Is there somewhere in the world you would really like to fly to, but it is just too far away and would cost you too much money to get there? Many of us have dreams of visiting places that we might never see, but if you are willing to spend a little effort and have a reasonable amount of patience, then the world is your oyster. With free flights from avios.com there are few places that you can’t reach.
If you don’t know about Avios, then the best way to explain it is as a kind of air mile. Air miles became Avios in 2011 when British airways and Iberia Airlines merged. They work in a different way and you can use them for one way as well as return flights. World destinations are divided into a nine zones, and each zone costs a specific number of Avios. You can extend the destination by paying some money, and you also need to pay taxes, but they a great way to get what are more of less free flights.
So, where would you like to go? The Bahamas are always a favourite destination. There are flights to Bridgetown, Antigua, Tobago, Grenada, Kingston and lots of other great places to visit. Destinations in the Bahamas are all in zone 6 and a return flight will cost you 50,000 Avios or 25,000 Avios plus £200.
25,000 Avios may seem to be a lot, but with all the different ways of collecting them it is surprising how quickly they accumulate. For instance if you shop at Tesco you can convert your Clubcard points directly into Avios, and a typical family grocery bill over a year will easily generate 16,000. If you pay for your groceries using a credit card and clear the balance every month, then you can more than double that to 36,000 Avios. And if you buy petrol from Shell, you can get 10 Avios for every 20 litres of fuel, or for the average family saloon 30 Avios every time you fill the tank. There are many other outlets, hotels and restaurants that have Avios rewards, and you can also collect them on flights, one for every mile flown. With a little effort you would very quickly reach that target.
If your fancy is Japan, then Tokyo is in zone 7, which is 60,000 Avios or 30,000 plus £240, and easily achievable. Singapore and Buenos Aires are in zone 8, 70,000 Avios or 35,000 plus £280.
Also you don’t have to spend your Avios on flights; you can use then to pay hotel bills, car hire, on Eurostar tickets, theatre tickets, in fact on literally hundreds of items. There is also a weekly deal, for instance the current one is return flights to Copenhagen plus three nights in a hotel for just 5,000 Avios plus £130.
This is a guest post by Claire Chat a new Londoner, travel passionate and animal lover. She blogs about Pets and Travelling in Europe. If you want Claire to write you specific content, you can find email her here or contact her on Twitter (Claire_Chat).