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One of the many ways that British Airways allows its Executive Club members to increase their Avios balances is through its ‘Avios Balance Boost’ program and for a very limited time, this program is running a special deal that may be of use to anyone who needs a few more Avios at a relatively inexpensive rate.
Avios Balance Boost
Outside of special offers, the Avios Balance Boost program (which was introduced in June last year) allows British Airways Executive Club members to buy up to 3x the number of Avios that they have earned in the preceding 3 months at a price that’s lower than we see offered during the various Avios sales that the airline publishes.
Avios earned from flights, from credit card spending, from hotel/other travel spending, and the BA shopping portal can all be included in the figure that a member chooses to ‘boost’, but Avios added to an account from sales and by transfers from other loyalty programs cannot be included.
The cost of buying Avios like this will vary according to the currency in which you pay (which, in turn, is determined by the country in which your BAEC account is registered), the multiple being applied to the boost and the number of Avios being purchased.
Here’s what the prices look like:
As long as you’re not attempting to buy more than 300,000 Avios, these prices represent the cheapest rate at which large numbers of Avios can be purchased.
BA’s Avios subscription program can be cheaper, but you can’t buy 300,000 Avios in one go via that method and BA’s Avios sales do not offer Avios at prices this low.
The flash deal
Usually, when we see an Avios deal published, it’s a deal that offers Avios at a cheaper price than is normally available but that’s not the case here. This deal doesn’t offer Avios at a cheaper rate than the regular ‘Balance Boost’ program. Instead, the deal is all about giving members the opportunity to ‘boost’ more Avios than they may have otherwise been able to boost.
Through midnight on 13 January 2024, British Airways Executive Club members can use the total number of Avios they earned in 2023 to calculate how many Avios they can purchase and not just the number of Avios they earned in the previous 3 months.
If you’re someone who earned a lot of Avios in the last 3 months of 2023, this offer won’t mean much to you. If, however, you need to top up an account but didn’t earn many Avios in the last three months of 2023, this deal should allow you to buy more Avios that you would have otherwise been allowed to buy.
My own British Airways account shows just how big difference this deal can make.
Because I didn’t have any revenue flights with BA after mid-September, the last 3 months of 2023 saw me earn a little over 8,000 Avios, and under normal conditions, the most Avios that I could therefore buy through a ‘Balance Boost’ would be ~24,000.
In the first 9 months of 2023, however, I had multiple premium cabin revenue flights with BA and so when these are taken into consideration (as the current deal allows me to do), the number of Avios that I’m allowed to buy through a Balance Boost jumps to considerably more than 300,000 (the maximum number of Avios that you can buy at the cheapest rates).
Is this a good deal?
It depends.
If you have no immediate use for Avios there’s absolutely no reason for you to be adding to your account. There’s no knowing when BA will next devalue its currency so paying to increase your Avios balance without knowing when you’ll next use those Avios is a bad idea.
If, however, you’re low on Avios and need to book one or more expensive short-haul flights (often the most economical use of Avios), or if you have a Companion certificate earned through the card_name (or an equivalent certificate earned through a UK-issued credit card) and want to use it for a long-haul premium cabin booking, buying Avios cheaply in this promotion can be a good idea.
The maths needed to work out whether you should or should not buy Avios in this promotion is simple:
- Check the cash cost of whatever flight you want to book (A)
- Find out how much it will cost you to buy enough avios to make your award booking (B)
- Apply your own valuation to whatever Avios you’ll be using that are already in your account (C)
- Find out the cost of any taxes/fees/surcharges that will be attached to your award booking (D)
If A > (B + C + D), buying Avios in this deal is probably an economically sound decision.
Yes, this is a generalization as I haven’t accounted for any Avios that would be earned from the cash fare, but for most people this equation should work well enough.
Note: It should go without saying that you should be sure that award flights are available for your preferred routes on your preferred dates before you even begin to think about buying any Avios.
Bottom line
Through midnight on 13 January 2024, members of the British Executive Club can purchase up to 3x the number of Avios they earned in 2023 by using BA’s ‘Balance Boost’ program.
Whether or not this is a good deal for you will depend on how you intend to use the Avios and how many extra Avios this promotion is allowing you to buy, so make sure you run through all the numbers before you give BA any money.
