musical

So I just hit a million Avios. Perhaps that’s like being a millionaire with Monopoly money. But even so, I would love to hear what ideas you guys would suggest to spend them wisely on an amazing trip with my gf.
Perhaps this number is very common on here but it feels fairly substantial to me.
Ideally somewhere hot in December but I am super flexible and in no rush.
Thanks in advance.

teledude

Round the world multi partner redemption for two in first class

TedToToe

With that many Avios, I’d be heading to the Caribbean in F. Obviously, not all of BA’s destinations there have F. I haven’t been to St. Lucia (UVF) - I think that would be my first choice.

Wozza2404

Most people choose not to hold six figure balances because of the very real risk of devaluation - about which you can do nothing.

As for spending them, if it's just two of you then the world is your oyster. Assuming you're not using a 241 voucher, I'd be looking at a partner redemption on QR to MLE in J. You may struggle with availability this close to departure, though. Use BA reward finder website to check out BA options - DXB would still be hot and only 320k return in First - so enough change to do a partner redemption next year.

rossmacd

Whilst you are absolutely correct in terms of risk of devaluation, I'm not sure about the "most people". It is pretty easy to rack up quite staggering balances of Avios, if you have limited opportunities to redeem them (I'm talking time, not availability). I have only about 600k at the minute, mostly earned on CX, QR (both significantly lower yielding than BA) and some AA and little BA, but trying to find the time to use the Avios plus the all GUFs is difficult.

Wozza2404

That's a fair point. I was using the word 'most' based on my experiences in this forum, which I'll grant you is a very small subset of Avios collectors.

I used to have trouble using them, but for five years now both my kids have required their own seats, which ploughs through Avios when we do a family holiday. If it was still just my wife and I then I agree, I'd probably be back to having over 2m and no real way of getting through them.

GUFs are no longer an issue with the new rule they can be booked into revenue classes.

81romeo

Been there a few times and actually once close to the 2m mark.

Apart from redeeming in F, don't forget you can redeem Avios booking hotels / resorts too - the Intercontinental in Bali has seen me there a couple of times for 10 days in a row, all on Avios

Swanhunter

If you are GGL and have a joker and 241 too then pretty much take your pick.

if regular Gold then you’ll just have to go where the award availability allows...which booking 2 months out for peak season may well be Lagos or Jeddah. 😉

Woodbinerich

Nothing wrong with a relaxing 😎 fortnight in Jeddah!

chris1922Mk2

In answer to the title question, I'd be able to spend them quite quickly ! An F redemption pretty much anywhere, and as others have pointed out, they can be used for hotels, car hire, and other "experience" tickets too.

You could blow them all in one epic trip, or use them wisely over a few years combined with 2 4 1s.........

I've never had as much as a million, but have gone from c. 850,000 to 112,000 in just 2 years. I've one redemption booked and still to fly (4 x J to TPA), and am planning my next redemption which will probably clean me out, using a 2 4 1.

Then begins the long slow process of saving them up again.

orbitmic

One thing I tend to do is that I quite like using my avios to reduce my ticket costs by the minimal amount. £10 less for 1000 avios works quite well for me on short haul and a good way to slowly use up some of that balance.

Dambus

What would I do?

Watch out for sniffer dogs in T5. Pretty sure 1m Avios is worth more that £10,000!

Jimbojumbo

Upgrade my LHR-JFK to F from J later this month. ��

Seriously, I second the round the world flight in F with stop offs at breathtaking hotels along the way.

worldtrav

I thought my former boss had a good strategy, during his working life he saved his frequent flyer/hotel points for retirement and then armed with many millions of points spent them on trips with his wife for a number of years.

If I could stop spending mine I would do the same

NickB

Even among forum users, I would not be so sure. I suspect that there is a substantial proportion of forum users who do in fact sit on a substantial pile of avios that they struggle to shift.

Yes, inflation is one thing but one can fall in the opposite trap of redeeming for the sake of redeeming just to avoid inflation. Yes, avios will lose value over time. But it may be that avios in two years time devalued by 20% are still more useful to me than avios with no devaluation right now.

Inflation is not on its own enough of a justification to spend. The fact that the rate of return on savings account is less than inflation is not in itself a sufficient reason to immediately spend everything that one earns and save nothing (ignoring for the purpose of the argument the possibility of inflation-beating investments).

There is also the issue of speed of accrual and how fast you replenish the avios that you spend.

Plus there are issues related to one's personality, whether one tends to be more of a hoarder or a spendthrift.

So, I would probably want to avoid over-generalising but you are absolutely right to draw attention to the inflation/devaluation risk of avios.