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DEAL DEAD: An avios.com bug lets you buy 40,000 Avios for 1p each

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There is an interesting little bug on avios.com at the moment.  Frankly, it is unlikely to last for long after this post goes live, but you should have time to jump on it if you’re interested.

avios.com is currently running what is, on the face of it, a rather dull offer.  Instead of only being able to buy 24,000 overpriced Avios per year, you can (until 31st December) buy 35,000 overpriced Avios per year.  Yippee.

British Airways BA London City Airport

However, they have made a mistake with the website which sells the points ….

24,000 Avios usually cost you £399.  It looks like no-one bothered to give the web designer the price list for 25,000 to 35,000 Avios, so they just bunged in the price for 24,000!

So … the pricing currently goes …

  • 24,000 Avios – £399
  • 25,000 Avios – £399
  • 26,000 Avios – £399
  • through to …
  • 35,000 Avios + 5,000 bonus – £399!

This does actually work in practice.  I had an email from someone who bought 35,000 via the BA site over the weekend.  The full 35,000 was added to his BA account, and his credit card is showing a £399 ‘pending’ transaction. Note that the additional 5,000 will post in arrears, not with the original 35,000.

This is not, please be aware, the bargain of the century.  1p per Avios is still more than I value them at, although I am very conservative and have a lot of them already.  However, if you have a definite redemption in mind and can be sure of getting good value for them, then 1p is as good as you will ever get for purchasing them directly.

You need to go to to avios.com, log in, click ‘Collect’ and then select ‘Purchase Avios’. If the price for 35,000 plus the 5,000 bonus is higher than £399 then the deal is already dead!

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (117)

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

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    9 Dec9 December 10:31

    No real risk either, click now and buy and you have seven days during which you can cancel and get a full refund according to T&Cs..

  • uk1 says:
    9 Dec9 December 10:50

    On our usage 1p’ish is a bargain(LH F plus 241) and I can’t see any T’s&C’s issues with buying both Avios and BA for both of us – which is what I’ve done. In the end I see it as the “average” cost of miles not a specific transaction and our cost seems to be about 0.6p per mile which isn’t bad.

  • Speedbird_abz says:
    9 Dec9 December 10:51

    I think they might be changing things – on both sites. As many times as I click on 35000 plus 5000 bonus, it always now comes up with “you are buying 1000 Avios for £31.00”. Even when choosing lesser amounts i.e. 25000, it still comes up with that. Oh well.

  • uk1 says:
    9 Dec9 December 10:55

    >> think they might be changing things – on both sites. As many times as I click on 35000 plus 5000 bonus, it always now comes up with “you are buying 1000 Avios for £31.00″. Even when choosing lesser amounts i.e. 25000, it still comes up with that. Oh well.<<

    For what it's worth I had that same issue on my main PC and it wouldn't let me buy. When I changed PC's the issue dissapeared. Can't explain why. Hope this helps …

    • Johnny5a says:
      9 Dec9 December 11:28

      i think it’s an issue, i got the same when I was trying it on my phone.

      worked find on my PC

  • Megan Smith says:
    9 Dec9 December 10:58

    Still working as of 1 minute ago. Thanks for the tip. Planning 2 long haul flights next year so this is a good deal.

  • Johnny5a says:
    9 Dec9 December 11:02

    Thanks just purchased them with my BA AMEX PP, so in all I should get 40598 for this purchase which values Avios at 0.98p each.

    • Rob says:
      9 Dec9 December 12:04

      The purchase will show as ‘points.com’, not BA, so you don’t get the triple Avios for BA spend on a BAPP.

      • Johnny5a says:
        9 Dec9 December 19:36

        Would I not get 1.5 Avios per £1 with a BA PP?

        • Rob says:
          9 Dec9 December 21:04

          Yes, but if points.com posted as travel or overseas spend (as it does sometimes) you would have got 2 per £1

  • Tim C says:
    9 Dec9 December 11:03

    Silly question but I can I buy one lot on BA.com (I already have) and another on Avois?

    • Johnny5a says:
      9 Dec9 December 11:26

      why not? they’re treated as separate accounts

      • Tim C says:
        9 Dec9 December 11:34

        Just tried and purchase confirmed however points are not showing on my avios account (nor on my partners who decided to buys some as well !!)

      • Idrive says:
        9 Dec9 December 11:52

        yes i asked this question a few days ago to Avios customer service via chat

    • GlennM says:
      9 Dec9 December 11:34

      Does anyone know if any other Avios purchase points are impacted? Does Iberia allow you to purchase?

    • Rob says:
      9 Dec9 December 12:04

      Yes, no problem, you can then combine them via ‘Combine My Avios’

      • Phil says:
        9 Dec9 December 12:23

        Iberia is running a +30% bonus to 15 December. So 31,200 Avios for EUR459.

        Interesting with all these running simultaneously one person could buy a total of 106,200 Avios for about GBP1180 or 1.1p per Avios.

      • Tim P says:
        9 Dec9 December 13:16

        Hi. Even at the higher rate (sigh), can we buy on both the BA site and Avios? And Iberia?!

        Basically can you buy two or three times and combine to cover the cost of a J flight (where redemption availability).

        Thanks

  • Tony says:
    9 Dec9 December 12:39

    My order went through for £399 🙂 just checked and its gone upto the £575. Just awaiting for them to appear. Thanks Raffles.

    • danksy says:
      9 Dec9 December 12:54

      I was just too slow to spot this…. it was an ok deal, but not amazing IMHO!

      • squillio says:
        9 Dec9 December 18:54

        Agreed. I was thinking about doing it 4x but decided 1x was enough to give us a bit of wiggle room, it wasn’t amazing but it sure beats Ebay cheats.

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

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