Not relevant to me again, but still watch every second and still try to leave a comment for algorithmness. Cheers Matt. And you're very good at these word-heavy presentations to camera btw, making a fairly dry subject matter watchable is a real talent!

I prefer to pay and use the avios to lower the price so I get the full tier points. Would be nice to have a video on how to book on partners with avios?

Thanks Matt another great video. Just did some sums and the only 3 redemptions I've made since before the you-know-what were 3, 2.1 and 2.9p although that last one was using the Amex 1 for 1/2 to Australia so, still very worth it. For some reason, after the middle finger BA seems to have given gold card holders recently, squeezing as much value out of them feels more rewarding than ever. Keep up the good work!

Brilliant video - I've been searching for this analysis!

Thank you Matt. I love this channel and it's one of the reasons I no longer do conventional network TV. Learned a lot in just these few vids, so looking forward to going thru your content - honest, straightforward but love the humour too. A++++++++++++

Great video - thanks for sharing your calculations. As a number jockey myself (finance rather than accounting), I enjoy how you walk us through the numbers. I have also found that some lower redemptions with a higher cash contribution give much better value, although my focus has been with Aeroplan at Air Canada. The lowest points level usually gets me a business class ticket in the 3-4 cents (USD) per point range, with a cash outlay that is still less than the economy ticket fare. For what it’s worth, in order to not overstate the value, I usually find a round trip cash fare that meets my dates and use half of that as the one-way fare. I do this because if I was paying cash I wouldn’t pay any premium for a one-way ticket. Really enjoy your videos - you’ve got me trying to figure out how to get OneWorld Emerald through BA tier point runs from the US!

Love what you do - Sending the video to a friend who needs to learn just this!

More spreadsheets!!!! YES SIR. As usual, great content, well explained, crystal clear! Thank you Matt!

Great vid Matt, I'm planning on flying from the UK to Chicago but returning from Boston on autumn next year. Thanks to your videos I'm going to check prices from some other European cities than London!

Thanks for this :) Very informative and useful!

Great video Matt just what I needed, I have close to 500k avios & keep putting off using them as I always think BA isn’t offering a good deal this has really helped to see how I get better value I might actually use them now 🙂 Thanks

Thanks for the info + video!

You make a good point re the difference between cash seats and redemption seats at 13 minutes in. They are handled differently in BA (that I learned last year in a train crash of a booking I had with them that I had to take to the CEDR to resolve) and cash seats get the full benefit of Avios and TPs whereas redemption seats don't get that benefit and there are far fewer of them allocated to each flight. Thanks Matt

I was absolutely livid a month ago, I exchanged Nectar points to Avios and set up auto convert. What I didn't spot was that it automatically set up in the opposite direction. Subsequently the system dumped all my avios into my nectar account. I spoke to BA and Nectar, Both refused to take any responsibility for this and neither would reimburse me the avios I lost converting the nectar points back to Avios. So annoyed. It was far better when it was Tesco that was the partner.

Hi Matt, thank you for these videos! I even broke out my calculator at some point 😂. Incredible insight, I’ve been collecting points for ages and can finally book my return leg on a Japan trip in October business class and just worked out I’ll be getting about 2.8p per avios which isn’t too bad I guess? 😅

Great video Matt. In regard to point 2, I suppose it is worthwhile to benchmark an Economy Standard fare with checked luggage if a checked bag is required, considering that is included within redemptions. Also, I know you did reference tier points earning for airfare purchases vs not receiving for redemptions, so perhaps a value should be put on the tier points earned too? Subjective I know as it depends where in your tier point earning journey you are and how essential they are to earning status

Great video Matt. Many thanks. I will be looking at how using the 'Oslo' formula will work for long haul Avios redemptions. Mainly the LHR-LAX routing or whether it would be better to vary getting to the west coast.

BA does it make it very difficult and a lot of people won’t have the time or energy to look into it as detailed as you did. Plus, for me, i find booking websites always very stressful and that feeling of missing out on a “good” airfare always seems to creep up. 😅

I used 150,000 Avios for a Qatar first class redemption from Bangkok to Manchester, it was double Avios avaliablity, cash price was £5,500 in first, £1,800 for business. So alot of avios, but felt like good value considering i got 75,000 for amex premimum sign up, and i couldnt afford the cash price for first or business

Great video, im learning a lot ! I'm doing the Sri Lankan Abu Dhabi to Jakarta route, just for fun, in April. Onspired by your vids! My BA year expires in August. No tier ponts left. Any suggestion if I should create a new BA account, and what I can casually add flight wise to get silver status. Any help appreciated! I'm flying to Abu Dhabi with AF, spending 2 days there out and back. Then 3 days in Jakarta, 5 days on Belitung Island, and a few days in Yogyakarta before returning. Joys!

Excellent Matt. Thank you 👍👏👏👏👏👏 I tend to use my Avios for upgrading seat. Any plans to cover this topic?

Really interesting. I've learnt a lot from this. One little comment re BA car hire - I know this vid. is about spending Avios, but if you are paying cash then I have found Avis car hire in the US to be significantly cheaper than on the Avis website. You get a reasonable amount of Avios for the spend as well.

Great content as usual 👍 Surely these airlines should be forced to reveal what the real value is on what they are giving you for your Avios Imho it’s very cunning and manipulative offering their customers Avios redemptions at a terrible rate Yes Matt I’m fully aware that this is indeed a business but these kind of terrible deals offered to me verges on abuse 😁

Interesting video. Would you consider doing a comparison video between the British Airways Avios scheme and Virgin Atlantics Flying Club?

Hi Matt, any chance you could do a quick video on the comparison between buying a ticket with Avios Vs upgrading a ticket with Avios? seems a bit confusing when you could also just buy the equivalent class ticket with Avios that you'd otherwise be upgrading to. Or if you have a simple explanation to explain which one is generally better value in your experience, id love to hear it on here!

Damn what a great video!

Hi Matt, something I cannot get my head round and I hope you can explain. My question is how to use Avios to book both legs of my journey. I can find Avios flights for the outward leg, but by the time I can see a suitable return flight, the seats for the outward flight have gone. Would you recommend booking the outward flight as soon as it becomes available, and then book a random return flight to complete the booking. And then wait for a suitable Avios return flight to become available few days later when tickets are released, then book it by calling up BA Service Desk and switch over and cancel the original booking?

I've found my comfort zone: reach status via Tom, earn miles via Dick and then spend miles (if and when I want to) via Harry. By the way, I've finally made the video I've always wanted you to watch. So now you can watch it, comment, analyse, calculate, etc. and let me know if it, in fact, can be an option for European tier point runners flying BA, Iberia and Finnair on short hauls. - Red

Hi Matt. I just wanted to get your thoughts on the Avios subscription model. With the upfront yearly subscription which offers 200,000 at 1989gbp, you get approximately 1 Avios for 0.99pc. Would you consider this a reasonable purchase cost? The value I see derived from this is the ease of this process and lack of time I need to spend in finding many different ways of collecting Avios when I’m not spending significant amounts through credit card - and when I consider a return flight with Qatar awards from Heathrow to say Auckland is 180,000 Avios, this flight would typically cost a minimum of 4,000gbp - so the savings are still very significant in this context.

Hey Matt. I mean no disrespect by this question, but I notice you seem to have a surprisingly high number of channel members/patrons relative to your subscriber number. Is there any particular reason for that? Or perhaps I'm just misinformed about these things. As for this video, I have to confess that BA is one program I am less knowledgeable about and have never used for a redemption, so I appreciate gaining some of your insights.

Another great video Matt. I have a question which im hoping you can help with. I am flying from Austin, TX to Washington DC this week. I booked an avios reward flight through BA as its operated by AA. It was 38,000 for economy flight there and business flight back. But on the BA website its telling me I will receive 0 Tier points for this. Is this normal?

Hi Matt, do you know if there is currently a way of using avios to book Finnair flights? Or is this still awaiting them to transfer their reward scheme over to avios.

I enjoy these particular videos you make and I've watched this 2-3 times now but unless I keep missing it or I'm thick, I don't understand the maths you're using? Are you taking one figure and subtracting another from it? Many thanks.

Marvellously useful as always - but for those of us that are not quite as mathematically inclined - I could not quite see how the calculation in the table worked. Perhaps I am alone in this but is there any chance you could elaborate on the detail of that please?

You comment on the fact that you get tier points and earned Avios for paying for a flight (even if base price reduced by Avios) but one thing to be aware of is is the enhanced cancellation options if you flight booking starts its life as an Avios booking viz-a-viz one paid for with cash where your options are normally very limited

Just calculated I got 11.1p per avios on 2 biz class returns to Cape Town in Jan (using a twofer). Not bad!

Thank you Matt for a valuable video. What would be your threshold numbers of Avios that you would be tempted to spend on redemption? I have accumulated around 38k Avios so far. And I do not have an affiliated credit card that would earn me more Avios at the moment.

I've just been rather underwhelmed by an email from the BA Executive Club wanting most of my points for a trip to Dubai next year. Seen it? It sent me straight to Google Flights!

There is potentially another ‘feature’ that has value in booking the 50p fares and that is if you cancel the trip, the fees you will incur will never be more than the cash paid. Ie you could cancel for 50p rather than £35.

Thanks for the video. At 11:30 the business tables still have economy cash fares in I think? Either way, well explained 👍 Even simpler, I tend to take the 1p per Avios price (never buying them for more than this) and add it to the cash element to deduce the best value option of a reward - comparing this to the cash price of course, and bearing in mind the Avios to be awarded from flying on a cash ticket. This assumes being fairly liquid to spend Avios or cash without preference or limit of course.

Matt-how do I find details of patreon membership and what is it?

95k Avios + $208 (USD) for SFO-BKK in QSuites and A380 business class. It is a ridiculous $7700 flight. Its the long way to Bangkok but I am sure it will be an experience!

Hi Matt great video as usual. Do you have an Excel sheet with the formula already inputted that you could share please? Thank you.

Hi, it may be stupid of me to ask but what is the math to work out the “value per Avios” if anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated

I shudder to think about all the waste of points over the years. Care to share the spreadsheet or the maths to work out the value per Avios (aveus? havheoss?)?

Hi Matt, Barclay/card vouchers. Could you cover them in a later video? I found the voucher difficult to get good value from so on my last two opportunities have select the 7000 avois instead. A slot in a video covering and discussing the options would be useful. Thanks.

I calculate the value of Avios points, or the like, differently. I calculate the discount I would be getting per flight if I only spent my points on redemption flights. I fly the same route every single week. Suppose each round trip flight costs $1000, and with the points I can accumulate I can get 5 flights for free every year, then the cost per flight becomes: 47000/52=903, meaning I got a 10% discount. Real life examples: when I fly on Turkish airlines, and use all my points on redemption flights, I end up getting about a 5% discount on the cost of every flight. When I fly on KLM, the flights are more expensive, but I get about a 15% discount per flight. Interestingly, KLM still ends up being more expensive per flight. I'm very curious to find out what sort of discount per flight I would be getting if I flew on BA. Any idea? Love your work.

When buying the economy cash ticket for a European flight BA does not include luggage, needs to be taken into account when booking as all avios tickets include luggage

Hi Matt I am a subscriber of your channel I just keep replaying your video, but I just do not understand the Avio system My wife and I travel overseas once a year, generally from Australia to Europe Next year I am flying to Munich, with Lufthansa, then in Europe I am flying with Lufthansa to Rome, then Greece from Rome with Aegean, then back to Munich from Greece with Lufthansa, then back to Australia Do I get any Avios with this or not really? We are both Qantas Frequent flyers, and Agean Miles + Points If you can help a simple person like myself great, if not, all good What I have neglected to tell you is, the Melbourne to Munich leg, and Munich back to Melbourne is in Premium Economy, all travel within Europe is Business, Is there any way we can use the Business lounges on the long haul flights Hope you had a great Christmas, and wishing you a happy New Year, and safe travels And we both like your channel and we always view and like your content Thank you Chris

The redemptions will bite you if you are trying to hold status with 4x flights. I was almost caught this year, as it's been quiet.

Hey, lets have a beer when you come over!

Bit of a grey area I reckon but out of interest has BA/Amex ever addressed how you can withdraw from your Amex using PayPal essentially generating avios for free? Thanks

MY HEAD IS SPINNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you break down the maths fully?

Matt, are you one of those who waits till midday on a certain day to snap up a reward flight. Or is there another way…

Avois or Avioooos