Should I Use Avios On Long-Haul Economy Flights?

If you frequently book economy flights within Europe with Avios you’ll probably used to the great value reward flight saver brings! It restricts the taxes for economy flights within Europe to a maximum of £35pp return as long as you’ve collected at least one Avios in the past 12 months. But what happens if you want to travel long-haul? Should you use Avios on long-haul economy seats? Read on to find out!

Using Avios On Long-Haul Economy Flights

British Airways advertises the following ‘from’ costs on their website here – https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/spending-avios/reward-flights

• North America – from £100 and 50,000 Avios
• Latin America & Caribbean – from £150 and 60,000 Avios
• Europe, UK & Ireland – from £1 and 18,500 Avios
• South and Central Asia – from £150 and 60,000 Avios
• Middle East – from £100 and 50,000 Avios
• Africa – from £150 and 60,000 Avios
• Far East – from £200 and 70,000 Avios

Sounds pretty good on the face of it, doesn’t it? But remember these are from prices and you will need to take into consideration the cash ticket price too. If you value Avios at 1p like us (It’s quite complicated, more on that here) that means the above examples would now read like…

• North America – from £600
• Latin America & Caribbean – from £750
• Europe, UK & Ireland – from £186
• South and Central Asia – from £750
• Middle East – from £600
• Africa – from £750
• Far East – from £900

Potentially not so great right? There are of course variations in pricing, to find the sweet spot will require you to do some maths but don’t worry we will take you through how to work it all out!

Is there Reward Flight Saver for long-haul flights?

Yes but only for economy seats. The British Airways website states ‘With Reward Flight Saver, we currently offer flights throughout Europe, North America and many other destinations around the world.’… unfortunately not entirely conclusive if reward flight saver will be available to your destination! The easiest way to tell if your route/flight has reward flight saver tickets is by the small navy blue icon above the flight details to the side of the booking classes. See the example below.

The little blue icon next to the ‘off-peak’ text means I can book a reward flight saver ticket on that flight should I wish to. Is it good value? Take a look at our examples below…

What value will I get using Avios On Long-Haul Economy Flights?

Here are some examples to the value you may get when booking Avios long-haul economy flights. Remember the cash price fluctuates day by day so don’t always assume you’ll get the same value as in the examples below. It’s important that you price up a cash flight at the same time you are interested in booking your Avios flight.

London – New York

Our first example is London – New York. We’ve selected the dates 4 – 11 December 2021 and a random BA flight on each day with Economy availability. The flights have the little navy blue reward flight saver icon which means we will be able to the reward flight saver rate if we want. After we’ve selected our flights these are the price options we are offered.

50,000 Avios + £100 is the Reward Flight Saver rate. To find out what value we’d be getting let’s compare that to the cash rate of the same flight. The exact same flights cost £567.72 when booking with cash.

So if we take the ‘taxes and fees’ of the Avios booking away from the cash price.

£567.72 – £100 = £467.72

We then divide that amount by the Avios cost which will give us the pence per point value we are getting

£467.72 ÷ 50,000 = 0.0093544 so 0.93544p per point, just under our 1p valuation… not too bad!

With the other options we get…

38,000 + £180 = £567.72 – £180 = £387.72 ÷ 38,000 = 0.0102031578947368 … just over 1p a point.
26,000 + £290 = £567.72 – £290 = £277.72 ÷ 26,000 = 0.0106815384615385 … just over 1p again.
19,500 + £340 = £567.72 – £340 = £227.72 ÷ 19,500 = 0.0116779487179487 … just over 1.15p a point
13,000 + £400 = £567.72 – £400 = £167.72 ÷ 13,000 = 0.0129015384615385 … almost 1.3p a point
9,100 + £480 = £567.72 – £480 = £87.72 ÷ 9,100 = 0.0096395604395604 … around 0.96p a point

As you can see in this example although the reward flight saver option has the lowest cash cost it actually gets you the WORST value per Avios spent. The best value option is the 13,000 + £400 option netting you almost 1.3p a point but this doesn’t mean it’s the best option for you! Once you have the maths worked out you can make an informed decision on what is best for you! Securing just over 1p a point and paying 38,000 Avios with the lower cash amount of £180 may suit you better!

London – Dubai

Our second example is London – Dubai. We’ve selected the dates 15 – 22 January 2022 and a random BA flight on each day with Economy availability. The flights have the little navy blue reward flight saver icon which means we will be able to the reward flight saver rate if we want. After we’ve selected our flights these are the price options we are offered.

50,000 Avios + £100 is the Reward Flight Saver rate. To find out what value we’d be getting let’s compare that to the cash rate of the same flight. The exact same flights cost £426.72 when booking with cash.

So if we take the ‘taxes and fees’ of the Avios booking away from the cash price.

£426.72 – £100 = £326.72

We then divide that amount by the Avios cost which will give us the pence per point value we are getting

£326.72 ÷ 50,000 = 0.0065344 so 0.65344p per point, just over 0.65p a point… not great!

With the other options we get…

38,000 + £180 = £426.72 – £180 = £246.72 ÷ 38,000 = 0.0064926315789474 … almost 0.65p a point.
26,000 + £290 = £426.72 – £290 = £136.72 ÷ 26,000 = 0.0052584615384615 … only just over 0.5p a point
19,500 + £340 = £426.72 – £340 = £86.72 ÷ 19,500 = 0.0044471794871795 … roughly 0.44p a point
13,000 + £400 = £426.72 – £400 = £26.72 ÷ 13,000 = 0.0020553846153846 … only just over 0.2p a point
9,100 + £480 = £426.72 – £480 = £-53.28 ÷ 9,100 = -0.0058549450549451 … means you are paying BA almost 0.6p a point for the privilege of using your Avios as the ‘taxes and fees’ exceed the cash price!

In this example, the reward flight saver option is the best option for the value you receive per point. At just over 0.65p it’s still not great however compared to the 1p+ you can achieve relatively easily elsewhere. The worst-case scenario here is the last option of 9,100 Avios + £480, you are actually paying MORE than the cash rate and still losing some Avios! It always pays to check every time to make sure the maths works out for you.

London – Cancun

Our last example is London – Cancun We’ve selected the dates 5 – 12 March 2022 and a random BA flight on each day with Economy availability. The flights have the little navy blue reward flight saver icon which means we will be able to the reward flight saver rate if we want. After we’ve selected our flights these are the price options we are offered.

60,000 Avios + £150 is the Reward Flight Saver rate. To find out what value we’d be getting let’s compare that to the cash rate of the same flight. The exact same flights cost £605.13 when booking with cash.

So if we take the ‘taxes and fees’ of the Avios booking away from the cash price.

£605.13 – £150 = £455.13

We then divide that amount by the Avios cost which will give us the pence per point value we are getting

£455.13 ÷ 60,000 = 0.0075855 so 0.75855p per point, just over 0.75p a point… not great!

With the other options we get…

45,000 + £250 = £605.13 – £250 = £355.13 ÷ 45,000 = 0.0078917777777778 … almost 0.79p a point.
32,500 + £350 = £605.13 – £350 = £255.13 ÷ 32,500 = 0.0078501538461538 … just over 0.785p a point
26,000 + £420 = £605.13 – £420 = £185.13 ÷ 26,000 = 0.0071203846153846 … roughly 0.71p a point
18,000 + £460 = £605.13 – £460 = £145.13 ÷ 18,000 = 0.0080627777777778 … just over 0.8p a point
11,400 + £510 = £605.13 – £510 = £95.13 ÷ 11,400 = 0.0083447368421053 … just over 0.83p a point

In this example, the 11,400 Avios + £510 is the best option for the value you receive per point. At just over 0.83p it’s close to our 1p valuation but not quite there. The worst-case scenario here is the middle option of 26,000 Avios + £420, where you will receive roughly 0.71p a point. It always pays to check every time to make sure the maths works out for you! Depending on how much you value a point out or your cash flow situation your preference may vary.

So what’s the easiest way to work out the value I’m getting?

The way we’ve used above is the easiest way in our opinion to make sure you are getting the most accurate value from your calculations. Simply price up a cash flight for the same dates/route/timings, take away the ‘taxes and fees’ of the Avios booking and then divide the remaining number by the Avios cost. Remember 0.01 would be 1p which is the figure we aim to achieve when making our Avios redemptions. Take a look at our article on How to work out Avios point value to help you work out your own valuation.

Conclusion

As you can see to ensure you get the best value from your Avios you will need to check at the time of booking against the cash price. As much as we love to use points to pay as little cash as possible sometimes you are better off saving those points for a better value redemption and using cash!