Anyone willing to ‘lend’ me 27k Avios?

[fuggi]

I’m trying to book a redemption, have transferred 27k Avios from Marriott Bonvoy but am worried they will not arrive in time
Am hoping someone can ‘lend’ me 27k Avios whilst I wait for them to arrive, after which I would transfer the Avios back to them

It costs £15/€20 flat fee to transfer any amount of Avios to other people now ( https://pgt.shopping.ba.com/resources/pricing-share I hope that’s not a bug, but I did just transfer 20k Avios from wife’s account to mine for this)
I would of course happily pay both the transfer fees involved (and refund by Revolut or any other possible means) and if you’re a Gold member then you make a quick buck…(as transferring is free for you)

Note also that all are limited to transferring 27k avios per person to maximum 6 people per year, so I would use one of your ‘6 transfers’

Cheers
Hugo

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Just buy the darn things. Much quicker than trying convoluted methods like this.

Where are you going to get the 27k from to pay back the lender?

[fuggi]

The cost of buying outright is extortionate

Where will I get them? Per my post I’m waiting for 27k Avios to come in from a Marriott Bonvoy transfer (of 81k Bonvoy points which convert at 3:1)

[smblcklck]

Why would anyone do this!

[Peter K]

smblcklck wrote:

Why would anyone do this!

I wonder if the original poster (assuming genuine) has thought about this? He’s basically asking someone to give, for no benefit to the giver, potentially £270 of Avios to a complete stranger on the promise that he’ll give it back at some unknown point in the future.

[fuggi]

Peter K wrote:

smblcklck wrote:

Why would anyone do this!

I wonder if the original poster (assuming genuine) has thought about this? He’s basically asking someone to give, for no benefit to the giver, potentially £270 of Avios to a complete stranger on the promise that he’ll give it back at some unknown point in the future.

I am writing to a forum filled with people with lots of Avios, many of which will be Gold tier and can transfer for free – so they can make 20€ for lending £270 worth of Avios for a week – that’s an 8% return in a week or 437% p/annum.

I need a solution and I went ‘outside the box’ as there’s nothing available in the box… you never know if someone with 100s of thousands of Avios looking for a use might be reading (although it’s nice to know that people with helpful constructive comments are also reading!)

[zapato1060]

It’s not that far fetched guys. Your best placed to send someone £270 as a “hold”. They send the points to you and then when your 27k arrive the other person hands back £270.

[Peter K]

zapato1060 wrote:

It’s not that far fetched guys. Your best placed to send someone £270 as a “hold”. They send the points to you and then when your 27k arrive the other person hands back £270.

This suggestion (or a variation of it that makes it safer for both parties) is much more likely to have takers.

[can2]

I don’t understand how this is thinking outside the box. A lot of people here would know how long it takes to transfer from Marriott to Avios. It seems that you were a bit late to do initiate the transfer. And you may be trying to solve it by creating a bigger situation.

[duggie1982]

It’s a bold ask, I did think about it but quickly changed my mind

Go onto a recent post talking about Avios rich, get a few sharks in there maybe 🤔

[Andrew J]

I thought the clock had been turned back to April 1st when I started reading this!

[acewoking]

On a related topic, I’ve got a bridge for sale if anyone’s interested

[fuggi]

can2 wrote:

I don’t understand how this is thinking outside the box. A lot of people here would know how long it takes to transfer from Marriott to Avios. It seems that you were a bit late to do initiate the transfer. And you may be trying to solve it by creating a bigger situation.

Appreciate that but I decided on the redemption at the time I made the marriott transfer. There was no way I could transfer sooner.

It’s thinking outside the box because I am probably one of the first people to ask for an Avios loan, but if you think it’s a normal mundane and obvious solution that is of course your prerogative 😉

[fuggi]

zapato1060 wrote:

It’s not that far fetched guys. Your best placed to send someone £270 as a “hold”. They send the points to you and then when your 27k arrive the other person hands back £270.

I would be open to something like this

Thanks for the contribution zapato!

[robato]

zapato1060 wrote:

It’s not that far fetched guys. Your best placed to send someone £270 as a “hold”. They send the points to you and then when your 27k arrive the other person hands back £270.

But if the OP fails to return the Avios, where can I replace 27,000 for £270? In my account, the replacement cost is £495 for 30,000 miles purchased directly from BA.

The swap ought to be 27,000 Avios for £495+£15 out then £495 back. So OP covers fees and takes the risk of the lender not returning the security deposit.

[BuildBackBetter]

zapato1060 wrote:

It’s not that far fetched guys. Your best placed to send someone £270 as a “hold”. They send the points to you and then when your 27k arrive the other person hands back £270.

Why go all that trouble. Call BA tell them you have paid friend £270 and give them your membership numbers and ask them to transfer. One call to finish it all.

[fuggi]

robato wrote:

zapato1060 wrote:

It’s not that far fetched guys. Your best placed to send someone £270 as a “hold”. They send the points to you and then when your 27k arrive the other person hands back £270.

But if the OP fails to return the Avios, where can I replace 27,000 for £270? In my account, the replacement cost is £495 for 30,000 miles purchased directly from BA.

The swap ought to be 27,000 Avios for £495+£15 out then £495 back. So OP covers fees and takes the risk of the lender not returning the security deposit.

Because that would put too much leverage in the hands of the lender – who could just not return the cash as well (you run this risk anyway with the £270, but at least it’s for less and the OP [i.e. me] would not be out of pocket vis a vis outright purchasing the Avios…)

[Angelamc11]

fuggi wrote:

zapato1060 wrote:

It’s not that far fetched guys. Your best placed to send someone £270 as a “hold”. They send the points to you and then when your 27k arrive the other person hands back £270.

I would be open to something like this

Thanks for the contribution zapato!

I can lend you the 27k you need through this type of arrangement and I’m a Gold member.

[fuggi]

Angelamc11 wrote:

fuggi wrote:

zapato1060 wrote:

It’s not that far fetched guys. Your best placed to send someone £270 as a “hold”. They send the points to you and then when your 27k arrive the other person hands back £270.

I would be open to something like this

Thanks for the contribution zapato!

I can lend you the 27k you need through this type of arrangement and I’m a Gold member.

Thanks Angela! Are you on Flyertalk? Can direct-message me there, my alias on FT is Fuggi (as there’s no direct messaging on HfP forums)

[Angelamc11]

Sent you a message on FT

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

BuildBackBetter wrote:

Why go all that trouble. Call BA tell them you have paid friend £270 and give them your membership numbers and ask them to transfer. One call to finish it all.

That would indeed likely finish it all – with two BAEC accounts closed for breach of BAEC rules!

[Skywalker]

Loyalty Points Lending – whatever next! 😀

Sounds like a business venture if you can make it work!

[fuggi]

Skywalker wrote:

Loyalty Points Lending – whatever next! 😀

Sounds like a business venture if you can make it work!

Unfortunately as a proper business it could never really work as BA limits Avios transfers to 27k / year / person and max 6 people. Although it seems like Qatar allows up 250k p/year? Haven’t tried yet

I’ve had to give up as I just remembered I’m getting 5k bonus from the Marriott transfer (81k bonvoy points at 3:1 = 27k Avios +5k bonus for transferring >60k bonvoy points) which makes it 32k I need to borrow and over the 27k limit set by BA. It was an interesting exercise! And thanks to angelamc11 for being a helpful fellow frequent flyer 🙂

[Carlos]

No-one will lend you any amount of points in the Points Grabbing Game.

[robato]

fuggi wrote:

robato wrote:

zapato1060 wrote:

It’s not that far fetched guys. Your best placed to send someone £270 as a “hold”. They send the points to you and then when your 27k arrive the other person hands back £270.

But if the OP fails to return the Avios, where can I replace 27,000 for £270? In my account, the replacement cost is £495 for 30,000 miles purchased directly from BA.

The swap ought to be 27,000 Avios for £495+£15 out then £495 back. So OP covers fees and takes the risk of the lender not returning the security deposit.

Because that would put too much leverage in the hands of the lender – who could just not return the cash as well (you run this risk anyway with the £270, but at least it’s for less and the OP [i.e. me] would not be out of pocket vis a vis outright purchasing the Avios…)

If the lender failed to return the £270 security, then it means you ended up buying Avios at a 45% discount on the outright cost from BA (less fees), which is obviously a good deal. This might also be OK if the lender didn’t really need the Avios and preferred cash at a better rate than transferring to Nectar points, so effectively selling them for 1p/Avios.

But if the lender did want the Avios back, so kind of like a bridging loan, then at £270 security the lender still has to fork out another £225 to get the lost Avios from BA should you be unable to return the Avios. This is assuming Avios can only be freely purchased from BA. This is how I would have treated it as you requested a short term loan, so the lender has taken all the risk while you are in a better position than if you were to purchase it from BA yourself.

The additional risk not really priced into the swap is if both parties are caught trading Avios.

BTW. There is one flaw in your plan. You said you shared 20k Avios from your wife’s account to yours? But this page says recipients can only receive a maximum 27,000 shared Avios in one year, so a fellow HfP reader would only be able to lend 7k at best:

https://pgt.shopping.ba.com/resources/terms
7. A Recipient of shared Avios can only receive a maximum of 27,000 Avios in any one calendar year in aggregate, irrespective of the number of Senders. We reserve the right to amend the maximum annual amount that can be received at any time.