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British Airways has temporarily boosted the ‘Part Pay With Avios’ option by 25%.

Enjoy 25% extra on the usual savings when part paying for your flight with Avios.

As an Executive Club Member, you can get more from your Avios by taking advantage of our exclusive 6 day offer. Until 11 July 2017 you can save up to £375 per person on long haul and short haul premium and non premium flights from all UK airports when you part pay with Avios.

Simply book your flights before 11 July 2017 for travel between 1 September 2017 and 31 May 2018.

‘Part Pay With Avios’ only applies to flights originating in the UK (Returns are fine though of course!).

The exact amount you will save per Avios varies depending on Class of service and how many Avios you want to redeem, but the upshot is that you’ll get ~1p per Avios when redeeming small amounts down to 0.68p per Avios when redeeming larger quantities.

Good deal?

At InsideFlyer, we tend to think of Avios as being worth roughly 1p each, so although the boost is far from spectacular, it does merit a bit of analysis.

The first thing to say is that calculating whether this is a good deal or not is obviously hugely subjective, so take the following with a suitable pinch of salt.

On the face of it, if you value Avios at ~1p and have a reasonable stockpile, then redeeming for 1p is fine and redeeming for 0.68p isn’t.

There are two other key elements to factor though (which may or may not already be taken into account in your personal valuation of Avios):

• You can use your Avios towards the cost of any flight – you are not reliant on award availability.
•  You still earn Avios and Tier Points when you use ‘Part Pay With Avios’

Given the challenges that many readers face with finding Avios availability, being able to book what you like and still use your Avios for a reasonable discount could well be more attractive than any ‘theoretical’ valuation. I think that’s a very significant consideration if you have a lot of Avios and/or travel as a family and need to book 4+ seats.

Looking at the second point, let’s take the (admittedly quite extreme) example of a Club Europe Return to Funchal, Madeira.

The flights would earn 4,576 Avios (more if you have elite status) and 160 Tier Points.

Factoring in the Avios earned has to be done in order to come to a fair valuation, so the net cost would be 18,424 Avios to save £175. That’s only a little under 1p per Avios.

Valuing Tier Points is more subjective – some people aren’t aiming for BA status and won’t care about them at all, while others place serious value on elite status.

If you have a decent amount of Avios saved up and are chasing status, I would actually be very tempted to take advantage of the Part Pay boost to wrack up some cheap Tier Points.

Bottom line

I find myself valuing Avios less each year, apart from for some quite specific redemptions. I’ve therefore switched where I focus my Points/Miles earning over the last few years towards flexible ‘currencies’ like Amex MR Points, SPG Starpoints, and to programmes that still allow great value Business/First Class redemptions like Alaska Mileage Plan.

By reducing my Avios collecting and only using them for relatively high value redemptions I can still personally justify the 1p per Avios valuation, but if you’ve got a big stash and struggle to find ways to use them, this could be a decent opportunity even if the theoretical value isn’t great. If you’re after BA status and can use Avios to discount cheap Tier Point runs – even better!

The boosted the ‘Part Pay With Avios’ offer isn’t great and certainly won’t suit everyone, but there might be more to consider than first glance suggests.

Terms

1. Under the Avios part payment offer, Executive Club Members can save 25% more per person, compared to the standard Avios part payment savings, when booking a British Airways or American Airlines flight. For example, during this offer, you can save from £25 per person on a return flight in World Traveller using from 2,500 Avios instead of the regular savings of £20 per person.
2. This offer is only available to those Members logged in to their Executive Club account or Avios Travel Rewards Programme account who have a sufficient Avios balance for travel on British Airways and American Airlines flights from all UK airports to all long haul and short haul destinations operated by British Airways and American Airlines. Offer only valid on British Airways and American Airlines flight-only bookings, which are booked during the booking period set out below for travel during the travel period set out below.
3. Booking period: 12:00 GMT 6 July 2017 – 23:59 GMT 11 July 2017.
4. Travel period: 1 September 2017 – 31 May 2018.
5. Cabins: Euro Traveller (economy), World Traveller (economy), World Traveller Plus (premium economy), Club World (business), Club Europe (business) and First cabins only.
6. You are bound by full Executive Club Terms and Conditions.
7. Part payment with Avios is governed by the conditions of use.