Last Updated: 20 Feb 2024
While we’re all busy looking for ways to pick up the maximum Avios for free, it’s easy to overlook the fact you can also buy British Airways’ loyalty currency.
It’s a faster way to bag some reward flights or a cabin upgrade if you’re short of Avios, but is it financially worth it?
Whilst still offering its usual opportunity to buy Avios at a fixed rate, BA is dangling a new subscription offer to make paying for points a more attractive proposition. Here’s the lowdown.
BA’s Avios subscription plan
As a BA Executive Club member, you can sign up for an Avios subscription plan. You can pay either monthly, or annually upfront, the latter effectively giving you two months for free.
You’ll receive a certain number of Avios each month; the more you’re prepared to pay the better the deal. You can also gift or share points from your subscription, should you wish.
The points are usually available to spend straight away, though may take up to three working days to appear in your account.
There are four plans:
Voyager: 1,667 Avios per month (20,000 per year) for £19 a month or £185 per year.
Traveller: 4,167 Avios per month (50,000 per year) for £45 a month / £455 a year.
Explorer: 8,334 Avios per month (100,000 per year) for £89 a month / £899 a year.
Adventurer: 16,667 Avios per month (200,000 per year) for £179 a month / £1,789 a year.
The reduced cost annual fee means you are committed for a year, the monthly plan commits you for a minimum of three months and your payment will auto-renew so you’ll need to be careful to opt out ahead of that time if that’s your intention.
You’ll need to have at least one Avios in your BA Executive Club account to start on the scheme.
Why would you buy Avios?
While you can part-pay with Avios on any flight, reward flights must be made entirely with the currency (bar the fees and taxes, which are always paid in cash). So if you’re close to the full number and need a top-up, then buying Avios may be a sound option.
This is particularly helpful if you have a valuable Barclaycard Avios upgrade voucher or British Airways American Express Companion Voucher that is likely to expire before you reach enough Avios for a reward flight.
With the subscription scheme, you will always have some Avios handy, though remember you will receive them in monthly batches even if you pay for a year upfront.
When you know how much your Avios cost to buy it’s easier to compare the price in Avios of reward flights or part payment in Avios against the loyalty currency’s worth in cash to make sure you get the best value.
Is the subscription scheme worth it?
The value of an Avios is a rather fluid concept as the points are worth more or less depending on how and when you redeem them. However, it’s easy to compare the fixed fees BA charges you for ad hoc purchases of Avios against how much they work out through the subscription scheme.
Compare the Adventurer tier cost of 200,000 annual Avios at £1,789 for the year to
£3,215, which, according to BA’s chart, you would pay for the same amount on a one-off basis and it works out to a significant saving of £1,426.
Even the lowest Voyager plan will mean you’re paying £185 a year for 20,000 Avios, which would normally cost you £335. If you pay monthly this would be the equivalent of £19 a month against £28.
Even if you stayed in the scheme for only a year it would still work out worth it for a short-term purchase towards Avios reward flights than if you simply bought the Avios ad hoc from BA’s fixed fee scheme.
If you look out for BA’s one-off Avios buying promotions – where you get bonus Avios you may get a decent deal but never usually lower than the Adventurer tier offers.
Generally, it’s best to aim for under 1p per Avios for a good deal, which, at 0.92p per Avios for the annual Voyager plan down to 0.89p per Avios for the annual Adventurer plan, the subscription scheme can offer.
In a further clever move, you could even use an Avios credit card to pay your subscription fees, so picking up some extra Avios in the process.
If the main attraction is a regular Avios payout, you might also want to weigh up the subscription scheme against how much you could earn as you spend on one of the Avios credit cards from Amex or Barclaycard, (providing you pay off your balance every month).
Using BA examples and our reward seat finder for spending value
To further work out if the subscription scheme may be worth your while, check out BA’s Reward Flight Savers to give you an idea of what you might be able to buy with your Avios (remembering these deals also reduce the fees and taxes you would pay in cash on a regular reward flight).
Reward Flight Savers are displayed alongside fares on britishairways.com when they are available but as an example, Europe flight prices start from £1 + 18,500 Avios and North America and the Middle East from £100 + 50,000 Avios.
Remember, getting the best value on regular reward flights very much depends on how and when you cash in your Avios. Using our reward seat finder will help you search and compare Avios reward flights across a wider range of criteria than on the BA website. You can even set alerts so you’ll find out when new seats are released.