Originally Posted by
Raffles
You get 0.58p for hotel redemptions.
0.5p is the absolute floor because that is what all the avios.com non-flight redemptions (sports tickets, wine etc) price out at.
1p for RFS still seems very reasonable to me. RFS value has gone UP as well:
* off-peak European redemptions get cheaper
* if you book 2 x one-way the tax is usually lower than the RFS figure now that fuel surcharges have been scrapped (Dublin £25, Luxembourg sub-£20, Hamburg £33.50 etc)
Can you really buy tickets to, say, Hamburg (factoring in BA's free baggage and refreshments) at sensible times for less than the £115 that a 1p value would represent? (ie 8000 Avios @ 1p + £33.50)
I checked May 15-17 and LHR to HAM on BA is £80 return at almost all times. The following weekend the prices were closer to £120.
I agree RFS is good value but with fuel prices low now, the cash prices have become more competitive and now you really need to think if RFS is the best value for your particular dates.
If you value avios at 1p, then routes such as Lisbon, Stockholm, Rome and Barcelona are currently costing you £180-£185 return with RFS. I'd like to think I am getting a good deal when using avios, and £185 short haul return does not seem like a great deal to me (I have just flown DUB-LAX with BA for £345 return). At .7p an avios, the flights are about £145 return which is a bit more reasonable to me - still not mind blowing especially when compared to Easyjet or Norwegian on those dates where prices at decent times are £80-£100.
I agree that the new off peak prices and lower taxes on some routes will help and of course some weekends will be better value for avios redemptions, but then busier weekends usually means poorer reward availability.
I do book RFS all the time and I think it is decent value at my personal valuation of .7p an avios, but I find the 1p argument very hard to justify for RFS except on rare dates where cash prices are high but avios availability good, for last minute bookings or when you need Heathrow/Bags/Flexibility.
Maybe if I was Gold, the extra availability would change my valuation...I'm not sure how much better it is?