"Springboarding": My Top Strategy Tip for Points Flights

I see it all too often from people, "I can't get tickets to destination X with Avios, they're useless". Cool, yeah, using points can be hard, that's why we strategise. This is a game after all, and we will win!

There is often a finite amount of seats available to be bought with points, and if you're trying to go somewhere ludicrously popular like the Maldives, Sydney, or Bangkok from the UK, seats often fly out of the door quicker than you can say "what's the point of using Avios!".

This is where my points flights strategy called "springboarding" comes into play. I'm not claiming copyright for this name or idea, and you may have version of this. Some would call this tip "positioning".

I hope you're as excited to travel as Helena!

Come on Sam, what is this points strategy?

Springboarding is getting as near as you can to your desired destination without going direct.

You see, how I like to use my points is to travel in comfort, allow myself to indulge, but also to arrive at my destination as fresh as possible. And that doesn't mean I need to fly direct, just as far as I can to benefit from a lie flat seat, more space, and a good sleep (there's something about sitting upright that stops me from sleeping).

Let's make a theoretical trip where I want to go to Tokyo from London in June next year. My obvious route would be to fly on British Airways on one of their twice daily flights. But the flights have been on sale for a while, and the direct flights are sold out. Okay, what's my next option? How about Shanghai? Heathrow to Shanghai is a nearly 13 hour flight on British Airways, thus getting me that comfort and sleep that I so desire. From Shanghai, I can fly to Tokyo in under three hours, or in fact I could decide to start my Japan holiday from somewhere other than Tokyo as you can fly to over a dozen destinations in Japan from Shanghai.

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Likewise if you're Virgin loyal but have always dreamt about going to Japan, but fear you will never make it unless Virgin add it to their map. Well, have you considered flying to Seoul on Virgin's new route, and then onwards to Japan? Just like Shanghai, you have much more choice as to where you may want to start your adventure from! On the note of Seoul, Virgin have now massively decreased the price of Upper Class fares for May and June next year using Virgin Points. Don't say we didn't tell you!

Virgin to Seoul - May 2026

Virgin to Seoul - June 2026

Let's make another example, say you have always wanted to go to Hawaii (rather you than me). British Airways don't fly between London and Hawaii, but you can fly from London to either Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, or Seattle, which are all on the US west coast. From either of these airport, you then pick up your baggage and connect on a cash ticket to your favoured Hawaiian island.

The other strategy element to this would be to position yourself somewhere near to your start location, and then getting a flight to your desired location.

For this, I'll use a very real trip that we're planning to Malaysia early next year. I was too slow in planning this, therefore all the British Airways seats to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore are sold out, and Qatar Airways only has Flexi Reward Avios seats available at twice the price leaving London (yes, you heard that right, Qatar sells Avios seats at 2x cost. Click here for our guide on Qatar's Flexi seats). But, if I positioned myself to either Amsterdam or Frankfurt, I can get to Kuala Lumpur for the normal price of only 75,000 Avios. These flights both leave mid-afternoon, giving me plenty of time to either fly or get the Eurostar to either of these two airports.

Your dream holiday could actually be within reach using this strategy

What I'm advocating for here is flexibility. I appreciate that if your travel is time critical, this is not the one for you. But if you have a bit of patience, and time to research alternatives, I promise you, this is an excellent strategy for enjoying your points.

If you have any questions about this little strategy, leave a comment down below or message us directly!

Sam

Points Well Made is a passion project of Sam and Helena with a loyal following. If you like what we do, and wish to help us continue to create the content you love, please consider buying us a Kofi, or subscribing monthly. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.