It’s back – buy up to 100,000 Avios, from 1.02p, via Groupon

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

• John says:

  30 Nov30 November 21:31

  BA have 50% bonus on Avios purchases at present…

• Joe says:

  30 Nov30 November 23:48

  I have to admit I’ve only been collecting Avios for a year so I’m quite new but I recently made my first redemptions. I got a £1400 discount on Club World flights to Cairo for 43,500 Avios (i.e. 3.21 pence per point; weirdly I’m flying there on the A321) and a £1,660 discount on Club World flights to the UAE for 39,000 Avios (i.e. 4.26 pence per point).

  So I’ve just gone ahead and bought 60,000 Avios on the Groupon offer for €747 (ironic) / £632. My thinking is that if I can redeem for the average of 4.26p and 3.21p (again weirdly, 7.47 ÷ 2) then I should be able to get £2,241 worth of discounts out of those points. Seems like a no brainer.

  I’m annoyed at myself for not spotting the Iberia Shopping Portal option! Damn it.

  On the plus side I called up to cancel my AMEX Gold the other day (because I already triggered the bonus and I always use the LBG card). When I told them why I wanted to cancel they bumped my Membership Rewards earning rate to 2 points per £1 until end of Feb. AMEX MR Points transfer to Avios 1:1. Worth doing if anyone’s in the same boat.

  • HIDeHi says:

    1 Dec1 December 07:34

    Club world on an A321?

    I don’t really understand your discount but if flights to Cairo in Club World on an A321 are £1400+, for one person then they are way overpriced.. Maybe its for more than one person?

  • Genghis says:

    1 Dec1 December 07:53

    Hi Joe. It looks like you’ve overlooked the taxes? Also it’s best to consider what you would have paid for the flight and value points accordingly. For instance, id never pay £1,400 to Cairo…

    • Joe says:

      1 Dec1 December 09:08

      Hi @HIDeHi @Genghis

      It’s just one traveller and taxes not overlooked.

      I absolutely needed the flights to Cairo and I had no real flexibility because I’d booked a mix of First and Business with Qatar from Cairo to New York via Doha (for £900 return cash!). It’s an absolutely mental route but I really wanted to try the First Class Al Safwa Lounge in Doha and also Qatar’s Business Class on its A350 which Skytrax has just awarded world’s best business for 2016. I’m also stopping in Cairo for one night each way and managed to get into the Kempinski for £70!

      Anyway, I recently saw some photos of BA’s A321s which are former BMI planes and fitted with a different type of hard product than BA’s usual Club World seat in a much more spacious config. I really wanted to try that too so decided to go Club both ways to Cairo. My dates are out 15th March, return 29th March and the tickets have been priced at £2001 for a while (and still are now; you can check on Google Flights). I was going to pay with Avios in full for 62,500 + £300 taxes. However I realised that if I did ‘book with cash, upgrade with Avios’ the fare was going to be £600 + 50000 Avios (but because I was doing it this way I would earn 6,500 Avios back because I’m essentially on a ‘cash booking’ not an Avios booking. So the offset cost was 43,500 Avios + £600 cash. Hence the calculation that I got a £1400 discount (on a £2001 fare) for just 43,500 Avios).

• CardiffJock says:

  1 Dec1 December 13:46

  Hi Joe

  I can certainly see the benefit of using Avios instead of paying a salty £2,001 for a BA Business class return to Cairo.

  However, I’d count 62,500 Avios plus £300 as a better deal than 43,500 Avios + £600. Doing the latter means you’re essentially spending an extra £300 of hard cash in order to save yourself 19,000 Avios. Put another way, by doing it this way you’re effectively ‘buying’ 19,000 Avios for £300, which means each od those retained Avios is really costing you 1.58p… which is pretty expensive. Most on here wouldn’t pay more than 1p an Avios.

  That said, I appreciate there could be Tier Point/status considerations, as you wouldn’t earn TP for a redemption.

• Nova oferta de compra de Avios via Groupon: 100 mil Avios por 1.245 euros (~R$ 5.099,05) | Meu Milhão de Milhas says:

  3 Dec3 December 19:37

  […] Fonte: Head For Points […]

• Craig Strickland says:

  19 Dec19 December 16:54

  Avios seem to be a little slower this time, has anyone had theirs credited yet?

  • Craig Strickland says:

    20 Dec20 December 21:23

    Posted today.

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.