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If you collect British Airways Frequent Flyer Avios points for spending on flights from credit cards or supermarkets like Tesco, it is worth knowing what an Avios point is worth so that you can put a value on the points you are collecting. I decided to revisit my own redemptions.
My purchase today was a one-way flight booked into Club Europe, which is the British Airways European Business Class, using Avios points from London Heathrow to Nice in France and here are my findings:
My most recent use of Avios was to buy three one-way tickets from London to Nice in Club Europe with British Airways. The tickets were for my October trip to the lively Monte Carlo next year. These tickets tend to go for around £250 one way if you are paying with cash.
When buying the flight, I might choose to spend 8500 Avios and £25 GBP. The cost of this flight in cash is currently around £250 one way. This means that by spending my 8,500 Avios instead of £225 GBP, I am getting £0.026 of value out of each Avios, doubling my target value.
I could alternatively spend 11,750 Avios + £12.50 GBP on this flight. By spending more Avios and less cash, I get a worse deal. So 11,750 Avios instead of £238.5 means I am getting £0.020 of value per Avios, which is not such a great deal.
Another option is spending 6,500 Avios + £42.50 GBP on this flight. I get an even better deal by spending fewer Avios and more cash. I get a value for my 6,500 Avios of £207.5, which means I am getting £0.031 of value per Avios.
What if I spend 5,250 Avios + £62.50 GBP for the same flight? I get an even better deal by spending fewer Avios and more cash. I get a value for my 5,250 Avios of £187.50, which means I am getting £0.036 of value per Avios.
So if I choose the maximum spend booking an Avios Club Europe flight, I get significantly better value for my Avios. £0.036 is outstanding!
Another way of looking at this is that if I make a purchase through the British Airways Estore and get 10 Avios per £1 spend (e.g., Molton Brown currently offers this cashback), then by collecting these Avios and using them on Club Europe, I am getting 30% return in Avios which is outstanding.
Equally, if you have the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card (contact us for a referral for extra points), you get 1.5X Avios on purchases for every £1 spent and 3X Avios on purchases made with British Airways or BA Holidays for every £1 spent.
If you can squeeze the value of your Avios to £0.03 GBP, then you get Avios value of 6% back on every purchase. The % worth of the Avios will dictate the value of the % that you get back when you spend on your card.
If you want a 9,000 extra bonus Avios when you apply for the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card, contact us for a referral for extra points.
The deal is not as great if you are booking Economy within Europe.
An Economy ticket from London to Nice with luggage comes in around £75 a year from now. When buying the flight, if I chose to spend 4750 Avios and £17.50 GBP. The cost of this flight in cash minus the £17.50 fee is currently around £57.50 one way. This means that I get an Avios valuation of £0.0121, which is good but not great.
Let’s look at the 3700 Avios + £32.50 GBP option. The cost of this flight in cash minus the £32.50 fee is currently around £42.50 one way. This means that I get an Avios valuation of £0.0114, which is good but not great and a worse deal than the 4750 Avios and £17.50 GBP
How about the 2950 Avios + £42.50 GBP option? The cost of this flight in cash minus the £42.50 fee is currently around £32.50 one way. This means that I get an Avios valuation of £0.0110, which is good but not great and a worse deal than either of the above options.
So it looks like the most effective way to monetize Avios within Europe is to book Club Europe using the lowest possible number of Avios and the highest spend for the Club Europe flight.
When travelling in Economy, the opposite is true. You actually get a better deal when you spend more Avios and less cash.
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