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NEW: British Airways Executive Club introduces Avios Subscription – buy for under 0.9p!

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This article has been sponsored by IAG Loyalty

Avios has launched an interesting new product today, Avios Subscription.

By signing up to Avios Subscription, Executive Club members have the opportunity to get a monthly Avios ‘boost’ when they opt for a monthly or annual subscription.

The value proposition is very strong – as low as 0.89p when you sign up to an annual commitment. To put this in context, we have never seen Avios sold for as little as this even during promotions.

EDIT: Our latest (December 2023) analysis of Avios Subscription, following a price rise, is here

Avios Subscription

The landing page for the offer can be found here.

How does Avios Subscription work?

There are four different plans to pick from, giving you a range of Avios earning opportunities.

You can select from a monthly payment or an annual payment. However, even if you select the annual, up-front payment, your Avios boost will still be posted to your account monthly.

The first two plans offer 20,000 Avios per year for £185 per year / £19 per month or you can collect 50,000 Avios per year for £455 per year / £45 per month. This image just shows the annual option:

British Airways Executive Club introduces Avios Subscription - buy for under 0.9p!

With the next two offering you can collect a chunky 100,000 Avios per year for £899 / £89 per month or 200,000 Avios per year for £1,789 per year / £179 per month. Again, we’ve just shown the annual pricing below:

British Airways Executive Club introduces Avios Subscription - buy for under 0.9p!

You can buy a maximum of 200,000 Avios with Avios Subscription.

Is the Avios Subscription good value?

In a nutshell, yes, but the real value comes from the annual payment plans rather than the monthly payment plans.

You will get approximately 20% more value for opting for the annual plan rather than the monthly.

You may remember IAG ran a hugely popular 75% bonus ‘Buy Avios’ promotion back in 2020, during the pandemic, which meant you could buy Avios at a rate of 0.92p per Avios. We’d never seen an offer this good at the time.

The new Avios Subscription offering is BETTER value than this. It allows you to buy Avios at a rate of rate of 0.92p for the Voyager plan, 0.91p for Traveller, 0.90p for Explorer and 0.89p for Adventurer, based on a yearly commitment.

On top of this, you can pay for the Subscription using a British Airways American Express card, meaning you will earn Avios from the Subscription offering and from your credit card spend.

What is an Avios worth?

Ah, the eternal Head for Points question. For a detailed description of what an Avios is worth, you can read Rob’s breakdown here.

As a quick summary, Rob keeps a spreadsheet of all the Avios he has redeemed for the last nine years, and he has got 1.2p of value per Avios based on his valuation of the flights he took. Rob’s valuation is arguably low as he bases it on how cheaply he thinks he could have got the same trip if he’d booked in a sale or taken an indirect flight on a different airline, and adds in no value for the flexibility offered by Avios tickets.

If you can buy Avios at a rate of 0.93p or less, you should be getting a good deal.

In the worse case scenario, you know that you can cash out your Avios via Nectar and get 0.8p. You would be taking a small loss but at least you know that your downside risk is modest.

Those pesky terms and conditions

If you commit to an annual payment plan, you commit to the whole year – you cannot cancel your subscription during the year and get a pro-rated refund

If you sign up to the monthly payment plan, you are committed to at least three months.

After a year, the subscription will auto-renew so you will need to proactively cancel the subscription if you don’t want to continue.

You can buy a maximum of 200,000 Avios in any one calendar year via Avios Subscription. This is in addition to the 200,000 Avios allowance through ‘Buy Avios’.

Full terms and conditions can be found here.

In conclusion ….

The new Avios Subscription is pleasantly straightforward and, to be honest, surprisingly good value if you go for an annual plan.

I can imagine it being particularly popular with people who earn a British Airways Premium Plus American Express companion voucher each year but struggle to earn enough Avios to make full use of it.

You pay monthly or annually for the subscription plan of your choice and in return, every month you get a chunk of Avios added to your balance. Remember that the Avios arrive month by month, even if you pay upfront for an annual plan.

The annual payment plan is effectively ‘pay for 10 months, get two free’. If you have the cash available to pay up front, this is a more valuable option. That said, don’t feel compelled to push yourself – the ‘pence per point’ ratio is similar however many you buy.

You can sign up to Avios Subscription or find out more using this link here.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (216)

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

  • Definitas says:
    10 Oct10 October 13:45

    It seems that I look at my Avios usage and benefits in a different way to the majority. We have grandchildren in the US and fly over 2-3 times per year in J (occasionally F if available). We do our best to earn one Amex companion voucher each and aim to book pretty much as soon as dates open up. However, I’m not interested in how much I “save”. I know that the cost and partial flexibility of Avios bookings almost always outweighs the occasional sale, particularly when using a 2-4-1voucher. However, the budget is limited and the steady, verging on outrageous, YQ charges are bringing the cost of a Transatlantic flight in J to a point where, for us, they will simply become unaffordable and we will have to go back to looking for the best cash deal we can get in PE. (friends just flew Delta RSW-ATL-BCN and BA LHR-ATL. The Delta leg had £approximately £6 in charges and the BA over £600. The uncertainty of just how much more BA will ratchet up their added “charges” makes me very nervous about committing to paying a year up front. Additionally, we have always found good value in booking internal domestic flights with AA. Unfortunately, AA have now replaced a significant number of MileSAAver fares with new WebSAAver fares which are not available to book through BA so that previous opportunity (out of ORD) has largely disappeared. I contacted AA to ask if they would consider permitting WebSAAver flights to be booked using Avios but was passed from pillar to post and gave up. I also wrote a “snail mail” letter to BAEC in the hope that someone would pick it up but did not even get the courtesy of a reply. I’m suspect that I am in the minority and that there must be many people out there who continue to find BA loyalty good value. However, for me, the increased costs and the painful process of trying to contact them (especially when something goes wrong at the last minute) makes me think this will not end well. My recent call to AA was answered straight away which was a pleasant surprise and we will definitely look at going back to daytime return flights in PE when the bubble bursts.

    • NorthernLass says:
      10 Oct10 October 13:59

      Have you looked at using one of the new style companion vouchers from outside the UK, especially ex-DUB? There are considerable savings to be made in terms of surcharges.

  • Noel c says:
    10 Oct10 October 13:52

    Why buy Avios points when they are almost impossible to spend?

    • Mikeact says:
      10 Oct10 October 14:39

      Rubbish, you obviously don’t know your way around the programme.

    • jj says:
      10 Oct10 October 15:28

      Odd. My next four trips are booked with Avios, including a half-term ski trip for 6 when cash prices are stratospheric. I must have missed the memo that no flights are available.

    • VerdantBacon says:
      10 Oct10 October 17:05

      Tell that to the 360,000 Avios I’ve spent this year

    • CarpalTravel says:
      10 Oct10 October 20:45

      I’ll happily criticise where applicable, but that really is utter tosh. The Nectar hookup alone makes them easily spendable, along with plentiful flight ability. Unless you yourself are limiting the spending options, there are plenty of options.

      Are you confusing Avios with Virgin Points? Now they are much harder to spend (though still not impossible).

  • Harry T says:
    10 Oct10 October 15:33

    Am I the only one who starts to get a bit twitchy when we are being showered with cheapish Avios from multiple directions?

    Tbh BA surcharges are so expensive now and the onboard experience is so below average, we are increasingly moving towards the ABBA policy.

  • Joe Wiltshire says:
    10 Oct10 October 16:11

    TAP Air Portugal also has a mileage for annual subscription option. It comes with the additional perks including silver Star Alliance status and the stops the mileage balance from expiring during the 12 month subscription period. Although the silver status is not worth much (e.g. no lounge access) it does put passengers a step ahead towards Gold an added incentive to buy miles and fly with TAP.

    • meta says:
      11 Oct11 October 02:01

      You do get lounge access with TAP Portugal as a Silver on all intercontinental flights plus 4 times a year at TAP lounge in Lisbon for European flights.

  • LDTx says:
    10 Oct10 October 20:18

    I am a US-based BAEC member and the rates in USD shows in my account are eye-watering, e.g. the Voyager option costs US$315/year. It’s as if BA were applying a ten-year-old GBPUSD exchange rate (ca 1.70). Ridiculous.

  • Patrick says:
    10 Oct10 October 22:42

    Do we know if this processes as a BA.com transaction or points.com – for rate of earning Avios with BAPP Amex. Thanks

    • Rob says:
      10 Oct10 October 22:45

      BA has dropped points.com for all of its ‘buy Avios’ promos now so I am guessing ba.com BUT IAG could not confirm this when we asked last week. I expect we will find it in a few days as someone signs up.

      • Patrick says:
        10 Oct10 October 23:04

        Ah ok thanks. If I helps, 9 July I bought Avios from BA in GBP. Just double checked and that processed as “AVIOS GROUP (AGL) LIMIT CRAWLEY“, at standard non-BA earn rate.

  • David A says:
    11 Oct11 October 00:23

    Rob,
    My wife belongs to the US BAEC, but she also has a UK address and the UK BA AMEX Accelerating Business Card. If I read the T & C correctly, she would not be able to be charged at the sterling price even if using a UK AMEX. Have I read this right? (The UK/US conversion rate being used by BA is almost criminal!)

    • Rob says:
      11 Oct11 October 08:31

      No such thing as ‘US BAEC’. Pricing will show based on either your account address or the country where you are accessing the site from.

      • Ziggy says:
        11 Oct11 October 19:23

        Based on my limited data points – I cannot get the site to price up in anything but GBP regardless of where in the world I am (or where I make the site think I am) – I think the only prices members will ever see (now) will be in the currency of the country to which their account is registered (same for Iberia Plus sales btw). The location of the person accessing the site seems to be irrelevant.

  • Lee says:
    11 Oct11 October 00:36

    All well and good but they can devalue them at anytime

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