Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

It’s back – buy up to 100,000 Avios, from 1.02p, via Groupon

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It’s back (again).  You can buy cheap Avios points simply by heading over to the Spanish version of Groupon.

The fall in the £ in recent months means that this deal is not as good as it was last year, where you were paying as little as 0.7p per Avios.  The prices are the same as the September 2016 version although, as the £ has strengthened a little, the Sterling equivalent is cheaper.

This is an Iberia Plus deal.  This means that there are two hurdles to jump:

You need an Iberia Plus Avios account (easily fixed by going to iberia.com if you don’t have one)

Your Iberia account will need to be 90 days old before you are allowed to use ‘Combine My Avios’ and send your points across to your British Airways Executive Club or avios.com account

Click here for the Avios page you need on the Spanish Groupon site.

It is best to use Google Chrome to open it.  Chrome should offer to translate the text.  If it doesn’t, right click on your mouse and a translation option will appear.

There are five price levels.  The 2,000 Avios deal is the cheapest but the prices are well above previous deals:

2,000 Avios = €24 (£20.36) = 1.02p 

4,000 Avios = €59 (£50.05) = 1.25p

9,000 Avios = €119 (£100.96) = 1.12p

15,000 Avios = €189 (£160.35) = 1.07p 

20,000 Avios = €249 (£211.26) = 1.05p 

34,000 Avios = €429 (£363.98) = 1.07p 

You can buy a maximum of five packages AND 100,000 Avios per Iberia account.  However, you are restricted to just one of the ‘2,000 Avios’ packs.  The maximum number of Avios you can buy is therefore (20,000 x 5) 100,000 points for €1245.

You can pay by PayPal which may be easier – I did during the previous promotion – although you get legged over on the exchange rate.  All other credit cards are accepted including American Express.  If you do not use a 0% payment card, remember to factor in the 3% FX fee to the prices shown above.

About 30 minutes later you will receive an emailed voucher.  If you don’t, the voucher will also be showing in your account on the Spanish Groupon site.  There is a link in the voucher to a page on the Groupon site where you need to input the codes.

You are told that your Avios will take 30 days to appear but, in reality, they have historically turned up quicker.

The big question ….. is it worth it?

For most people, probably not.  It isn’t the most straightforward promotion ever.  The exchange rate is moving around daily.  Paying over 1p per Avios point is also above my comfort zone.

If you need to top off your account or if you have a very specific use for them – where you know you will receive well in excess of 1.1p of value – you may think differently.  Double check your maths first though.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (49)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Sam G says:

    I am still missing one set from August and it is impossible to get anyone to understand this and resolve. Has anyone had any luck?

    So buyer beware!

    • Alex W says:

      Message them on twitface – seems to be the only way to sort it!

    • Johnny5a says:

      I managed to successfully email then through the portal. The redemption was erratic. I bought 5 set of 20k. 20k came in first then a long gap the next 40k arrived, no sign of the last 20k. So i replied to the email they sent me about redemptions.

    • briandt says:

      Me too…never again.

    • Thywillbedone says:

      I had this problem with one of the lots I bought. Ultimately I couldn’t get anywhere despite multiple emails. Only way to resolve was to complain to AMEX and they refunded me the amount back to my card.

  • David2910 says:

    I only briefly glanced at this yesterday so I could be wrong, but i thought I saw EUR1800 for 150,000 avioa in Iberia plustore last night, which also comes out at about 1.02ppa. So a bigger size and simpler (and faster) transaction. The size makes it potentially interesting if there’s an immediate use lined up.

    • Mycity says:

      Seems BA and Iberia do have a promo running both to buy 150,000 Avios.

      • the real harry says:

        If David is right on the price, that’s a reasonable way to grab a quick 150K Avios…

        • Mycity says:

          Price is correct, buy before 1st December

          • Sideshow Bob says:

            Ends 5th december

          • Mycity says:

            Strange, my Iberia account says ends 1st December

          • the real harry says:

            £1533.39 = 1.02p

            My advice would be if you are keen to exploit the various opportunities that come up on HFP, you won’t regret acquiring a decent stash of Avios at little more than 1p each – 150K or 300K in the flash of your credit card 🙂

            Beats messing around with Lego…

        • Johnny5a says:

          and less stressful than groupon route

          • Johnny5a says:

            mine says “Special offer – Collect 50% extra Avios
            Purchase Avios before December 1st, 2016 and receive 50% more Avios!”

          • Johnny5a says:

            Just to clarify its:
            1 Dec – Iberia
            5 Dec – BA

  • Concerto says:

    Damn, I just bought 18,000 Avios (incl 50% promo) for EUR238 last night. I thought I would go for it as the Groupon deal has been absent for a while. Each time I had tried it was impossible to buy Avios because of the dodgy IT, so I grabbed it while I could.

    • Rob says:

      Was that finally working last night? Had put off writing about it because I have had permanent error messages for days.

  • Andrew says:

    I am not an Iberia Plus member but if i join today, can i then buy the Avios via Groupon and wait 90 days to transfer to BEAC ? Thank you

  • Craig says:

    Don’t forget to click through the Iberia PluStore for an extra 10 Avios per €, I bought 15000 and 2000 with 2130 bonus which has worked out at 0.95p each assuming the interbank rate I’ve used from my Lloyds Amex is correct.

    • Rob says:

      This option was specifically blocked last time with small print on the Iberia PluStore saying that Avios purchases did not attract Groupon credit, which is why I deleted the lines about that this time round.

  • rams1981 says:

    Iberia direct purchase route works out around 1.025p (1.17 exchange rate assumed using supercard) without the groupon hassle (and I’ve successfully used them before) so would recommend using that route if you have a choice.

    • rams1981 says:

      though on a large purchase it can lead to a saving of £75+ so I’m actually in two minds lol

  • marly says:

    Rob,

    Are you going to take the BA offer? would be nice to know your opinion 🙂

    Thanks

    • Rob says:

      No. My average redemption value is 1.1p per point (based on assumptions I will explain in an article tomorrow) so I’m not paying 1.07p.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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