Avios January sale starts with a whimper, and continues to underwhelm…
The much-hyped Avios January sale began today.
They will be running the following six promotions over the next few days:
- 50% off Avios required for certain long-haul flights – noon (UK time) Mon 6 to noon Wed 8 (i.e. now)
- 25% off car hire – noon Wed 8 to noon Fri 10
- 50% off hotel bookings – noon Fri 10 to noon Mon 13
- Reward Flight Saver tickets reduced to £1 – noon Mon 13 to noon Wed 15
- 50% off hotel bookings – noon Wed 15 to noon Fri 17
- 40% off Eurostar – noon Fri 17 to noon Mon 20th
The current promotion is mediocre. It only applies to long haul, economy, flights – so you cannot benefit from the £35 capped tax (“Reward Flight Saver”) that applies to intra-European flights. Destinations are limited to Boston, Chicago, Dubai, Denver, Shanghai, New York, Toronto, Washington, plus you must travel by 31 May. To give an example, London to New York in March is 20,000 Avios (down from 40,000) plus £355 in economy: not great value. Additionally, if you’re based in Malta, you would need to pay for a return flight from Malta to London.
Unfortunately the Reward Flight Saver £1 deal is not much use either – it extends only to flights from London to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, Jersey, Lisbon, Madrid, Rome, Nice. Malta has not made the cut.
Finally, the hotel 50% off sale is limited to hotels in London, Venice, Edinburgh, Guernsey, Florence and Milan. You will be able to book for stays up to 30 September. Given that London, Venice, Edinburgh and Milan can all be flown to directly from Malta in this period, this may be of interest.
(Thanks to Raffles at Headforpoints for the neat summary table above, and further details on the offers.)