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

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• Will says:

  6 May6 May 10:37

  I have a British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card.
  It doesn’t show me the 75% offer.
  I guess business Amex cards aren’t counted?

  • Rob says:

    6 May6 May 15:55

    Seems not, although a reader said he’d had his Lloyds Avios trigger it (but possibly he’d also cancelled a BA Amex years ago which triggered it?).

• Stefan says:

  6 May6 May 10:57

  Now if only you’d be able to use BA Vouchers issued for cancelled flights for this…

• TB says:

  6 May6 May 12:16

  Thinking about buying some Avios with this offer (already have 2-4-1) so would help us book our trip for Christmas. However, what happens if BA goes bust? Do you get these points back and reappear in your points.com account to transfer elsewhere?

  • TB says:

    6 May6 May 12:44

    Would be good to know if you get the points back and how can you convert Avios to IHG?

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      6 May6 May 15:14

      Do you foresee BA giving points.com the money back?

      And even if avios to IHG was possible the loss in value would be savage

  • Anna says:

    6 May6 May 13:10

    I think this has been covered previously, I think the consensus was that basically your Avios would be worthless if BA were to go bust and you would join a long line of creditors. However, Rob seems to think this is unlikely and I hope he is correct!

    I’ve never heard of Avios being converted to IHG points but there may be someone on here who knows otherwise!

    • Rob says:

      6 May6 May 15:47

      You can’t convert to IHG. Virgin and Finnair do.

      • TB says:

        6 May6 May 16:41

        Thanks Rob. Shame.
        Unlikely I know (sure government would step in and save BA if it came to that) but what would happen to avios in the event BA go bust? Gone?
        2-4-1 voucher I can handle vanishing and you would get your taxes back (paid on AMEX) but if you are buying points to cover the cost of your next trip, it would be a shame for them to disappear with no refund if BA went bust.

        • Anna says:

          6 May6 May 16:51

          See above 🙄

        • Sean says:

          6 May6 May 17:23

          Think of them like buying a (very) restricted use gift card. BA bust = worthless like store gift cards would be.

    • MM says:

      7 May7 May 15:57

      If BA goes bankrupt, it will go intro control of the creditors.

      These creditors will likely put additional debtor-in-possession financing, secured against the loyalty scheme (as the credit cards will still be generating significant revenue), to continue flying (assuming that starts again).

      This has happened before in the US with pretty much all major airlines, and all loyalty points survived the bankruptcies as the schemes are very valuable assets to the airlines.

      More likely is it will sell off a stake in the loyalty scheme prior to bankruptcy.

• Mark Johnston says:

  7 May7 May 11:04

  Surely a risk here, as with the other “points” promotions going on at the moment, is that post Corona they all devalue the loyalty schemes, leaving us all no better off or more likely, worse off…?

  Bit like the voucher in lieu or a refund, what use a voucher when the price of flights will rocket in future?

• KBuffett says:

  8 May8 May 10:14

  Are there any other plays for outsized returns on these points other than using them on BA flights?

  • Rob says:

    8 May8 May 10:25

    Using them for non-BA flights with minimal surcharge 🙂

  • Harry T says:

    8 May8 May 15:26

    Particularly useful for intra Asia and Australian domestic flights in premium cabins (or any cabins in Australia given some of the fares).

• RB says:

  9 May9 May 09:25

  So I’m now stocked up on Avios, how do I use them to book my seats with BA? There is no availability for spring 2021. Even California which Rob managed to get for Easter has gone!
  Any help greatly appreciated.

  • RB says:

    9 May9 May 10:05

    Thanks Rhys, that link is useful and I really like the ease of use of SeatSpy over the previous RFF website. Great way of quickly seeing between First and Biz classes. I’m always in Biz for work so holding out for First, which I think it’s reasonable to assume I need to pick the phone up at 1am to snap up my preferred routes of HND or LAX. May take Oct 20 as I imagine normality will have resumed more or less by then.

    • Rhys says:

      9 May9 May 10:10

      First class availability isn’t guaranteed – only economy and business are. You’re better off setting alerts for your preferred dates and seeing when they come available.

  • Anna says:

    9 May9 May 10:06

    Nothing even for eastern USA? My back up option is generally to fly to NYC and get an onward connection from there.

    • RB says:

      9 May9 May 13:49

      There’s availability into IAD in March, always feel like the east coast isn’t giving me enough value for Avios though, as it’s a shorter trip. The best value for points is First, in my humble opinion anyway, or the new A350 of course.

• ChrisA says:

  9 May9 May 13:35

  Just in case anyone else was in my situation, whereby you had only had your BA Amex for a matter of weeks and therefore were not getting the 75% bonus, I have had a positive email from BA Exec Club to say that they shall contact Amex ‘manually’ to confirm that I have a card, and will then apply the bonus to my account. Fingers crossed it actually happens.

• Nick says:

  9 May9 May 16:04

  I had a BA Amex up until December 2018, I received the 75% offer via email however when I Clicked through to the purchase page it only give me 50% bonus unfortunately. I’m obviously one of the unlucky ones where if you had a BA Amex in the last two years it should apply but doesn’t

  • ChrisA says:

    9 May9 May 16:25

    Yes it all seems a bit haphazard, for reasons described further up the thread. I have had other BAPPs in the last couple of years – and still hold a Lloyds Avios card, which seems to have worked for some people – but not eligible as yet.

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