Buy British Airways Avios with up to a 30% bonus through August 31, 2014.
Unfortunately this is a tiered bonus, so if you only need a few Avios to top up your account for an award, you could be looking at only a 5% to 10% bonus. Here are the details:
- Buy 2,000 – 10,000 Avios for a 5% Avios bonus
- Buy 11,000 – 15,000 Avios for a 10% Avios bonus
- Buy 16,000 – 20,000 Avios for a 15% Avios bonus
- Buy 21,000 – 26,000 Avios for a 20% Avios bonus
- Buy 27,000 Avios, your full annual allowance for a 30% Avios bonus
FAQ
What Am I Paying per Avios?
If you max out the promotion by buying 27,000 Avios with 8100 bonus Avios, you'd be paying 2.18 cents per Avios. In general, I don't recommend buying miles and points for 2 cents or more unless you have an immediate high value use. So I wouldn't buy at this price to save up points, but if you're short on Avios for an award by 27,000-35,000 Avios and don't have a lots of other points to transfer to British Airways Avios (see below), it could make sense.
Who is Eligible?
British Airways Executive Club members aged 18 or over (so you can't use your kids' accounts to make Avios purchases for your Household Account) with an Avios balance of at least 1 Avios are eligible.
Can You Buy More Than 27,000 British Airways Avios?
No–you can't buy more than 27,000 Avios per calendar year.
What Are the Best Uses of British Airways Avios?
Some of the best uses of British Airways Avios are:
- Aer Lingus flights from Boston to Ireland for 12,500 each way in economy / 25,000 each way in business class. See Fly Aer Lingus to Europe and Avoid High Fuel Surcharges
- Transfer Avios to Iberia to avoid high fuel surcharges on flights between the U.S. and Europe
- Short nonstop flights, for example flights under 650 miles, which are 4500 for an economy one way. That applies not only to AA flights in North America, but also intra-Asia flights on Cathay Pacific, intra-Australia flights on Qantas, etc.
- West Coast to Hawaii awards, for 12,500 each way in economy
- British Airways Companion Ticket flights in first class, if you earn the companion ticket voucher with the British Airways Visa. You do pay high fuel surcharges on both tickets, but it remains one of the easier ways for two people to book first class between the U.S. and UK in advance. See How to Maximize the British Airways Companion Ticket. You can also use this workaround to book the British Airways companion ticket one way, and use other miles for the return. See British Airways Companion Ticket One Way Award
What Are the Pros and Cons of British Airways Avios?
See my recent post on this: British Airways Avios Awards Pros and Cons
Other Ways to Earn British Airways Avios?
- Wait for the 100K British Airways Visa offer, or use the current 50K British Airways Visa offer (see Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards)
- Transfer AMEX Membership Rewards or SPG points to Avios, preferably when there's a transfer bonus
- Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Avios
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HT: Ben