Tag Archives: avios

ALERT – Iberia Devalues Avios Without Notice, Could BA Be Next? (False Alarm)

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UPDATE:  Thankfully this has been proven a false alarm.  Iberia’s award chart has always been the same since they converted to the Avios system, it just hadn’t been published in chart form before.  British Airways has confirmed they don’t have plans to devalue Avios.

 

This is all over Feedly (various blogs) and Flyertalk but I’m hat-tipping Matt from Saverocity for alerting me first, a good reason to subscribe to his newsletter!

Avios are a favourite miles currency of mine for use in South America on LAN, and can save you a bundle on intra-Peru fares!  I personally would also use them on Qantas for short-haul flights and on Comair (BA partner in South Africa) for my upcoming African adventure.

The current chart on British Airways (and Iberia up to today) was very attractive for short-haul, though once you get over 2000 miles into the 10k Avios zone you are probably better off with American AAdvantage miles.

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Here is the new chart posted on Iberia’s website.  The same rates apply to non OneWorld partners Avianca, Taca and a few others.  Currently redemptions on Iberia and British Airways are the same as the old chart above.

Iberia only allows round-trip redemptions on partners so if British Airways follows suit, the rates below would be half that for a one-way since they do allow one-way redemptions on partners.  Awards under 600 miles will cost 9750 Avios.  601-1000 miles will cost 12000 Avios.  At this point, most redemptions with Avios cease to be a good deal  and you are better off with American AAdvantage (providing THEY don’t devalue)!  Bear in mind that BA charges YQ fuel surcharges on most partners and AA doesn’t.

If you have travel planned up to July 2015 requiring use of Avios, I recommend you book it asap!

New Iberia Chart

BEST AVIOS REDEMPTIONS FOR ECO-TRAVELERS

LAN flights under 2000 miles within South America, also routes that AA has across two zones such as LIM-VVI (Lima to Santa Cruz, Bolivia).

Qantas flights under 2000 miles (must be QF metal, no Jetstar or codeshares).

BA flights on Comair within South Africa, I also used them for JNB-MRU as the taxes are cheaper using Avios.

 

 

Avios Quick Tip – Bargain Destinations From Your Home Town

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Since the OneWorld alliance is becoming more valuable with the new partners joining up, here’s a quick tip for Avios members to help you find bargain destinations from your home town.

We know that awards are distance based as below.

Avios Award Chart

Let’s see where I could go with Avios for less than 10,000 Avios one way.  To do this, I use Great Circle Mapper.

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http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?R=650nm%40BNE%0D%0A1151nm%40BNE%0D%0A2000nm%40BNE&MS=wls&DU=mi

Do you see where BNE repeats 3 times in the url?  Simply substitute your own home town airport code for BNE.  The smallest circle will give you destinations for 4500 Avios.  The middle circle gives you destinations for 7500 Avios and the largest circle gives you destinations for 10,000 Avios.  Even though cities aren’t named on the map, most people have a pretty good idea of what potential destinations would lie within each circle.

Then use the Great Circle Mapper to get the exact distance to make sure it’s within range.  For example on the first map, there are a lot of enticing Pacific islands in my largest circle – including Fiji!  Brisbane to Fiji, Port Moresby (as a birding jump-off point), Vanuatu or most of New Zealand for 10,000 Avios on Qantas!  Even better – Noumea, New Caledonia for 7500 Avios!   A reader has pointed out that some of these destinations are not currently available as awards on Avios even though they are available through QFF.  These flights are QF codeshares with Air Pacific, Air Vanuatu and Air Niugini, and not QF metal.  Some routes can be done via SYD or CNS using QF metal but it would be 2 sectors so not the bargains I had hoped for on Avios.  

Just another reason I hate the codeshare system!

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If you are trying to get your head around the new US Airways routes available to OneWorld members, let’s draw the map from their hub at Charlotte (CLT).  As long as US (or AA, TAM or any OneWorld airline) flies there, I see lots of bargains to the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, Colombia & Venezuela!

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Flying Domestically Within Australia

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Given that Australia is so large and that bird species are spread out over the entire country, most people will need to use domestic flights at some point.  These can sometimes be purchased at a good rate if you keep an eye on the sales on Qantas, Jetstar & Virgin’s websites.  You can get a pretty good snapshot of what’s available on Webjet.  Take for example our first flight from Brisbane to Perth.  Bear in mind that some fares do not allow a checked bag, you have to pay extra for this and that carry-on bags are limited to 7kg and by size.

If you need to get from a foreign country to Australia, please see my guide on redeeming awards to Australia.  I also have a guide to Perth as a gateway city.

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Neither Star Alliance nor Skyteam have a partner in Australia, but luckily anyone who is in a program from the One World Alliance has some good options.  Most people will use either American Airlines or British Airways Avios or Qantas points.

AMERICAN AADVANTAGE

Using AAdvantage is very easy as flights can be booked online and only cost 10,000 miles for a one way award that allows a checked bag.

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This search has produced 3 non-stop flights followed by several connections for 10,000 miles.  As you can see, the blue tab for business/first class awards is lit up so you could also chose a premium cabin for 17.5k miles.  Personally, for a 5.5 hour daytime flight, I would save my miles for something else but the option is available for those who wish it.

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Once you choose a flight, log in with your account, you will see that there are taxes of $14.60 in addition to the miles.  If you have been taking advantage of the Citibank American AAdvantage credit card bonuses which range from 40,000 – 100,000 miles, you can see that adds up to lots of free flights within Australia!

BRITISH AIRWAYS AVIOS

Since Avios redemptions are distance based, they may or may not be the better option. If the distance is more than 2000 miles, then AAdvantage would be cheaper as you can see by the chart below.

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First you need to know the distance between origin and destination for each leg.  I use the Great Circle Mapper.  The non-stop flight is 2246 miles which means it costs 12,500 Avios.  Since each segment of an Avios award is charged separately, if you connect in Sydney, you would be charged 4500 Avios for the first segment and 12,500 for the 2nd segment which isn’t a great deal.  If you were going simply from Brisbane to Sydney, 4500 Avios is a much better deal than paying 10,000 AAdvantage miles!

QANTAS

Qantas points are zone based and you can get the mileage required from their calculator.

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VIRGIN VELOCITY

If you are from Australia, you probably have points in Virgin’s Velocity program which are very easy to redeem online.  You can choose to use your points to cover the taxes or pay the taxes in cash and spend fewer points.

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Using Miles – Not Always The Best Option

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I was looking at potential miles opportunities for people in the UK who may wish to use Avios to visit Australia for birding. The high taxes from the UK make an Avios redemption in economy a bad choice.

Since I strongly recommend arriving a couple days in advance to get over the jet lag, I looked at a departure on Sunday, 9 Feb to Perth, returning on 28 Feb as an example.

With Avios, it costs at least 100,000 Avios plus $757 in taxes with options to spend more money and less Avios.

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If you have American Airlines miles, this itinerary would cost 90,000 miles and the taxes would probably be closer to the Cathay Pacific taxes from their website.  I can’t look at it online since AA doesn’t support online partner redemptions with CX.   If you use AA miles to redeem on BA, they do pass along the fuel surcharges so not a great idea!

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To simply buy the ticket from Cathay Pacific, it costs (in GBP) the equivalent of $1275 and you will earn miles for your choice of One-World programs.

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I would definitely NOT use Avios for this itinerary.  I wouldn’t use AA to travel on BA/QF because I think 90,000 AAdvantage miles are worth more than $550;  but I would call AA to find out how much they would charge for the CX itinerary.

Traveling in business or first class is a better use of Avios/AAdvantage miles but when I checked, it wasn’t available.

I do think that this itinerary is one you are better off paying for with money unless you are swimming in miles.

 

 

Central American Adventure – Putting It All Together

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This was a pretty complicated itinerary that required several different air mile programs to complete.  You can find my guide to using miles to get to Central America here.   I used miles from my Top 8 recommended programs.  Simply put, we flew from Brisbane to Belize, overland to Flores, flew Flores via Guatemala City to San Jose, Costa Rica; and another short hop to Panama.  From there we flew Panama to Las Vegas, rental car to LAX, flew to Maui, then a short hop to Honolulu.  The final return was Honolulu-Brisbane.  Now let’s break it down into individual airline awards.

1.  US AIRWAYS – South Pacific-Central America award in business class – 120,000 each.  This was the hardest one to get as it was in August when availability trans-Pacific is at a premium.  The other challenge I had to deal with was that US was starting to enforce maximum permitted mileage though there were still some agents who didn’t seem to have  a clue.  My first suggested itinerary used ANA via Tokyo on a 787 to Seattle but for some reason US agents couldn’t see that space even though I could see it easily on UA’s tool.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as there were problems with 787 aircraft leading to many cancellations.  We finally booked the open jaw using Thai from Brisbane – Bangkok – Seoul, Air Canada from Seoul – Vancouver, then United (only had economy seats available) from Vancouver – Houston – Belize.  BNE-BKK-ICN-YVR-IAH-BZE.  The return was easier, a simple Honolulu – Seoul – Bangkok on Asiana, then a tight connection to Thai for the final flight to Brisbane.  HNL-ICN-BKK-BNE.  We used miles earned from the Grand Slam promo held annually from 2008-2011.

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2.  UNITED AIRLINES – Central America award Flores – Guatemala City – San Jose, Costa Rica.  Easily booked online at United for 7500 miles each using flights operated by Aviateca and Lacsa as part of TACA.  Miles earned from credit card sign-ups.

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3.  AVIANCA-TACA LIFEMILES award San Jose – Panama in economy for 7000 miles each.  Original flight was on Lacsa but when this flight was cancelled I got them to put us on Copa.  Miles sourced from Lifemiles Visa sign-up.

4.  LIFEMILES award on Copa, Panama – Las Vegas, 15,000 miles each.  I specifically chose Vegas as our point of entry to the USA after research showed there were very few international flights to LAS so customs would be easier.  I was right, it was a breeze!  Miles sourced from Lifemiles Visa sign-up, the shopping promo from Oct 2012 and needed to top up some miles & cash.

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5. AVIOS redemption on American Airlines, LAX – Maui, 12,500 Avios each.  Easily booked online for the morning flight 10 months in advance.  Miles sourced from Chase BA Visa sign-up.

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6.  HAWAIIAN AIRLINES cash ticket from Maui – Honolulu.  I found a cheap deal for $60 each so decided not to waste miles on this one.

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I had been planning this trip several years in advance and knew which credit cards to get and which promos to use to make it happen.  I have no idea how much cash we would have needed for 2 people to actually pay for all these flights but my total outlay for taxes and cash components was somewhere around $1000-1200 max.  Without strategic use of miles, we never would have been able to do this trip!

Tomorrow, I will discuss how hotel points saved us more money which made us able to spend more on the independent eco-lodges.  I will also give reviews on the airlines involved and airports we visited.

Changing The Frequent Flyer Number On A BA Avios Award

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This is a nifty little trick I learned on FlyerTalk in this thread.   Hat-tip goes to turkeyRIOO for showing me how to change the frequent flier number in my Avios booked award ticket from LAX to OGG on AA.  When I booked it a few months ago, I didn’t really care which frequent flier number showed up as I don’t have elite status on any airlines.  I was able to book seats on AA.com and that was enough.

Just a couple weeks ago, I got a Citi AAdvantage Amex which comes with nice little benefits like priority boarding and one free bag for me and also for my husband who is booked on the same PNR but to access the benefits, you must have your AAdvantage number in the booking.  I was able to pull it up on AA using  “Find A Reservation” but the frequent flier field had my BA number in it and it was greyed out so I couldn’t change it.

I could have called AA to change it but with no elite status, I usually end up on hold for 30-40 minutes, but the Finnair trick worked like a charm.  The details are in the FlyerTalk thread referenced by turkeyRIOO. 

It’s quite simple, just go to Finnair.com, enter your name and BA record locator.  You will see a link to update your details.  Click on this, enter your AAdvantage number and done!  Then go back to AA.com and you should see you Advantage number in your profile under the reservation.

Airline Alliance References – One World

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ONE WORLD

Air Berlin (AB)

American Airlines  (AA)

British Airways  (BA)

Cathay Pacific  (CX)

Finnair (AY)

Iberia  (IB)

Japan Airlines (JL)

LAN  (LA)

Malaysia Airlines (MH)

Qantas  (QF)

Qatar Airways (QR)

Royal Jordanian  (RJ)

S7 (S7)

SriLankan Airlines (UL) – 1 May 2014

TAM (JJ)

US Airways (US)

 

If you are new to miles and points, the best thing is to figure out which one of these programs will offer the best redemptions at the lowest cost in both miles and taxes.  Some airlines have fuel surcharges which can add a substantial cost to your award ticket.  From the One World airlines, I use  American Airlines,  Qantas, British Airways and Iberia.  No matter where you live in the world, it will probably work out best for you to use American’s AAdvantage program to accumulate your miles unless you are seeking status with an airline you frequently fly on.  I am expecting that people attracted to this blog will be the sort who travel for leisure and are saving up for an aspirational trip to one of the great ecotourism spots in the world.   If you are based in the USA (or even an expat American like me)  it’s pretty easy to get huge credit card sign up bonuses and if you are based elsewhere, you can use American Express Membership Rewards to transfer to AA via Starwood’s SPG program.

Since I live in Australia, I also have Qantas because I get points simply for shopping at Woolworths and linking my phone and internet with Optus to them.  Gotta love free points that just come from day to day living!

British Airways and Iberia both use Avios which can be excellent value for short hop awards such as domestic awards in the USA on American and Alaska Airways,  Australia on Qantas and South America on LAN.

These links are also good if you want to check out an airline’s route map to see where they fly, join their frequent flyer program and see what you can do to earn miles by flying on partners, staying in hotel partners and patronizing their other partners such as credit cards, shopping malls, phone companies and survey companies.

This is a just a very brief overview of the One World alliance and there is so much more to learn.  The best source of information is on FlyerTalk where each airline has its own forum, most forums have wikis or “read this first” posts to get you started.  I will be going into some programs more in depth as the subject relates to building your ecotourism dream trip.