Late Night AVIOS Adventure - Part 2

Another late night last night, to grab the return AVIOS flights as they were released - 355 days before the flight's departure date. The reason? There is a solar eclipse in August next year, and I knew I could save on standard flight costs by purchasing with my stash of AVIOS.

I've already booked the outbound flights. This time it was the inbound flights that needed to be secured.

Reminder - Flight Costs - with AVIOS

By staying up late and leveraging my AVIOS points - I was able to book the inbound flights for 10,750 AVIOS and £17.50. The AVIOS were free to me, as I received them with Credit card spend. So all 4 of us were booked for £70!

As the flights are now all bookable - I can see the savings made by booking via AVIOS as opposed to a CASH booking.

CASH booking - would have been £470 per person - £1880 in total for the 4 of us.

AVIOS booking - was 86,000 avios points & £140.

I don't buy AVIOS points, instead acquiring them via new credit card bonuses and associated spend. Which makes this a real saving of £1740 against the CASH price (which to be honest I wouldn't have paid, and this adventure wouldn't be happening .

Additional Benefits

Additionally - should we decide to cancel - I only lose the cash element of the cost - £140 for the return flights, all the AVIOS points are refunded to my account. A full hold bag is included for each passenger. With my status with BA - I was also able to reserve our seats for free.

Preparing for the Adventure

With the flights booked, our camper vans booked - it's just campsites left - which I'm working on. Once these are booked I'll have a good understanding of the total costs associated with this adventure.

Even though it's just under a year away - good planning now will ensure availability and cost savings for the options that I'm considering.

PS Checking again this morning, all AVIOS availability for both my outbound flights and inbound flights has now been taken. I'm glad I stayed up late a couple of nights to bag this bargain!

Happy travels!