Using Stopovers to South America to SAVE Avios!

There’s a lot of complaining about how worthless Avios are because they switched to a distance based pricing for their awards program. But if I may be so frank; does British Airways suck, or do your booking skills suck? Are they as good as they once were? Of course not. Are they still awesome? If you know how to use them.

Read up on the rest of this series.  But for now I’m going to give you specific examples of how you could book a flight in such a way that will save you Avios by adding stopovers.

• Introduction
• Using Stopovers to Save Avios to South America
• Using Stopovers to Save Avios Across the Pacific
• Using Stopovers to Save Avios to Europe
• Using Stopovers to Save Avios to India
• Conclusion

For me this is more about seeing new places than it is saving miles/points, although I’m all about both!

All the following are one-way award prices…

Miami to Quito to Santiago:

• MIA – SCL = 25,000

but

• MIA – UIO =  10,000
• UIO – SCL = 12,500

Same results with LIM (Lima) or BOG (Bogota) instead of UIO

Miami to Quito to Buenos Aires:

• MIA – EZE = 25,000

but

• MIA – UIO = 10,000
• UIO – EZE = 12,500

Miami to Bogota to Sao Paulo:

• MIA – GRU = 25,000

but

• MIA – BOG = 10,000
• BOG – GRU = 12,500

You could make this an open jaw and fly from Miami to Cali and then continue on to GRU from BOG. But there might be a ton of examples starting from Miami…

Los Angeles to Mexico City to Lima:

• LAX – LIM = 25,000

but

• LAX – MEX = 10,000
• MEX – LIM = 12,500

Also, note that LAX – EZE is not a direct route, so finding a way there could include all kinds of routes.

Chicago to Santiago is not a direct route so most people think they should route through Miami – costing them 35,000 Avios! But by routing through Cancun you actually save miles.

• ORD – CUN = 10,000
• CUN – SCL = 20,000

And Cancun to Lima is only 12,500 – so routing yourself through Cancun could be more fun than Miami and still a good deal.

Another Chicago to Lima option is Mexico city. It comes out the same as Cancun:

• ORD – MEX = 10,000
• MEX – LIM = 12,500

Someone specifically asked about starting in Washtington, DC area, and I’m not sure if this is good news or bad news, but at least it will apply to everyone. Since DC is not a One World HUB, it’s a matter of which hub is the cheapest to get to and which route is the cheapest starting from that hub. One-ways are 7,500 Avios from WAS to MIA; 4,500 to JFK; 4,500 to ORD (which won’t help in these examples) and 10,000 to DFW.

You can drive to NYC, fly Southwest, or consider it a 7,500 handicap to start in Miami. This is exactly why the old program was better, but for those in Miami, they have plenty of opportunities in South America. But if you happen to want stopovers in the hub cities, you also win.

The thing is though, for some people, “having to” fly to Miami could actually save Avios the same way adding a stopover in the examples above save Avios. Or for most it’s just a free stopover opportunity (like CLE – MIA – LIM, it’s still 20,000 Avios). It just means that you need to know where to route through. If you’re flying Seattle to South America, do the math to figure out if you should fly out of LAX, DFW or MIA… If all’s the same, choose the city you want to see and make a day or two of it (though, none of those cities excite me too much).

And the big thing about this is that hopefully One World will be expanding it’s options to South America. An increase in routes from places other than Miami would be pretty helpful.