Avios value in 2023

[Whatsthepoint]

Happy New Year to everyone on HFP forums. Thought it worth sharing how my Avios worked out for 2023. I collected 220k at .88p each and spent 460k on long haul BA flights to Orlando, Atlanta and Mauritius using 241 vouchers and Barclays vouchers. I got an average of 1.66p value from each Avios, based on lowest CW return to each location. Most of my Avios came from credit card spend, including one bonus, plus a significant amount from BA shopping through VRBO, AIRBNB and Booking.com.

[Alex G]

I think everyone has their own way of calculating the cost of each acquired Avios point, although many people don’t consider the cost at all.

Some avios are genuinely free. Those earned from flights or car hire for example.

But IMO all avios collected from spending have a cost. Avios collected on my ARCC card cost 1p each – because I could have spent on my Chase debit card instead and got 1% cashback. Avios collected on a free Barclaycard could cost 0.74p on a £20k spend if you choose the 7000 bonus avios instead of the cabin “upgrade” voucher. Avios collected on the BAPP could cost more than 2p each if you factor in the cost of the card – which I do.

I maintain a spreadsheet, and account for all the avios I earn. I acquired 319,493 last year at a cost of £2307.40, so 0.73p per avios.

I’ve booked Singapore and Tokyo in May for 372000 Avios plus £1050 for two people in J. £1883 each at my costings, which I think is good value. Most of the flights are on JAL and Finnair.

I did BA return to the East Coast in J in the summer for 160000 Avios + £700. £934 each at my costings, which is tremendous value.

I tend not to look at what J flights would cost, rather at what I would be happy to pay.

[NPWharf]

Since COVID I’ve probably averaged between 2.3 to 3.2p per avios, with three of us flying a couple of times a year in CW. Last year I got 4.23p from three F class to Johanesburg, but not sure that’s true as I’d have never spent close to £17,000 on three flights !!

[tontoro]

I earnt just over a million, my first year of collecting. About 200k from SUBs, the large majority of the remainder from business spending. I don’t think too much about what they cost me – I have Barclays Mastercard, Amex BA, COT, Curve , and currently Amex platinum (about to cancel). The costing at 1p because of opportunity cost of 1% cash back doesn’t work for business spend – assuming you would declare the cashback and pay 40% on it anyway! I guess you could instead use 0.6p with the same methodology.

[NorthernLass]

I count them as free as I have no interest in cash back cards which feel like they give you a tiny amount of money.

My absolute minimum redemption would be 1p but I usually get over 2p. It’s not very scientific but I take the cash price at the time of booking, subtract the BAPP fee (if I’m using the voucher) and any cash element, then divide the remainder by the number of avios used to get my value!

My recent DUB-MEX booking in F gave me 2.9p per avios by my method of reckoning, though the cash price seems to have shot up since I booked so I may recalculate.

[Stu_N]

I managed a genuine 2.5p in 2023, mainly due to using Avios to travel on fixed and expensive dates that I knew about miles ahead of time.

– Edinburgh to Florence x2 right at the start of Scottish school holidays, direct out and back via LCY, using up an expiring 2-4-1 voucher. Cash fares were £900 in Y, Avios out in J/ back in Y was 25,500 + £120 = 3p, dropping towards 2.5p if you put value on the (expiring) voucher.
– Edinburgh to Nice via London for Rugby World Cup weekend – solo. Cheapest cash fares were £600 with LCC but at inconvenient times that would have needed an extra night away from home realistically. I paid 35k Avios and £100 for BA J. BA J was close to £2k for my dates. Lower end of valuation 1.4p, upper end (which I wouldn’t have paid) 5.5p.
– Edinburgh to Las Vegas for 2. £5.5k cash vs £900 + £250 BAPP fee + 180k Avios = 2.4p.

Got 2x EU261 for Florence (cancelation) and 1x EU261 for Nice (ground handling delay so missed connection and got home over 3 hours late) so £1050 cash back which basically covered the cash element of all three, plus we got 20k service recovery for Vegas.

Cost of earning – don’t actually track that but expect it’s very close to 0.67p. Most will be from flying or BAPP spend. Either your exit value for c.240k of Avios is 0.67p to Nectar or you’re forfeiting max 1% cash back for 1.5 Avios = 0.67p. eStore and earn/ conversions from schemes I don’t place any value on will reduce that a bit I suppose.

I guess that puts the return on the Avios hobby at about £4,300 for 2023? Based on 240k of Avios redeemed at 2.5p value – 0.7p cost. Not bad…..