What’s the cheapest way to buy Avios points?

Although often not the best value If you need a few thousand Avios to make a redemption buying Avios points can make sense. Whilst you may know about purchasing Avios direct from British Airways there are a few other ways that may be even cheaper! Lets look at your options buy Avios points as cheaply as possible…

3 ways to buy Avios points

Lets look at 3 options for buying Avios points…

Buy Avios from British Airways

The way you probably are already aware of! You can buy Avios on British Airways’ website here – https://www.britishairways.com/travel/purchase-avios/public/en_gb – this, however, is incredibly poor value! You would be paying £31 for just 1000 Avios (3.1p an Avios!) or £47 for 2000 Avios (2.35p an Avios.) There is a £15 handling fee which makes small purchases even worse value.

At the top end of 200000 Avios points at £3215, you would be paying 1.6p an Avios. For 1000 Avios at £31 you would be paying 3.1p a point, 10000 Avios at £175 you would be paying 1.75p a point and 40000 Avios at £655 you would be paying 1.6375p a point.

Buy Avios from Iberia

If you have an active Iberia Plus account (over 90 days old and earnt at least 1 Avios. You can transfer just 1 membership reward point over) then you can transfer them to BA using Combine My Avios for free. You can buy Avios on Iberia’s website here – https://www.iberia.com/web/buyTransferPointsAnonPage.do – this also tends to be poor value too. You’d pay 54 euros (£49) for 2000 Avios (2.45p an Avios), this example is slightly better value than buying from British Airways but with Iberia’s weird pricing structure this isn’t always the case! Be sure to take into consideration the exchange rate and any fees your card may charge you when purchasing.

At the top end of 200000 Avios points at 3601 euros (£3266), you would be paying 1.63p an Avios. For 4000 Avios at 91 euros (£82.54) you would be paying 2.06p a point, 10000 Avios at 201 euros (£182.32) you would be paying 1.82p a point and 40000 Avios at 757 euros (£686.66) you would be paying 1.71p a point.

Buying American Express Membership Reward Points

If you have a membership reward earning card (Platinum, Gold or Green card) you can purchase up to 10,000 Membership Reward Points for 1.5p each. These convert into Avios at a 1:1 rate meaning you are paying 1.5p an Avios. You can read more on how to do this here – https://pointsuncovered.com/american-express/how-to-buy-amex-membership-reward-points/

Do you really need to buy Avios points?

Remember you only need to make an ‘all Avios’ booking if you are looking to use a 2-4-1 voucher from the BA Amex cards. Otherwise, you have the option to make an Avios & cash booking!

What’s Avios & cash?

Avios & cash is a feature that allows you to book a reward seat for a lower Avios cost by paying a cash element (you are basically being sold Avios as part of the booking process.) To see your options simply go through the process of booking a reward flight on BA’s website.

Whilst not always a good deal you can often get a far better deal than buying Avios through the means mentioned above. Let’s look at a few examples.

To work out the cost per Avios point take the difference between the standard redemption cash amount and the Avios option you are interested in. Then divide this by the difference in the Avios element. This will give you how much you are paying for an Avios point.

London – Dubai

World Traveller

55000 Avios + £ 100.00 – Standard redemption
43000 Avios + £ 180.00 – 0.66p a point
33000 Avios + £ 290.00 – 0.86p a point
24750 Avios + £ 340.00 – 0.79p a point
16500 Avios + £ 400.00 – 0.1p a point
11550 Avios + £ 480.00 – 0.11p a point

World Traveller Plus

66000 Avios + £ 426.46 – Standard redemption
52800 Avios + £ 541.46 – 0.87p a point
46200 Avios + £ 591.46 – 0.83p a point
39600 Avios + £ 651.46 – 0.85p a point
33000 Avios + £ 691.46 – 0.8p a point
26400 Avios + £ 726.46 – 0.75p a point

Club World

110000 Avios + £ 544.25 – Standard redemption
99000 Avios + £ 804.25 – 2.36p a point
82500 Avios + £ 1,099.25 – 2p a point
71500 Avios + £ 1,354.25 – 2.1p a point
63250 Avios + £ 1,464.25 – 1.96p a point
55000 Avios + £ 1,574.25 – 1.87p a point

As you can in see in this example all options other than Club World allow you to ‘purchase’ Avios at a much cheaper rate than direct with British Airways!

Things to be aware of…

Don’t buy Avios points for the sake of buying them! Stockpiling Avios by purchasing them (even when bought at a discounted rate) is extremely risky! You may get caught up in a programme devaluation with nothing you can do about it.

This is why we only recommend purchasing Avios (or indeed transferring from a Membership Reward card to Avios) when you know you will need them for a redemption.

Conclusion

If you need a small amount of Avios reasonably quickly I would go with purchasing American Express Membership Reward Points. Otherwise, you are better of waiting for an Avios purchase promotion from British Airways or Iberia.

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/