Buy Avios From 1.85 Cents Each – For Some This Could Be A Good Deal

Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.

British Airways has launched a short-term offer which allows flyers to purchase Avios with a 50% thrown in on top. While on the face of things this the offer isn’t hugely attractive, there will definitely be instances where buying Avios in this promotion will be a money saver and therefore a very good idea.

Buy Avios & Get A 50% Bonus

Note: If you have a BAEC account registered in Europe you will be able to purchase Avios for less than I shall be showing in the narrative below so this could be an even better deal for you.

The latest promotion from British Airways only runs through to 23:59 BST on 30 June – that’s 18:59 Eastern and 15:59 Pacific Time.

The deal is a simple one – buy Avios and you’ll get a 50% bonus on top of what you buy….but how many Avios you buy will determine your cost/Avios.

To show you what I mean checked the cost/Avios at a variety of buying levels and this is what the results looked like:

• 2,000 Avios + 1,000 Avios bonus = 3,000 Avios for $80 or $0.0267/Avios
• 10,000 Avios + 5,000 Avios bonus = 15,000 Avios for $300 or $0.0200/Avios
• 20,000 Avios + 10,000 Avios bonus = 30,000 Avios for $575 or $0.0192/Avios
• 30,000 Avios + 15,000 Avios bonus = 45,000 Avios for $850 or $0.0189/Avios
• 40,000 Avios + 20,000 Avios bonus = 60,000 Avios for $1,125 or $0.0188/Avios
• 80,000 Avios + 40,000 Avios bonus = 120,000 Avios for $2,225 or $0.0185/Avios
• 100,000 Avios + 50,000 Avios bonus = 150,000 Avios for $2,775 or $0.0185/Avios

As you can see the difference in cost/Avios starts off pretty steep when purchasing low number of Avios but differences in cost/Avios become a lot less pronounced thew more Avios you buy.

British Airways limits the number of Avios you can purchase for yourself of receive into your account to 100,000/year (excluding bonuses) so if you’ve already purchase some avios this calendar year you will not be able to buy the maximum amount.

Is It Worth Buying Avios At These Prices?

Considering I value Avios at a very lowly 1.0 cents each you’d probably expect me to recommend giving this offer a very wide berth….but I’m not going to do that.

Generally speaking Avios is a pretty terrible currency to use for long haul flights but, on short haul, it can be a big money saver.

Take for example the Los Angeles – Maui route which I know pretty well.

Fares on this route don’t often fall much below $600 but, thanks to the fact that Avios reward charts are distance based, you can use Avios to save quite a bit of money.

Here’s how:

Here’s an American Airlines itinerary for November of this year which shows a fare of $662….

…and if you want to use AAdvantage miles in lieu of cash it would cost you 40,000 miles + $11.20 in taxes (for a miles SAAver award).

Using AAdvantage miles here would see a traveler getting a 1.6/mile return…which isn’t terrible but it isn’t great – there are a lot more better uses of AAdvantage miles out there.

Using Avios is, however, a good idea.

You only need 25,000 Avios and $11.20 to book the exact same flights….

…..and that works out at a return of 2.6 cents/Avios.

If you were to buy Avios at 1.85 cents each in the current promotion you could immediately use them to book this fare for a total outlay of $473.70 ($462.50 + $11.20) saving yourself $188.30 per person.

This kind of deal will apply to a lot of intra-US routes (and intra Asia routes) where the distances travelled aren’t excessive but the costs of airfare are high (New York – Washington is another good example).

Warnings

You should not be buying Avios in this promotion on the off-chance that you’ll get to use them for a great deal – who knows when Alex Cruz will decide it’s time to devalue the Avios reward chart one more time.

Also, miles SAAver availability on American Airlines (the type of award availability you’ll need if you’re to use Avios to book) is not good at all so don’t consider buying Avios in this promotion unless you can already see award availability for your dates online.

Remember

British Airways handles its own Avios purchases so be sure to use a credit card that offers a bonus for airline/travel purchases if you do decide to buy some Avios.

I would choose to use my Amex Platinum Card which would earn me 5 Membership Rewards points per dollar I spend on Avios but cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve (3 points/dollar) or the Chase British Airways Visa (3 Avios/dollar) are solid options too.