North West England to New York advice
 

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?

As you've found long haul Avios awards often don't make sense compared to cash fares. Avios are better used for premium awards, upgrades and short haul RFS awards

Don't use Avios for long haul economy redemptions. It really is a complete waste as you save yourself almost nothing.

You would be much better advised to use them to travel in Club World or First. Taxes fees etc would be about £1.1k for 2 passengers.

Last time I checked, NCL was in the NORTH-EAST - surely you mean MAN-DUB-XXX. If you want NCL-DUB I believe your only option shouldn't be mentioned on this forum.

I may try to get to DUB without BA from LPL, I have read an old post about it being cheaper (only £75) taxes to book with BA over the phone for aerlingus flights rather than avios.com, does anyone have and recent experience of this?

It depends on your budget, but a return from MAN-JFK in W can be quite competitive, often cheaper than from LHR. You could then use your avios to upgrade to Club World. Or a Y flight out to JFK and then a W return, again, upgrading your inbound to Club World.

Alternatively, if you want the absolute lowest cost option, your avios could book you some really decent accommodation in Manhattan. While you wouldn't be realising the best value/avios, its a way to certainly bring the cost of the trip right down.

I assume your are looking to book flights in Economy?

No sure if this a goer, but how about using your Avios for the accommodation rather than the flight? Then pay cash for a Virgin, United or Thomas Cook (there may be others) direct flight.

Using Avios for economy flights is generally very poor value. As you have seen, it's often cheaper to buy a cash flight rather than pay the taxes.

As per the above, assuming you have bob on 200k avios, you can get a decent hotel in Brooklyn for 4 nights and a Y flight to JFK and a J return to MAN for a total of £600pp.

Alternatively, you could easily get something really nice in Manhattan for 200k avios for 4 nights.

Thanks for the tips on accommodation, I'll look into that.

Never never use Avios for long haul Y tickets. Use them for short haul reward flight saver tickets, or long haul premium cabins. You can also purchase a cash ticket, and upgrade with Avios.

As an aside has BA always routed its International flights through Heathrow/Gatwick, a direct NYC service from Glasgow would be great as we seem to be losing premium routes to Edinburgh boohoo (i know wishful thinking)

No, there used to be direct flights from the regions. The last long haul was MAN-JFK which finished about 10 years ago. There are a few short haul flights during the summer at the weekends, but they seem to be being scaled back.

A few years back I had to fly NYC-MAN at very short notice and was able to get a Y redemption on the direct AA flight for not a stupid amount of fees. I'm not sure if that route is still flying or not though.

No, the AA flight has gone. They've left it to Virgin / UA /TCX and PK (I think!).