Buy Avios With Up To 30% Bonus (US: 2.17c / UK: 1.24p)

Buy Avios With 30% Bonus

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The British Airways Executive Club is running a promotion whereby members can buy Avios and get a bonus of up to 30% on top depending on how many Avios they buy. This promotion runs through 17 March 2016. In parallel with the British Airways Executive Club the Avios scheme (available only in select countries) is running a similar promotion…but with one slight difference that I will come on to later.

Buy Avios With A 30% Bonus

As most promotions seem to be nowadays this one is tiered and this is what the British Airways Executive Club is offering:

  • Buy 1,000 – 15,000 Avios and get 10% bonus Avios
  • Buy 16,000 – 34,000 Avios and get 20% bonus Avios
  • Buy 35,000 Avios and get 30% bonus Avios

The British Airways Executive Club allows members to buy a maximum of 35,000 Avios per year (excluding bonuses) which is why that tier structure ends at 35,000.

Under the British Airways Executive Club offer the cost per Avios figure decreases the more Avios you buy and, for US Executive Club members, this is how the math works out:

buy-avios-up-to-30-pc-bonus

UK based Executive Club members get a better deal because there’s no tax element included in the pricing:

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Buy more than 35,000 Avios

If you’re fortunate enough to live in a country that operates the stand-alone Avios scheme the cost structure is similar but you can buy more than 35,000 Avios per year. The difference between the Avios scheme and the British Airways Executive Club is that the Avios scheme allows its members to purchase up to 100,000 Avios per year.

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If you buy the maximum 100,000 Avios the cost/Avios actually comes out marginally lower than what you get with the British Airways Executive Club….but then you have to spend a lot more cash.

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130,000 Avios for £1,615 equates to 1.24p/Avios.

Are These Good Deals?

For the majority of people, no.

I value Avios at around 0.75p/1.1c each so it’s not surprising I don’t think much of these promotions. As a currency Avios has taken a lot of hits over the past twelve months with partners like American Airlines and Alaska handing out fewer Avios for travel and more Avios are now needed for short-haul flights (a one-time Avios sweet spot) – they’ve been a very poor option for long-haul flights for some time.

On top of that we’ve seen flash sales where Avios cost less and seen promotions where the maximum bonus was greater than 30% – the current promotion is nothing special.

If you’re a few Avios short of an award then it could make sense to buy Avios at these rates but, from just about any other point of view, these are promotions to avoid.