UPDATE: British Airways Executive Club members based in the UK have slightly cheaper options available to them. As the UK doesn’t charge taxes on the purchase of points UK members can purchase Avios for as little as 1.76 cents/Avios or 1.17p/Avios.
British Airways has announced a 3-day Avios flash sale (2 – 4 December 2015) via emails which are in the being sent out to British Airways Executive Club members:
Following the horrific devaluations earlier this year British Airways flyers can probably do with as many Avios as they can get their hands on, but is this sale any good?
As the screenshot above shows, you have to purchase a minimum of 10,000 Avios before the bonus kicks in and, while the price does decrease a tiny bit the more Avios you purchase, it’s not really a big enough saving to make that much difference:
10,000 Avios + 4,000 Bonus = $300 or 2.14c/Avios
20,000 Avios + 8,000 Bonus = $575 0r 2.05c/Avios
30,000 Avios + 12,000 Bonus = $850 or 2.02c/Avios
35,000 Avios + 14,000 Bonus = $988 or 2.02c/Avios
It appears as if these figures include any taxes and fees as the initial cost displayed by the British Airways website:
Matches the total shown when you go to input your credit card details:
Thoughts
Personally speaking I wouldn’t go anywhere near this sale but someone out there may find a use for it.
I value British Airways Avios at between 1.1 and 1.2 cents each so I’m unlikely to be tempted with a sale in which they cost nearly twice as much.
The sale may be ok (just about) for those wanting to top up their account enough to get to the next award…but even then it’s not exactly a bargain. $300 (minimum spend to ensure the bonus kicks in) is quite a bit of money to spend just to get you to an award flight on which you’re also going to incur the horrendous carrier surcharges that British Airways likes to add on.
The most likely way someone will find value from this sale is by using the miles for expensive short-hop flights like BOS-JFK where a roundtrip will cost just 9,000 Avios (if you book before the 2 Feb 2016 devaluation) but can easily cost $500+ when paying in cash.
Click here for the full Avios terms and conditions.
