JohnAx

Avios are a money-printing machine for the airlines.

People love to look up the one-way unrestricted fare and use that large number to congratulate themselves on how valuable their avios were, but that's delusional. On competitive short-haul flights you'll be lucky to get two cents' worth out of them, ditto for long-haul biz class where I-class fares are available on BA or a competitor. (Don't forget to add the avios you -didn't- get because you didn't buy a revenue ticket to your cost for the award.)

If you use them for merchandise they generally appear to be worth a penny, but that comparison is to full retail, and if that same merchandise can be had at a discount you didn't even get your penny's worth.

The unsung benefit is that unlike paid fares to which BA likes to attach an exhorbitant change fee - 450 euro isn't hard to find - for award travel it's something like US$45 equivalent iirc. And cheap one-way biz-class fares are harder to find, so if you happen to need one, avios can be worth several cents (don't forget BA's surcharges in any case.)

nux

Not quite sure what prompted you to post that in this thread..

Avios definitely have a value and it is worth spending some money to keep them active if a sufficiently large amount were due to expire. I agree that you shouldn't calculate the value based on an airfare you wouldn't otherwise purchase and that it is important to include the avios not earnt on that revenue fare. However I have certainly been able to get around 1p+ value from shorthaul and longhaul redemptions - UuA's even more.

keano016

Having trouble with the e-store. Does it work for USA? When trying to join it is telling me I need a 16 digit number but my number is only 8 digits long.

Globaliser

Are you already a BAEC member? If so, log in to BAEC. If the website works for US members like for UK members, there will be a pod on the Executive Club welcome page that will take you to Gate 365, with no need to log in again.

keano016

Thanks. I was at the avio website that works for british folks that want to collect avio points. The Gate 356 site worked.

Would a purchase that credits avio points extend my points by 3 more years?

I am assuming the purchase does not have to be one of the special offers per each retailer?

Globaliser

Any Avios awarded to your account from any purchase through Gate 365 will extend the life of all of the Avios in that account.

Avios from Gate 365 are not always quick to post, though (and sometimes need to be retro-claimed) - there are probably more discussions about this above. So one thing you will need to think about is whether you have a time-critical need for activity in your account.

cityexpressytz

Just wanted to throw out another idea for those looking to keep their BA Avios account from expiring after 3 years. My 3-year expiry date was coming up shortly (not enough time to make a purchase on Gate 365 and wait for it to post to BA), so I was looking for a cheap/easy way to make a transaction. With only a few days left, I searched for Experiences in various cities trying to find the cheapest one available for Avios redemption (with no intention to actually use what I'd redeem for).

I found that admission to Linlithgow Palace in Edinburgh can be had for child, senior and adult for 550, 750 or 900 Avios, however when trying to book any one of these, a (false) message came up indicating I have insufficient Avios for this purchase and was not able to complete the transaction. It appears that any attempted redemption below 1000 Avios failed with this message. In the end, I successfully redeemed for a senior admission to the "Time Elevator Rome 3-D Movie and Simulated Ride" in Rome for 1100 Avios.

Anyone else in this situation may want to consider this option (The 3-D movie people will wonder how they got so popular!), or see if you have better luck with the Linlithgow Palace admission.

Flambert

Would any be kind enought to answer the question below. I Have read through faqs & threads but did not spot/track down the answer:-

If three members of a household account each have avios reaching expiry and one makes an avios redemption on for e.g an experience (which automatically takes a share of the spend from all members of that account) does that reset expiry for all or only the one making the redemption?

Thanks,

Flambs

DarlingStick

It resets expiry for all the members. Not because they are in your Household, but just as a side effect of that. Members' expiry date will reset every time there is a positive or negative change to their Avios balance.

Flambert

Many thanks, DarlingStick.

jarino

For expiring Avios on a BAEC account, would a transfer to/from IB or Avios be enough to reset the counter, too?

DarlingStick

No, sorry, should have mentioned that. The only Combine My Avios transaction that counts as activity is Diamond Club transfers. This is because those aren't actually Avios, but rather currency conversion from destination miles to Avios.

jarino

Thx for the clarification. I actually need to keep a former bmi account alive where the (only) transfer was nearly three years ago. Now I bought a Groupon Voucher for GBP 3 for a Quiche or Pie in London, 8x Avios = 24, received the tracking confirmation, I hope they post.
I could have gotten ice cream at Covent Garden for the same price, but that's so unhealthy! (even though I can't use the voucher anyway)

DarlingStick

I didn't recall Groupon being a British Airways Avios partner. Do they credit as eStore?

jarino

yes, Gate 365