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AVIOS OFFER: dream deal or big disappointment?
British Airways are currently running an offer for Executive Club members (aged 18 and over) to buy or gift (seriously, what?! Does anyone really gift their AVIOS?) up to 100,000 AVIOS in the 2016 calendar year. This is a whopping increase from the previous limit of 35,000 in a year.
In addition, if you buy before midnight on the 27th September 2016, you can earn up to 35% more AVIOS. Bonuses apply as follows:
- Purchases or gifts of 1,000 to 15,000 Avios earn 10% extra bonus AVIOS
- 16,000 to 34,000 Avios earn 20% extra bonus AVIOS
- 35,000 to 84,000 Avios earn 30% extra bonus AVIOS
- 85,000 to 100,000 Avios earn 35% extra bonus AVIOS
The true cost of the AVIOS offer
Now I have always personally thought buying AVIOS to be a bad idea but let’s see how this works out in practice before we write it off as a bad idea!
| Amount purchased | Bonus AVIOS | Total AVIOS | Cost for purchase | Cost per AVIOS |
| 1,000 | 100 | 1,100 | £31 | 2.8p |
| 10,000 | 1,000 | 11,000 | £175 | 1.59p |
| 25,000 | 5,000 | 30,000 | £415 | 1.38p |
| 50,000 | 15,000 | 65,000 | £815 | 1.25p |
| 100,000 | 35,000 | 135,000 | £1,615 | 1.20p |
Correct as at 14/9/16 – Source: British Airways
I examined the value of a redemption in a recent post and found it varied hugely between 0.35p to 2.24p (note the figures are shown as fractions of pounds) per AVIOS. This deal does not look overly attractive with the cost per AVIOS likely to exceed the value you might gain on redeeming.
These redemption examples do not suggest dream like qualities for the AVIOS offer either with the total cost of purchasing AVIOS added to the taxes exceeding the cost of simply buying flights outright!
| Route | Class | AVIOS needed | Taxes and fees | Cost for flight without using AVIOS | Saving | Cost for equivalent AVIOS using the offer | Total cost including AVIOS and taxes |
| London – New York | Premium Economy | 52,000 | £417 | £827.45 | £410.45 | £895 for 55,000 | £1,312 with 3,000 AVIOS remaining |
| London – Mexico | Club | 125,000 | £526 | £2279.65 | £1753.65 | £1615 for max 100,000 | £2,141 and a shortfall of 25,000 AVIOS |
| London – Athens | Economy | 17,000 | £35 | £133.87 | £98.81 | £287 | £322 |
| London – St Lucia | Economy | 32,500 | £275.42 | £531.42 | £256 | £543 | £818 |
| London – Dubai | Economy | 26,000 | £282 | £357.25 | £75.25 | £431 | £713 |
| London – Delhi | Club | 125,000 | £475 | £1674.65 | £1199.65 | £1615 for 100,000 | £2,090 and a shortfall of 25,000 AVIOS. |
Source: British Airways as at 14/9/16 – off peak fares only departing 1/3/17 and returning 8/3/17
What’s the verdict?
So as you can see, in every example I looked at, it would invariably be cheaper to buy the flight and not pay taxes, fees and the AVIOS cost. The only caveat to this is that I have ignored the bonus AVIOS as you have only until the 27th September to benefit from this offer.
Even with them, I doubt it will make this an attractive option so I recommend well and truly keeping your wallet in your pocket!
Have you ever bought AVIOS?
If so feel free to share your experience below. We’d love to know what value you got and whether you felt it was worthwhile.
Great breakdown! Thanks for sharing the facts and showing that it’s actually cheaper to buy the actual ticket. I’ve often wondered how it worked wen people bought points. Thanks for sharing.
great hack right here. Good for those who uses AVIOS in their flights.
For frequent travelers, it is no problem to acquire the miles and points through travel. I never buy the points, and rarely pay for upgrades, and I get plenty of upgrades from loyalty rewards.
I love that you broke this down. Between figuring out mileage points and getting credit cards this year in addition to the usual bills and taxes, my head is about done with numbers when it comes to travel! It stinks that AVIOS isn’t much a deal either way!
I definitely have had good value from some of my AVIOS including 5k saving on business class flights and 3k on another trip although in truth I would never fly business if it wasn’t for the points.
This is a great read – I have considered buying points before, to keep my priority status with American Airlines but always decided against because I didn’t think it was worth it. Now that I am based in Europe, I was thinking about joining up with an airline program here but I am not sure they are so much worth it anymore. Also with the budget flghts around Europe, it seems hardly worth it to keep airline loyalty when there isn’t much value in it.
It can definitely seem that way admittedly and it’s certainly more difficult in Europe but there’s certainly still value. See Hack like an expert and Fast track to business
Thanks for working this out. So many of those points deals turn out to be a bust, but I certainly don’t want to calculate it out every time.
I don’t blame you it is a nuisance. I plan to put together a small spreadsheet and will share in due course.
Wow, I was so confused reading this post at first because I’ve never used AVIOS or a program like this. After reading I can understand why someone may be intrigued to invest in something like this. Thanks for taking the time to break this down and find out whether it was a good deal or not! We really need to look into more opportunities worth while like this, I’m glad you pointed out it’s flaws. So informative and helpful! Thanks!
You are very welcome and if you want to find out more about AVIOS, you can always grab your FREE Taster Travel Hacking book to get you started.
That’s useful bit of research, Anne. It must have taken you forever to work out those calculations. Often these deals can be quite confusing and it’s definitely worth doing the sums.
Yes I often wonder if there is a better way to do it but I certainly haven’t come up with one yet. Thanks for stopping by.
that is actually quiet interesting even though there are a bit to many numbers for my taste 😀 and i never heard about avios before, so thanks for sharing this one 🙂
Yes it is difficult to get away from the numbers when you are trying to compare value but if you travel frequently you may wish to start with the Airmiles challenge which gives you a good background.