Avios, which are the new Air Miles, work a little differently from the original frequent flyer rewards. Essentially they are points rather than miles (we just call them Avios), so it is a little more difficult to see how they translate into flight distances. With the old air miles you just needed to know how many miles from your departure city was from your destination, but this is no longer the case.
Avios works something like London Underground in that the world is divided into a number of different zones and each zone costs a certain number of Avios. There are nine zones in total and prices range from 9,000 Avios (or 4,500 Avios plus £50) for zone one up to 100,000 Avios (or 50,000 Avios plus £400) for zone nine.
Flying from the UK, zone one destinations include UK destinations, and many European ones such as Paris, Milan, and Prague. With zone 2 you can travel to more distant destinations such as Budapest, Barcelona and Warsaw; zone 3 gets you as far as Marrakech and Moscow; zone 4 to Cairo and Tel Aviv; zone 5 to New York and Abu Dhabi; zone 6 to Los Angeles and the Caribbean; zone 7 to Tokyo and Hong Kong; zone 8 to Buenos Aires and Singapore, and zone 9 all the way to Sydney in Australia. Of course these are just example destinations; altogether there well over a hundred of them.
This means that some destinations provide far better value than others. For instance it would cost the same number of Avios to fly from London to Manchester as it would to fly from London to Zurich, so to maximise the value of your Avios you should choose your destinations with care.
Another way to look at the value of Avios is flight times rather than the flight miles of the old Air Miles scheme. Although this does not translate directly, there is a good correlation between flight times and cost in terms of Avios. Essentially zone one destinations are flight times of under two hours, zone two to four hours, zone three four to six hours and so on.
The best way to find out where you can travel to with Avios is on the interactive map on the Avios website.
The great thing about Avios is there is no downside. You can simply sign up with Avios and continue as before to collect the points.
You may choose to shop at Tesco, or buy your petrol at a Shell garage (though currently it is better to buy your petrol at a Tesco garage and convert the Clubcard points to Avios) and change your credit card to one that gives Avios rewards, but apart from that just sit back and count the Avios as they are credited to your account.