Trying to use Avios to visit Ireland and UK

We use Avios for hotels. Granted, Avios aren't the friendliest reward program, but sometimes I just give up on the flights and spend them on hotels. Good luck!

You may just drive yourself crazy if you worry about this too much.
Here are my last two Avios redemptions for comparison.
Seattle to Prague. 35,000 Avios, $150
Bucharest to Seattle. 50,250 Avios, $153.41

We use Avios for hotels

I hadn't thought of that.

Noting that I can use them to and from Spain without a lot of fees on Iberia.com, but Aer Lingus cannot be booked there.

In Peru I sat next to an Avios employee who gave me a heads up on the low AA redemptions going away, "We lose money on those." Also that Avios rhymes with dross which I never would have imagined, I thought it was 1 avio, 2 avios, etc.

Not 100% sure, but it seems like European airlines have high fees/taxes departing the US and Delta charges the $5.60 if you are going nonstop to a European destination.

Maybe use Skymiles going over and Avios to come back?

I've traveled on award tickets for a long time, but I'm only now becoming acquainted with the Avios program. British Airways does tack on more fees than any program I have encountered, but award tickets on British Airways are more expensive if booked through the American Airlines program, too.

Taxes are higher for everyone flying to the US from Europe/the UK than from the US TO Europe/the UK. The disparity in fees you've noticed on your return search may be down to the transatlantic leg leaving from the UK (pricier) than a European airport (Dublin).

It's interesting to me that whether it's Avios or the Delta-Virgin-Flying Blue alliance, it seems as though we have to choose low mileage + high fees or high mileage + lower fees.

Keep checking. You seem to be able to be flexible as to airports; if you can be flexible on dates, you'll find something you can live with. Good luck!

As Carol notes, this can drive you crazy.

Trying to optimize the entire itinerary in one sitting is borderline idiotic.

For one thing, mileage redemption amounts change daily and sometimes more often than
that. Unless you're flying tomorrow, if you want to get the best value, you need to book as
far ahead as possible, and then consistently, almost manically, check the itineraries to see
if the redemptions have gone down.

When using miles, it almost never pays to book as a round trip. Booking as 2 one-ways is
the way to go. If one leg goes down, you can rebook it without touching the other leg, which
would leave you hanging if it went up.

As for the UK issues, I don't know how they add it up, but BA adds the XY fuel charge into
the cost of their redemptions, which makes using Avios on BA flights very cost-inefficient.
And any flight departing the UK is paying the exorbitant airport taxes. Those are the two
components of the high fees to originate/connect through the UK.

Your Delta - Dublin flights do not go through the UK, so that is why the fees are so much less.

Last year I flew to Amsterdam and then connected to the US rather than fly from Edinburgh.
I saved enough for the hotel and a nice dinner. Paying cash for a cheap flight includes the
UK departure fees, so there is a case where buying the ticket may be worth it.

So as long as you avoid the UK you won't pay too much in fees.

As to the inability to book Aer Lingus on iberia.com, could be a variety of reasons. The airline
alliances are not complete/the codeshare flights have reached their quota/the IT system is
hosed/you name it.

Interesting thread, lots of good points above.

Like a few others here, I too have relied heavily on award flights for virtually all my international flights for many, many years. (Though I, too, have never had much interest in Avios; that may be changing for a trip next year, we'll see).

• I always book one-ways, rather than round-trips. The only times I have found high fees for doing that have been when using British Airways (anytime, but espcially when departing UK airports) or when on Delta (departing Europe back to the US). I generally don't fly much on Delta anymore, because their points are worth so little/their flights cost way too many points.
• Yes, I do book very far in advance. I don't mind doing that, it allows me plenty of time for trip planning.
• As shoeflyer suggests, being flexible - and, I would emphasize, also being creative - with your itinerary can make all the difference.

For example, I'll be going to Shetland next month. And Shetland is in the UK (though just barely!). My outbound flight was pretty easy (I'm flying American to LHR, then I have a separate onward ticket from LHR to Shetland). But I was having trouble finding a flight home that met my needs. Then I got creative, and found a great option.

I ended up buying a cheap nonstop flight from Shetland to Bergen, Norway (on Logan Air, the little local Scottish airline). It seemed counter-intuitive at first: flying due east from Shetland, to Norway, to get home to Seattle. But I found a great deal (award flight, in business class) from Bergen back to Seattle, booked on Air Canada points (via Frankfurt and Vancouver). The long flight (FRA-YVR) is in a very comfy seat, and we get a bonus 48 hours to explore Bergen. And it was surprisingly cheap. But it was not a routing I would have initially thought of.

IME, getting creative and exploring unconventional routings is often the key to unlocking good award flight options. It also often requires a positioning flight to get you from the place where your primary trip ends, and to where you can catch your flight home. But that is a feature, not a bug: we love doing that, and it has become our preferred way of building a trip...we get a few days in a "bonus" destination that we would otherwise not have had the opportunity to experience.

I now seek out such creative options when coming back from Europe. This is how we added on a few days in Alsace (after a trip to Corsica) last fall; and how we will get a few bonus days in Budapest this September (after a trip to Puglia); how we got a few days in Prague (after a trip to Sardinia); a few days in Krakow (after a trip to the Baltics); a few days in Istanbul (after a trip to Malta); and some more. After doing this many times, now if I book a trip to Europe without a "bonus city" added at the beginning or end, my wife complains and asks why not...so she clearly doesn't mind!

Bottom line: in my experience, award flights can be fantastic, and cheap. We use them on every trip. But getting something good can (usually does) require both creativity and perseverance. We are convinced it's worth the effort.

But I know lots of people who just detest the idea of playing the game entirely - and that's OK. As they expression goes, YMMV.

Now playing with flying onward from Dublin to start the trip, then visiting Ireland, then flying home from Dublin. Flying back from UK or France using Avios is absurdly expensive, both over $400 in fees one way, but there is only a very small extra charge, like $5, to fly TO UK or France on the first day. So looking at flying and separating at the beginning like this.

MSP>>DUB then split with 2-4 hour connections:

DUB>>BHX (for Leicestershire) for me

DUB>>JER then ferry to Granville, Normandy for spouse (final destination is just 10 minutes north of Granville). DUB>>Nantes is the non-ferry option.

This avoids the approximately $300 surcharge (each) for flying the same routes and airlines but in the reverse order. Whew!

Adding that I won't be bothering to churn credit cards to get more avios going forward. When a single credit card churn could net 14 one-way American Airlines nonstops to NYC/Philly/DC-- well, those were the days. Avios fees are too high for international travel.