My mistake, didn't spot the part about the booking being for a friend.

In that case I'd agree. Phone BA and get it sorted. If I were travelling alone and it was my booking, however, I'd take the gamble.

Thanks for the replies everyone, is it a real gamble as I have the ticket number beginning 125- have paid the taxes and all of the other information on MMB is correct. I am travelling on the same flight too but would rather everything goes without a hitch. Are there rules about reward booking where the Avios doesn't leave your account?

Since we are talking gambling, I would guess the account holder they came from will notice at some point and call BA. When that happens, what if there is no availability at that time?

I say call and fix it, at this point it is an error, later on it could become them believing you saw it and ignored it and they cancel the ticket outright and just refund the taxes and fees.

Is booking a car rental a poor use of Avios?
 

Have 175k. We are really only interested in flight redemption for travel to The US from Dublin, Ireland, but find that, by the time taxes/charges are added we get little value from Avios, i.e. we can get flights to Orlando or San Francisco for, let's say €500 return total (including DUB - MCO direct). Am looking at booking a People Carrier x 3 weeks for 130k (so about €700 if self-paying). Anyone any thoughts on this? Of note, we would travel here and there in Europe with Avios only with such low fares already available, most reward flights I look at with Avios, the additional cost is equivalent to what I can get by just booking and paying it. I think. Hotel rewards seem quite costly in Avios terms. Many thanks!

Don't do it! :)

You can get much better value if you treat yourself to business class flights, or use Avios to upgrade from Premium Economy (WT+) to fully flat bed Biz class (CW)

You can also use Aer Lingus from Dublin which has much lower taxes.

Only you can ultimately decide whether it represents good value for money as everyone's circumstances are unique. The general notion, as our points-nutter friend PanGalactic pointed out (pardon the pun), the best use of Avios is upgrading WT+ to CW, or redemption in CW or F. Of course that would mean a higher cash outlay in terms of WT+ ticket, or in terms of higher taxes and "fuel" surcharges for CW/F redemption.

There have been times when I burned some Avios on hotels as they had some really good deals (possibly one or two mistake rates) and times for when I just don't want to have to pay a penny.

So consider what else 130,000 Avios would get you, and see whether you'd use the alternative, or stick with the car rental. To me 130k for £700 seems fairly poor value unless I were Avios-rich and don't want to spend cash.

It's €700, not £700, so less than 0.5p per Avios. Fairly poor is a bit of an understatement I think.

Most people including myself won't redeem them for less than 1p, and even then do so begrudgingly.

Don't redeem them for $700 of value. I'm pretty certain people over at Coupon Connection would snatch your hand off for 130k for $800 cash.

Well, that's stopped me in my tracks!!!

Didn't realize Aer Lingus had lower taxes. That's always been the sting when searching on BAEC for reward flights. You can't book airline partner rewards yourself can you, i.e. on-line?? Have booked 6 direct Aer Lingus flights to Orlando for less than 3k (3 adults/3 kid fares - United Codeshare), and finding Avios/miles accumulating, so seemed a quick fix to drop a pile on a car! United have taken the car/hotel privilege away for us Europeans! The upgrading/business class would have to involve The Troops, so will revert to Aer Lingus and go this route (no pun intended!).

Many thanks for your prompt reply. I have seen The Light :)

Brilliant pun all the same, had a great laugh outta that! It's €650. Was being benevolent and rounded up. I too dropped hotel miles (United), 60k of them on 2 nights in a regular room for 2 in London recently until United put an end to it. Moving on.......... from that calamity .... will look at the outlay for CW+ so in future, and the upgrade. Interested in San Francisco and it's one long haul (sorry, more puns). Thanks for your time.

Fabulous advice, thank you. Should have 230k by the autumn, so will spend wisely.

Have only seen 'multiquote' now. Sorry guys! Thanks for your reply. Appreciated.

Bad idea on so many levels.....

1. Alison would need another 141 posts in order to access coupon connection
2. Cash deals would be against FT rules
3. Selling Avios is against BA rules
4. $800 = €600

Coupon connection is a big fat waste of time and not worth the risk of being ripped off or having your account shut down IMO.

Most partner flights can be booked online, but Aer Lingus isn't one of them. You need to do it on the phone.

I've booked via UuA from WT+ to CW. On MMB it's currently showing the tier points and avios at the CW rate as opposed to the WT+ that I was expecting. The flights haven't yet taken place, should I expect that the points/avios will be downgraded after the flight, or is it an error I should keep schtum about and hope I get the full CW allowance?