British Airways Avios

Dear Annabelle,

Another old post that will soon be partially redundant, at least for the within North America values....

There is an Avios calculator website that lets you plug in your location and destination.  This is telling me for Dublin and Munich from Denver it would be around 27K or 30K each way.  This compares with the other airlines, except for a lot of them might let us do an open jaw and see more places in Europe.  Not sure I want to lock us into it costing more to do this by using Avios.

This post lists hubs of partners for Avios points.  We are not a hub but we do get US Airways and American flights from DEN.  There are not any fuel surcharges within North America (I think).  I wonder how Avios would work for going to Ottawa.  Flying DEN to YOW through Chicago would give 888 miles and 655 miles - under 650 is 4500 miles and to 1150 is 7500 so both of these would be 7500 or 15000 but this is only one way so it would be 30K return, so not as good as the base 25K.  Wonder if there is a routing where one is under 650 and one is still under 1150.  This would give 4500+7500 each way OR 12000, so 24000 return.  Doesn't really help but could be an option.

Here is the Travel is Free Guide to Avios.  And here is a discussion of the Household Accounts feature of Avios.  Basically you can pool the rewards and they get used out of everyone's accounts.

TPG outlines how you would pick between BA and Virgin Atlantic:
"If it’s a question of transferring miles to Virgin Atlantic or to British Airways, it’s worth having a look at Virgin’s mileage chart and comparing it to BA’s mileage calculator to see which requires more on your route. For example, a roundtrip economy ticket from JFK to London on Virgin only costs 35,000* (26,000 if booked as two one-ways separately), 55,000 or 80,000 miles roundtrip in economy, premium economy and business class respectively, while BA would charge you 40,000, 60,000 or 80,000 Avios for the same classes of service, so in economy, I’d do Virgin to save a few thousand miles.  However, if pricing awards one-way, they seem to be coming up cheaper. For instance, a one-way award from New York-London was pricing at only 13,000 miles and just under $97.50 in taxes and fees. There were very limited dates, so play around to see if you can find these lower priced awards."

As far as Europe the key is the fuel surcharges and whether you could find a route without too many.  One option is to use BA on Aer Lingus.

Some other links:

• How direct flights are calculated:  It turns out that at least with some American Airlines flights, Avios actually prices flights by flight number rather than by individual leg in some cases. In effect, only one Avios redemption is necessary for multiple flights in each direction so long as they are marketed with the same flight number.
• US Airways map
• AA map
• There are sometimes transfer bonuses to BA from AMEX
• Saving with stopovers
• Reducing fees
• Avios map for DEN

Hugs,
Jen

Best bet: DEN to MCO (Orlando)

Dear Annabelle,

This is another old one I am cleaning up from when I was trying to decide how to book our flights to MCO (Orlando) for December.  We ended up paying cash on Southwest.  We were able to get it for $1424 for all 4 of us, direct, and Southwest includes 2 free bags each!

.......
DEN to MCO (Orlando): 1546 miles
With a direct flight this would fit in the 10K each way bucket for British Airways Avios.  Cutting 5K each from the rest of the carriers that are generally 25K (or a total savings of 20K for the family).  I guess the question is whether there are fuel charges and whether the miles are worth using here given the cost of the flights.

That said, I need it direct though because the two lower levels are 4500 and 7500 and these would add up to more if combined. Sadly American does not fly direct DEN-MCO, but are all showing connections. Connecting through DFW is 641 miles crow flies followed by 985, resulting in 24K points. Mostly equivalent point wise and not direct. This Denver Avios Map was helpful here.

Turns out that Avios flights "within the Americas don’t have YQ to pass on" according to here.

The ITA matrix is only showing direct flights for United and Frontier.
.......

I wonder whether Southwest shows up in the ITA Matrix, given it obviously has direct flights and I wasn't seeing them here.  It doesn't show up in Google Flights and they are running off a similar system.  I wonder why not.  

It is funny to read my analysis of the Avios points above since it will all be mute soon.  Avios is increasing their within the US points required to be 7500 for the cheapest category and going up from there.

Hugs, 

Jen