Avios Points Value In 2022

Whilst the prospect of ‘free’ or ‘discounted’ flights using Avios may seem attractive collecting them may not always be the best fit for your circumstances. It’s, for this reason, we think it’s important to have your own Avios Points Value nailed down. This will allow you to make an accurate comparison to other loyalty schemes/points earning or cashback credit cards etc. In this post, we are going to take a look at our Avios Points Value for 2022 and how you can value your own Avios points.

Avios Points Value Examples

Below I’ve included some examples to help you work out what your Avios may be worth to you.

It’s worth noting that Avios tickets have cancellation flexibility which cash tickets do not generally have. They do, however, lose out on the Avios and tier points you would earn from a cash fare.

Remember…you shouldn’t value Avios by the BA fare but rather by the airline/travel class/price you would take if you didn’t have them.

You are likely to get a better return on your Avios booking in peak periods (e.g. summer holidays) as Avios fares are fixed off-peak/peak and don’t fluctuate like cash.

All the examples use London Heathrow as the starting airport unless otherwise stated.

Normally fly short-haul with budget airlines.

If you would typically fly with a budget airline (without all the extras) the return you get from Avios is likely to be a lot lower. A return flight to Venice in August with Ryanair is £134.98. (similar flights with BA would cost £442.07) Avios cost is 16,500 Avios + £35.00. If we take £35 from the £134.98 = £99.98 then divide that by the Avios cost of 16,500 = 0.00605939 (roughly.) That means here you will only be getting just over 0.6p value per point.

Normally fly short-haul with BA.

If you would normally fly in Europe with BA you can get a decent return on your Avios thanks to Reward Flight Saver. With BA’s reward flight saver scheme, the taxes and fees on short-haul are capped at £35 return in economy class and £50 return in business class per person. You’re eligible as long as you’ve collected at least one Avios in the past 12 months. Let’s look at 3 examples…

a) A return economy flight to Prague in December with British Airways is £253.97. Avios cost is 15,500 Avios + £ 35.00. If we take the £35 from £253.97 = £218.97 then divide that by the Avios cost of 15,500 = 0.014127 (roughly.) That’s just over 1.4p a point!

a) A return business class flight to Paphos in July with British Airways is £721.62. Avios cost is 36,700 Avios + £50.00. If we take the £50 from £721.62 = £671.62 then divide that by the Avios cost of 36,700 = 0.0183 (roughly). That means a return of about 1.8p a point!

c) I like flying from London City Airport as the location is very convenient to where I live + you don’t need to get there hours early! The only problem is cash fares can be expensive, luckily Avios pricing is the same here as from any other London airport! I wouldn’t bother with Business Class here as there is no free lounge nor a separate empty seat in the middle as the aircraft are 2 x 2.

A return economy flight to Amsterdam in September from London City with British Airways is £227.96. Avios cost is 10,500 Avios + £35.00. If we take the £35 from £227.96 = £192.96 then divide that by the Avios cost of 10,500 = 0.018377 (roughly.) This gives a return of just over 1.8p a point.

Normally fly long-haul in economy.

This rarely makes sense to use Avios, whether you typically travel with a budget airline or BA. The ‘taxes & charges’ on long-haul economy Avios tickets wipe out the majority of any potential savings (we cover this in a bit more detail here.) A return to New York in January with British Airways is £530.46 and £335 with Icelandair. Avios cost is 60,000 Avios + £100.00 If we take £100 from £530.46 (BA) = £430.46 then divide that by the Avios cost of 60,000 = 0.00717 (roughly). That means here you will only be getting 0.7p value per point… not great! If we repeat this by taking £100 from £335 (Icelandair) = 235 then divide that by the Avios cost of 60,000 = 0.003916 (roughly.) Here you’d be getting an even worse 0.49p a point, not even half a penny!

Normally fly long-haul in business.

This is typically where a lot of people will find themselves redeeming their Avios (and the 2-4-1 voucher section below.) This is because long-haul business class is seen as the sweet spot for redemptions. Nobody wants to be cramped for 8 hours + right? A return business class flight to Barbados in December with British Airways is a crazy £6,950.56. Avios cost is 125,000 Avios + £ 708.92. If we take the £708.92 from £6,950.56 = £6,241.64 then divide that by the Avios cost of 125,000 = 0.04993 (roughly.) This gives a return of almost 5p a point! This isn’t an everyday example and you’ll find most destinations will give you between 1 – 2p worth of value but sometimes (like in this example) you’ll get even more!

You earn a 2-4-1 voucher.

Remember when booking with a BA companion voucher (2-4-1) you are basically doubling the value of your Avios. It can make a bad deal less ‘bad’ but the best value from these comes on long-haul business class or first-class tickets. For example, a return ticket for 2 people in business from London – Dubai in September with British Airways is £5,281.72. Avios cost is 120,000 + £708.32 per ticket. As we have a 2-4-1 voucher we only need one lot of 120,000 Avios but still need to pay x2 of the ‘taxes and fees.’ If we take £708.32 X 2 from £5,281.72 = £3,865.08 then divide that by the Avios cost of 120,000 (with 2-4-1 voucher) = 0.0322 (roughly.) This means you’d be getting a very nice 3.2p per point.

Last-minute travel.

If you need/want to travel last-minute for a holiday, work, or personal reasons Avios can be very valuable. For example, a return ticket for 1 person in economy from London – Dublin in a few days’ time costs £493.62, Avios cost is 9,500 + £ 35.00. If we take £35 from the £493.62 = £458.62 then divide that by the Avios cost of 9,500 = 0.04827 (roughly.) That means in this situation we will get 4.82p worth of value per point. Remember it’s possible to do better (or worse) than this depending on when and where you are travelling to.

Remember if you are making an aspirational booking (aka one you would never normally pay for) don’t worry about the pence per point so much! Just enjoy your business/first-class flights knowing you paid very little compared to the cash fare!

Prices can change and fluctuate from day to day so make sure you do up-to-date calculations on any route you are thinking of taking.

Now you have a rough idea of what value you might get from spending Avios let’s look at how you earn them…

Please note…

This is my experience using the points system and is not a recommendation of any financial product. There are other credit cards that can earn you travel points including the Tesco Credit Cards (by exchanging Clubcard points for Virgin Points, hotel stays and more) & the Virgin Atlantic credit card. If you use my link for a referral to an American Express card upon you being accepted I will receive points, this varies between 9,000 – 18,000 depending on the card I refer you from

Get a referral for bonus points here – https://pointsuncovered.com/amex-referral-link-uk/

Let’s say you’ve decided on an Avios Points value of 1p from how you will use your Avios…

BA Free Amex (no annual fee)

On the BA Free Amex, you are getting 1% ‘back’ (1 Avios (1p) per £1) on general spending.

Barclaycard Avios (no annual fee)

On the Barclaycard Avios, you are getting 1% ‘back’ (1 Avios (1p) per £1) on general spending.

BA Premium Amex (£250 annual fee)

On the BA Premium Amex, you are getting 1.5% ‘back’ (1.5 Avios (1.5p) per £1) on general spending.

Barclaycard Avios Plus (£20 monthly fee, £240 annual fee)

On the Barclaycard Avios Plus, you are getting 1.5% ‘back’ (1.5 Avios (1.5p) per £1) on general spending.

Gold Amex Gold (FREE first year, £140 annual fee afterward)

On the Gold Amex Card, you are getting 1% ‘back’ (1 Membership reward point (1p) per £1) on general spending. Membership reward points transfer 1:1 into Avios.

Other things to note

Sign-up bonuses

If you are new to Amex or Barclaycard you may be eligible for a sign-up bonus. (check here to read about the Amex eligibility rules and here for the Barclaycard eligibility rules.) This can massively boost your earnings in your first year with the card(s). I’ve included a few examples below so you can see how lucrative they can be!

The BA Free Card comes with a 5,000 Avios welcome bonus if you spend £1000 in 3 months. To earn that normally on the card you’d need to spend £5000.

The Barclaycard Avios comes with a 10,000 Avios welcome bonus (until the 18th July, normally 5,000 Avios) if you spend £1,000 in 3 months. To earn that normally on the card you’d need to spend £10,000

The Premium BA Amex comes with a 25,000 Avios welcome bonus if you spend £3000 in 3 months. To put that into context you’d need to spend over £16,500 on that card to get that many Avios points!

The Barclaycard Avios Plus comes with a 50,000 Avios welcome bonus (until the 18th July, normally 25,000 Avios) if you spend £3,000 in 3 months. To get that normally you would need to spend a whooping £33,333!

The Gold Amex Card comes with a 30,000 membership reward points (equal to 30,000 Avios) welcome bonus (until 6th July 22.) You would need to spend £30,000 to earn those points on general spend!

If you need inspiration as to what you can do with those sign-up bonuses take a look at the below articles!

• Where can I fly to for 5,000 Avios
• Where can I fly to for 25,000 Avios
• Where can I fly to for 50,000 Avios

Annual fees

Some Avios earning credit cards have annual fees. Whether or not these represent good value to you is down to your personal preference/spending. The ones that have annual fees tend to have higher sign-up bonuses, increased earn-rates and other benefits. It’s worth noting that Amex annual fees are pro-rata refunded on cancellation. That means if you kept the BA Premium Card (annual fee £250) for 3 months you’d receive a refund of £187.50 which means your total outlay would be £62.50. The Barclaycard Avios Plus is also a ‘pay-monthly’ product at £20 a month (downgradable to the free card or close for free.) If you kept this card for 4 months your total outlay would be £60

2-4-1 Vouchers on the BA Amex cards

The BA Companion voucher (earnt at 20K spend on the FREE BA Amex & 10K spend on the Premium BA Amex) in effect ‘doubles the value of your Avios.’ Why? They are basically 2-4-1 vouchers to use on Avios redemptions. This allows you to get 2 tickets for the price of one in Avios, the cash element of ‘taxes and charges’ would still be due for both tickets. With the recent changes you can even use the 2-4-1 voucher as solo traveller and get 50% off the Avios cost!

Upgrade voucher on the Avios Barclaycards

The Avios Upgrade voucher (earnt at 20K spend on the FREE Barclaycard Avios & 10K spend on the Barclaycard Avios Plus) also in effect almost doubles the value of your Avios. You can book Business Class seats for the Avios cost of Premium Economy or Economy (depending if there is a Premium Economy cabin.) Whilst you’ll still need to pay the ‘taxes & fees’ of the Business Class seat you will save a chunk of Avios!

Different earn rates

Different cards earn different rates on different things! For example, the Premium BA Amex earns 3 points per £1 on British Airways or BA Holidays spend rather than 1.5 points. The Gold Card earns 2 points per £1 on airline purchases rather than 1 point. Make sure you know how much you are likely to spend and on what to get an accurate idea of your earnings!

Avios Points Value Conclusion

As you can see Avios point value is purely a personal one! Whilst they have a minimum-floor value of 0.8p when converted into Nectar points It is quite easy to get over 1p of value per point depending on how you use them.

If you are looking to kick-start your Avios with a huge 200,000 haul don’t forget to take a look at our guide to fast-track yourself to a rather cool 200,000 Avios points – https://pointsuncovered.com/american-express/fast-track-yourself-to-2000000-avios-points/