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I recently wrote about how it is impossible to transfer Avios to Nectar Points online. When you try to do so, you’ll have the following message pop up:

As you can see from the above, it’s actually currently impossible to make a transfer from Avios to Nectar, at all, on a weekend (or evening), because you have to ring the call centre during standard business hours. Transfers in the other direction – from Nectar to Avios – still work fine and can be easily completed online.

You might think that setting up auto-conversion instead might be a solution, but unfortunately, it’s not:

Having spoken to a couple of agents now, it seems that this is more than just a temporary hiccup. (Probably) due to security issues – Nectar Points are much easier to spend immediately and anonymously compared to Avios – transfers have to be completed manually by agents. That process means transfers take 10 days, rather than happening instantly. That’s a very big difference!

Flexibility was a big selling point of the Avios/Nectar partnership, so taking away a big chunk of that isn’t great.

Fortunately, you can maintain that flexibility for yourself by ‘storing’ your Avios with Nectar. Remember, transfers from Nectar to Avios can still be done quickly and easily online.

Why should I care about Nectar?

1. It gives you the option to effectively trade your Avios for cash at a rate of 0.8p each. That’s pretty good.
2. Nectar has historically run all sorts of different ‘double up’ promotions, where the value of Nectar Points is boosted by 100% at certain companies, or for certain products. Imagine being able to effectively trade Avios for train vouchers at a rate of 1.6p each, for example. With the 10 day transfer time, you might miss out on those sort of deals, unless you already have a stash of Nectar Points ready.

Caveat

If you have a lot of Avios, storing all of them with Nectar probably wouldn’t be a good idea, because there is a 50,000 Avios (80,000 Nectar) monthly transfer limit. If the aim is increasing your points/miles flexibility, locking them up like that wouldn’t be smart. You should still definitely consider having 50,000 Avios (80,000 Nectar) over with Nectar though…