Hi guys, I am struggling to find out how much Avios and charges&taxes I would need to pay in order to do some or all of the following open jaw journey during peak time: AMS or ARN > DOH > BKK HKT > DOH > AMS or ARN I've looked at guides which tell me to try and book through the usual BA site, but it often doesn't show flights with Qatar for some of the legs. For context, I calculate I will have around 180k Avios by the time I'm ready to book next year. Trying to work out if I should use some/all of the Avios for one or more legs of this journey, and if so, which leg(s). Would be good to have an idea of the amount of Avios and charges I would incur for this. Also, happy to fly from somewhere else, but I'm wanting a Qsuite on one or more legs. Thanks.
i think with those flights you'll qualify for the special awards chart. Use the ba redemptions website to find the flights you want and for availability - write down all the flight details for each flight and call up BA and spoon feeding them that information. They should then be able to tell you the amount of avios needed and taxes.
To be honest, I can think of few WORSE uses of Avios. (sorry...) You're going to pay something close to 200k Avios + £450-500 per person for a QR Business Class reward. (partner pricing goes up at the end of May as well) The paid fare from ARN-BKK in QR J is rarely more than £1,500, plus you'd earn a bunch of Avios and 560 Tier Points. An open-jaw returning from HKT might increase the fare a bit, but not substantially. (or you could position back to BKK) If AMS is home base you might get a bit more value from using Avios (since comparable fares are higher) and avoiding positioning to ARN. But I reckon for ARN you'd be getting little better than 0.5p per Avios...
Thank you for the reply. What would you suggest is a better use for Avios? I was originally planning on getting enough to use against a BA companion voucher to somewhere like Vancouver in 2021. As I don't travel much, and the Amex clamp down has kicked in recently, I am unsure if that is a realistic goal. Certainly I'm not having any fun trying to find availability in F or J when I search far in advance as a dummy run for Vancouver. Yes, I think I'll pay cash for the Qatar flights to BKK and back via HKT. £1500 (it was down to about £1200 the other week) seems a right bargain, especially as there are potentially 2 Qsuites amongst the 4 legs. Thanks.
I tend to use most of my Avios on Iberia. 34k each way in Business (off-peak dates) from Madrid to New York, Chicago, etc. And then IB keep offering 50% off promos and the like. As for companion vouchers, I happen to think they are a poor deal, but if you are based in London and want to fly direct somewhere with a travelling companion, they are an easy option. 2 J seats are supposedly released on every single BA flight, but you often have to book a year in advance.
In my opinion Avios is great and works well for the people that truly understand its value. There are some restrictions with the companion voucher but having used 4 of them in the last 5 years and never having to alter my travel plans to fit availability then i can't see any issues. the fact remains that many people don't like BAEC because they are trying to use their avios on routes where there are only 1/2 flights a day and hence only 2 CW and 4 ECO reward tickets are released 355 days in advance and unlikely to see further seats released. Checking routes with high volume of flights per day, i.e. transatlantic and LHR-DXB you'll see far better availability.
