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British Airways — as with several other airlines that use Avios as their mileage currency — offers an Avios subscription model. This allows you to purchase Avios, which are delivered to your account on a monthly basis. The plan offers four subscription tiers, giving you between 20,000 and 200,000 Avios per year.
This Avios subscription plan allows British Airways Club members based in the United Kingdom to effectively purchase Avios from as little as 0.99 pence each — or just 1.29 cents each if you're based in the U.S.
Key Terms
- You can choose to subscribe to a yearly or monthly plan.
- Any British Airways Club member can take part.
- Monthly plans have a minimum term of three months.
- Yearly plans have a minimum term of 12 months.
- 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 or more 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 £259 per year or £26 per month. Paid out as 1,667 Avios per month.
- Traveler: Receive 50,000 Avios per year, costing £549 per year or £55 per month. Paid out at 4,167 Avios per month.
- Explorer: Receive 100,000 Avios per year, costing £1,049 per year or £105 per month. Paid out as 8,334 Avios per month.
- Adventurer: Receive 200,000 Avios per year, costing £1,989 per year or £199 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 1.3 pence (1.74 US cents) apiece.
- Traveler: Avios cost 1.1 pence (1.48 US cents) apiece.
- Explorer: Avios cost 1.05 pence (1.41 US cents) apiece.
- Adventurer: Avios cost 0.99 pence (1.34 US cents) apiece.
What About Members Not Based in the U.K.?
British Airways advertises prices in Great British Pounds (GBP) in emails to U.S. members and when U.S. members click through to subscribe. You'll see prices in Great British Pounds (GBP) on the main subscription page even as a U.S. member, but once you click through, you'll see the price in U.S. dollars (USD).
Deep in the terms and conditions, you'll find this:
14. The transaction currency will be pre-determined based on the registered country of the British Airways Club account.
It appears U.S.-based British Airways Club members will actually see lower rates for these same annual subscription plans:
- Voyager: Receive 20,000 Avios per year costing $339 per year or $34 per month.
- Traveler: Receive 50,000 Avios per year costing $719 per year or $72 per month.
- Explorer: Receive 100,000 Avios per year costing $1,365 per year or $137 per month.
- Adventurer: Receive 200,000 Avios per year costing $2,575 per year or $258 per month.
If you opt for the annual subscription plan, the cost per Avios of each subscription plan would be:
- Voyager: Avios cost 1.70 cents apiece.
- Traveler: Avios cost 1.44 cents apiece.
- Explorer: Avios cost 1.37 cents apiece.
- Adventurer: Avios cost 1.29 cents apiece.
As you can see, British Airways is charging Club members based in the U.S. a little less than their U.K. counterparts for an annual Avios subscription.
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, a round-trip, off-peak business class award booking from New York (JFK) to London (LHR) on December 15, 2025, returning on January 15, 2026, will set you back 160,000 Avios plus £375 in taxes and fees.
If you were based in the U.K. and looking to purchase a yearly subscription to get enough Avios, you would need to purchase the Adventurer subscription, giving you 200,000 Avios at 0.99 pence a piece.
Using 160,000 Avios for the award will cost you £1,591 (160,000 x 0.99) plus £375 (in taxes and fees), for a total of £1,966 for the round-trip business award.
You will pay substantially more if you purchase the same flights on the same dates for cash. The price of the exact tickets is £3,431. Opting for the subscription plan to accumulate Avios and pay for your fare will save you around £1,500 ($2,000) on a single trip.
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.
How to Boost Your BA Avios Balance
If you're U.K.-based, you can't beat buying Avios at under 1 pence each. And it's an even better deal for U.S.-based travelers to buy at 1.29 cents each. But you may be able to generate Avios quickly and at no cost.
When it comes to quickly boosting your BA Avios balance, you are spoiled for choice and can transfer flexible credit card points from all of the following programs.
If all of those partners were not enough, 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 85,000 bonus Avios by opening the British Airways Visa Signature® Card and meeting spending requirements:
- Limited-Time Offer: Earn 85,000 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
Our Take
AwardWallet users have gotten an average of 2.55¢ U.S. cents when redeeming Avios. Business and first-class redemptions average an even higher 3.27¢ US cents per Avios. If you can take advantage of these high-value redemptions, purchasing Avios at 0.99 pence or even 1.29 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.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: British Airways Visa Signature® Card (Rates & Fees)
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