British Airways offering Avios points as a flight refund option – is it worth it?

British Airways has added the option to take Avios rather than a cash refund or voucher if your flight is cancelled.

This only applies to normal cash tickets, not the taxes element of Avios redemptions, and it requires your flight to have been cancelled.  It is not available if you voluntarily ask for a refund under the ‘Book With Confidence’ guarantee.

The offer is only available over the telephone, although that doesn’t make a lot of difference at the moment given that online refunds are still unavailable!  It does mean that you won’t be offered it if you are cancelling a travel agent-booked flight, however, as these are cancelled electronically.

This is a one-shot offer – you cannot change your mind once you have accepted.   To be clear, this offer is in addition to your cash refund rights and vouchers which will continue to be offered.

Is this good value?

You need to look at this as buying Avios with cash since that is effectively what you are doing given that the cash alternative is on the table.

You should only go ahead if you would have done the same deal if BA had launched a ‘buy Avios’ deal at the same rate.

That said, the rate is VERY attractive at half the normal ‘buy Avios’ price.  In other words, it is the equivalent of getting a 100% bonus on the usual ‘buy Avios’ price.

Here are some typical examples, assuming that British Airways is using exactly half of the standard ‘buy Avios’ price:

£127 – 15,000 Avios – 0.85p per Avios
£250 – 28,600 Avios – 0.83p per Avios
£567 – 70,000 Avios – 0.81p per Avios
£1607 – 200,000 Avios – 0.8p per Avios

0.8p is better than the 0.92p you would have paid under the 75% buy Avios bonus that British Airways recently offered. This was the most generous bonus we have ever seen.  Even the irregular Groupon Avios offers are generally just above 1.0p per Avios.

At this rate, you should be able to make a ‘profit’ when using the Avios on flight redemptions.  Based on Rob’s spreadsheet of the last 7.7 million Avios he redeemed, he got 1.18p of value.  This is using very conservative valuations for the flights booked, eg valuing a Business Class flight to Dubai at £1,500 because even if BA isn’t charging that there is usually a deal with a secondary airline.

As our core article on ‘What is an Avios worth?’ shows, it is easy to get a lot more than 0.8p.  Rob’s 1.18p real-life valuation is low because he does a lot of Gold Priority Rewards (using double Avios to force open a seat, mainly due to school holiday restrictions) and doesn’t always have a BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher to use.

Conclusion

In the current circumstances, you might be happier to have cash in the bank rather than adding to your Avios collection.  I wouldn’t blame you for that.

However, if you don’t need the money urgently, this is an EXCELLENT opportunity to pick up a lot of Avios VERY cheaply indeed.

Remember that this offer is in addition to existing cash refunds or vouchers, and not a replacement, so no-one is losing out.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)