Through end of day tomorrow, British Airways is offering a 50% bonus promotion for purchasing Avios points (their loyalty program currency). Depending on your upcoming travel, this could be a good offer for some.
While Avios points were way more valuable when they offered 4,500 Avios points for short-haul flights on American Airlines, there still can be some great value. With many other point purchasing promos, sometimes purchasing Avios points to redeem for a “free” flight can actually be cheaper then purchasing the flight outright. With this current promotion, you can purchase a maximum of 100,000 points, so a total of 150,000 points with the promotion. That means you are ultimately purchasing points at a cost of 1.85 cents per point.
With that being said, there is actually a cheaper way to purchase the points if purchased in Euros (thanks to this thread on FlyerTalk! which is from 2015). You’ll first need change your account settings and use a European address. With that being said, the British Airways site only allows you to change your address once every 6 months. So if you have changed your address recently you will not be able to do this, or if you are looking to change it back immediately it will be months. So keep that in mind when determining whether or not this is worth it to you.
So is purchasing a points a good deal?
While I would NOT purchase points speculatively, if you know of a flight you need to take that has availability for point redemption, this might be a good option for you. While I do not value Avios points as highly as I used to, there are still some great uses for purchasing points to redeem for a free flight.
Thanks to One Mile at a Time for sharing this deal!
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