Why Avios are a spectacular "currency" for flying in Europe (practical example)
Avoid high ticket prices? save hundreds of euros thanks to points? all concepts that on this site I repeat to exhaustion, [...]
British Airways
Oneworld
MXP
United Kingdom
Avoid high ticket prices? save hundreds through points? all concepts that I repeat on this site to exhaustion, but what many people ignore is that points can be of tremendous value even for short-haul routes.
In this article:
Yesterday I made two reservations and the avios absolutely came to me in support allowing me to save more than 800 euros.
The special feature of award tickets with BA to fly short-haul, as I have written several times before, is that you can using a few points and only 50 cents in fees. This is diametrically opposed to the situation on long-haul where, on the other hand, BA is, among European carriers, the one with the highest fees and surcharges.
My reservations
Next summer I will have to go to London for a couple of days. to attend the Farnborough show, an event that will gather the aviation elite at the gates of the English capital, a biennial event that promises to be among the most important in recent years. Qatar will introduce the new QSuite and many other companies will bring lots of new things.
I booked the departure on the morning of July 22, the opening day of the doors on the English airfield, ticket prices literally skyrocket from both Linate and Malpensa and so in the end I preferred to leave from the province of Varese and fly to London Heathrow.
The nice thing is that even though the cash price is skyrocketing, the price with points is capped. So the same ticket instead of costing me over 600€ is cost only 50 cents and 9750 avios. There is one big difference, however, and that is flexibility; the 620€ ticket was not changeable, while a rewards ticket was.
Same for the return, in this case I had a special need: Take one of the few flights that British Airways operates from London Heathrow Terminal 3., instead of from T5 that is, from its main house.
The reason is. I definitely wanted to have a chance to visit the many oneworld lounges present at T3: those of BA, of course, but especially the lounges of Cathay Pacific, Qantas and American Airlines, and if I have time I will also pop into the Centurion Lounge.
In the bouquet of the few possible destinations I looked for a destination with a flight that would allow me, once I landed, to leave immediately for Malpensa. I ruled out Perugia and Olbia, because there were no flights on the date I was interested in, and so Budapest came up in the end.
Again, tickets were insanely expensive, over 300 pounds for an economy ticket.
Once again Avios points came to my rescue., I could have spent the usual 50 cents plus 12.75o points, but BA allows you to lower the amount of avios by raising the economic part and so I chose to save 4500 avios and spend 23€ to detach this award ticket.
Last but not least from theBudapest Airport I found a flight for a few tens of euros back to Italy with Wizzair.
Why I chose this path
Sure, perhaps, I could have found some low-cost solution, but the need to arrive early on the morning of the 22nd and at an airport from which to move quickly to the fair made me prefer the BA option rather than a low-cost one. In addition, award tickets are flexible, so I will be able to change plans without losing anything.
Of course I had no points I would never have paid nearly 1,000 euros to fly from Milan to New York, but this is the crazy air travel market and especially this is a perfect way to use 18 thousand avios and 23.5€.
How to earn avios points in Italy
We have written several articles to explain How to maximize collection and use of Avios points. Today I believe that this is the strongest "currency" of all those easily accessible by Italian frequent flyers. Lately in our FB group The Flight CLub. The Platinum Group, the following have come back into fashion. surveys that pay respondents with Avios points.
Here is one of many discussions where a user explains that, thanks to the survey option, he accumulated 35k avios in 8 months. Points accumulated without spending a euro that would be enough for a trip for two from Milan to London.
Avios is then a partner of American Express, it is therefore can transfer Membership points for free between the two programs. Unfortunately, two very interesting options have disappeared with covid. The ability to convert points Esselunga in avios points and the British Airways credit cards for the Italian market.
