same dates British Airways is currently charging 26,000 Avios AND $492.55 in surcharges for an award flight.
At the time of writing the exchange rate is around 1.33 USD to 1.00 GBP so that makes the cost of this award 26,000 Avios and £370.34.
To book the long-haul Avios Economy Class award would cost you more in British Airways surcharges than the cash fare….and you still have to part with 26,000 Avios on top of that!
Essentially British Airways is assigning a value of -£2.54 to the 26,000 Avios required to book this award.
Just think about that for a second….British Airways is effectively saying that its reward currency is worth less than zero.
Let’s not forget that this roundtrip Economy Class award is only costing 26,000 Avios thanks to the 50% off promotion that currently running. Outside of this promotion you would be asked to pay 52,000 Avios.
Ok…some of you are probably thinking that I’ve deliberately picked an extreme example (I haven’t, this was genuinely the first example I found when I was doing some research on the BA 50% off promotion) so here’s another random example which isn’t so extreme.
Los Angeles – London In Economy Class
Here’s a set of dates right in the middle of the summer vacation when we know that airfares will be high so using Avios should help save some money.
The best British Airways cash fare for the dates I’ve selected is $840.25:
And an award booking on the same dates would cost 50,000 Avios and $527.25:
50,000 Avios is essentially saving $313 and I’m more than happy to admit that this a decent chunk of change….but you’re only actually getting 0.6 cents of value out of each Avios you’re spending.
Considering you should be able to get at least double that value without breaking a sweat this is a very poor use of your hard earned Avios…..and it gets worse.
If you’re happy to connect in Ireland BA.com will sell you a fare for slightly less….
….and if you’re happy not to fly BA at all you’ll find non-stop flights from as little as $601:
Rather than comparing the cost of the BA award to the cost of a BA flight we should really be comparing the cost of award to the cheapest comparable fare available (that would be the fare from Air New Zealand in this case).
Here we can see that 50,000 Avios is only saving you $73.61 which means that you’re only getting 0.15 cents of value from every Avios you spend….and that’s beyond appalling.
Bottom Line
As a rule of thumb you should remember that long-haul Avios redemptions are almost always uneconomical.
Yes, there may well be the odd occasion where the stars line up and, for one reason or another, a long-haul Avios Economy Class redemption is worth it….but that’s pretty rare.
If you’re not happy to take the evidence above as proof then that’s fine – you don’t have to believe me – but just make sure you run the numbers before you book one of these awards so you actually know how much (or how little) value you’re getting from your Avios….if you’re actually getting any value at all.
Putting aside the fact that reward bookings include double the luggage allowance and – crucially – are cancellable up to 24 hours ahead of departure, so your comparison to an inflexible ticket is apples to oranges. A flexible economy cash ticket on the dates in your first example would cost over £2000. Do the maths again.
Furthermore, you’re missing out that long-haul *one way* economy class flights originating outside the UK are great. GRU-LHR, for example is 19,500 avios + £26 tax. A one-way cash fare would be MUCH more expensive and not cancellable. Furthermore, in the current Avios 50% off sale, the Avios cost is half that – only 9,750! Bargain.
1) The majority of travelers looking to book long-haul economy class want the cheapest possible fare – being able to cancel isn’t a major concern (although I accept that for some it will be)
2) One way long haul tickets are of very limited use to most people because they still need to get home – why are you using a one-way booking as an example?
3) Interesting that you chose to pick a route out of one of the very few countries to ban airlines from adding fuel surcharges as your example – that’s called cherry-picking an outlier to try to prove a point.
I say in the last section of the post that there will be times when the stars line up and that an economy redemption will be fine…but it’s rare.
If you take a look at a flight out of Brazil’s neighbor (Argentina) a roundtrip economy class fare will come with taxes and surcharges of around $570….not really a bargain is it?
Most people fly in and out of destinations that allow airlines to charge pretty much what they like on their awards so your example of GRU is hardly representative of an Avios redemption on BA.
The fact remains that in the majority of cases (outliers aside) an Economy Class Avios redemption on BA is a poor use of miles.
[…] flights to the extent that it’s rarely economical to book an Economy Class long-haul award (sometimes the surcharges actually mean that Avios are worth less than zero) and it’s almost cheaper to book premium cabin cash fares out of Europe (during sales) than […]