Yesterday after getting off a British Airways economy-class flight, I redeemed my most valuable award of the year.
It was at the Terminal 5 Costa Coffee shop – where I converted 8 earned beans from drinks I’ve had during the weeks into a mug of hot rejuvenating black bean juice.
Yes. It’s a mug of coffee. There’s a point in this.
Not the wildest of redemptions for my usual Black Americano, extra shot and ice cubes on top at £3.85. But it brings me nicely onto a topic – the value of rewards.
A programme is only as good as what you can earn or redeem
The Costa Coffee programme is very simple these days -it has gone from a spend-based programme (which can be difficult to work out) to a simple 8 drinks = 1 free drink.
It’s simple enough – and when dealing with some loyalty programmes simplicity is helpful. We’ve all gone through peak/off-peak pricing, pricing by zone and so on, but sometimes the extraction of value can be hard.
But we all pour through those numbers to earn what we need – sometimes through the oddest ways possible, other times from just sitting our backsides in a seat on an aircraft.
Aspirational versus Reality
We’ve all seen the aspirational awards – those with the most luxurious of products (be they an airline or a hotel reward). Who isn’t tempted by blowing their miles on a once-in-a-lifetime experience, or trying something they would have never considered in normal circumstances.
I’ve done this myself when I went to South Korea in First with Asiana, or Hong Kong for the weekend in Business with Cathay Pacific.
Those awards are fantastic – with costs to match as we all know.
Sometimes, a dose of reality hits hard – where flying to a city for a Points redemption ticket can be a lot easier on the pocket – for example, I’d baulk at £215 for an economy fare to Hamburg (or up to £800 in business class), when I can burn 50k of Avios and £50 (or variations of these short European return flights, where paying hard cash can be the more expensive option.).
Because paying £625 in Club Europe for a 1-hour flight is a joke. Good luck milking £400+ of value out of the lounge and airport services.
How you redeem your points and miles is fine – but do a little due-diligence
I’m not here to tell you to redeem your points one way or another. Heck, my patterns make me a profit centre to airlines and coffee shops, rather than a spend.
I’ve seen people redeem for cars in the past because the value of their airline points was better to reduce a bill for a car rental, I’ve seen them transfer them for hotel points for a stay at a hotel they would have never considered in normal circumstances.
Whilst some might turn their noses up at that, it’s how they perceive value in a loyalty programme – and that is fine.
I’ve seen people redeem for cars in the past because the value of their airline points was better to reduce a bill for a car rental, I’ve seen them transfer them for hotel points for a stay at a hotel.
Each traveller will have their own needs and not all advice will be applicable for them.
But sometimes, apply a little thought before hitting the buy button. If it’s someone else’s money, I’m sure thinking is in the lower quadrant of your thoughts and you’ll want to milk it as best as possible.
If it is your own money, sometimes blind loyalty and just hitting buy can be the wrong thing if you’re trying to save a few pennies. Spend the time to investigate what the opportunity cost is before hitting buy.
Even if it is saving 15p on a large mug of coffee at Heathrow Airport when you’re coming off a flight, bleary-eyed and tired.
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