i have got quite a few of the new Avios points, but when i looked at redeeming some for a flight to barcelona, they are adding taxes. this makes it more expensive than using ryanair, or easyjet, and so they are now relatively worthless to me.
i was under the impression that if you were a regular collector you would not pay taxes, or so i thought i read in the airmiles blurb when they converted, but this does not appear to be the case.
so, unless i have got it wrong it does not look like a good deal to me anymore.

I have used BA miles( now Avios) for years but have always gone for business or first class as the taxes for economy were not worth it. (In the early days taxes were a lot less)
However, BA have just introduced Reward Flight Savers which do seem a really good deal and would make me use my miles for short haul economy. Have a look at the details here.
Please note that I have to fly from Aberdeen so I don't have the range of cheap options that those in the south have.

Fiona, I can understand why its not so attractive to you having to fly from Aberdeen

Jim, just been checking and I think for short haul it has all changed and you no longer pay taxes, surcharges and extras a a variable rate.

You redeem your AVIOS & pay a set charge for which is deemed to be a 'reward flight' of £27 per flight & sounds competative to me compared to Ryan & Easyjet, who I struggle with as am not always able to book 11 months in advance etc to get optimun value & dislike easy's newly introduced £9 per booking admin fee & do not use ryan as I will not pay their huge credit card fee, and various other reasons.

For Malaga is seemed to be 15,000 Avios and £27 and for Bordeaux 9,000 Avios and £27.00, but i'm not sure if I am doing it correctly.

In fairness I am only messing about on the site and not gone through to the final page so there may be admin fees and credit card fees there.

Doe

they are adding taxes. this makes it more expensive than using ryanair, or easyjet

uhm, how did that happen? Government taxes would be the same for the same combination of countries, airport charges may be a bit cheaper at the places Ryanair (especially) use but probbaly not by enough to cover the basic fare, card fees, luggage etc?? Either you added something up wrong or they are being a bit creative.

doe
yes you are doing it correctly. The flight redemptions are cheap.
I obviously wasn't really clear in my initial post( not feeling great just now so that's my excuse!). For me, these flights ARE worthwhile as they are from Aberdeen. Others near the main hubs may find cheap flights anyway. However, with this new pricing, the price you see is the price you pay- no booking or baggage fees. It certainly is making me rethink only using the miles for long haul premium travel.

Sorry you are not feeling too clever Fiona. I haven't done business as I would struggle to put enough through an AMEX per annum to trigger a 2 4 1 voucher, it would have done away with card flexibility that I need, but this looks good for European City breaks etc

Certainly looking more promising than it did under the old airmiles with this flat £27 fee if that is all that it entails & there seems to be many of destinations.

Initially I was struggling with the AVIOS website, it was a nightmare even to try & check availabilty, it kept dropping out, didnt matter what browser you used. Their facebook page was full of people requesting they sack the web-team and get in people who knew what they were doing, but it seems to have recovered. bearing in mind what they seem to have spent on TV advertsing you would have thought it would be OK from launch. Never had probs with the airmiles site and used if for at least 10 years.

If flights dont look good value, you can book hotels (then maybe book budget flights with Easy or Ryan) with AVIOS and car hire so there are other options as well.

Doe

I started collecting Avios last November, I used up the tesco vouchers I had , the last few years we converted our tesco vouchers to cosmos or virgin but I thought the deals didn't work out so well with the deal changing to X3 and having to pay brochure price . I was able to get 51000 Avios and booked flights for November this year to Dubai , I paid £1700 for WT plus and used 40000 points to get upgraded to club/business , when I was looking at emirates the cost was £4300 , normal BA price was £4100 . The cost of 40000 Avios was £180 in tesco vouchers , and that would "buy" you £540 in cosmos/virgin vouchers to use to discount a holiday , so I think saving £2400 off the flights is a good deal , I have just added another £30 of tesco vouchers and got 12000 points as they are doing a promotion of 1000 points per £2.50 of tesco vouchers instead of the usual 625 points , and as I earn Avios on the booked flight there should be enough in the account to book similar flights for the following year .

Hmm I thought it was the other way round .. Airmiles did away with Taxes and fees a while back , I booked our flights to prague with them before they changed to Avios and didnt pay a penny , just converted some of my Tesco points at the time . From what I saw on watchdog just before they were changing this flat rate fee was going to be introduced and then it would of been cheaper for me to book EJ/Ryanair.

Perhapswhen you didyourflightsto prauge Lyn airmiles had a promo on that meant no taxes anda great result. I was looking at prauge fees, which was agreat result. I was looking at prauge under this new regime and it seems to be £27 I lhave not checked easy or ryan to see how it competes on pricewith them.

No dont think it was chris . There were a couple of people interviewed on watchdog late last summer /early autumn that were complaining that they had been saving their airmiles for a while and hoped to have enough within the next year for a big trip but now they would be faced with paying charges on top .Im fairly certain they had stopped adding on taxes etc a couple of years ago but had increased the amount of miles needed if that makes sense.. saying that I've only ever looked at european flights. Maybe orignally they were adding full taxes but have reduced it to a set fee after so many complained

Taxes etc are definately not included, it says so quiet clearly in section D.1.12 of their t&cs. Not only taxes and the usual airport charges and security fees but also the fuel surcharges have to be paid for.

The exception is the "Reward Flight Saver" offer (part M of the t&cs) which is only available with BA or Iberia in zones 1-3 (and not on code shares with anyone else). If a booking qualifies for this then all the various add-ons will be replaced by the "RFS Flat Cash Price". According to BA this is currently £27 but that isn't specified in the t&cs which meakes it easier to change later.

So europe with other than BA/Iberia or long haul with anyone, expect significant add-ons.

And don't forget to check your insurance because it was quite common to exclude flights bought with airmiles from cancellation cover.

Be very careful with Avios.
I booked Barcelona flights and they were cancelled by BA.
Avios did not let us know, I found out by chance and managed to rebook myself direct with BA.
If I had waited for Avios to contact me, then we would have arrived at the airport none the wiser and found our flight to be non existent. Not a great prospect with children in tow and looking forward to a long weekend in Barcelona!
Avios maintain that as BA didn't let them know about the cancelled flights, they had no responsibility to let us know.
My point is that is an internal matter between BA and Avios, and Avios should have taken responsibility for the booking made with them and let us know.
So if your flight is cancelled / amended, do not rely on Avios to tell you!!

Think you must have been unlucky as they normally email you to the email address you have set up your AVIOS account too.