You Can Now Pay For (almost) 100% Of A CASH Flight With Avios

You’ve always been able to use Avios to ‘part pay’ a cash booking however until recently this was was restricted to the ticket price minus the taxes and charges. With BA’s latest changes you can now pay almost 100% of the price with your Avios (all but £1!) but do these changes make part pay with Avios (or full pay) any better value?

So is it any better value to pay for a cash flight with avios?

In short, no… but lets see how we got to this answer…

Let’s look at an example

These are the option I am offered on a £585.89 return Economy ticket London – New York.

Remember we value an Avios at 1p, as it is easy to achieve at least this value when making redemptions. See how to work out your own Avios here – https://pointsuncovered.com/avios/avios-points-value-in-2023

To work out the value you are getting on your options simple divide the discount e.g. £42 by the amount of Avios cost e.g. 6,800 Avios. 42 / 6800 = 0.00617647 which is roughly 0.61p

£20 off – 2,000 Avios – 1p per Avios
£42 off – 6,800 Avios – 0.61p per Avios
£61 off – 10,870 Avios – 0.56p per Avios
£99 off – 19,970 Avios – 0.49p per Avios
£159 off – 36,230 Avios – 0.43p per Avios
£211 off – 51,700 Avios – 0.4p per Avios
£374 off – 87,180 Avios – 0.43p per Avios
£584.89 – 136,340 Avios – 0.43p per Avios

The equivalent Avios ticket would cost you 55000 Avios + £ 100.00 which is giving you £485.89 discount for 55,000 Avios, equal to 0.88p. Still not great value BUT far better than most of the options above AND an Avios ticket is full refundable (minus small charge.) The only benefit with part paying with Avios is that you don’t need Avios seats to be available but for most routes/dates this isn’t a problem as long as you have some flexibility.

So the only real change is adding another poor value option…

Why has this changed?

I think the fact that you couldn’t pay in full with Avios was often the source of confusion for customers who have more than enough Avios to pay in full but are only offered a part-discount. This option also brings BA more in-line with Vueling and Aer Lingus who allow customer to pay a cash ticket in full with Avios. Though, unlike Vueling and Aer Lingus, the value you get varies on the discount. Regardless it’s a poor use of Avios unless you have an absolute ton to burn and don’t care about the value you get per points.

Key things to remember if you are paying for a CASH flight with Avios

1. These are still classed as CASH tickets. That means the refund/cancellation is the same as if you bought a cash ticket. This means if you use your Avios for a non-refundable cash ticket it will remain that way, non-refundable. If you need or want the flexibility of an Avios ticket you need to book an Avios ticket.
2. As the ticket is classed as a CASH ticket you will receive the tier points/Avios due as if you paid for full in cash.

Conclusion

Part paying for your ticket in Avios has never been good value (except for very small amounts) so nothing changes here! The real benefit is that it simplifies redeeming Avios for many people who struggle to get their head around how to get the most value out their Avios points. Which then in turn hopefully puts lets pressure to devalue the good redemptions…