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British Airways has launched an intriguing new Avios subscription plan. The new plan lets you “subscribe” to purchase a yearly amount of Avios. The plan offers four subscription tiers of between 20,000 and 200,000 Avios per year.
This new Avios subscription plan lets British Airways Executive Club members based in the U.K. effectively purchase Avios for under 0.9 pence each.
Key Terms
- You can choose to subscribe to a yearly or monthly plan.
- Any British Airways Executive Club member can take part.
- Monthly plans have a minimum term of 3 months.
- Yearly plans have a minimum term of 1 year.
- If you choose a yearly plan, you will pay the entire amount at once.
- You can cancel your subscription within 14 days of signing up.
- Members can only purchase one subscription plan.
- You can only have one active subscription at any given time.
- A maximum of 200,000 Avios are available with this promotion.
- You need to have one Avios in your account to subscribe — or have redeemed or earned Avios in the last 36 months.
Avios Subscription Plan Options
You can choose from the following four Avios subscription plans:
- Voyager: Receive 20,000 Avios per year costing £185 per year or £15.40 per month. Paid out as 1,667 Avios per month.
- Traveler: Receive 50,000 Avios per year costing £455 per year or £37.90 per month. Paid out at 4,167 Avios per month.
- Explorer: Receive 100,000 Avios per year costing £899 per year or £74.90 per month. Paid out as 8,334 Avios per month.
- Adventurer: Receive 200,000 Avios per year costing £1,789 per year or £149 per month. Paid out as 16,667 Avios per month.
If you opt for the annual subscription, the cost per Avios of each subscription plan will be:
- Voyager: Avios cost 0.93 pence (1.02 US cents) apiece.
- Traveler: Avios cost 0.91 pence (1 US cent) apiece.
- Explorer: Avios cost 0.90 pence (0.99 US cents) apiece.
- Adventurer: Avios cost 0.89 pence (0.98 US cents) apiece.
What About Members Not Based in the U.K.?
Unfortunately, British Airways doesn't give travelers based outside of the U.K. as good of a deal. British Airways advertises prices in Great British Pounds (GBP) in emails to U.S. members and when U.S. members click through to subscribe.
However, deep in the terms and conditions, you'll find this:
15. The transaction currency will be pre-determined based on the registered country of the British Airways Executive Club account.
And it seems British Airways hasn't gotten the memo that the pound has significantly devalued. Once you log in to subscribe, U.S.-based Executive Club members will see much higher rates for these same subscription plans:
- Voyager: Receive 20,000 Avios per year costing $315 per year or $29 per month.
- Traveler: Receive 50,000 Avios per year costing $779 per year or $75 per month.
- Explorer: Receive 100,000 Avios per year costing $1,545 per year or $149 per month.
- Adventurer: Receive 200,000 Avios per year costing $3,069 per year or $299 per month.
That raises the cost per Avios to:
- Voyager: Avios cost 1.58 cents apiece (annual) or 1.74 cents each (monthly).
- Traveler: Avios cost 1.56 cents apiece (annual) or 1.80 cents each (monthly).
- Explorer: Avios cost 1.55 cents apiece (annual) or 1.79 cents each (monthly).
- Adventurer: Avios cost 1.53 cents apiece (annual) or 1.79 cents each (monthly).
As you can see, British Airways is charging a markup of over 50% for Executive Club members based in the U.S.
Is It a Good Deal?
The simplest way to determine whether this Avios subscription plan is a good deal is to compare the cash price of a flight with the cost of the same flight as an award booking.
Take British Airways' flagship route between London Heathrow (LHR) and New York (JFK). For example, an off-peak business class award booking from LHR to JFK on November 4, returning on November 20 will set you back 100,000 Avios plus €952 in taxes and fees.
If you were to purchase the Explorer subscription plan giving you 100,000 Avios, the total cost of the award would be around £1,731 (£899 subscription fee plus £832 in taxes and fees).
You will pay substantially more if you purchase the same flights on the same dates for cash. The price of the exact tickets is £4,191. Opting to use the subscription plan to accumulate Avios will save you over £2,400 on one trip.
If you opted to purchase the adventurer tier giving you 200,000 Avios, the saving would be even larger due to the reduced Avios cost. This promotion can be excellent value if you can use your Avios well.
You can get even better value if you take advantage of some of BA's sweet spots. This includes awards from the contiguous U.S. to Hawaii on BA partners America or Alaska. Or Boston to Dublin for a mere 13,000 Avios in economy plus taxes and fees.
Other Ways to Accumulate Avios
If you're U.K.-based, you can't beat buying Avios at under 0.9 pence each. However, U.S. travelers have better ways than paying 1.53 cents each for Avios.
British Airways Avios are a pretty easy mileage currency to accumulate. You can transfer points to Executive Club at a 1:1 transfer ratio from:
- American Express Membership Rewards.
- Chase Ultimate Rewards.
- Capital One Miles.
You can also transfer Avios between Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, and Qatar accounts. That effectively opens the ability to transfer Citi Thank You Points to British Airways at a 1:1 transfer ratio via the Qatar Privilege Club program.
Alternatively, you can earn 75,000 bonus Avios by opening the British Airways Visa Signature® Card and meeting spending requirements:
- 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. Plus earn 1 Avios per $1 spent on all other purchases.
- 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
- 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
Our Take
AwardWallet users have gotten an average of 2.75 US cents when redeeming Avios. Business and first-class redemptions average an even higher 3.05 US cents per Avios. If you can take advantage of these high-value redemptions, purchasing Avios at under 0.9 pence — or even 1.53 cents — could make sense.
One thing to remember is that this promotion is going nowhere in a hurry. There's no set expiration date. So, unless you have some upcoming redemptions that you want to start building up your balance of Avios for, you are better off holding cash. Once your travel plans firm up, you can sign up to start earning Avios.
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You’ve missed a decimal when quoting pence. It should be 0.9 pence not 90 pence. 🙂