BA launches unprecedented 75% ‘buy Avios points’ bonus – worth it?

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• mr_jetlag says:

  5 May5 May 19:50

  Nah. Decent deal but BA need to stop playing games with YQ and offer more J availability before I buy Avios.

  • AndyF says:

    5 May5 May 23:26

    I couldn’t agree more I find it difficult to book flights 355 days out due to work commitments. It’s all well and good selling Avios but more redemption options need to open up than 2 business class and 4 economy. Per flight.

• Nick G says:

  5 May5 May 20:51

  Why is it when I look at the Avios required in a zone 2 flight it now shows 19250 required in club and 50p as a one way either from or to LHR? What happened to it being 15k?

• Alan says:

  5 May5 May 23:35

  Too pricey for me, I tend to value airline miles at 0.75p. Also don’t fancy adding to existing balance as going to be a while before I can make use of it anyway!

• Ron says:

  5 May5 May 23:48

  This is quite handy, as we are 25k Avios short to get 4 CW return to the US for next summer. The only thing that I’m not sure is that we are seeing some really good deals in WTP, it may work out better to get cheap WTP with cash then upgrade with Avios to CW, but then I don’t know what to do with my 2-4-1s then?

  • Alan says:

    6 May6 May 00:07

    Generally UuA from WTP is decent value as still TP and Avios on underlying fare. I guess you could just use the 241 on another holiday? 😎😁

• Riccatti says:

  6 May6 May 03:21

  BA top page only speaks about “Take a step towards your next adventure with 50% bonus Avios”

  Then the web page not working, not for me.

  The only people who would buy are those who likely to travel any way, eg, Australian citizens for example, who know they will go back for Christmas. Equally, small business travellers to Europe who know they will need work trips.

• Riccatti says:

  6 May6 May 03:23

  But for the sake of it, why Points.com handles each and every miles purchase.

  Can’t the big, established airlines manage their own, ONE web page for points purchase…

  • Marcw says:

    6 May6 May 08:47

    MeliaRewards points sale is not managed by points.com They used to, but not anymore.

  • Rob says:

    6 May6 May 09:46

    So you’re saying that you’d rather trust BA to build a secure payment processing platform?!

    As with many things in business, if someone offers to look after a service for you for a very modest fee (I reckon points.com charges about 7% including card processsing fees) then you should take it. Why reinvent the wheel?

    • Charlieface says:

      6 May6 May 15:26

      BA anyways processes cards, judging by the big fine they just got for the data breach, as do all other airlines.
      I think they want it to be not processed by them so they can get out of claims, also to avoid paying double/triple points for airline spend on cards.

    • Riccatti says:

      7 May7 May 01:40

      Yes, Rob. BA already processing payment transactions en masse. Fees and extras such as seat selection is already their specialty.

      Points purchase would be one more web form essentially. They must also have all sorts of dev from Avios.com platform.

      7% fee for handling the points purchase — this is where it adds up. Buying Avios for 0.83p vs 0.9p (during discount time) might persuade even as prudent collector as you.

      @Charlieface, yes the finality of sale/no claims is a good excuse to have points.com

    • Callum says:

      7 May7 May 07:05

      That makes sense if it’s something your business doesn’t do or can’t do easily.

      BA already has systems for taking card payments and systems for issuing Avios. There must be a reason, but it doesn’t make much sense to me to just throw away 5% of revenue over something so simple.

      • Lady London says:

        7 May7 May 08:21

        Perhaps selling points via a third party could have been one way Lufthansa could have avoided being directly sued in court for points value?

      • MM says:

        7 May7 May 15:55

        Points takes the credit risk on issuing a product in real time. BA doesn’t do that in its loyalty scheme or in its normal business; they take cash and provide a product / points a lot later.

        They pay for Points to take credit risk, maintain robust tech and provide additional products (it spreads development cost over 50 or so airlines, rather than 1).

        They do the credit card stuff themselves as there is no material fraud risk (you get points later, and the fraud is weaned out by the card provider themselves).

        Makes sense to me.

• Mike says:

  6 May6 May 06:36

  Can you use any cards to buy the miles or does it have to be the BA AMEX?
  If I use ex the Gold Amex will I get any points for the purchase itself?

• Mike G says:

  6 May6 May 07:36

  Buying gift vouchers from a closed shop that can only be spent in-store – what could possibly go wrong?!

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