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[thirstylink linkid=”25176″ linktext=”British Airways has launched its latest points promotion” class=”thirstylink” title=”British Airways has launched its latest points promotion”] which, this time around, is targeted and offers Executive Club members the opportunity to buy Avios with bonus of up to 50%. If your account is in the US this allows you to buy Avios from 1.85 cents but, if you’re fortunate enough to be based in the EU, the price drop to just 1.2 Euro cents.
Buy Avios With A 50% Bonus – Headline T&Cs
First things first – this promotion is targeted so not everyone will have been offered the 50% bonus option – [thirstylink linkid=”25176″ linktext=”follow this link to check what your offer is” class=”thirstylink”].
- This promotion is only open to Eligible Participants. An Eligible Participant is aged 18 or over and is a British Airways Executive Club (‘BAEC’) Member. The Promoter reserves the right to verify the eligibility of Eligible Participants. Eligible Participants confirm that they accept the terms and conditions set out below.
- Between 00:01 hr GMT Tuesday 12 September and 23:59 hr GMT Friday 29 September 2017 (the ‘Promotional Period’) BAEC Members will receive up to 50% Avios bonus upon any Purchase or Gift Avios transaction:
Purchase or gift between 1,000 and 15,000 Avios and receive 10% bonus Avios
Purchase or gift between 16,000 and 34,000 Avios and receive 20% bonus Avios
Purchase or gift between 35,000 and 84,000 Avios and receive 30% bonus Avios
Purchase or gift between 85,000 and 100,000 Avios and receive 50% bonus Avios - Eligible Participants may Gift Avios (purchase for someone else) during the promotional period, provided that the recipient holds or opens a British Airways Executive Club account and the recipient’s BAEC membership number is entered at the time of purchase. Members can receive up to 100,000 gifted Avios. The recipient will receive 50% bonus Avios.
- Eligible Participants may not exceed their annual 100,000 Avios limit. Bonus Avios do not count towards your annual limit.
[thirstylink linkid=”25176″ linktext=”Follow this link for the full terms & conditions” class=”thirstylink” title=”Follow this link for the full terms & conditions”]
The Math – If You’re Based In The US
A purchase of 100,000 Avios (for example) would net a 50,000 Avios bonus for a total of 150,000 Avios at a total cost of $2,775:
That works out to be 1.85 cents per Avios (1.5p/Avios) and that’s a terrible deal.
Here’s why.
New York – London Business Class Roundtrip
During off-peak pricing this trip would cost 100,000 Avios and $1,123.69 in taxes and fees:
So, if you were to buy the required Avios in this promotion the total outlay on this trip would be:
(100,000 x $0.0185) + $1,123.69 = $2,973.69
You can buy cash Business Class fares for less than that and with those you don’t have to cross your fingers and hope that there’s availability on the days you wish to fly.
This deal only gets worse when you want to travel further. An award on the Los Angeles to London route (for example) is an even worse deal thanks to the incredible number of Avios needed for such a flight.
Short Haul Trips
Short haul flights are usually where you can get the best value out of Avios because fares can be expensive while the number of Avios needed is low.
A good example of this is the New York – Boston route:
LGA – BOS will set you back 7,500 Avios & $5.60 for a one-way Economy Class fare…..
……and, if you were to buy those Avios in this promotion, the total cost would come to $144.35.
If you wanted to book a last-minute flight on a route like New York to Boston buying miles in this promotion may save you $50 – $60….but it’s a myth that fares on routes like these are always high – I’ve seen days where all flights on this route were under $130 – so don’t assume that buying Avios to use on routes like these is a certain money saver. It’s not.
The Math – If You’re Based In The UK/EU
From what I can see the deal in the UK/EU is a lot better.
You can buy 100,000 Avios with a 50% bonus for €1,800….
….and that equates to a cost of just €0.012/£0.011/$0.014 per Avios….and that’s more like it.
I have to admit that I value Avios quite conservatively at around $0.01 each but, even still, these could be value to be had here.
This is as good a price as we see from British Airways so, if you need to top up your account for an award you’re unlikely to do better than this.
If you have this offer then clearly you’re almost certainly based in Europe (at least part of the time) so Avios can be used to great effect on intra-Europe short-haul flights when cash fares are high.
British Airways limits the taxes on intra-Europe awards so you don’t get crushed by surcharges as you do when booking a long-haul trip and that’s what makes these kinds of bookings my favorite use of Avios.
If you’ve been targeted for the 50% bonus this could be a time to buy ([thirstylink linkid=”25176″ linktext=”check your bonus offer here” class=”thirstylink”])
How To Decide If You Should Buy Avios In This Promotion
If you can see that the cost of a cash fare for your trip is greater than what a reward flight would cost (and reward flights are available for booking) then it may be a good idea to buy some Avios and book your trip that way.
Don’t forget, however, that a cash fare will earn you Avios and Tier Points while a reward booking will not….those tier points and Avios that you would be forgoing may have value to you so you should take that into account when working out the best course of action.
Bottom Line
For US-based travelers I consider this a promotion to be avoided (at 1.85 cents/Avios you’ll struggle to get your money back on most routes) but, for UK/EU-based travelers, if you buy Avios at 1.2 Euro cents each there’s definitely value to be had if you look carefully.
Note: don’t forget that 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.
