PICA

Flew to SYD last year using my Amex 241 and upgrade voucher to go in F.

Also went to MLE earlier this year by using my points in the half price WTP redemption sale and upgrading to Club using my upgrade voucher

Skipcool3

A short notice one-way flight from ABZ-LHR-MXP all in business UK / CE access to the lounge at ABZ and T5, fully catered breakfast flight from ABZ, fully catered lunchtime flight from T5

9,000 BA miles / Avios plus £17.00

AJLondon

HKG-JFK-HKG CX F for 150k
ORD-HKG-JFK CX F for 150k
Both booked just before the Nov 11 changes, for travel this year.

Also made several other BA F redemptions that I won't mention as "outstanding", purely because even though the mileage cost was similar as the above CX forays, the taxes/fees/surcharges made the cash component about 5 times as much.

All that said, the one redemption that does stick in my mind though, is a J redemption on BA metal that I managed to make just the day before travel to attend a funeral. The paid cost of that J seat was about 5k at the time, and this was the only nonstop from LHR that would get me there in time for the funeral. So in terms of "value", this was by far the most valuable as I would have spent 5k had I not got the award (which was only 50k miles). Thank you BAEC.

PICA

Almost forgot, flew to Hawaii from LHR (10 hours to LAX, 6 hours to HNL) for 75k miles in business using an upgrade voucher. From memory, the tax for the LAX to HNL journey was only about £3!

wejd

Not necessarily the best value redemptions but certainly the most fun to book and eager anticipation created were the redemptions I booked recently over a 24 hour period. My balance had just hit the 1m so went for a few treats and spent 500,000 approx in one go:
1. 2XBus Class to Barcelona to pick up a cruise ship going to Dubai in October
2. two nights in Hotel Arts pre-cruise
3 two nights in Grosvenor House Hotel post
4. 2XFirst Class from Dubai to LHR returning from cruise
5. 4XBus Class London City to Malaga return to treat our son and DIL for a short break in Sept
6. 3XBus Class LHR to Rome returns and 4 nights in a nice 4star hotel to take our 12 year old granddaughter on her first overseas trip without her parents ( just returned-we had a fabulous time thanks!)

BingBongBoy

I am of a similar ilk to you...

My one and only proper redemption is my JFK-HKG-DPS then DPS-HKG-SFO Cathay First and Business tickets that I hold for a couple of months time, which I managed to book about 2 days before the change from BA Miles to Avios for the rate of 150,000 and around £180 in total for the return trip.

The cash value of these flights is in the region of $25,000 USD. I think I know who is getting the better deal on this one...

HIDDY

Yes I suppose if you looked closely enough at the value per mile then a short notice shorthaul redemption is always likely to work out the best value. It's not always the long haul premium cabin redemption that gives one the best value.

I remember one FT'er was bragging about the value of his one way redemption somewhere in Central America....it according to him was saving him multitudes of cash because the one way fare was near a thousand dollars. I pointed out to him that nobody in their right mind would buy a single ticket for cash because the return fare on the route was only $250 which made him calm down a bit.

foofiter

Follow up question:

What routes represent a good use of fewer points?

Since it is distance base I am sure there are some routes out there that require little in way of points but can commonly be more expensive for cash fares.

Examples that come to mind:

JFK - YUL on AA is only 4,500 Avios one way in Y but are generally considered expensive flights.
SAN/LAX - HNL on AS/AA is only 12,500 Avios in Y one way and generally fares to Hawaii are high due to popularity and distance.

I would love to hear some other great values like this (not limited to coach but a good reference point to multiply from for J/F).

mkjr

Domestic JAL flights. Ba folks might be dumbfounded to find out that redemptions on JAL are, in fact in some cases, free.

Oil-man

A few years ago LHR-CPT for me and the wife for a 4 day long weekend. 150k BA miles an Amex 241 and about £300 in taxes and fees for both of us (oh, how things have changed!). Best part is we left our kids (then 4 and 1) with the grandparents.

It's not Avios, but last week I did CDG-BKK with the family in Thai F, courtesy of a shed load of BMI Diamond Club Miles and some cash. Not just any Thai F, but this has the Jet Airways leased 777-300ER with first class suites. What an experience!

mkjr

Booked for my in laws, yyz-hkg(stop)-dps-hkg-pek(stop)-HKG-yyz in j on cx for 200,000 for two. Now the actual cost was about cad$2600 since until july 2011 canadians could buy up to 180,000 ba miles for cad$2400. The way was on ft for about a few hours and you could do it multiple times a year. Just think how many were buying f on CX for this. . Of course not me but I did have 6 j trips to the far east in j booked in the last two years. I earned my miles the hard way, cc spend.

foofiter

Good one!

Looks like NRT-KIX for 4500 Avios in Y which is fine for a short hop like that.

Noted!

BA-Flyer

I'm very pleased with the redemptions I have had:

Club World LHR - LAX return, 100,000 BA Miles plus £485 (Used an Amex 2 for 1)

First LHR - JFK return, 20,000 Airmiles and not a penny to pay in tax or fees.

davewill

AEP to COR for 9000 avios and $25. With huge Argentinian taxes, this would have been around $375 r/t.

HKGBCN

Best value redemption for me was this last weekend - had been in HKG and had to get back to Tokyo at the absolute latest Monday morning at short notice. Fares on Saturday were quoting minimum 7k HKD OW plus tax in eco, found a seat on CX in F for the second HND flight on Sunday for 30k miles plu about 30gbp.

Most fun redemption would have to be (as has been mentioned before) a HKG-JFK return in CX F. I did it once about 3 years ago and it remains the best flights I've ever had.