I’ve Saved Over £11k On Flights Using Avios Points – Here’s How To Get Started

In the past four years, I’ve saved over eleven thousand pounds on flights using avios points! And it is super easy to get started!

I fell down the travel hacking rabbit hole over 4 years ago now and I haven’t looked back. Since taking out that first credit card through a AMEX refer a friend offer, I’ve collected over 100k Avios, have redeemed 4 reward flights and still have a balance of over 50k.

2025 Update: I hit 75k avios and decided to splurge on my first ever FIRST CLASS flight later on this year! Keep reading to find out more about the fab deal I snagged!

No joke, it has completely changed the way I approach both spending and travel. Gamifying is my favourite way to manage money and this is the perfect addition to my current game.

What is Travel Hacking?

Travel hacking is the art of using reward points to redeem cheaper travel products (flights, hotels, cars etc). Most of the time this is through credit cards but it is possible to travel hack without using credit cards. For example, you can convert Nectar points into Avios (the British Airways reward currency) meaning every time you do a food shop you could be inching closer to a reward flight redemption!

How To Get Started

Start by choosing one reward program to focus on. Become a pro at collecting those points before taking on more. I went with Avios, which is the British Airways reward currency, because I knew I wanted to go on a trip to NYC but I didn’t want to pay hundreds to get there. So I instantly had my original goal!

Think about which airline you fly with the most or if ravel hacking for a specific trip consider which airline you’ll be using. Then google if this airline has a reward program or is apart of an alliance. An alliance is a group of airlines that let you transfer your reward points between them. For example, British Airways is a member of the Oneworld alliance which also includes the likes (but not limited to) of Iberia, AerLingus, American Airlines, Quantas.

Join the relevant rewards program and then start researching how you can collect points. The British Airways Executive Club is a great rewards program to start off with as the points are relatively easy to collect. Plus with rewards flights from £1 and 1800 Avios, it won’t be long before you’re redeeming your first flight.

The easiest way to get started is with credit card welcome bonuses. Now obviously, if you have issues with credit card debt or know you won’t use it responsible no amount of points are worth getting into debt for. But if you can use the card wisely and pay it off in full every single month, welcome bonuses are a great boost to your Avios balance.

Get 6000 BONUS avios when you sign up for the British Airways AMEX card and spend £2,000 in the first three months! That’s a total of 8000 avios for completing this welcome offer. More details here.

How I Got Started

I got started in the typical way – by getting a credit card through someone’s AMEX refer a friend link and used it for the welcome bonus. I started with the Amex British Airways card which rewarded me with 4,000 bonus Avios if I spent £1000 in the first 3 months. Then I went onto churning two more cards for the welcome bonus plus linked my BA executive account to my nectar card so I could benefit from nectar rewards too.

On top of the three welcome bonus offers I completed, I made sure to take advantage of all AMEX offers I could. Like the time I got 1,500 bonus avios for spending over £30 at Prezzo and the time I got 1,500 avios for adding my mum as an additional cardholder. Plus I looked for other offers that would convert to avios, like when Sainsbury’s launched their scan as you shop system and were offering bonus nectar points for new users. I bagged around 3000 nectar points from this scheme and transferred them to 1875 avios.

Want to read more about my travel hacking journey and the specific cards I used? Read this post next.

Flights I’ve Redeemed

I started collecting avios at the start of 2021 and redeemed my first rewards flight towards the end of 2022. I could’ve redeemed one earlier, but I was aiming for a flight to New York and had a specific trip in mind. Since achieving my original goal from travel hacking, I’ve redeemed 3 more reward flights and have 1 more booked for later on this year.

Let’s look at the flights I’ve redeemed and how much the ticket would’ve cost if I’d paid cash…

London → NYC

Face Price: £948

I Paid: £145 + 13k Avios

When I first found this crazy world of travel hacking, I knew my first goal would be a flight to NYC. I already had plans to take a gap year after graduation and knew I wanted to revisit the city I fell in love with on a school trip in 2015 so I had this goal in mind the entire time. 18 months later, I booked my flight to NYC with Avios and saved myself hundreds off the face value price.

I didn’t want to use my entire avios balance for this flight as I was originally planning on booking another reward flight to get home. Instead I went for the middle option and used 13k avios and paid £145 in cash fees. The face value of this flight was £948 which is CRAZY!

This means on the surface I got 6p per avios in value, which is not bad at all!

London → DC

Face Price: £2065

I Paid: £50 + 25k Avios

Almost a year after redeeming the first flight with Avios, I had racked up a fair few more points just from my regular spending. So when I came to booking my flight out to the USA for a summer working at camp, I went for the cheapest cash option and redeemed a flight across the pond for just £50 in cash. The face price of this ticket was over two thousand points which is insane to me!

From the face value of this ticket I got 8p per avios in value but I would never have paid over £2k for one flight so my real value would’ve been much less.

Chicago → Naples

Face Price: £1111

I Paid: £296.10 + 9050 Avios

After my summer at camp, I knew I had to be in Naples as I had a wedding to attend. I’d assume I would have to just pay normal price for this but had forgot you can redeem Avios against partner airline flights. So I was able to use my Avios to book a flight with Iberia.

When comparing options I found it cost me less cash and less avios to fly with Iberia in Premium Economy, and have a layover in Madrid, than it did to fly with AerLingus in Economy, with a layover in Dublin. Crazy!!

So for an 8hr flight in Premium Economy and a 2 1/2 hour flight from Madrid to Naples, I only paid £296.10 and 9050 avios!! I found the face value of the flight on Skyscanner for £1111 meaning I redeemed 9p per avios for this flight!

Manchester → NYC

Face Price: £1473

I Paid: £50 + 25k Avios

My most recent reward flight redemption saved me a whopping £1423 on the face price of the ticket. I honestly have no idea how people afford to fly with BA but alas the flights I’ve been on are always full – maybe everyone is using Avios? Anyway, I needed to book my flight out to US for my second year working at summer camp and it was the same price to fly from Manchester to London to NYC as it was to fly direct London to NYC.

I saved myself the hours of travelling from my hometown to London and the costs associated with this and just booked the flight from Manchester, an airport about an hour away from home. Again, I found my exact route on Skyscanner and the flight would’ve been £1473 if I’d paid cash.

So for this flight redemption I got 6p per avios in value.

Mexico City → London

Face Price: £7363

I Paid: £909.60 + 60k Avios

Probably my most exciting reward flight to date! I’m headed back out to the USA to spend a third summer working at camp and I will be flying around my birthday so had decided to treat myself to a business class flight out. Originally my plan was to fly into New York and then get the train down to DC (closest hub to my camp) like I did last year. Business class reward flights from the UK to NYC are plentiful and you have a lot of different routes and airlines in the OneWorld alliance to choose from!

However, plans changed and I now needed to fly into Orlando instead. I could not for the life of me find a good business class redemption from the UK to Orlando at all. So I switched gears and started looking for the way back and hay presto I found this FIRST CLASS flight that perfectly fitted into my plans and worked out as good value for the money.

I was originally planning on spending 65k avios and around £300 for a business class flight so when I saw this offer for first class I started running the numbers. The first thing I do is find the flight I would be booking if I didn’t have the avios to spend and in this case it was an economy flight for over £600. Which means in my mind, I’ve only spent £300 to upgrade from economy to first class! Bargain!! And it will tick off one of the biggest items on my 30 before 30 list.

I found the flight on Skyscanner for over seven grand!! Crazy! Meaning I got nearly 11p per avios in value for this flight – epic!

Total Savings

That means to date I’ve saved £11,509 by simply optimising my spending and not leaving points on the table. I have never overspent just to get the points. Rather making sure I use the right card and making the most of credit card welcome bonuses and offers to build my points.

Travel hacking and using avios points has seriously changed the game for me and has really helped my budget on all the trips I’ve done over the past three years of semi full-time travel.

Top Tips for Travel Hacking

1. Diversify

Collecting points from a range of different places is the key to the points snowballing and you hitting your target sooner. Working towards a welcome bonus whilst also optimising your daily spending and collecting bonus points on your groceries will make the points add up that much faster.

2. Check prices before committing

Make sure you double check the flight prices before committing to spending the points you’ve worked so hard to collect. I almost made this mistake on my return flight to the US the first time but by taking the extra minute to do a quick search on Skyscanner I saved myself.

When I was using avios points to redeem my first reward flight, I left enough points in the pot so I could redeem the same reward flight on the way back. But a quick search on Skyscanner pulled up a flight for just £134. So not only did I save money on the cash value but I also didn’t have to part with my much coveted points. Bottom line make sure you double check what’s on the market to use your points for the right flight redemptions.

3. Jump on all the offers

One of my favourite ways to boost my Avios balance is by jumping on the offers they run occasionally. My favourite offer was when I got 1500 Avios for spending £30 at Prezzo – this offer lined up perfectly with dinner plans I already had. The Amex portal is a great resource for finding random offers like this. Plus I subscribed to the BA Executive Club email list so I regularly get emailed offers.

So there you go, a breakdown of how I’ve saved over £11k on flights by using avios points! Do you collect avios? What’s the best reward flight you’ve ever redeemed?