How does Avios Balance Boost work, letting you buy Avios from 0.92p?

British Airways launched ‘Avios Balance Boost’ in June 2023. It is a surprisingly good value way of buying Avios, and as we haven’t mentioned it since the launch I thought it was worth running over the details again today.

It was one of two new ways of buying Avios introduced in the last 18 months. The other was Avios Subscription, which allows you buy a regular monthly top up of points at a fixed price. We will look at Avios Subscription again tomorrow.

Oddly, at the same as launching Avios Balance Boost from 0.92p, British Airways jacked up the price of one-off ‘buy Avios’ purchases. The cheapest price is now 1.76p outside of promotional periods, based on paying £3,539 for 200,000 Avios. It’s not quite clear what is going on with the strategy here …..

What is Avios Balance Boost?

Avios Balance Boost is a simple concept but with a few bits of small print.

Put simply, you can buy a lump sum of Avios equivalent to 100%, 200% or 300% of the Avios you have earned in the last 30 days.

What does it cost to use Avios Balance Boost?

You can find Avios Balance Boost on the usual ‘buy Avios’ page here.

Here is the pricing:

Unless you are trying to buy over 300,000 Avios via Balance Boost, which is unlikely unless you are trying to boost a chunky credit card sign-up bonus or made a large transfer from American Express Membership Rewards, you will pay between 0.92p and 0.96p per Avios.

We generally say that you should be able to get over 1p for a premium cabin Avios redemption. My personal spreadsheet of redemptions over the last 10 years shows that I got 1.22p per Avios, although we could argue for hours over the value I ascribed to flights. I would argue it is conservative, and based on sums I would personally have been prepared to pay.

The 300,000 Avios cap is based on your Boost purchases over a calendar year and not per transaction.

How does Avios Balance Boost work?

Here is a screenshot from my account:

I have earned 11,230 Avios in the last 30 days which qualify for boosting. I can boost this by 100%, 200% or 300%, buying a maximum of 33,690 Avios for £309.95 (ie 0.92p.)

What sort of transactions qualify for Avios Balance Boost?

As you can see above, you can boost:

• Avios earned from the BA shopping portal
• Avios earned from credit card spending
• Avios earned from flights
• Avios earned from ‘hotels and travel’ – my 88 Avios are from Uber

According to the terms and conditions, you CANNOT boost Avios obtained via:

“balance transfers from other airlines [presumably Qatar Airways Avios transfers], Nectar exchanges, Avios shared or gifted by other members and previously bought Avios.”

Other inbound transfers, from American Express Membership Rewards, HSBC Premier, Heathrow Rewards etc, should count for boosting. I can personally confirm that American Express Membership Rewards transfers are OK.

(Here’s a question to ponder. Is it worth transferring American Express Membership Rewards points into Avios in order to buy up to 3x the amount at a low price?)

Avios Subscription purchases are excluded, presumably treated as ‘bought Avios’. Apparently Avios compensation payments from British Airways are also excluded!

You can only boost a transaction once.

Conclusion

With buying Avios and Avios Subscription less attractive than they were a year ago due to price rises, it was odd to see British Airways launch Avios Balance Boost at a price as low as 0.92p per Avios.

If you are thinking of topping up your account, this is currently the cheapest way to do it directly.

Of couse, an even cheaper option is to get The Platinum Card from American Express before 9th January, spend £10,000 within six months to pick up a bonus of 75,000 Membership Rewards points and transfer it to 75,000 Avios. Full details are in this article. Having a British Airways American Express card does not disqualify you from this deal.

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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:

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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