Originally Posted by
Flyer737
In additon, the Avios plus $ looks very interesting. You can basically pay about 1.3 ¢/Avios and use fewer points. If you are short Avios points, you can drive the redemption values very high.
I also worked one case from DFW-Montreal in business class where the ticket price less the maximum $ case divided by the Avios points required = 9 ¢/Avios point redeemed. That is a pretty good value.
This piqued my curiosity, so I just randomly tried a trip a week from now with a one day turnaround NYC-Montreal and I got:
Expedia.com - $689 (LGA) on US
AA.com - $1,010.88 (cheapest for the given dates)
BA.com - 9000 avios + $57.09
BA.com - 4500 avios + $127.09
That gives 10.6cpm and 19.6 cpm, respectively (based on the AA price) or 7cpm and 15cpm (based on Expedia prices).
Of course this is an extreme example as the flights are on Wed/Thu and Thursday is Thanksgiving, but let's hope these kinds of redemptions remain a good value. The Avios+money option really does seem pretty great for certain conditions.
Delta has been my go-to carrier for good last-minute availability but combined with Avios points for short-haul flights this could be an even better tool in our miles arsenal.