Avios

ARandomMiser

Hello MSE, have just joined and wondered if there any other Avios collectors out there and if they had any tips on easy ways of collecting more. I am already subscribed to erewards and rewardsforthoughts

Thank you

phatbear

Get an amex gold rewards card and spend £3k in three months and get 20000 airmiles.

Also convert all your tesco clubcard points to avios

Check out head for points website too for other ideas

budgetflyer

At the moment there is a 20% bonus for converting in to BA Exec Club Avios. This DOES NOT apply to conversions into Avios.com.
If you want to book something @ Avios.com, you can use the "combine my Avios" function to transfer them once the bonus Avios have appeared in your BAEC acc.

budgetflyer

Welcome to the world of Avios. The way I see Avios collecting, poor people can fly the same way that only the rich did.
You get a bed, sometimes a set of jammies even, as much champers you can drink, fine dining and the cabin crew address you by your name, Mr Ms, Miss or Mrs xxxx. You get a big enough luggage allowance that you really could take the kitchen sink if you wanted. Certain airlines even have a red carpet at check in.You sometimes get a special arrivals lounge where you can take it easy and fast track border controls etc.
Serious collecting does require effort, but the rewards can be amazingi

As phatbear says. Amex Gold for 20K bonus Avios, + 4.5k actual spend points to hit the 3K target.

The easiest way to hit that target is to use Amex to buy gift cards at Tesco. You get 150 CC points for every £50 of cards. Argos,Homebase, B&Q, Next, Primark, Costa Coffee, Pizza Hut/Express, Ask, Google, I tunes, some pub chains, the list goes on. Have a look.

Last Xmas, there were bonus vouchers giving 100 extra points per £20. So £100 of gift cards got you 300 + 500 = 800 CC points. If you saved them until now to convert to BAEC Avios that would be 800x 2.4 +:20% = 2304 Avios per £100. (+ 150 from Amex)

I would also Double up with the BA Amex Platinum. Another 20K bonus Avios, but more important, spend 10K and you get a 2 4 1 voucher for Avios bookings. (exc tax/,fees)
So using the above maths, you were getting up to equivalent of 49 Avios per £1. Amazing"

Tesco also do insurance products to sign up for. Minimum spend normally means a CC point costs 1p (0.4p per Avios)
Same goes for ink cartridges recycling via buying off eBay.

You can not lose buying CC points at 1p,but you could maybe go to 1.5 and still make a profit, view CC boost deals

Any shops not in the Tesco gift card section are normally available in Avios.com/BAEC shopping sites.You can get (up to ) 10 Avios per £1

Also Topcashback allows up to £50 into CC {12K Avios) Any amount above that can go straight to Avios @ 1 to 1

If you have friends wanting to start collecting Avios, refer them to Amex for bonus points too.
Serious collectors "churn" cards. Get the bonus and cancel. Move on to another card for the bonus and referrals. I'm to lazy for that though. :-)

The https://www.headforpoints.com Avios University is a fascinating and must read for anyone starting to collect Avios. For extra bonus, sign up initially there for Amex. Helps keep the site running.

dickydonkin

Earning Avios is one thing, redeeming them for a flight to a destination you desire at the time you wish to go is another.

The recent devaluation by BA also restricts their redemption value and if you are based away from London Airways hub - AKA Heathrow - then your Avios are worth even less.

PeacefulWaters

Iberia have flights from Manchester (and a couple of other regions) to Madrid.

Redeeming Avios on flights out of Madrid is often significantly cheaper for taxes than departing from London. Especially business class.

So opening an Iberia Avios account and crediting it with survey points can set you up nicely for a better value redemption in future.

ARandomMiser

Some great tips here, thank you everyone.
I have used Avios to get a seat upgrade on a couple of long haul flights but often use them for hotel rooms when I need transfer flights and the next flight out is early in the morning.

Ballard

As has already been pointed out, Avios are a very poor cousin from the Airmiles that I started collecting several years ago. I still collect them but I'm not as bothered about collecting them as I once was. They've served me well in the past but are only now good for Europe or upgrading.

I have several long haul flights booked through BA over the next couple of months and have tried to find an Avois price to upgrade online but it told me to call. I've only got 30k at the moment (although I could exchange Tesco CC for another 10k or so). My guess is that this isn't enough to upgrade LHR-SIN or SIN-SYD but if someone on here could tell me otherwise I'd call them.

shaun_from_Africa

I currently have slightly in excess of 500,000 Avios points (collected from BA flights) and have found these virtually worthless when it comes to trying to book any longhaul flight.

The last flight I was looking at which was to Tampa in May next year (which according to BA is an off peak fare) would have cost me 32,500 Avios points and £319.
If I had opted to buy a cash ticket it would have been £506.

Avios points do however often give good savings on car hire and hotel bookings

budgetflyer

With half a million Avios, why are you even thinking about economy flights.? For slightly more taxes and fees you could be in the big seats

phatbear

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

The last flight I was looking at which was to Tampa in May next year (which according to BA is an off peak fare) would have cost me 32,500 Avios points and £319.
If I had opted to buy a cash ticket it would have been £506.

As im sure you're aware even though it appears those prices are for the same product they actually aren't.

Given the price to buy from BA direct the ticket must be the cheapest non-exchangable ticket available however the ticket you are buying with your avios is a flexible fare.

For an idea of the effect on price difference on these two tickets i just picked a random date in may to go to tampa and the non flex ticket was £489 and the flexible was £1784, which is what you get with avios.