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Avios sale – my thoughts on the ‘50% off hotels’ deals starting at noon

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The third deal in the Avios sale launches today at noon!

For 72 hours, until noon on Monday, you will be able to book selected hotels using your Avios points for 50% off the standard rate.

(EDIT:  Now the sale is ‘live’, it is clear that Avios has halved not only the ‘pay with Avios’ price but also the ‘pay with cash’ price.  This means two things – a) these are EXCEPTIONAL cash deals and b) using Avios is not a great deal, as you still only getting 0.57p per Avios.  I have therefore rewritten this post to reflect that.)

The list of cities available will be:

  • Vienna
  • Dubrovnik
  • Prague
  • Copenhagen
  • Berlin
  • Budapest
  • Istanbul
  • The Algarve

You will be able to book for stays up to 30th September. There is a special booking website you need to use, but the selection of properties seems decent.

Is this a good deal?

Booking hotels with Avios points has only been available since the November 2011 scheme changes.  You can book a hotel with Avios miles via ba.com or avios.com – the avios.com page is here – although different landing pages will be used for booking these special deals.

Last year, I ran an experiment where I looked at prices at four different hotels.   This is what I found, picking a random four star hotel for 2 adults.  I took the top ‘recommended’ option in all cases.  Cash prices included all taxes.

  • London – Holiday Inn Stratford City – 20,700 Avios or £118
  • Bangkok – Metropolitan – 20,000 Avios or £114
  • Moscow – SkyPoint Hotel – 12,300 Avios or £69
  • New York – Millennium Hilton – 31,950 Avios or £182

10 seconds with the old calculator shows that these all give you a value per Avios of 0.57p.

It is not quite that simple, of course.

Is the avios.com ‘cash price’ fair?  I turned to Expedia to check.  The results were interesting.

  • London – avios.com price £118, expedia.co.uk price £104
  • Bangkok – avios.com price £114, expedia.co.uk price £95
  • Moscow – avios.com price £69, expedia.co.uk price £64
  • New York – avios.com price £182, expedia.co.uk price £328!

These results were, frankly, amazing.  I expected the price to match, but Expedia prices varied from 77% more expensive to 17% cheaper!

Finally, I went direct to the hotels websites:

  • London – avios.com price £118, priorityclub.com £104 (same as Expedia)
  • Bangkok – avios.com price £114, hotel site £95 (same as Expedia)
  • Moscow – avios.com price £69, hotel site Rub 4,278 (£83) (£19 more than Expedia)
  • New York – avios.com price £182, hilton.com £328 (same as Expedia)

So …

What we have seen here is two things:

1.  Based on the hotel prices at avios.com, you get 0.57p per Avios when you book a hotel with them (compared to the cash price charged by Avios)

2.  The prices charged at avios.com can be cheaper than the hotel is charging directly, but not necessarily

Because avios.com has halved BOTH the ‘pay with Avios’ and ‘pay with cash’ prices, the exchange rate is still the usual 0.57p.  I am therefore in the odd position of recommending that you take advantage of the Avios sale by paying in cash, and saving your Avios for something else.

One final point.  Redeeming Avios for a chain hotel via avios.com, or paying for one via Expedia, is likely to mean that you will not earn hotel points from your stay.  You may also not receive any status benefits.  You should bear this in mind when booking, especially if your status would otherwise get you free breakfast or free internet.  For what its worth, Hilton is generally seen as the best chain for giving you your status benefits when booking via a third party.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express card

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

General

Comments (16)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Alex C says:
    10 Jan10 January 08:10

    One thing you omit to mention is that the majority of Avios rates include breakfast and taxes (North America being one notable exception). Are these comparisons like for like?

    For stays booked early and in the low or shoulder seasons Avios rates should be “best in market.”

  • Rob says:
    10 Jan10 January 08:18

    In a previous analysis I did in 2012, the Avios prices were also cheaper than the hotels own rates – this was not a one-off fluke. Agreed that, where the Avios cash price is more expensive, you should be comparing with the direct booking cash price.

    I have re-edited that line, though, as your point is fair!

  • wetboy1uk says:
    10 Jan10 January 09:20

    On the subject of hotels does anyone know of any new IHG bonus codes for 2014 or old ones from 2013 that are still working for Jan and Feb. Thanks

    • signol says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:41

      This Belgian guy’s blog lists some: http://travel.bart.la/

      • Rob says:
        10 Jan10 January 11:02

        Yes, I’ve seen this list, which is also floating around in some other places. I am waiting for proof that they work before writing them up, its still a bit early given its only January 10th and points take 5 days to post after check out.

  • Volker says:
    10 Jan10 January 10:19

    “It isn’t easy to get more than 1.14p from an Avios flight redemption, if you are realistic about what you would be willing to pay in cash if a reward flight was not available.”

    Just picked a random flight GLA-LHR-TXL in Club on 3 February 2013 = £997.72 compared to 18,000 Avios + £50 RFS fee, that is 5.27p per Avios (and I have never had any problems getting a reward flight to European destinations even at short notice or even, like last month, during the festive season).

    Not sure what you mean by “if you are realistic about what you would be willing to pay in cash if a reward flight was not available”. Even the cheap-ish Club Europe offers like e.g. £299 return to a city on the continent would still give you 1.38p per Avios easily.

    Am I getting anything wrong here?

    • Volker says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:20

      Sorry, 3 February 2014, of course…

    • Rob says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:56

      No, your maths is correct. But 1.14p is not massively different to 1.38p (and if I was being picky, I would say that paying £299 to fly to Berlin in Business would earn you roughly 2,000 Avios back so you should adjust for that, bringing the 1.38p down a bit).

      Now, if you fly Glasgow to Berlin 5 times a year and you only earn 90,000 Avios per year, then it makes sense to use them all for Glasgow to Berlin RFS flights if you get 1.38p of value. However, if you earn 200,000 Avios per year and only need 90,000 for your 5 Berlin trips, then redeeming for hotel rooms if you can get 1.14p of value via this sale is not a terrible use of the other 110,000. That was my point.

  • Worzel says:
    10 Jan10 January 10:23

    Hotel Sale seems to have gone live early.

    On my search Avios costs were different to BA.

    Cash prices(again my search) were halved also!

  • neil says:
    10 Jan10 January 11:10

    The sale has gone live early, there are some bargains on there, 5 star intercontinental for £40 and 1250 avios in Berlin , which incldes Breakfast. Also the Hilton at £55!

  • Worzel says:
    10 Jan10 January 11:17

    wetboy1uk(11:12):

    Go through Spend then Hotels-not the banner.

    If cash prices are halved in general(not just my search) then take care that you are burning at an acceptable level.

    • Rob says:
      10 Jan10 January 11:19

      If they cash price is halved as well, then make sure you’re not better off paying cash – if you’re only getting 0.57p per Avios then don’t do it (or think twice, anyway).

  • Worzel says:
    10 Jan10 January 11:26

    My thoughts entirely Raffles.

    I have my 3 year old granddaughter here helping me, wanted a particular date and hotel and burnt at 0.57p. Got it all OK but should have paid cash-there we go!

    Will be having another look later when relieved of my duties!

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

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