All my AVIOS go into the BAEC and are usually spent or accounted for quickly , I always try to look a year ahead for availability , and some of my flights have to mean I change my holiday dates by a day or two . I haven't experienced any difficulty obtaining flights but then I never choose school holiday periods .
I think you possibly could find detailed info at flyertalk.com regarding hints and tips .

same here- I use avios through BAEC. There are some destinations I would like that are pretty difficult to secure with avios but generally I try to get flights as soon as they open up. I have found though that with BA sometimes seats open up close to the departure date so its worth keeping on checking on a daily basis.

Thanks both. so would you say availability is generally better with BAEC than Avios then?

As far as i'm aware i can just transfer my avios to baec without too much trouble. How long does this take

please? am i able to transfer back to avios though, if i'm finding that flights suddenly become available
with them.

I'm going to be looking for next easter as soon as flights open up, and will book as soon as i see something i like.
i notice that march '15 availability has started to appear for some destinations on the avios website, but only up until the 20th march.

Easter is the following week, so i guess i will have to jump in quick as soon as they are released, as they will be booked up quickly!

At this stage, we will be looking to book european destinations, and so taking advantage of the fixed £35 reward flight saver.
Any more tips gratefully received.

I can' t really help with transfer questions as I have only dealt with BA miles which recently changed to Avios. However, I do think the reward saver is a great deal.

Hi Suncatcher. I don't really know if availability is better or not , looking on my account I see that you can combine points quickly and easily by following the combine my AVIOS button , I'm not sure if you can reverse them though , I did look at availability for Feb to Lanzarote. Tenerife and GC and there wasn't much , I suspect that half term is w/c 16 Feb !!! Then in March there is more available , also looking at Malaga for instance there were reward flights every day for March and a good choice for Alicante too , whether that stays the same for Easter hols is anyone's guess , I think that you can only book 355 days in advance for reward flights online . I guess there are many people chasing few rewards especially school hols time .

I've read elsewhere that people think reward saver to European destinations are easy to come by , but that is probably true for cities and business destinations rather than leisure , and some find reward saver a great deal , personally I choose not to spend my points this way and my circumstances maybe differ from others , I prefer to use them for long haul upgrade and that can sometimes be difficult to find but I can be flexible on holiday dates within reason and usually have plans to book a year ahead when availability becomes available so find it relatively easy , I think you just have to keep checking each day and jump in quick ahead of the others , a bit like waiting for EJ schedules to be released , but with reward bookings at least you know when they will be released if available ( 355 days ) for booking .

If when the dates become active on reward flights you want me to check destinations and availability I'm happy to do that , I'm sure that you have to log in to your BAEC account to check / make a dummy booking to see what's there , if you don't have a BAEC account it might be worth creating one now so you can transfer quickly if you need to , although in truth I suspect availability should be the same on both

Thanks Andy. I have a baec account, so going to keep an eye on flight availability over the next few weeks. Bit of a change of plan as regards to our holidays for next year.

Our DD is now going on a school trip over the Easter hols next year, so we are re thinking our plans and considering our options for where we fancy going as a couple, rather than having to consider family destinations. Lots to think about. Thanks for all the info

That's ok , it gives you a bit more option then ! It can be a bit of a laborious and repetitive task with all the searching !! I've sometimes looked and booked a BA holiday they sometimes do have great deals on hotels even better than using my wife's staff discounted travel agency for accommodation . Enjoy your thinking and searching !!!!

Personally, at least for BAEC, I really dont think there is much value in using Avios for flights to the Canaries...as you still have to pay for the tax and it is the tax that often is the high cost.

best use of avios is for business class, or first, long haul.

Yes i agree with you. There is little or no availability for the canaries anyway, at least during school holidays!

I think i will end up using mainly for european flights within the three zones which are covered by the flat fee of the reward flight saver.

I did a few dummy bookings in the last week or so just to see what would be available for Easter next year, and would have been able to book Ibiza Malaga and madrid for the first week of the easter holidays 2015.