Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

People who don’t buy points are already buying points without realising it

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We have run a couple of articles recently about special offers for buying points:

…. and there have been many others. These articles always generate feedback along the lines of ‘I never buy points’.

This approach is wrong on two levels.

should you buy avios?

The first reason why it’s wrong to never buy points ….

The first reason, which I don’t intend to go into again today, is that buying points CAN make financial sense.

I wrote a piece in 2021 explaining how I spent over £2,000 on Hilton Honors points to book our stay at Waldorf Astoria The Palm Dubai over Christmas – and how it saved me over 60% on the cash price.

In 2021 I looked at the value of buying Hyatt points for their great value suite upgrade awards, and we have another upcoming article using an example in Stockholm.

Last October I stayed at Park Hyatt New York using purchased Hyatt points, using £630-worth of points for a room selling for £1,400.

I’m not going over this ground again but it is worth reading the Waldorf article to learn more about my thinking. The bottom line, however, is that flight and hotel prices have been so high in the last couple of years that it is often possible to make the maths stack up in your favour.

The second reason why it’s wrong to never buy points ….

….. is that you are already doing it.

This second reason is what I want to focus on today. You are ‘buying’ miles and points every day without fully realising it. Ironically, you are often paying more for them than you would pay in the points sales which many people dismiss.

There are three ways of obtaining frequent flyer miles and hotel points which are genuinely free:

  • you fly the airline, or stay at the hotel, on a trip which someone else – usually your employer – is paying for
  • you receive a sign-up bonus for taking out a new credit card
  • you receive points from a product or service you would pay for anyway, and there is no alternative pseudo-cash reward

That’s about it. All of the other points you earn are, de facto, being purchased.

After all ….

  • if you convert Nectar points into Avios, you are losing out on 0.8p of free shopping for every Avios you receive
  • if you convert Tesco Clubcard points into Virgin Points, you are losing out on 1p per point of value compared to redeeming at a partner offering 2x face value (eg Hotels.com)
  • if you convert Heathrow Rewards points to Avios or Virgin Points, you are losing out on 1p of Heathrow shopping voucher or 2p of Heathrow parking voucher for every mile you earn
  • if you convert Capital on Tap points from their Business Rewards Visa card (Capital On Tap review here) to Avios, you are giving up the alternative of 1p cashback – albeit there would be tax issues if you took the cash as this is a small business credit card
  • if you convert American Express Membership Rewards to travel rewards points, you are giving up 0.45p of Amex statement credit or 0.5p of gift card redemptions per point

There are other occasions where you may pay to take part in a deal purely to earn points. For example, Barclays Avios Rewards charges you a £12 monthly fee to receive 1,500 Avios in return – plus a British Airways upgrade voucher every 12 months.

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Many of these options require you to pull a trigger, just like buying points

There is, psychologically, a difference between pulling out your credit card to buy miles and points and just picking them up automatically. I get that.

When you use your British Airways American Express card, the Avios just turn up. You are not ‘buying’ the Avios by specifically making a transaction, if you see what I am getting at.

However …..

Whenever you log in to Nectar, American Express Membership Rewards, Capital on Tap, Tesco Clubcard or Heathrow Rewards and make a transfer into Avios, Virgin Points etc, you are ‘actively’ buying those points just as if you’d gone to the ‘buy Avios’ page on ba.com.

Conclusion

The point I wanted to get across in this article is that we are all buying points, all the time – we just don’t always realise it.

Actively ‘buying’ more points by pulling out a miles credit card vs a cashback one when you make a purchase should be seen in the context of this.

Whenever you buy points directly OR transfer in from another programme such as Membership Rewards, you need to have a relatively firm plan for using them.

At the end of the day you need a good excuse to swap cash (very useful) for points (not so useful, as you’ll discover if you try to pay for your dry cleaning with Avios or Virgin Points).

Category

British Airways and Avios, Hilton Honors, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (69)

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

  • Thomas Atkins says:
    22 Apr22 April 06:02

    Thx team for the reminder; think I have a stash of Hilton bonus points to purchase then…

  • Harry T says:
    22 Apr22 April 06:39

    “If you convert Nectar points into Avios, you are losing out on 0.8p of free shopping for every Avios you receive”

    I suspect this needs updating after they nerfed the conversion rate 🙂

    • RobH says:
      22 Apr22 April 06:52

      I belive the Nextar -> Avios rate stayed the same, it was the Avios -> Nectar version that was devalued

    • Sandgrounder says:
      22 Apr22 April 06:53

      I think they only changed it the other way? Isn’t not still 400 nectar converts to 250 avios?

    • CJD says:
      22 Apr22 April 06:55

      The maths is correct.

      400 Nectar points gives you £2 off your shopping or 250 Avios, which works out at 0.8p.

    • Harry T says:
      22 Apr22 April 12:00

      Sorry guys, read it too fast early in the morning!

  • Dan says:
    22 Apr22 April 06:57

    We’ve accumulated around 1.5M Avios of the past 12 months, at an average cost of 0.56p per Avios (purchased Avios and earned Avios combined). Over the past 12 months and next 12 months we have allocated all those points at a spend rate of 2.60p per Avios, representing 5x saving saving versus the cash price listed. We are able to travel as a family of five in CW and as adults in F at heavily discounted rates (around 80% off of the cash price).

    • Charlie says:
      22 Apr22 April 07:41

      Reminds me of the time Avios was introduced, and domestic inbounds were complimentary, stopovers could be 300+ days, and gold card holders could change segments for free. Itinerary was usually wide available for same day travel. At one point I had a high of around 50 domestic segments banked. Quick call to the gold line on the way to Heathrow to put me onto the next flight to NCL/EDI/GLA/MAN/ABZ/JER, which were often £250+. For economy, the maths was 2,700 Avios plus £29 (I was based in Brussels), so £56 for BRU/CDG etc. to LHR, including a fully flexible domestic segment banked for future use. At a typical £250 per segment (so £500 for both) it was around a 10x + factor. I recall only not using a few of those banked segments before they expired. And some were booked into G class and earned tier points and Avios! But that’s another story.

      • Andrew says:
        22 Apr22 April 09:37

        This is why we can’t have nice things 😉 Fair play for taking advantage though!

        • Charlie says:
          23 Apr23 April 01:42

          Gold access to V class for same day departure is still a nice thing 🙂 And there is still plenty of nice things currently available, especially with AF/KLM. 🙂

  • SimonCH says:
    22 Apr22 April 07:11

    It’s simple Maths.
    People are often too lazy to even do the basic calculations.
    Just look at a Business Class ticket to New Zealand or Australia with Qatar airways using QSuites as a prime example. It’s 180,000 Avios and £600 tax approx per person.
    Simple maths shows that is about £2250, when valuing Avios at 0.91p if you buy them at that, which is often available.

    Now just go and look at what a CASH ticket costs!!
    Around £5500 per person.

    So why would you NOT buy Avios????

    • executiveclubber says:
      22 Apr22 April 07:26

      Because you can do even better than £2250 on cash fares rather than locking in to pseudo “value” from Avios fares you wouldn’t really pay cash for

      • Paul says:
        22 Apr22 April 08:36

        Indeed, Amex rewards conversion can get 90,000 one to Australia and with relatively little notice and ex eu at around €150!

        • The real Swiss Tony says:
          22 Apr22 April 10:05

          There’s probably a bit of kit to be built to help explore this. I need a flexible ticket SIN-BKK. Best bet appears to be using QR miles to book onto the CX flight, but i went through most of the options for swapping out some Amex points as well. It’s a time consuming process….

      • Occasional Ranter says:
        22 Apr22 April 14:48

        Can you give an example of a return cash fare in J to Oz/NZ from Europe in 2024, for <£2250 ?

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      22 Apr22 April 08:29

      Because the number of reward seats is limited so there isn’t always the availability when people want / need to travel

      I agree with you though that a lot of people don’t to the maths or more likely are simply unwilling.

      Just look at the number of people who post figures from avios and ask which is the best when they could get a calculator out and do it themselves.

    • Paul says:
      22 Apr22 April 08:34

      Where are seats available from for 180,000. I get that this is the published rate but whenever I look it’s 2 x the rate which brings your cost back to the cash rate without the benefit of Avios collection, tier points etc

      The point of points collection was to travel to places you dreamed of, but perhaps could not afford, and in a way you’d never have dreamed of.

      The glory days 2005-2015 when with relative ease I got a family of 4 in school holidays, to anywhere in USA or Asia in F on same flight for 360,000 and change are long gone.

      I have bought points in the past for hotels, particularly in the US staying at the Conrad Washington DC and Conrad MidTown. It can work but I am not seeing much value in buying Airline points.

      • Kaconym says:
        22 Apr22 April 10:14

        Seats are very regularly available as long as you avoid Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland and / or book early and not for peak times. Saying that though there are standard price J redemptions available London to Melbourne basically every day between late Jan and mid April, as well as some in October this year.

        London to Adelaide you can basically fly any day to like (including every day this month and most days next month) as long as you’re not trying to fly during school holidays.

        Perth and Brisbane availability is very very good outside school holidays.

        London to Sydney and London to Auckland goes a bit quicker but there is some availability Feb – April.

        • Harry T says:
          22 Apr22 April 12:03

          How are you guys finding the availability on QR for reward seats? Thanks

      • SimonCH says:
        22 Apr22 April 10:47

        Seats readily available.
        I just got three weeks in,NZ, flying Qatar qsuites in Feb 2025.
        They are there and lots more than BA!!! Who only fly to Sydney.
        You need to look.
        As said, I just found some a few weeks ago, hence why I know the prices.

    • BBbetter says:
      22 Apr22 April 10:20

      Well, it’s not maths, it’s arithmetic.

      • Gordon says:
        22 Apr22 April 11:48

        That is open to interpretation! You could “Calculate” or you could be “Calculating” to find the best possible use of points and cash fares?

  • patrick says:
    22 Apr22 April 07:37

    We buy as many HH points with the 100% bonuses as we can each year as well as buying and transferring from other accounts – for the 110,000 and 120,000 properties with the 5th night free it represents an enormous saving.

  • Matarredonda says:
    22 Apr22 April 09:14

    Thought provoking article

  • Tom says:
    22 Apr22 April 13:18

    The Hilton HHonors “100% bonus” sale offers are a bit of a joke as they are in place for most of the year every year. And you’d be an idiot to pay 1p a point when points are only worth about 40%-50% of that.

    Also if I have a bunch of HH points I tend to spend more on a hotel “to use them up”, which is a false economy if a cheaper room would otherwise be available for cash.

    And points can and are devalued.

    So the usual advice applies – do not buy points unless you have a specific and bookable redemption planned in the short-term..

  • Joe says:
    22 Apr22 April 13:40

    Lots of truth to this. But I think everyone really needs to interrogate the value side of the equation for buying points. The problem I find with a lot of the point valuation math is that lots of us would never actually pay the actual cash price. So even if we are redeeming for tickets worth thousands, you’re not really saving that money. And you may have actually spent less all in if you didn’t have the points.

    If I can redeem for business and spend 1k on fees to go to JFK and the alternative is a cash fare for 750 in economy, I’m getting a great deal for a marginal extra cash and points outlay. But I would never have paid the published 5k business ticket price. I’m actually spending more money than I otherwise would have vs “saving”, especially when you factor in the “cost” of the points. Maybe it’s worth it. But I suspect overall the airlines are winning with our “purchases” of points.

    • Gordon says:
      22 Apr22 April 14:14

      There have been many conversations regarding this topic, a lot of people do not see the Monetary value of points, and just look at the taxes and surcharges, (Example is the pay 100% avios for flights). I agree with your view, but others will have their own opinions, the cash price is for bragging reasons! I’m a believer that if you’re happy with the price then that’s all that matters.

    • mhughes says:
      22 Apr22 April 17:01

      its simply the difference between value and saving, if you would not stay in that hotel, or fly on that flight in that seat, it is not saving, you are however getting a hotel room/flight worth of “value”.

      I’ve had £120K or so of flights/hotels over the years, for around £10K outlay. I did not save £110K, as I’d never spend that, but I did have flight experiences/hotel stays that were selling for £120K, for just 10K.

      • CJD says:
        22 Apr22 April 20:00

        This is it for me. Return GLA-LHR-MEX flights in business are 180,000 Avios + £900 for the two of us for a honeymoon. We’ll probably be going in March 2026, a dummy booking for March 2025 shows economy return is about £900, Premium is £1,150 and Business is £5,000.

        Yeah, we probably wouldn’t pay for business with cash, but the points get us a possible once in a lifetime experience, which is what I’m putting the value on.

        • Throwawayname says:
          22 Apr22 April 22:46

          Aeroméxico routinely have sales from Italy and the Iberian peninsula for under €1500 all in. That’s the sort of value reference point for me when using miles, not the pie-in-the-sky prices quoted by BA from the UK (or AF from France, LH from DACH etc)- and funnily enough it’s quite similar to the maximum price that I would be prepared to pay (and/or able to afford) in cash.

          • Will says:
            23 Apr23 April 00:50

            You may not pay BA prices but they’re not pie in sky, that’s the cash price they get on those routes for the direct flights from the UK. These days I’d take a direct flight in economy over a ex EU in business to almost anywhere except Australia.

    • Nick says:
      22 Apr22 April 23:48

      I know that I use US$600 for a PE one-way and US$1100 for a J one-way between the US East/Midwest and Europe as the breakpoint as “I will just pay cash and earn some credit card and airline miles for the trip as well.” But the market doesn’t play along with that. When I have two trips planned for the year originating in the US and the PE prices are $1600+ RT and the J prices are $4000+, I realize that I’m redeeming my airline and Amex/Chase/Citi transfers for maybe $0.009 against my “I’ll just pay cash price” but $0.02-0.03 against the true market price.

      • Throwawayname says:
        23 Apr23 April 08:37

        But there’s no direct flight premium in that example because the person will fly via LHR- there’s no direct GLA-MEX option.

        It’s even worse if you can’t even change planes and have to change umpteen trains or drive hours on end to get there (e.g. from BHX, NWI, Wales). Nobody in their right mind would pay extra in order to be subjected to that hassle.

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