Last-minute flights? Avios may be the answer…

If you are looking for last-minute flights for a holiday, work trip or emergency you are likely looking at shedding a load of cash for the ticket you want. There is another way, however… if there is Avios availability for your flight you are likely to save a TON of money.

Can Avios really be the answer to last-minute flights?

Flights booked with Avios points are a fixed price to each location, unlike cash fares that can vary heavily depending on load and time of booking! Now when you are booking last minute you are taking a punt that there is Avios availability remaining… but you will be surprised at how often there is! If you are interested in checking the cost of Avios flights take a look at our post on How Many Avios Points Needed For A Flight?

How do I check is there is Avios availability?

Log into your British Airways account and go to book flights with Avios – https://www.britishairways.com/travel/redeem/execclub/_gf/en_gb?eId=106019 – put in your travel dates/routing and see if there is availability.

Alternatively, you can use reward flight finder – https://rewardflightfinder.com/ – here you can put in your origin/destination airport, how many people, what travel class and whether you want a single or return ticket. The site will then show you the cost in Avios, taxes due and a calendar where you can see all the availability for your tickets without having to search for individual dates.

An example…

A last-minute cash booking for London – Glasgow tomorrow with BA would set me back an eye-watering £401.

However, with Avios, I can pay as little as 8500 Avios + £0.50. Though for the best return on my Avios I would take the 4000 Avios + £17.50 option. That’s a huge £383.50 saving on the cash price! If you are interested in learning more about how to make sure you get the most value from your Avios check out our posts on how to work out Avios point value & what is the best use of Avios

Conclusion

As you can see using Avios points when you want to take a last-minute flight can save you an awful lot of cash! So make sure you check before booking your cash flight… as you never know!

If you are looking to kick-start your Avios with a huge 200,000 haul don’t forget to take a look at our guide to fast track yourself to a rather cool 200,000 Avios points – https://pointsuncovered.com/american-express/fast-track-yourself-to-2000000-avios-points/