50% Bonus on Purchased British Airways Avios- Worth It?

Feb. 23, 2015

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3 min read

50% Bonus on Purchased British Airways Avios- Worth It?

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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.

Now through February 25, 2015, British Airways is currently offering a promotion where you can earn a 50% bonus when purchasing British Airways Avios, which they are calling their Best Ever Bonus.

British Airways is currently offering a 50% bonus on purchased Avios.

If you were to purchase the maximum amount of 35,000 Avios, you would receive a 17,500 bonus for a total of 52,500 British Airways Avios for $988, which come out to about 1.88 cents per Avios.

You could purchase 52,500 Avios for $988, with the bonus.

My Thoughts

British Airways recently announced a devaluation to their program coming April 28th, where the most drastic changes to the new British Airways program are for business and first class awards, which are increasing by as much as 150%.

If you’re one to redeem for only economy flights, the good news is that coach awards on British Airways and its partners aren’t changing, so you can still book short-haul partner flights for 4,500 Avios each-way, so there is still value to be had with the British Airways Executive Club program.

I personally wouldn’t purchase these Avios speculatively unless you have a specific, imminent use for them. After all, there are lots of other great ways to top up your BA account in a hurry. British Airways is a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards (if you have the Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Plus), Starwood Preferred Guest (and when you transfer 20,000 points you get 25,000 Avios), and American Express Membership Rewards (the rewards program of credit cards including the Premier Rewards Gold and The Platinum Card from American Express) which runs fairly frequent transfer bonuses of anywhere from 20-50% (with the most recent being a 40% bonus.)

As a cheaper alternative to buying British Airways Avios, the British Airways Visa Signature Card is offering 50,000 British Airways Avios, after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months of card membership, with a $95 annual fee. You can read more here how to maximize this card here.

It appears that if you change your address to a country that uses the Euro, British Airways will price this in Euros which can bring the cost down to 1.43 cents per Avios. You can view this Flyertalk thread for more info.

Do you plan on purchasing any British Airways Avios? Feel free to comment below with your plans.