Airline British launched a new offer that allows you to easily increase your Avios balance monthly, for one price.
While this airline sells Avios for a fixed (usually high) price, it does offer bonuses from time to time, bringing the price down to a more reasonable level.
This new offer is different. Any Executive Club member can choose to sign up for an Avios subscription, paying monthly or annually (prepaid).
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There are four different levels of the new plan:
- Traveler: You’ll get 1,667 Avios per month (20,000 per year) for £19 ($21) per month or £185 ($205) per year.
- Tourists: You’ll get 4,167 Avios per month (50,000 per year) for £45 ($50) per month or £455 ($504) per year.
- Explorer: You’ll get 8,334 Avios per month (100,000 per year) for £89 ($99) per month or £899 ($996) per year.
- Explorer: You’ll get 16,667 Avios per month (200,000 per year) for £179 ($198) per month or £1,789 ($1,981) per year.
The annual cost is about 10 times the monthly cost, so you will get two months free if you choose to pay annually. If you choose the annual option, you will be charged the full amount upfront, which is non-refundable if you change your mind. It automatically renews at the end of the year, so you’ll need to opt out if you don’t want to pay for the second year.
The worst value-per-avios option is the Voyager paid monthly plan, where you’ll pay 1.26 cents per Avios. The best value per Avios is the Adventurer plan paid annually, where the cost per Avios will drop to 0.99 cents per person.
Okay TPG currently values Avios at 1.5 cents per our monthly pricing, would be a great way to buy Avios.
One of the best ways to redeem Avios is for short-haul flights to Europe in Euro Traveler economy class, which starts at just 4,750 off-peak Avios plus £17.50 (19). USD) flat fees, taxes and surcharges. Likewise, you can use Avios to book domestic US flights on Alaska Airlines and American Airlines for as little as 7,500 Avios one way, plus $5.60 in taxes and fees.
For example, a flight from New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) near Washington, DC, falls on Avios’ lowest fare of 7,500. If you use Adventurer class to buy Avios for less than 1 cent per person, you can buy flights for $79.89 after tax. This is a significant discount because one-way economy flights cost $110 or more most days through the end of 2022.
On the other end of the scale, for long haul business class redemptions, you can also save by buying Avios upfront like this one. We often use London to New York as a good exchange benchmark as it is often easy to find seats in business class due to the high frequency on this route.
A low-cost return flight in business class will set you back 100,000 Avios, or $990.50 Avios if purchased as part of an annual Adventurer package.
British Airways currently charges $852.67 per person fees, taxes and surcharges for this round trip flight, bringing your total cost to about $1,843.17. With the cheapest cash fare I’ve seen on nonstop British Airways flights being over $3,000 on the same day, this would be a significant savings on cash fares.
Remember that redemption fares do not accrue Avios or Tier Points, so consider those when deciding if this offer is right for you.
Related: Room refresh: Review of British Airways Suite Club on refurbished 777, New York to London
Key point
This is a fun way to increase your Avios balance for two reasons.
The first is while buying Avios, even when it’s on sale, nothing new, this is the lowest price we can remember seeing Avios on sale.
The other is that Avios is “paid” on a monthly basis, which means you’ll be trickling smaller amounts every month. If you need 100,000 more Avios shortly, you will have to wait for them.
Points and miles like Avios are often never worth more in the future than they are now, because of loyalty programs regularly devalue their currency. That being said, given the rising cost of living these days, and the fact that Avios have held their ground throughout the pandemic, this could be a way to lock in some cheap travel on a budget. relatively certain.
If you’re still sitting on a pile of pandemic-related Avios like me, you might not be interested in paying extra to boost your balance. If you have earn 1,500 Avios per month from the Barclays Avios Rewards program, this offer may also not be appropriate.
However, if you want to buy Avios at a great price of just under 1 cent each, you can Sign up for a new Avios subscription here.
