Chase Miles to redeem ? Start Here !
Jan 25, 2012, 4:56 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2005
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC (Gold), Hilton (Gold)
Posts: 4,168
Chase Miles to redeem ? Start Here !
So, you've taken out your Chase credit card, you've splurged on all sorts of lovely things for your home (yes, the Swarovski colander is lovely) and now you have lots of lovely Avios and a Companion Voucher. And you've Googled away and you've found US. And just for you we have this lovely sticky.
Before we start, some terminology for you:
Economy on BA is called World Traveller (longhaul) or EuroTraveller (shorthaul)
Economy Plus is called World Traveller Plus
Business Class is called Club World (longhaul) or Club Europe (shorthaul)
First Class is called First
As a sort of bit of background information (suggested by Deckard) the important thing to bear in mind is that with Avios you're working the way European airlines work, not the way American carriers work. European carriers have long had surcharges for things like fuel and, in addition, the taxes for departing from certain European airports (London Heathrow, I'm looking at YOU) can be very high. For cash tickets, these are all incorporated into the advertised fares (legally, they have to be) but for redemption tickets they're added on as surcharges. This is why, so often, Economy redemptions are such a waste of Avios/Miles/Slovakian Pobble Beads because the taxes and surcharges make up such a large proportion of the Economy fare.
We're not saying it's right, or fair - but it's the way it is and for the foreseeable future it's unlikely to change. So, with that out of the way...
1. Sit down, take a deep breath and prepare yourself for: The Surcharges.
When redeeming Avios, you're going to have to pay some surcharges. Yes, we know it's a free ticket and we know you're about to have to sell that lovely Swarovski colander on eBay, but you need to bear with us on this one. The number one tip is: DO NOT REDEEM FOR ECONOMY.
Consider these two scenarios:
a) Redeem for 2 Economy Seats to come visit us in London. Cost to you: 40-50k Avios and around US$600.
b) Redeem for 2 Business Class Seats to come visit us in London. Cost to you: 80-100k Avios and around US$950.
Now, we're going to wait patiently while you clean up the coffee you just spat all over your desk.
Scenario a) is bad. Don't do it. Those seats cost about US$1100 so your saving is only around US$500 and spitting your coffee out when people go for that option is quite understandable.
Scenario b) is good. Do it. Those seats cost a lot more that US$950 - about US$5000 - AND you're getting to fly on a lovely flat bed, enjoy the BA lounges, have some food and booze and champagne on board and generally swank around to your friends.
See ? It's not so bad when you look at it that way. You've shelled out less than the price of an Economy ticket and you're flying in international business class. You've saved about US$4000!
In actual fact, I've been unfair to myself with my figures - because Avios seats are fairly flexible (no Saturday night requirement, tickets can be altered for a small fee - waived for Gold Card holders, can be cancelled and all fees/Avios refunded for a small fee), whereas I've priced up the cost of totally inflexible return tickets for my comparison fares...
To sum up section 1: We don't DO Economy dahling, it's not for us.
2. So, I want to go to Singapore ! And I want to stop in London !! GIMME GIMME.
When redeeming Avios you can't just pick any old flight. Each flight has a certain number of seats available for redemption (i.e. Avios seats) in each cabin. Once someone has grabbed those seats they've gone. Some routes are more popular than others and on those mega popular routes those seats go fast. Summer holidays* ? Those seats go faster !
The tip for this scenario is: Be Flexible.
Yes, we know Granny lives in Singapore. But everyone wants to go there (maybe to see Granny !). And if they don't want to go there, they want to go to Sydney - and that's the same route !
But Hong Kong is close by, and, gosh, look - I can get seats on the day I want easily. So let's get the seats for Hong Kong and we can either redeem some more Avios and nip over to Singapore with Cathay Pacific or just book a cheapy flight with Air Asia.
In other words, if you can't get the exact destination you want, look for places nearby which might be a bit less popular and see if you can fly there instead. The classic example is people who want to fly LAX <> LHR. Look at SFO, SAN, LAS as a few alternatives.
* Note that in the UK pretty much all schools close in the summer for 6-7 weeks (kids, leave your Mom alone - she's not moving here) and so there is this great Gadarene rush of irate adults and sticky children all desperate to go somewhere, anywhere for a 2 week break during this time. Most sane people stay at home and avoid travelling at all if it can possibly be helped. On the other hand, if you want to spend 11 hours in a metal tube playing peek-a-boo with a 4 year old suffering from galloping impetigo and on a permanent sugar rush from all the goodies in the Club World kitchen, book your travel in the latter half of July, any time in August and the first week of September.
3. So, I want to go to Ho Chi Minh City ! Granny Moved ! But BA don't fly there !!
You can redeem your Avios on Partner Airlines. Basically this is OneWorld carriers plus a handful of affiliates. The chances are, wherever you want to go, you can fly with OneWorld. The caveat to that is you'll have to put your shiny Companion voucher away because you can only use that on a BA flight (the standard phrase is BA flight on BA metal, which is just a geeky way of saying a flight with a BA code at the start of it that is operated by BA and is one of their planes).
So, we've got that out of the way. BA's website can help you find partner awards - essentially if they don't have availability OR don't fly that route, they'll offer to look on partner airlines as well.
Or you can use a third party website like AwardNexus.com (recommended !).
Avios costs are calculated by sector and distance, so multiple sectors will cost you more Avios. Surcharges are assessed a bit differently with partner airlines - often you'll find you pay less, sometimes you'll find you pay a similar amount to a BA flight of a similar length.
4. Well, look, we don't have that much cash now. Hubby ran off with the postman and I'm raising the kids solo and the pet elephant needs feeding.
We hear you. The first thing to realise is that if you want to fly on BA you're not going to avoid these surcharges - so if you want to use the Companion Voucher you're just going to have to find the money from somewhere. Sell Granny's silver. Sell Granny if you have to - but that's how the scheme works (surcharges, not eBay-ing Granny !).
One option is to fly back from an airport other than LHR - the APD (tax) there is quite shocking, particularly if departing in a premium cabin. A transit at LHR of less than 24 hours means APD does not kick in. So if you flew BCN>LHR>LAX in CW your surcharges would go down by a fair chunk.
On the other hand you might decide you've got so many Avios you don't need the Companion voucher and can forgo the delights of BA. Recommended routes at time of writing (January 2012) are LAN flights to South America, Ireland (with Aer Lingus), Alaska (wrap up warm !) and Hawaii (don't wrap up warm !). Note that the Aer Lingus flights, and any flights with Alaska Airlines, require you to phone BA; it is not possible to search for (and book) online.
Other options with low/non-existant surcharges include intra-Australian flights with QF, any flight departing Brasil, domestic flights with AA and any flights with AA going between North and South America. (thanks here to guv1976)
5. Granny lives in Hong Kong and Aunty Mildred lives in Bangkok - we can't visit one and not the other !
No problem. One of the nice new changes with Avios is that you can OpenJaw across zones. OpenJaw is a fancy way of saying you fly to one airport and fly back from another, but your start and end airport is the same. The rule here is that the inbound and outbound sectors must each be longer than the intervening sector. So if Aunty Mildred lived in Paris, Granny was in Hong Kong and you started from London, you can't have that as an Open Jaw - because LHR<>CDG is much shorter than CDG<>HKG. You are allowed to OpenJaw a Companion Voucher if you want to. If you wanted to visit Granny and Aunty in Hong Kong and Paris we would suggest you book 2 x 1-way redemptions (although you can't use the companion voucher for this).
Note as well it can sometimes be in your interest to book 2 x 1-way tickets if redeeming on multiple partner airlines - booking with 1 partner airline costs far fewer Avios than with 2. As an example, booking SIN-HKG-NRT on CX/JL will cost you more than booking SIN-HKG and then HKG-NRT as 2 separate bookings. Note that if you do this your booking is not 'protected' in the same way as a through booking is. In practice I would expect most airlines will help you out if you misconnect - especially if you're doing an 'intra alliance' flight, and you can always arrange your flights so you have a good amount of 'wiggle room' in case things go a bit pear shaped. Or even stay a couple of nights at your interim destination !
6. But what about these flights to Bali from JFK with Cathay Pacific where I paid 24 Avios and 2 cents. Return. In First Class.
It was great while it lasted. But now it's gone. Avios has changed the model which redemptions work on. Certain routes have gone down (ie require fewer Avios) whilst others have gone up. The redemption from JFK <> HKG <> DPS was always ridiculously good value and possibly one of the most anomalous redemptions going. In any event BA have altered it and you'll need to shell out quite a few more Avios for this route, if only because Avios calculate things on a distance-per-sector basis, rather than the end destination being what matters. Similarly, the Avios redemptions with LAN to South America which allowed you to stop in half a dozen different places for free no longer exist. Well, the routes exist, the free stopovers don't.
Lesson to be learned here: Avios redemptions have changed and the old gravy trains have dried up. There are some new ones though - east coast USA to UK redemptions have gone down (Club World return is 20k Avios less). Shorthaul European flights are now definitely worth redeeming on - it can be as little as 9000 miles in Economy (yes, Economy - we're telling you it's worth it here) and Ł27 (that's about US$40) all in for a return flight.
Anyway, you don't need those flights any more, because you're now clued up on how to extract much better value from the Avios program.
7. OK, so this actually sounds quite good after all. But I don't want to use all my Avios up in one go and I've heard about these things called MFU's...
I sympathise. But, the good news is that there are lots and lots of ways to earn Avios. You don't have to fly - you don't even have to get up from your computer. The even better news is that Avios do not expire. Well, they do if you leave your account idle for 3 years and there is zero activity, but even earning 1 Avios counts as activity, and now you know how this is done your account is going to be topped up again in no time.
Just have a look at this sticky:
Clicky Here
It's got lots of really useful information and the section about earning Avios covers all the main routes (flying, credit cards, eStores, affiliates and so on). In particular I'd direct you towards the section about MFU's (Miles For Upgrades). It has a lot of useful tricks and tips, but to provide a brief introduction to MFU's...
MFU's are the old term for a Mile For Upgrade. It's now called UUA - Upgrade Using Avios. But the old lags on this forum still use MFU - old habits die hard.
Let's say you've got a nice juicy pot of Avios, 200,000 of them sitting there begging to be splurged on a flat bed. You're stuck in LAX and you know that your heart lies in London. Those Avios could get you and your partner a pair of return tickets in Club World to London (plus surcharges) and they've gone. But hey, it was the trip of a lifetime. Except...now you're spoiled. You want to do it again. You don't want to sit down the back any more.
BA have this fantastic scheme where you can purchase a ticket and upgrade to the next class of service using your Avios. Even better, they credit you with the Avios and Tier Points for the purchased ticket !
The couple of "gotcha's" here are that you really, really shouldn't do this with an World Traveller ticket and upgrade to World Traveller Plus. You have to buy one of the 3 highest fare buckets in WT for the fare to be eligible - and those fares are often just as much as an WT+ ticket (or sometimes more). But you can buy any fare in WT+ or J and ugprade that - assuming that redemption seats exist in the class you want to upgrade to. In other words, if you buy a WT+ ticket (good) and upgrade with Avios to Club World (better) there have to be redemption seats in Club World for you to be able to do this.
Other things to look out for are that moving from WT+ > J is considered 'half an upgrade' so is half the Avios. To upgrade a return journey from WT+ to J from LAX<>LHR is 25,000 Avios. In addition you'll earn (with no status) about 11,000 Avios + 25% bonus miles for the WT+ fare - giving you an overall total of about 13,700 miles earned. So you've got half your Avios back.
Another thing to watch out for is that WT+ fares can be expensive; sometimes it's best to hold off for a sale and grab a sale fare to upgrade.
Also, if you have status you'll earn even more miles back (Bronze gets a 25% mileage bonus, Silver/Gold gets 100% mileage bonus). For Silver and Gold card holders you can find certain MFU'd flights actually earn back nearly the Avios you burn to upgrade - if you pay for it on your Avios-earning card you might even break even !
One last thing to consider is setting up a Household Account (HHA). These allow you to join family/partner/friends together in one account and all your miles are pooled together into one pot. This can be a very good way of earning even more Avios as everyone is contributing, and if you get into the heady heights of multiple companion vouchers you can use 2 vouchers to take 4 people away for the cost of 2 lots of Avios. In other words, if 4 of you wanted to travel from LAX to LHR return, in First Class you would need 300,000 Avios and 2 vouchers instead of 600,000 Avios. You'd have to pay 4 x surcharges of course. You must bear in mind with a HHA that you cannot redeem for people outside of the HHA, only people who belong to it can benefit from redemption tickets. Additionally status is still held on an individual level: your Silver card is yours, it doesn't extend to HHA members except in allowing you to take in 1 guest (doesn't have to be a HHA member in this case).
8. Now what ?
Well if you're still here you've hopefully realised that Avios doesn't give you free tickets, but it gives you a great way to fly in the posh bits of the plane for a relatively small sum of cash.
So now - it's over to you ! Get flying !
BAHumbug
(last update: January 2012)
Before we start, some terminology for you:
Economy on BA is called World Traveller (longhaul) or EuroTraveller (shorthaul)
Economy Plus is called World Traveller Plus
Business Class is called Club World (longhaul) or Club Europe (shorthaul)
First Class is called First
As a sort of bit of background information (suggested by Deckard) the important thing to bear in mind is that with Avios you're working the way European airlines work, not the way American carriers work. European carriers have long had surcharges for things like fuel and, in addition, the taxes for departing from certain European airports (London Heathrow, I'm looking at YOU) can be very high. For cash tickets, these are all incorporated into the advertised fares (legally, they have to be) but for redemption tickets they're added on as surcharges. This is why, so often, Economy redemptions are such a waste of Avios/Miles/Slovakian Pobble Beads because the taxes and surcharges make up such a large proportion of the Economy fare.
We're not saying it's right, or fair - but it's the way it is and for the foreseeable future it's unlikely to change. So, with that out of the way...
1. Sit down, take a deep breath and prepare yourself for: The Surcharges.
When redeeming Avios, you're going to have to pay some surcharges. Yes, we know it's a free ticket and we know you're about to have to sell that lovely Swarovski colander on eBay, but you need to bear with us on this one. The number one tip is: DO NOT REDEEM FOR ECONOMY.
Consider these two scenarios:
a) Redeem for 2 Economy Seats to come visit us in London. Cost to you: 40-50k Avios and around US$600.
b) Redeem for 2 Business Class Seats to come visit us in London. Cost to you: 80-100k Avios and around US$950.
Now, we're going to wait patiently while you clean up the coffee you just spat all over your desk.
Scenario a) is bad. Don't do it. Those seats cost about US$1100 so your saving is only around US$500 and spitting your coffee out when people go for that option is quite understandable.
Scenario b) is good. Do it. Those seats cost a lot more that US$950 - about US$5000 - AND you're getting to fly on a lovely flat bed, enjoy the BA lounges, have some food and booze and champagne on board and generally swank around to your friends.
See ? It's not so bad when you look at it that way. You've shelled out less than the price of an Economy ticket and you're flying in international business class. You've saved about US$4000!
In actual fact, I've been unfair to myself with my figures - because Avios seats are fairly flexible (no Saturday night requirement, tickets can be altered for a small fee - waived for Gold Card holders, can be cancelled and all fees/Avios refunded for a small fee), whereas I've priced up the cost of totally inflexible return tickets for my comparison fares...
To sum up section 1: We don't DO Economy dahling, it's not for us.
2. So, I want to go to Singapore ! And I want to stop in London !! GIMME GIMME.
When redeeming Avios you can't just pick any old flight. Each flight has a certain number of seats available for redemption (i.e. Avios seats) in each cabin. Once someone has grabbed those seats they've gone. Some routes are more popular than others and on those mega popular routes those seats go fast. Summer holidays* ? Those seats go faster !
The tip for this scenario is: Be Flexible.
Yes, we know Granny lives in Singapore. But everyone wants to go there (maybe to see Granny !). And if they don't want to go there, they want to go to Sydney - and that's the same route !
But Hong Kong is close by, and, gosh, look - I can get seats on the day I want easily. So let's get the seats for Hong Kong and we can either redeem some more Avios and nip over to Singapore with Cathay Pacific or just book a cheapy flight with Air Asia.
In other words, if you can't get the exact destination you want, look for places nearby which might be a bit less popular and see if you can fly there instead. The classic example is people who want to fly LAX <> LHR. Look at SFO, SAN, LAS as a few alternatives.
* Note that in the UK pretty much all schools close in the summer for 6-7 weeks (kids, leave your Mom alone - she's not moving here) and so there is this great Gadarene rush of irate adults and sticky children all desperate to go somewhere, anywhere for a 2 week break during this time. Most sane people stay at home and avoid travelling at all if it can possibly be helped. On the other hand, if you want to spend 11 hours in a metal tube playing peek-a-boo with a 4 year old suffering from galloping impetigo and on a permanent sugar rush from all the goodies in the Club World kitchen, book your travel in the latter half of July, any time in August and the first week of September.
3. So, I want to go to Ho Chi Minh City ! Granny Moved ! But BA don't fly there !!
You can redeem your Avios on Partner Airlines. Basically this is OneWorld carriers plus a handful of affiliates. The chances are, wherever you want to go, you can fly with OneWorld. The caveat to that is you'll have to put your shiny Companion voucher away because you can only use that on a BA flight (the standard phrase is BA flight on BA metal, which is just a geeky way of saying a flight with a BA code at the start of it that is operated by BA and is one of their planes).
So, we've got that out of the way. BA's website can help you find partner awards - essentially if they don't have availability OR don't fly that route, they'll offer to look on partner airlines as well.
Or you can use a third party website like AwardNexus.com (recommended !).
Avios costs are calculated by sector and distance, so multiple sectors will cost you more Avios. Surcharges are assessed a bit differently with partner airlines - often you'll find you pay less, sometimes you'll find you pay a similar amount to a BA flight of a similar length.
4. Well, look, we don't have that much cash now. Hubby ran off with the postman and I'm raising the kids solo and the pet elephant needs feeding.
We hear you. The first thing to realise is that if you want to fly on BA you're not going to avoid these surcharges - so if you want to use the Companion Voucher you're just going to have to find the money from somewhere. Sell Granny's silver. Sell Granny if you have to - but that's how the scheme works (surcharges, not eBay-ing Granny !).
One option is to fly back from an airport other than LHR - the APD (tax) there is quite shocking, particularly if departing in a premium cabin. A transit at LHR of less than 24 hours means APD does not kick in. So if you flew BCN>LHR>LAX in CW your surcharges would go down by a fair chunk.
On the other hand you might decide you've got so many Avios you don't need the Companion voucher and can forgo the delights of BA. Recommended routes at time of writing (January 2012) are LAN flights to South America, Ireland (with Aer Lingus), Alaska (wrap up warm !) and Hawaii (don't wrap up warm !). Note that the Aer Lingus flights, and any flights with Alaska Airlines, require you to phone BA; it is not possible to search for (and book) online.
Other options with low/non-existant surcharges include intra-Australian flights with QF, any flight departing Brasil, domestic flights with AA and any flights with AA going between North and South America. (thanks here to guv1976)
5. Granny lives in Hong Kong and Aunty Mildred lives in Bangkok - we can't visit one and not the other !
No problem. One of the nice new changes with Avios is that you can OpenJaw across zones. OpenJaw is a fancy way of saying you fly to one airport and fly back from another, but your start and end airport is the same. The rule here is that the inbound and outbound sectors must each be longer than the intervening sector. So if Aunty Mildred lived in Paris, Granny was in Hong Kong and you started from London, you can't have that as an Open Jaw - because LHR<>CDG is much shorter than CDG<>HKG. You are allowed to OpenJaw a Companion Voucher if you want to. If you wanted to visit Granny and Aunty in Hong Kong and Paris we would suggest you book 2 x 1-way redemptions (although you can't use the companion voucher for this).
Note as well it can sometimes be in your interest to book 2 x 1-way tickets if redeeming on multiple partner airlines - booking with 1 partner airline costs far fewer Avios than with 2. As an example, booking SIN-HKG-NRT on CX/JL will cost you more than booking SIN-HKG and then HKG-NRT as 2 separate bookings. Note that if you do this your booking is not 'protected' in the same way as a through booking is. In practice I would expect most airlines will help you out if you misconnect - especially if you're doing an 'intra alliance' flight, and you can always arrange your flights so you have a good amount of 'wiggle room' in case things go a bit pear shaped. Or even stay a couple of nights at your interim destination !
6. But what about these flights to Bali from JFK with Cathay Pacific where I paid 24 Avios and 2 cents. Return. In First Class.
It was great while it lasted. But now it's gone. Avios has changed the model which redemptions work on. Certain routes have gone down (ie require fewer Avios) whilst others have gone up. The redemption from JFK <> HKG <> DPS was always ridiculously good value and possibly one of the most anomalous redemptions going. In any event BA have altered it and you'll need to shell out quite a few more Avios for this route, if only because Avios calculate things on a distance-per-sector basis, rather than the end destination being what matters. Similarly, the Avios redemptions with LAN to South America which allowed you to stop in half a dozen different places for free no longer exist. Well, the routes exist, the free stopovers don't.
Lesson to be learned here: Avios redemptions have changed and the old gravy trains have dried up. There are some new ones though - east coast USA to UK redemptions have gone down (Club World return is 20k Avios less). Shorthaul European flights are now definitely worth redeeming on - it can be as little as 9000 miles in Economy (yes, Economy - we're telling you it's worth it here) and Ł27 (that's about US$40) all in for a return flight.
Anyway, you don't need those flights any more, because you're now clued up on how to extract much better value from the Avios program.
7. OK, so this actually sounds quite good after all. But I don't want to use all my Avios up in one go and I've heard about these things called MFU's...
I sympathise. But, the good news is that there are lots and lots of ways to earn Avios. You don't have to fly - you don't even have to get up from your computer. The even better news is that Avios do not expire. Well, they do if you leave your account idle for 3 years and there is zero activity, but even earning 1 Avios counts as activity, and now you know how this is done your account is going to be topped up again in no time.
Just have a look at this sticky:
Clicky Here
It's got lots of really useful information and the section about earning Avios covers all the main routes (flying, credit cards, eStores, affiliates and so on). In particular I'd direct you towards the section about MFU's (Miles For Upgrades). It has a lot of useful tricks and tips, but to provide a brief introduction to MFU's...
MFU's are the old term for a Mile For Upgrade. It's now called UUA - Upgrade Using Avios. But the old lags on this forum still use MFU - old habits die hard.
Let's say you've got a nice juicy pot of Avios, 200,000 of them sitting there begging to be splurged on a flat bed. You're stuck in LAX and you know that your heart lies in London. Those Avios could get you and your partner a pair of return tickets in Club World to London (plus surcharges) and they've gone. But hey, it was the trip of a lifetime. Except...now you're spoiled. You want to do it again. You don't want to sit down the back any more.
BA have this fantastic scheme where you can purchase a ticket and upgrade to the next class of service using your Avios. Even better, they credit you with the Avios and Tier Points for the purchased ticket !
The couple of "gotcha's" here are that you really, really shouldn't do this with an World Traveller ticket and upgrade to World Traveller Plus. You have to buy one of the 3 highest fare buckets in WT for the fare to be eligible - and those fares are often just as much as an WT+ ticket (or sometimes more). But you can buy any fare in WT+ or J and ugprade that - assuming that redemption seats exist in the class you want to upgrade to. In other words, if you buy a WT+ ticket (good) and upgrade with Avios to Club World (better) there have to be redemption seats in Club World for you to be able to do this.
Other things to look out for are that moving from WT+ > J is considered 'half an upgrade' so is half the Avios. To upgrade a return journey from WT+ to J from LAX<>LHR is 25,000 Avios. In addition you'll earn (with no status) about 11,000 Avios + 25% bonus miles for the WT+ fare - giving you an overall total of about 13,700 miles earned. So you've got half your Avios back.
Another thing to watch out for is that WT+ fares can be expensive; sometimes it's best to hold off for a sale and grab a sale fare to upgrade.
Also, if you have status you'll earn even more miles back (Bronze gets a 25% mileage bonus, Silver/Gold gets 100% mileage bonus). For Silver and Gold card holders you can find certain MFU'd flights actually earn back nearly the Avios you burn to upgrade - if you pay for it on your Avios-earning card you might even break even !
One last thing to consider is setting up a Household Account (HHA). These allow you to join family/partner/friends together in one account and all your miles are pooled together into one pot. This can be a very good way of earning even more Avios as everyone is contributing, and if you get into the heady heights of multiple companion vouchers you can use 2 vouchers to take 4 people away for the cost of 2 lots of Avios. In other words, if 4 of you wanted to travel from LAX to LHR return, in First Class you would need 300,000 Avios and 2 vouchers instead of 600,000 Avios. You'd have to pay 4 x surcharges of course. You must bear in mind with a HHA that you cannot redeem for people outside of the HHA, only people who belong to it can benefit from redemption tickets. Additionally status is still held on an individual level: your Silver card is yours, it doesn't extend to HHA members except in allowing you to take in 1 guest (doesn't have to be a HHA member in this case).
8. Now what ?
Well if you're still here you've hopefully realised that Avios doesn't give you free tickets, but it gives you a great way to fly in the posh bits of the plane for a relatively small sum of cash.
So now - it's over to you ! Get flying !
BAHumbug
(last update: January 2012)
Last edited by Prospero; May 13, 2012 at 9:38 am Reason: Restoration from back-up
Jan 25, 2012, 5:18 pm
#2
Join Date: Dec 2011
Programs: BA Gold; SPG Platinum; Avis President's Club
Posts: 107
Well Done BAH
Jan 25, 2012, 5:46 pm
#4
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: ORF
Programs: Amex Plat, AA, BA Silver, Marriott Plat, Choice Gold, HHonors Gold, IHG Diamond
Posts: 3,749
Superb! Really well organized as well as entertaining reading. Perhaps it would be informative to include an additional section for those curious enough to want to learn how to leverage these Avios into a more or less self-sustaining fund of Avios by paying/upgrading and earning status on the side, which is the path I inadvertently discovered. I would agree, however, that that group is probably only a limited subset of the folks who will benefit from this guide.
Jan 25, 2012, 6:15 pm
#5
Join Date: May 2009
Location: USA
Programs: BA-Gold (dropping to Silver soon); AA & Flying Blue; Top Gear (the Clarkson years); Doctor Who :)
Posts: 422
).
Jan 25, 2012, 6:22 pm
#6
Join Date: May 2009
Location: USA
Programs: BA-Gold (dropping to Silver soon); AA & Flying Blue; Top Gear (the Clarkson years); Doctor Who :)
Posts: 422
Superb! Really well organized as well as entertaining reading. Perhaps it would be informative to include an additional section for those curious enough to want to learn how to leverage these Avios into a more or less self-sustaining fund of Avios by paying/upgrading and earning status on the side, which is the path I inadvertently discovered. I would agree, however, that that group is probably only a limited subset of the folks who will benefit from this guide.
Maybe limited until they know how to do this...most (WARNING: potentially broad brush generalisation coming...) BA CHASE Card holders probably got the card 'cos they expect and want to fly to Europe either to UK or through UK or are even ex-pat and a chance to remain part of BA "Miles" (substitute Avios) is a little bit of nostalgia (along with chance to fly "Up Front"
)
Jan 25, 2012, 6:23 pm
#7
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Sunshine State
Programs: BA Silver; VS Gold; HHonors Diamond; Amex Centurion; IHG Platinum; Club Accor Platinum; TfL Oyster.
Posts: 674
It would be great if the fortunate beneficiaries of the BA Chase Visa could readily access this information. I hope that it will, indeed, be 'stickified'.
It is too easy for the uninitiated to be horrified by the cash outlay of acquiring a 'free' economy ticket and to thus assume that all Avios rewards are (dare I say?) UNrewarding. BAHumbug has performed a fine service which could drastically reduce the number of apoplectic outbursts from over here in North America.
It is too easy for the uninitiated to be horrified by the cash outlay of acquiring a 'free' economy ticket and to thus assume that all Avios rewards are (dare I say?) UNrewarding. BAHumbug has performed a fine service which could drastically reduce the number of apoplectic outbursts from over here in North America.
Jan 25, 2012, 6:25 pm
#8
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Cheshire / Wherever they send me
Programs: BA Blue, Marriott Plat Life, UA Silver (thx Marriott), IHG Gold, Accor Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 943
As Gash has pointed out. A lot of our US friends like to use Avios or LAN, so adding something like 'I don't want to spend any more money than my $30,000 so what are my alternatives?'
T
T
Jan 25, 2012, 6:28 pm
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,529
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
I recently started a thread in this forum on surcharge-free Avios redemptions. Since the instant thread is geared to U.S. residents, perhaps my thread can be merged with this one. The fact is that on many routes from the U.S., Avios can be used to secure free -- or nearly free -- award travel, to places like Ireland, South America, Alaska, Hawaii, etc.
I recently started a thread in this forum on surcharge-free Avios redemptions. Since the instant thread is geared to U.S. residents, perhaps my thread can be merged with this one. The fact is that on many routes from the U.S., Avios can be used to secure free -- or nearly free -- award travel, to places like Ireland, South America, Alaska, Hawaii, etc.
Jan 25, 2012, 7:03 pm
#10
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold, LH Sen, MUCCI, Junior Jet Club.
Posts: 8,095
Excellent thread. Brings some sanity back.
I would add
- You can use your 241 on an open jaw basis as long as you're in the same zone. So, in the off chance that you do find a seat to go and see Auntie in Las Vegas but you can only find one back from Los Angeles, it's possible to ring up and do the 241 over the phone as LHR-LAS/LAX-LHR and then buy or redeem for the LAS-LAX sector.
- All Avios rewards can be booked as two one-ways for extra flexibility, which sometimes saves you Avios when booking 2-partner awards e.g. SIN-HKG-NRT-SIN on CX/JL is more expensive as it contains 2-partners than booking two singles SIN-HKG-NRT on CX and NRT-SIN on JL.
- Oh and you should add at the bottom "And if you don't like it, f... the f... off and stop cluttering up our forum."
I would add
- You can use your 241 on an open jaw basis as long as you're in the same zone. So, in the off chance that you do find a seat to go and see Auntie in Las Vegas but you can only find one back from Los Angeles, it's possible to ring up and do the 241 over the phone as LHR-LAS/LAX-LHR and then buy or redeem for the LAS-LAX sector.
- All Avios rewards can be booked as two one-ways for extra flexibility, which sometimes saves you Avios when booking 2-partner awards e.g. SIN-HKG-NRT-SIN on CX/JL is more expensive as it contains 2-partners than booking two singles SIN-HKG-NRT on CX and NRT-SIN on JL.
- Oh and you should add at the bottom "And if you don't like it, f... the f... off and stop cluttering up our forum."
Jan 25, 2012, 7:36 pm
#11
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: MCO
Programs: BAEC Silver, Amex Bonvoy, Chase BA
Posts: 360
Having just arranged 2 CW tickets using a Chase 2-4-1 from MCO-GLA I can tell you the taxes are now more like $1k each.
Jan 26, 2012, 1:08 am
#13
Join Date: Jun 2003
Programs: BA, IHG, 5C
Posts: 4,413
I would add a "So you just can't get comfortable with paying for your free flights" section. The voucher will have to go on the fire, but short direct domestic flights on AA, and simple itineraries to South America on LAN without fuel surcharges are still good options.
BahrainLad, 241s aren't restricted by zones any more as there aren't any zones (restricted by open segment length). Particularly important for our Chase friends as lots of open-jaws to Europe will have mixed mileages (e.g. fly to London, return from Paris to avoid APD).
BahrainLad, 241s aren't restricted by zones any more as there aren't any zones (restricted by open segment length). Particularly important for our Chase friends as lots of open-jaws to Europe will have mixed mileages (e.g. fly to London, return from Paris to avoid APD).
Jan 26, 2012, 1:23 am
#14
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold, LH Sen, MUCCI, Junior Jet Club.
Posts: 8,095
Ah, excellent news. I wondered if something had changed with Avioisesii...