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Both British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus have just launched “flash sales” on buying Avios points, with the Iberia Plus bonus Avios offer allowing you to buy Avios points for as little as around 1 pence each (you can of course then transfer them to BA, if needed).
The BA flash sale runs until Thursday 26 May, while the Iberia Plus flash(ish) sale runs until Sunday 29 May.
With the 40% bonus applied, the “best value” maths is as follows:
At the top end, you’ll get 140,000 Avios (100k plus 40k bonus) for £1,615. That is 1.15pence per Avios.
Iberia Plus
Again at the top end, you’ll get 140,000 Avios (100k plus 40k bonus) for €1800. At today’s exchange rates (€1800 = £1382), that is 0.99 pence per Avios.
Of course, you do not have to buy the 100k (+40k amount), but the offer gets incrementally worse value the fewer Avios you buy.
Taking the Iberia Plus example, the lowest amount of Avios you can buy is 2,800 (including the 40% bonus) for €54 (£41.50), so 1.48p per Avios. With BA, you can buy 1,400 Avios (including the 40% bonus) for £31, so 2.21p per Avios (2,800 is £47, so 1.68p per Avios).
The bottom line is this, however: I am not a big fan of buying Avios points at the best of times, and the only option I am likely to go near here is the Iberia Plus 0.99p per Avios price. However, this requires you to buy 140,000 Avios! Given that I have a large Avios stash at the moment, it does not interest me. An example of where it might interest you would be if you had a BA Amex Companion Voucher, and this enabled you to get a First or Business Class long haul option, where you could then bring a partner along without paying any additional Avios.
The lower amounts may also prove “value for money” if they gain you the few thousand extra Avios required to make a redemption booking.
As noted above, you can transfer Iberia Plus Avios to BA Executive Club via the “Combine My Avios” option, although your Iberia Plus account must be at least 90 days old before you can do this. Another slight issue is that you must have earned an Avios point in your Iberia Plus account before you can buy miles, so this may not be an instant option for everyone.
Tai says
Hi all,
If person A gifts the maximum Iberia Avios to person B (say 100,000+ 40,000 with the current bonus), can person B still buy 100,000 for himself (+40,000)? I find their T&Cs unclear in this regard.
I would like to use my wife’s account to gift Avios to myself and then buy Avios for myself so that all Avios are in one account (I don’t’ have a household account for various reasons).
Thanks in advance.