So I'm a Oneworld kinda guy/gay and I obsessively collect Avios. There are a number of very interesting articles online about the 'value' of Avios as a pseudo-currency, and how best to redeem those to get the most flight out of them. But what do you define as 'value'? Do you assign them a monetary value, like currency, or do you value them in terms of offsetting cost and comfort even on short-haul redemptions?
I started thinking about this a few weeks ago while mulling over whether to buy flights to/from Hong Kong/Taipei with cash, or whether to redeem Avios to get myself seats in the front of the plane. The cash price of a return economy class fare with Cathay Pacific was around the £168 mark, which isn't bad, considering that the flight was about 2 hours. I'd expect to pay this on BA or similar for a two-hour economy class fare within Europe including hold luggage allowance.
I then checked the price of both Premium Economy and Business class fares, again with CX. Wow. Top. Dollar. Premium Economy came out at £529 (HKD 5322) and Business class was a whopping £787 (HKD 7922). Obviously I wasn't going to pay those fares with cash as I am not entirely deranged, regardless of the hard product on offer.
And while I wasn't entirely bothered about paying £168 for a 2 hour flight in economy class (as that was the best price I could get with a Oneworld carrier including hold luggage) I did wonder what it would cost in terms of Avios to grab a nicer seat nearer the front of the aircraft.
Below are screenshots of the Avios plus cash cost of two different redemptions:
The above is a mix of Premium Economy outbound, and Business class return (there was no Premium Economy return seats available on the return leg). This shows that for 11500 Avios and £166, I could snag two nicer seats. Remember, the standard cash fare for a return in economy class was £168.
I then checked Business class for both flights, as below.
As you can see, the pricing is not wildly different after adding in the Business class outbound flight, which comes in at 4500 Avios and £1.90 extra if I wanted my financial outlay to be in the vicinity of the return economy class cash booking. I was keen to keep the Avios cost as low as possible with the cash price as close to the economy class cash cost as possible, so I opted for paying 15600 Avios and £167.90 (plus £3 towards carbon emission offsetting).
So. Back to 'value'. Is this one of those incredible Avios redemptions you read about online that give you huge mileage for minimal outlay? No. It isn't. Not by a long way.
Let's use London (Gatwick) to Bilbao as an approximate example (London-Bilbao and Hong Kong-Taipei are similar distances apart, 505 miles or so). I would expect to pay the princely sum of 28000 Avios for Club Europe flights with BA from London to Bilbao with a cash cost of £1. The economy class cash fare (with baggage) to/from LGW/BIO is £111 for the same dates. The Club Europe cost is actually very reasonable at £169. If I had the time to go, I'd actually book that. If I wanted to pay more cash and fewer Avios, in keeping with the idea of spending the same amount of cash as the economy fare, I'd have to spend 10000 Avios and £131, as an example.
Now, although there is a little bit of an Avios differential, this is where I feel there is real value. Why? Hard product, that's why.
BA's Club Europe is pretty dreadful from a hard product perspective; narrow, uncomfortable economy class seats with identical (and terrible) pitch, no IFE at all, no notable storage capacity, no USB/mains charging and only a blocked middle seat (without even the (in)famous tray table if you end up on an A321 NEO). There's nothing premium about the cabin in any way. I've reviewed this before back in September between LHR and OTP, and you can read that review here.
After doing some research, it appeared that Cathay Pacific offer a full 1-2-1 reverse herringbone layout on certain regional/intra-Asia routes, such as Hong Kong to Taipei. These seats are largely the same as American Airline's Flagship Business on their 777-300ERs (which I have also reviewed here, and I absolutely loved it). These seats offer 180 degrees of recline, direct aisle access, full screen IFE, multiple storage areas and USB/mains charging points. Apparently the seats on these particular flights are sliiiiiightly narrower as they've been configured for an A330 vs. a B77W, but that's a non-issue for me.
I mean, imagine getting a lie-flat, direct aisle access, full IFE seat from London to Bilbao. You can't. And for 5600 more Avios, that is an absolute steal, and I haven't even mentioned soft product yet. That for me is the real value. The ambience and the experience. It's entirely unlikely that I'll put the seat into lie-flat position for a 2 hour flight, but I will 100% be swinging that bad-boy into my own personal recliner for the duration. Ohhhh yes.
So back to 'value'. I already mentioned that I was going to spend the fewest Avios while keeping the cash outlay as close to the economy class fare as possible, which I did, but it's also worthwhile mentioning the absolutely appalling Avios earning rate on this short flight, had I bought the economy class cash fare.
128 Avios. 128. That is scandalously low. Shocking, dire, verging on offensive. I'd earn the same amount by spending £22 on ASOS using the BA Avios eStore. Again, back to value; that doesn't provide any value, and the financial outlay for the Avios redemption was the same, give or take a few £s. Additionally, this dreadful earning rate made it even less consequential that I'd earn 0 Avios (and 0 Tier Points) for booking the redemption fare.
Still thinking about value, I rationalised it another way; the cash differential between a BA economy class and Club Europe fare (to Bilbao, given I've used it as a distance-approximate example already), and the cash differential between the CX economy class and Business class fare, and comparing them both. I've tried to keep the times for both examples as close to each other as possible.
BA, LGW to BIO in economy (with baggage): £111
BA, LGW to BIO in Club Europe: £169
Differential: £58
CX, HKG to TPE in economy (with baggage): £168
CX, HKG to TPE in Business class: £787
Differential: £619
Differential between both: £561
So. Thinking of value, I've only spent 5600 more Avios than the approximate intra-European Avios fare to get a gain of £619-worth of fare between HKG and TPE, for the same cash outlay as the original economy class fare, with the CX Business class flight costing £561 more than BA's equivalent (and inferior) offering. That to me is real va-va-voom for my Avios.
Note: Even if I'd taken the first option of Premium Economy outbound and Business class return, I'd still only have paid 1150 Avios more than the equivalent intra-European comparison; I still think that would be of good value.
Additionally, I'll also get to use Hong Kong's maaaaany (maybe four?) CX/Oneworld business lounges, plus the CX/Oneworld lounges in Taipei. Granted, as a BAEC Silver cardholder I'd get access to these regardless, but if I didn't have BA Executive Club status, this would be a huge on-the-ground bonus, adding to the value-factor.
So, to cap this much-longer-than-anticipated blog post, I'd say that to me the 'value' of redemptions isn't just about distance vs. outlay. I appreciate there's a bit of a science behind this but it's not what I see value as, really. To me there's little value in getting huge distance via low Avios cost if the hard product is awful (stares at BA's Club World seats). Value to me is about the experience, the ambience, the reduction in stress, the lounges, the quality of the physical hard product over its competition, and possibly flying on wide-body vs. narrow-body aircraft, which I always prefer.
If you've got the Avios going spare, then treat yo' self, right? I mean, 15600 Avios for the pleasantness of a lie-flat seat on a two-hour flight plus the cost of the economy class fare? Sold.
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