Originally Posted by jcpeden

I'm finding it difficult to establish if there is any value in collecting Avios for me.

Typically, I'd travel with my girlfriend. We'd do a single long-haul economy trip (typically to Asia) each year with ideally a few short-haul trips throughout the year all flying ex-MAN.

This seems to leave me with a few unattractive options to use my Avios:

1. European Reward Flight Saver tickets, all route through LHR and therefore add hours to an otherwise short (and cheap) journey.
2. Long haul economy with BA, taxes and surcharges plus LHR routing kill this one.
3. Upgrade from economy to the next class level, requires that I fly BA or Iberia which means buying a more expensive ticket just to upgrade.
4. Take odd-routing to use them, requires that I fly to Dublin, Madrid or Berlin on a separate itinerary before joining my flight.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining and have focused on collecting Starwood/MR points over Avios anyway. I'm just trying to get an idea about what I can expect from collecting points and if there is any point focusing on Avios.