I received an email from Avios this afternoon, letting me know that I can part pay with Avios on FlyBe flights. I knew that I could do this with British Airways, but did not know that you could do this with FlyBe.

Ever the curious type, I took a look to see what it meant in practice and whether if offered good value. My example for this was a flight from London City up to Edinburgh as I knew that both airlines fly that route fairly regularly, so it would be possible to make a fair comparison. I chose flights that were closest in terms of departure times as that makes the comparison as fair as possible.

The BA flights were £185

The FlyBe flights were at similar times, but were more expensive, by about £50:

To keep it as comparable as possible, I priced it up using a BA ‘Plus’ fare which includes a bag and seat selection, and the FlyBe ‘Get More’ fare.

Clearly, the BA win on price, and on comfort, as they operate the Embraer E170/E190 on this route, as opposed to the propeller-driven Dash 8, a far noisier and less comfortable aircraft.

I know what I would prefer…!

But what about the Part-Pay?

FlyBe will give me a discount of £45 for 9,000 Avios, which is poor. British Airways will give £60 off for fewer Avios.

So who wins?

• Cost: British Airways
• Avios Part-pay value: British Airways
• Avios earned: British Airways
• Comfort: British Airways

It is hard to see why you would fly with FlyBe! Clearly they need to work on their offering if they want me to spend my Avios with them (or fly with them at all!)

In both of these cases, I wouldn’t use my  Avios for part-pay given that 9,000 Avios plus £35 will get me a Reward Flight Saver flight on this route which ultimately offers the best value.