Hello everyone,

I'm a silver with 200k avios to use, that may sound like I'm an affluent sort who travels round the world a lot, the truth is, every single one of those points has been earned via work related travel and I never really use them for personal travel, this year I have had a baby, purchased my first home, got engaged and planned a wedding. Holidays are way down the priority list HOWEVER in October 2019 I'd like to take my wife-to-be to NYC as she's never been, despite worries about how we could afford it I've said my points can easily cover such a journey and we can book an airbnb in Brooklyn for about £120 a night.

So knowing that flights are released 355 days in advance I started the search for the first time, can anyone tell me what the point of reward flights are or less flippantly if there's a better way to do it? I knew there'd be surcharges but I was thinking they'd be about £200 per person but off-peak economy flights we're looking at about £1.1k + Avios??? Why? You can get return flights on ba.com for £300 per person, I may as well buy them and knock £90 off with avios.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a cheaper way to do it? What about through Dublin with Aer Lingus?