Why dont people book Avios seats

[munmun]

I guess I can answer my own question but today i booked two outbound club tickets to Tampa so was looking at Redemption Finder website.

I am always reading people saying you can't buy 4 economy avios tickets in school holidays. Today there are at least 3 or 4 days a week where there are 4 economy seats available out and return.

Admittedly the site has only got availability up to 10/08 but outbound can be booked separately from return and cancellation cost if outbound does not become available is minimal.

Maybe I'm just confused and people simply dont have enough Avios, we are travelling as a party of 6 and I have booked 2 tickets with Avios and will add 4 as a fly drive later.

[COL41]

We used Avios for our European flights recently and saved hundreds of pounds. A couple of years ago I used them to fly to Miami and got a few hundred pounds off. A week later in the BA sale, fly drive was cheaper than what I’d paid just for the flights. Phoned BA, got all my points back and rebooked. Still saved money after paying amendment fee, so I guess a lot must depend on how many points people have and how many tickets they need as to whether it’s worth it

[JSP]

We always book with a companion voucher and avios, I know you can get more bang for your buck with using them to upgrade, but we still save loads and are very happy in cattle class

[mickey house]

Whenever I have looked up avios flights they weren't worth doing. Admittedly I haven't looked too often so I guess you need to keep checking and get in there quickly.

I have just booked our 2 club seats for next week for free (7 days out), and we got the seats we used to pay for (our favourite seats), but at nearly £100 each seat each person each way I am no longer willing to be stitched up by greedy BA, so will take the risk of not getting our favourite seats😀

[Procrastinator]

There seems to have been a big change this year. By that i mean last year the seats were gone every day by 12:02am.

But this year like you say there is a lot of availability.

The only thing i can think of is that the amex rules all changed a while ago, maybe there were quite a few who churned the cards to get the avios for economy flights. Or maybe not. But something has changed since last year.

Just hoping this carries on till the dates we want to book!

[RickT]

Or spend them else where..

It's not cost effective I know, but we use our avios points (combined points from the kids flights too) for UK hotels if me the wife go away together at a weekend.. Makes it a cheaper weekend

[Bellasmummy]

We used our on economy flights a few years ago and with taxes for 3 people it cost us over £1000. If rather just book normally for a little more and save the avios for better uses.

[mickey house]

We use ours avios for mainly hotels. i have 2 hotel rooms booked at gatwick next week and a night at the RPR the week after for 4 adults. That would have cost a total of around £500, so the free avios comes in handy.

[THE WIZARD]

I used some for our car hire California road trip didn't need them for flights as booked those with Virgin Miles

[Rich accountant]

Generally seems to be better availability into Tampa - perhaps some people just look for MCO. I regularly got notifications that 4 economy or 4 club was being made available within a day or two of our flight this year in mid Aug. We decided not to upgrade this time but hoping to get 4 club next year - 4 economy outbound already booked and waiting for the inbound to be released for next Aug.