Originally Posted by
JohnAx
Avios are a money-printing machine for the airlines.
People love to look up the one-way unrestricted fare and use that large number to congratulate themselves on how valuable their avios were, but that's delusional. On competitive short-haul flights you'll be lucky to get two cents' worth out of them, ditto for long-haul biz class where I-class fares are available on BA or a competitor. (Don't forget to add the avios you -didn't- get because you didn't buy a revenue ticket to your cost for the award.)
Not quite sure what prompted you to post that in this thread..
Avios definitely have a value and it is worth spending some money to keep them active if a sufficiently large amount were due to expire. I agree that you shouldn't calculate the value based on an airfare you wouldn't otherwise purchase and that it is important to include the avios not earnt on that revenue fare. However I have certainly been able to get around 1p+ value from shorthaul and longhaul redemptions - UuA's even more.