The British Airways Avios subscription service (what you need to know)

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Back in October 2022, in what may have been a world-first for a major airline loyalty program, the British Airways Executive Club introduced a subscription service that permits its members to purchase Avios at a highly discounted rate.

In this article, we take a look at what this subscription service offers.

The Avios subscription service

The idea is pretty simple. An Executive Club member can choose to purchase 20,000, 50,000, 100,000, or 200,000 Avios per year through this new scheme, and these Avios will be deposited into their account in 12 equal monthly deposits.

Payment for the Avios can be made monthly or yearly, but with British Airways offering an extra discount to those who pay upfront for a full year, it’s the yearly packages that offer the best deals.

The prices

Pricing for the UK Avios subscription service have increased since the program was rolled out (by between 11% and 40%), but pricing for members based in the US has improved and is now more in line with what UK-based BAEC members pay.

Here are what the prices currently look like:

USA

UK

Based on the current exchange rate (~1.30 USD/GBP), there is now a negligible difference between the prices offered to US-based members and UK-based members.

That’s a significant improvement (for US members) on how things were when the subscription service was launched.

Key terms

• When opting in for a Yearly Plan, the Subscriber will pay once, at the time of opting in for the Subscription.
• When opting in for a Monthly Plan, the Subscriber will pay each month throughout the duration of their Subscription. First payment will be at the time of opting in and subsequent payments will be on the same day or as close to the same day in the following months, e.g., first payment on 1st October, second payment on 1st November and so on.
• For Monthly Plans minimum term is 3 months.
• For Yearly Plans minimum term is 12 months.
• You have the right to cancel the contract for your purchase of Avios within 14 days of your transaction, as long as the Avios haven’t been used. To get a refund for your subscription, go to ‘My Subscription’ area once logged in and click the ‘I’d like a refund’ button. Confirm your request and we’ll refund you within 14 days.
• Your annual Subscription will automatically renew after 12 months, unless cancelled. To cancel your subscription, simply log in to your account and navigate to ‘My Subscription’, then set your auto-renewal toggle to OFF. You can do this anytime and don’t have to wait for the 12 months to pass.
• Only one Subscription plan can be active at any one time.
• Only one Subscription plan can be purchased per customer.
• The Subscriber can buy a maximum of 200,000 Avios in any one calendar year via Subscription. This is in addition to the 200,000 avios allowance through ‘Buy Avios’.
• Avios can only be bought in specified amounts.
• Subscription to Buy Avios may be amended from time to time for promotional activity.
• The Subscriber will be able to spend Avios when they appear as credited in the Subscriber’s Executive Club account.
• There may be occasions where there is a delay of up to 3 working days in the Avios being credited to your account.
• The transaction currency will be pre-determined based on the registered country of the British Airways Executive Club account.
• The Purchaser must be a Member of the British Airways Executive Club and age 18 years or over.
• The Purchaser must have at least one Avios in their Executive Club account in order to buy Avios. If the Purchaser has a balance of zero Avios, they will need to have collected or redeemed Avios in the past 36 months in order to buy Avios.
• The Buy Avios year begins on 1 January and ends on 31 December.
• Purchasing Avios will reset the 36-month Avios expiry rule, as set out in the British Airways Executive Club Terms and Conditions.
• Avios which are subsequently refunded will not constitute activity for the purposes of the 36-month Avios expiry rule in the Terms and Conditions.

Full terms and conditions can be found on this British Airways page.

Thoughts

Overall, there are positives and negatives to this new subscription service.

The key thing to note is that there’s nothing to stop British Airways from devaluing Avios overnight, so there’s no guarantee that a purchase price that looks appealing right now will look appealing in a week or a month’s time.

Looking at things like that, means that the monthly subscriptions (which can be cancelled after just 3 months) look more attractive than the yearly subscriptions (which are locked in for 12 months).

On the flip side, however, it’s worth keeping in mind that any Avios purchased through BA can be moved across to Iberia, Aer Lingus, Finnair, and Qatar Airways, so it would take more than just a BA devaluation to ruin your plans.

That makes the yearly subscriptions look more tempting … especially when you add in the fact that there’s a difference of ~20% between the cost of Avios purchased as part of a monthly subscription and the cost of Avios purchased as part of a yearly subscription.

Something else that goes against the idea of taking out a monthly subscription are the Avios sales that we see from British Airways, Iberia, and Qatar Airways.

When, for example, Qatar Airways publishes an Avios sale in which a 50% bonus is on offer, each Avios costs £0.0117 or $0.0153, and that’s cheaper than any of the monthly subscription options.

If, therefore, you’re not interested in being able to buy more than 200,000 Avios a year (Avios purchased via subscription don’t count towards the yearly cap), why would you lock yourself into a monthly subscription when you can simply wait for a suitable sale to turn up and then buy all the Avios you need in a one lump sum?

In very specific circumstances, a monthly subscription may make sense, but for most people the choice should be between a yearly subscription or no subscription at all.

Bottom line

British Airways offer an Avios subscription service that allows members of its Executive Club to purchase a predetermined number of Avios every month at discounted rates. For some, this will open up an opportunity to save money on what would otherwise be expensive cash fares, while for others this should be a service to ignore.