Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
Except it's generally poor value for money. If you really, really can't find any other way of getting rid of your Avios then yes, fair enough. But unless there is a a deal on - usually once or twice a year - the value you're getting per Avios is around 0.6 or 0.7p. Sometimes the first small Avios contribution is in the 0.9p per Avios area. A decent UuA should bring extra 3p per Avios or more, RFS to money-printing routes can get to 6p per Avios. Even some wine deals are better part pay with Avios.
The BAEC annual deals, incidentally, only push you towards the 1.1 or 1.2p per Avios area.
Whilst I fully agree that abating fares isn’t the best use, for us it makes some sense. We have a fairly constant on-flow of Avios, so their absolute value is not a great concern. And chasing UuA has become a frustrating exercise!
In any case, reverting to the original question, I guess we are now suffering from “Gold Fixation”
For those of you who fly really frequently, status is easy. For elderly leisure pax, it requires a bit of cunning planning to ensure renewal, and retain the benefits. As we only fly CE/CW, I guess ‘class of travel’ provides many/most of the Gold benefits, but the Avios earning rate remains a driver ... so that we can squander Avios by abating fares and still have enough left to use a 2-4-1 somewhere meaningful.
But I have no doubt that TP accrual does tend to dominate our thinking ... perhaps unwisely?