Turn short-haul into a good valueAvios option

Usually, redeeming yourAvios on a short-haul flight is relatively poor value. You might want to do it because you’ve no plans to fly long-haul or you’ll never have enough points to make a good dent in a long-haul fare, but otherwise, it’s best avoided.That is unless you use a Reward Flight Saver fare.

Agood rule of thumb when using a BAredemption finder is to compare theAvios cost of a flight to the regular cash cost and try to get a deal worth around 1p per Avios.

You should discover the Saver fares for hops to Europe can work out good value because you’re reducing the annoying fees and taxes besides the core price, and those extra charges are fixed.

Note that connecting flights are paid for separately with Reward Flight Savers, not as one through fare, so they’re unlikely to be such a good deal.

Pair a Reward Flight Saver with a Barclaycard Upgrade Voucher

As with theAmex Companion Voucher, the Barclaycard Upgrade Voucher is an annual perk that can be used on reward flights.

The name is misleading as you are NOT upgrading from one cabin class to a higher class. Instead, you are being charged theAvios amount for the cabin class below the one you are travelling in. So you can book two tickets in Club World (Business) and use the upgrade voucher to be charged theAvios amount for Premium Economy. If you book flights withAvios using Reward Flight Saver this will make it extra good value as you get the lower cabinAvios rate.

There are two cards that give you this perk: BarclaycardAvios Mastercard and BarclaycardAvios Plus Mastercard, which has an annual fee.As with theAmex BA Companion Voucher, you’ll have to have spent enough on your card within a membership year to earn an Upgrade Voucher.

You can also earn a voucher through a Barclays Premier or Wealth bank account. This doesn’t require you to hit a certain spend but you will have to earn or save a significant amount to be eligible and also pay a monthly fee to join BarclayAvios Rewards.

The voucher can be used by one person to upgrade both legs of a return flight or by two people travelling together to each upgrade one way on the same flight.

Note that although your core fare will be theAvios rate for a Reward Flight in the cabin below, your fees and taxes will be charged at the rate for the higher cabin.

Also, the upgrade is subject to reward flight availability in the higher class, so it pays to set a seat alert with RFF’s BAredemption finder