Originally Posted by
CMRB
Hey, many thanks for the response, I have an annual global car insurance policy, but would you still suggest it's not worth wasting the Avios?
The reason that I hve not tried it previously was that I had a credict card that did away with its points rewards in October, for several years I had used that to rent cars 4-6 times a year in Spain without any additional surcharges and it worked a treat, But they did away with their rewards citing some new EU law which they had to abide by
It really depends on one's own valuation of an Avios. You simply have to compare the cash price with the price using Avios. If you spend 10,000 Avios to save 50 euros it's a waste of Avios, but if you spend 5,000 Avios to save 100 euros then it's a good deal. I value an Avios at around 1 UK pence, which is about 1.5 US cents. Other people may value higher and others lower...
I've never really done the math on Spain car rentals vs. Avios, since I need the insurance coverage. The weekend rate looks alright, but the daily rate is a rip off for sure. Sometimes when I rent a car here the cash rate is ridiculously cheap. At other times it is quite expensive and I've never quite figured out why.
Another thing to keep in mind is that it's always cheapest for airlines to give away seats that were probably flying empty anyhow. When they have to pay a third party for something - for a product, hotel points, rental cars, etc. the airline usually needs to pay hard cash, and that means the value proposition is surely worse for the consumer since in airline really wants to be doing that...
As mentioned, there are still many ways to usefully spend Avios without resorting to blowing them. Short haul flights are one. AA in the US. Cathay Pacific around Asia is even better...