I was looking at some intra-Europe flights for my seven-week loop next summer. I had the brilliant idea that maybe I should oneworld-hub hop.
Munich to Berlin (airberlin)
Berlin to Oslo (airberlin)
Oslo to Helsinki (Finnair)
That would be all new cities for me and all direct flights. I priced out the Avios awards. Berlin to Oslo was 4,500 Avios and $45. That’s a bad deal, since the same revenue flights are only $63. Booking the award would value the Avios at about 1/3 of a cent each.
Berlin to Oslo–$3 base fare
Oslo to Helsinki is even worse. Avios awards are 4,500 Avios and $77.50.
$57 of that is a fuel surcharge. (Click the little i.)
Paid flights on the same route can be had for $62.
That means the cash component of the Avios award is more than a normal cash ticket.
Avios are not completely useless within Europe. Perhaps surprisingly to people used to transatlantic surcharges, the value play inside of Europe is to fly on British Airways metal or Iberia metal.
British Airways collects a low flat fee of $22.50 on its “Reward Flight Saver” intra-Europe awards on BA and IB metal.
BA.com explains Reward Flight Saver flights like this:
They don’t usually work out to a great value–domestic US flights are better–but they are certainly better than airberlin and Finnair awards within Europe. For instance, London to Athens goes for 10k Avios and $22.50.
The cash flight goes for $158.
That means this redemption gets 1.18 cents per Avios according to the MileValue Calculator. This is not a redemption I would personally make unless I were really looking to conserve cash since I value Avios at 1.7 cents.
Here’s a similar example on Iberia metal from Madrid to Paris. The Avios award costs 7,500 Avios and $22.50.
A cash flight on easyJet is only $85. (I prefer easyJet to Ryan Air by quite a margin.)
That means the award gets 0.83 cents of value per Avios–again pretty bad but about average for an intra-Europe Avios redemption.
Recap
Intra-Europe Avios redemptions on Finnair and airberlin get close to zero value from your Avios and sometimes negative value because of the dastardly surcharges. Surcharges are capped on Iberia and BA flights, so those awards can get 1 cent per Avios in value–maybe a bit more.
If you’re cash strapped, look for awards on BA and IB metal, but your best bet is to hold onto your Avios for more lucrative redemptions like domestic US, intra-Australia, or intra-South Africa among many options.
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Check out London->Berlin, or some of the other longer intra-Europe flights. I’ve always found awesome value there- one of my preferred uses for Avios.
One thing you did not mention in the comparison is the extra fees charged when booking a LCC for cash. Such as baggage, booking, etc, etc fees. These can add up.
Definitely always investigate that before purchasing a LCC ticket.
could i ask what website you find best for looking up inter european fares if one wants to purchase the cheapest ticket?
I just used kayak.com for this post, but that doesn’t show Ryan Air. I want to write a post on European low-cost carriers soon.
As with US/Canada the true power of Avion within Europe is when you redeem them onshort notice. Some exaples were for June 2013. Moreover you did not include many of the fees that may ve added by the low cost carriers. Generally speaking, you can put Avios to better use in Europe, given that there are at least four European bases carriers that you can redeem them on. Availabiliy is often fantastic
Try flug.de
Anyone choosing to fly Iberia or who by some virtue of grand delusion believes that Iberia is equivalent to other OW airlines needs to have his/her head examined. And that was before the new Christmas strikes!
Comparing a BA flight to an EasyJet flight is not quite fair… I am not a bit picky, but an FCO-LYS flight on easyjet was easily the worst flight experience ever. Mostly due to people trying to avoid the checked baggage fee and rushing the gate to get in first.
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