Originally Posted by
PanGalactic
He probably think that because there are so many ways to earn them for free, however I know that a lot of FTers buy them when there is a 30% bonus offer for example. You can also be quids in if you buy them to use for upgradios. ie: The difference between a WT+ and CW fare can be in the thousands, whereas 31200 Avios (enough for an upgradios and change) was £399 in the sale just ended.
Exactly. I don't understand why the generous consensus on here is that buying miles is poor value. Despite earning a lot of miles via CC spend (and flying!) I still always buy miles in the sales because £399 will buy you an upgrade to business on the LHR/NYC route and leave you with 11,200 miles to spare (plus the CC miles you get for paying with your card and the miles you actually earn on the trip) - far better (to me) than paying the cash difference between WT+ and Club.
Depends where you are going of course and how flexible you are but I have never found any issues with award availability between LHR and NYC (and even if I did I have a shed load of On Business points to fall back on).