Welcome to Flyertalk nz6666, welcome in particular to the BA forum. If you are travelling economy then they are best used in certain scenarios, such as single trips (certain routes), Reward Flight Saver within Europe, non stop redemptions where there are no Surcharges (e.g. with USA), and where having a flexible ticket is worth something. In that respect your DXB comparison was between a flexible redemption and presumably an inflexible cheapo ticket. But welcome on board, and I hope we will see plenty more of you.

If you want a slightly humour-led introduction to this, the first part of this thread may be helpful, even though it's not specifically targeted at you.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...tart-here.html