Avios Subscription Rates Are Increasing From May!

Late last year British Airways launched an interesting new service called Avios subscription. This, as the name might suggest, gives you a fixed amount of Avios each month when you sign-up for a monthly or annual subscription. At the top end, you could buy an Avios point for as little as 0.89p (the cheapest we’ve ever seen them sold for!) The price is now (unfortunately) increasing from the 1st of May making the decision whether to purchase Avios more difficult as the value is more marginal.

How does an Avios Subscription work?

There are four different options you can choose from offering a range of different Avios at different costs. You can choose to pay monthly or annually, with the annual option coming with two months free so you are getting 12 months of Avios for the price of 10.

Regardless if you choose to pay annually or monthly you will receive your Avios monthly.

How are the Avios Subscription costs changing on the 1st of May?

Until these changes, it was easy to see the value of having an Avios subscription. At the top end, you would be paying 0.89p an Avios and generally, it’s reasonably easy to get 1p+ worth of value from an Avios point (we value ours at 1p. How to value yours?) These changes now mean, at best (at the top end), you are now paying 0.99p an Avios point…

As you can see the cheaper packages bear most of the brunt of the price rises (up to 40%!) with the most expensive options seeing an increase of 11%.

Things have also changed in the world of point collecting…

Back when BA launched the Avios Subscriptions you could purchase Avios at the top end at 0.89p AND you had a fall-back of converting to Nectar Points to get 0.8p a point. This whilst a small loss may have been an acceptable risk. From the 1st of May, the new Avios cost (at the cheapest rate) is 0.99p, and the conversion rate to Nectar Points is now 0.67p per point. A much larger difference if you wanted to cash out your Avios!

It’s not all bad though…

Despite the increased pricing, Avios subscriptions can still offer great value for the right person. For example, if you are unable to collect enough Avios for redemptions you’d like to make (particularly if you have a BA Amex 2-4-1 Voucher or if you know you’d make a cash saving by booking with Avios you could still do well here. Just make sure you compare the cost of buying Avios to the cash booking you’d like to make. For example…

London – Dubai Business Return in January

Avios – 100000 Avios + £ 716.20
Cash – £2,714.11

To work out the cost we need to get per Avios point to save money we subtract the Avios ‘taxes & fees’ from the cash price.

£2,714.11 – £716.20 = £1,997.91

We then divide this by the amount of Avios’ cost for the redemption.

£1,997.91 / 100,000 = 0.0199791

This is equal to just under 2p. If you would have paid cash for the ticket and can purchase Avios for under 2p you have made a real genuine saving. It’s why you shouldn’t instantly dismiss buying Avios and see if it fits your needs by applying the above calculations to any trip you want to do. If you have a 2-4-1 voucher you just need to change the cash fare to that for 2 people and double the taxes you subtract (as you still need to pay them for two.)

Conclusion

The value the Avios Subscriptions offer is no longer as clear-cut as it once was however for the savvy collector they can still offer good value. Don’t forget you have until midnight tonight to take advantage of an Avios subscription at the lower rate!