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This British Airways buy Avios promotion has ended. However, you can still buy British Airways Avios here.
The British Airways Executive Club is once again offering a bonus when you buy Avios — a rare opportunity that doesn’t come around as often as it used to. Get a 40% bonus when you buy or gift Avios through September 17, 2025. That brings the effective cost down to 1.64¢ per Avios when you max out the offer.
While buying miles isn’t always the best move, this promotion could make sense for topping off your balance or saving money on a specific redemption. Here's everything to consider before taking advantage of this buy Avios deal.
Page Contents
Key Terms of the Buy Avios Promotion
- Buy or Gift Avios and receive a 40% bonus.
- Promotion expires on September 17, 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
- British Airways Club members can buy a maximum of 200,000 Avios (pre-bonus) per year.
- Bonus Avios will not count towards your annual limit.
- Purchases can take up to three business days to post to your account.
- To buy or gift Avios, you must have at least one Avios point in your account. If you have a zero balance, you'll need to have collected or redeemed Avios in the past 36 months in order to buy Avios.
- Avios purchases can be refunded within 14 days, provided they haven't been used.
- Buying Avios will reset the expiry date for Avios in your account.
- You can find all of the terms and conditions here.
While the terms and conditions state Avios will be deposited within three days, data points from AwardWallet users show that points purchases are usually processed within 11 hours.
With this promotion, you can buy between 2,000 and 200,000 Avios with a 40% bonus. If you maximize this deal and buy 200,000 Avios for $4,599, you'll receive 280,000 after the bonus — which comes out to 1.64¢ apiece.
A Note on Buying Avios
Buying points and miles isn't usually the best way to accumulate any award currency — Avios or otherwise. Earning them through everyday purchases, credit card welcome bonuses, and traveling is a better approach. That said, there are at least a couple of scenarios where buying points can make sense.
First, if your balance is just short of booking that next great redemption, buying points can be the fastest solution. Considering that award availability can change rapidly, waiting around for points to show up in your account may make the difference between snagging an award and narrowly missing out.
Second, it's sometimes possible to save money by buying points for an award redemption instead of paying the cash fare. We'll get into some examples of this later in the post.
The value of British Airways Avios
From recent AwardWallet user redemption data, we see the following values for using British Airways Avios:
- Short-haul economy and premium economy: 1.56¢
- Short-haul business and first class: 2.71¢
- Long-haul economy and premium economy: 1.66¢
- Long-haul business and first class: 3.26¢
This doesn't mean that you'll get this much value from every Avios redemption option. In fact, many Avios redemption options — especially on British Airways flights themselves — can be downright bad.
However, the value can be found when you take advantage of Avios sweet spots.
Buy Avios and Save
British Airways utilizes a distance-based award chart. Thus, shorter flights are going to cost less.
There are several British Airways redemptions in which buying Avios could save money compared to paying a cash rate. Moreover, members can transfer Avios between British Airways. Iberia, Qatar Airways, and Aer Lingus freely and instantly. That means you could utilize purchased Avios to leverage Iberia's award chart, for example.
Let's take a look at a couple of scenarios where buying Avios could make sense.
Miami–St. Kitts and Nevis in American Airlines economy
If you live on the East Coast and are looking for a sandy getaway, look no further than the island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. Relative to the flight time, flights to the Caribbean tend to be expensive — especially around the holidays. However, thanks to British Airways' distance-based award chart, you can save 43% on the cash rate by buying Avios instead of paying cash for a flight.
- Mileage rate: 36,000 Avios + $70.51 round-trip
- Example cash price: $771 round-trip
- Redemption rate: 1.95¢ per Avios
- Cost to buy 42,000 Avios (after 40% bonus): $709
- Cost to buy exactly 36,000 Avios (at 1.64¢ apiece): $591
Miami-Lima in American Airlines (or LATAM) business class
Using British Airways Avios for flights on American Airlines is a staple redemption among award travelers — especially when you can book nonstop flights spanning regions. For example, you can book from Miami to Lima for 20,000 Avios each way in economy or 50,000 Avios in business class. And unlike transatlantic American Airlines flights, British Airways doesn't charge fuel surcharges on routes to South America.
- Mileage rate: 100,000 Avios + $69.37 round-trip
- Example cash price: $2,210 round-trip
- Redemption rate: 2.14¢ per Avios
- Cost to buy 112,000 Avios (after a 40% bonus): $1,855
- Cost to buy exactly 50,000 Avios (at 1.64¢ apiece): $1,643
Chicago–Madrid in Iberia business class
As I hinted above, just because you're buying Avios from British Airways doesn't mean you have to book with BA. You can simply move Avios to your Iberia account. Iberia's award chart has several sweet spots of its own, one of which involves flying business class to Europe.
It's possible to book an Iberia business class ticket from Chicago to Madrid one way for only 40,500 Avios during off-peak dates. But make sure you search ahead of time, as business class availability can be quite tricky to find. You can book this award via British Airways:
- Mileage rate: 40,500 Avios + $128.20 one way
- Example cash price: $3,239 round-trip
- Redemption rate: 4.39¢ per Avios (based on half of a round-trip)
- Cost to buy 42,000 Avios (after a 40% bonus): $709
- Cost to buy exactly 40,500 Avios (at 1.64¢ apiece): $665
London–Santorini, Greece in British Airways economy class
If you've read any of my posts regarding must-visit destinations, you'll know that Greece is the number one destination I implore travelers to experience. And the most popular island in the beautiful Mediterranean nation is Santorini. The downfall? It can get slammed with tourists — so do your best to try and travel during a non-peak time (I would suggest September). Plus, that means you can get off-peak award pricing.
- Mileage rate: 10,750 Avios + $31.00
- Example cash price: $314 one-way
- Redemption rate: 2.63¢ per Avios
- Cost to buy 11,200 Avios (after a 40% bonus): $205
- Cost to buy exactly 10,750 Avios (at 1.64¢ apiece): $177
Note that you can pay as little as $1 in taxes and fees, but it's going to require a much higher Avios cost:
New York (JFK)–Dublin, Ireland in Aer Lingus business class
The beauty of Avios is the flexibility to transfer and use them for a handful of airlines. One of the airlines that flies (pun intended) under the radar is the national airline of Ireland: Aer Lingus. You can hop across the pond from New York to Dublin and go have yourself a Guinness! Aer Lingus has a solid business class. For just 50,000 Avios, this is a pretty nifty deal — especially when you consider you can save over 85% on the cash rate!
- Mileage rate: 50,000 Avios + $139.90
- Example cash price: $5,553
- Redemption rate: 10.8¢ per Avios
- Cost to buy 56,000 Avios (with 40% bonus): $935
- Cost to buy exactly 50,000 Avios (at 1.64¢ apiece): $820
British Airways Buy Avios History
When British Airways started selling Avios in 2021, they were running promotions quite regularly — every couple of months pretty much. And after two years of regular promotions, 2023 rolls around and they really pumped the breaks on offering deals.
Since March 2023, British Airways has only run five promotions — with only one of those promotions coming in 2024!
And while we thought we had a good sense of what to expect from British Airways, that perception has changed completely. So when British Airways comes around with another promotion, it might be one of your rare chances to grab Avios with a bonus:
| Promotion Ended | Max Bonus | Min Cents per Avios | Max Purchase Amount (w/ Bonus) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-09-17 | 40% Bonus | 1.64 | 280,000 |
| 2025-07-23 | 40% Bonus | 1.64 | 280,000 |
| 2025-04-04 | 40% Bonus | 1.64 | 280,000 |
| 2024-09-11 | 40% Bonus | 1.64 | 280,000 |
| 2023-12-15 | 40% Bonus | 1.64 | 280,000 |
| 2023-09-20 | 40% Bonus | 1.64 | 280,000 |
| 2023-03-13 | 40% Bonus | 1.36 | 280,000 |
| 2023-01-20 | 40% Bonus | 1.39 | 280,000 |
| 2022-12-19 | 50% Bonus | 1.27 | 300,000 |
| 2022-11-20 | 50% Bonus | 1.24 | 300,000 |
| 2022-09-14 | 50% Bonus | 1.19 | 300,000 |
| 2022-07-10 | 50% Bonus | 1.27 | 300,000 |
| 2022-03-24 | 50% Bonus | 1.33 | 300,000 |
| 2022-01-19 | 50% Bonus | 1.37 | 300,000 |
| 2021-12-19 | 50% Bonus | 1.36 | 300,000 |
| 2021-08-30 | 50% Bonus | 1.41 | 300,000 |
| 2021-07-05 | 50% Bonus | 1.43 | 300,000 |
| 2021-06-30 | 50% Bonus | 1.43 | 300,000 |
| 2021-04-11 | 50% Bonus | 1.41 | 300,000 |
| 2021-02-02 | 30% Bonus | 1.67 | 260,000 |
Maximize Your Purchase
Like many loyalty programs, British Airways partners with Points.com to process Avios purchases. This means you won't want to buy Avios with one of the best cards for travel purchases. Instead, use these cards to purchase your Avios:
- Any credit card where you're working on a sign-up bonus (here are some of the best current welcome offers).
- Any credit card with perks you can unlock from spending, such as hotel free night awards, hotel elite status, or airline elite status.
- Your best credit card for everyday spending, such as the Citi Double Cash® Card (Rates & Fees) or Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.
Related: Which Credit Card Should You Use to Buy Points and Miles?
Other Ways To Earn British Airways Avios
If you aren't in a rush, there are several other (less expensive) ways to add to your Avios stash.
British Airways transfer partners
For one thing, British Airways partners with numerous transferable currencies, including:
Any card earning these types of points can, in effect, earn British Airways Avios. Even better, if you collect more than one, you can simply pool them together.
With a co-branded credit card
If you're looking for a big boost to your Avios balance, you may want to consider applying for the British Airways Visa Signature® Card. Its current welcome bonus is 75,000 bonus Avios after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.
- Earn 75,000 Avios after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.
- Earn 3 Avios per $1 spent on purchases with British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and LEVEL.
- Earn 2 Avios per $1 spent on hotel accommodations when purchased directly with the hotel.
- 10% off British Airways flights starting in the US when you book through the website provided in your welcome materials.
- Every calendar year you make $30,000 in purchases on your British Airways Visa card, you'll earn a Travel Together Ticket good for two years.
- Pay no foreign transaction fees when you travel abroad.
- Simply tap to pay with your contactless British Airways Visa Signature Card. Just look for the contactless symbol at checkout. It's fast, easy and secure!
- Member FDIC
- Rates & Fees
- 3X Avios per $1 spent on purchases with British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and LEVEL
- 2X Avios per $1 spent on hotel accommodations
- 1X Avios for every $1 spent on all other purchases
And since you can freely (and instantly) transfer Avios between British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia, that means these credit cards also could help you earn Avios:
Related: The Best Credit Cards for Earning Avios
Bottom Line
For a limited time, British Airways is offering Club members the chance to buy Avios with a 40% bonus. This promotion comes to an end on September 17, 2025.
U.S.-registered British Airways Club members can buy points for 1.64¢ each — nothing spectacular, but valuable for the right redemption. Most U.S. travelers would be better off generating Avios through credit card spending.
If your British Airways account is registered in the United Kingdom or the European Union, you will likely be able to score points at a better rate. Regardless, there's still value to be had when leveraging British Airways' award sweet spots for U.S-based members.
Considering British Airways doesn't run these promotions very often, this might be a good time to buy some Avios while they're on sale if you have a sweet redemption you want to grab.
Will you buy British Airways Avios with a 40% bonus?
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Citi Double Cash® Card (Rates & Fees), and British Airways Visa Signature® Card (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Excelente iniciativa de British Airways , Ojala tomaran esta accion las demas compañias aereas , han sido tiempos complicados para viajar desde lo economico , Seguramente ellos captaran muchos nuevos clientes.
BA avios is how I flew AA in the US for many years. Now there are few AA savers on BA though. RIP
Using Avois outside of the UK is the best deal. Singapore to Sydney or Brisbane for example. Or any within Asia really. Changi taxes are roughly 10% of LHR on the few flights I scanned last night.
Using them to leave London is a pointless exercise.
Consider Edinburgh as an airport – UK but no extra APD(taxes), though connections may not be as much as Heathrow.
Has British Airways ever launched a better offer for points purchase or is this the maximum someone can get from ?
Cheers
Fair offer but not so exceptional to tempting me to buy Avios.
Love the avios deals but terrible taxes flying through the UK!
If you can use Avios without using BA metal as well as skipping UK airports, they are good value. Once you get into fuel surcharges, most of the ticket cash prices are closer to those.
Not sure buying Avios ever makes sense other than to top up your account for an award in the near future, but I do love using them to fly AA domestically…no ridiculous surcharges that way!
Chicago to Madrid and Los Angeles to Hawaii in particular look like an amazing use of avios. I would only buy avios if I was going to use them straight away though as BA have had a number of devaluations and I wouldn’t want to risk holding avios.
I’m a big fan of Avios. Household account helps to stack them and I’m usually use them not for the flights but for hotels. In last years I found a lot of bargains – 150$ hotels for 8-10 K Avios per night.
Wow such discrimination. How easy is it to change your registered address? And whats the price for accounts registered in asia?
Ed – I haven’t personally done it, but you could always create an account with some other address. BA does allow for “family points pooling”, after all.
No need to create a new account, just change the address on your existing one and the updated pricing appears instantly. People do live in more than one country these days.
As others have said – whatever the deal, the surcharges from the UK are still ridiculous
Does BA have a dining program that earns miles for eating at member restaurants?
Not that we’ve seen. The US-based airline dining programs seemingly all have the same back-end system and only partner with restaurants in the US. So, British would seemingly need to partner with a UK-based dining program — or only have US restaurants in its dining program (which would be a bit awkward for a UK-based airline)
Muy buena la promoción de British Airways que acaba de lanzar para que los miembros del Executive Club compren Avios con una bonificación del 50%. Estaré estudiando las opción. Muy buenas línea aérea.
I have looked at using Avios for flying biz with BA and it’s scary! lol! I do wonder if they’ll ever not have us pay so much in taxes, etc. They must know how their loyalty members are using their miles. I wonder what their numbers are like with over water redemptions, etc.
Great offer, BA are running a lot of aggressive and generous promotions right now
Hopefully it doesn’t mean there is a devaluation coming, or is that too cynical?!
While I do like avios points, I do agree i’s a terrible for US accounts given the currency exchange!
Avios can yield some decent values when used on AA for domestic flying….you just need to find decent availability and be flexible in your dates as BA often gets the bottom of the barrel from AA in terms of availability. This offer may be useful for topping off your Avios account for an AA transcon or Hawaii redemption – just remember to do a point to point routing with no connections as Avios redemptions are mileage based.
First time I’m seeing a difference in price on miles purchases depending on where you live and its not small either. Any idea if its possible to change the address if you split time between europe and usa?
I think it has been possible in the past. Not sure if that is still true. Let us know if you run into any issues if you try it out.
Not worth the effort to buy them at this price. Sitting on more than I can use in the next 12 months.
I’m not ready to buy points speculatively yet, with pandemic-related issues still arising, but thanks for the information.
I think, we are on the verge of treating the “politically sensitive incident” as a non fatal serious illness.
I think it may be not wise to purchase BA Avios at this moment.
That’s sneaky, to charge a different value for US members. I keep a spreadsheet comparing whether best to buy through BA/IB/EI and it’s usually best buying with IB and transferring – but as I’m sitting on a pile of Avios already, I’m not a buyer yet.
It’s strange, isn’t it? I don’t know what their rationale is. But I totally agree.
My only problem is that I don’t always use the remaining points. 600 points are about to expire and I have no plans to use it, unfortunately
Be careful with their expiration policy. I previously got burned by BA
I think the BA expiry policy is much more generous than some other airlines.in that they stay active providing you make at least one transaction every 36 months. Even buying something through the BA estore would count. As far as I recall ebay was a partner so even buying something at $1 every couple of years would be enough.
It is an awful time to buy these miles because it will not be possible to redeem them for the most desirable trips anytime soon.
Not a very good offer.
Especially as it’s proposed in this pandemic period.
It could have been much better.
Doesn’t quite do it for me. The current state of air travel still isn’t up/back to par IMHO.
I fly both AA and BA. Always seen the two as sisters. Wish they would work a little better together
But who knows
Sure thing is though as soon as it all opens I am flying again. Miss it terribly
It does seem to be an awful amount for air miles considering we here in the U.K., BA’s base, have not been able to travel for months and are just emerging from a total lock down. International flights still are prohibited, and BA and other airlines should think twice before potentially jeopardising pent-up travel demand.
It’s a pity the Airmiles programmes for BA and AA don’t tie up more effectively.
We travel (in normal times) twice a year from the UK to the US and usually it’s with either BA or AA, or BA with an AA connecting flight.
We have Airmiles with both and it’s hard at times to know what to register for. It would be hugely better if they used their One World partnership to help make the way Airmiles interact much simpler.
Avios used to be a fabulous program but not any more sadly after the recent devaluation…
I’ve used BA Avios for several domestic AA flights, but it looks like flying to Hawaii or the Caribbean should be my next move once the pandemic subsides….great use of Avios while avoiding the ridiculously outrageous BA surcharges.
Absolutely agree! My favorite use (during normal times at least) is flying lie-flat AA business class under 1,150 miles in distance (e.g. MIA-DFW) for just 16,500 Avios each way.
50% sale is pretty good for BA especially if you have a flight to book in the near future and are close to that redemption!
Are there many with reservations in the near future?
Thanks for showing examples of some flights and costs involved!
Not the best time to invest in this offer
True, especially when the virus will NOT be eradicated in 2021.
I understand the airlines need money but with these never ending offers for miles and points it’s an indication of the general devaluation of almost all programmes.
Can usually get good upgrades with Avios. Not worth it at present.
Even by purchasing this offer, I doubt whether I would get to use it this year.
Hah no way is this interesting, given how cash strapped airlines are they should be offering far higher discounts for folks to give them what amounts to very low interest loans!
British Airway’s fuel surcharge is very high. BA flights in and out of London Heathrow airport have a very high surcharge. So I try to avoid fly out of London Heathrow with BA if possible.
What I hate about BA as I am sure many others do is the insane amount of surcharge you have to pay for the flight. We are now not using american airline mileage cards because they offer a lot of flight on BA to Asia with high surcharge. The others in Europe don’ which is good. If we need additional miles, which I doubt we will use this but oh well…
The key is to book on American or another country with no/low surcharges.
Love using Avios points for use on no BA flights to avoid their crazy taxes for UK airports!
I will not be buying British Avios miles for 2.12 cents each. I cannot believe in the current environment that any airline would still be charging fuel surcharges.
IMHO, it is not worth buying the Avios with only 30% bonus.