asdf098

I am planning some travel on a short-haul route that would fall under the 9,000 Avios rt bracket, but costs upwards of $900 in cash. I have a brand new BAEC account with a balance of 0 Avios points.

The flight I found via BA is 9,000 points + $55 cash. The same flight, if booking in cash from US Airways, is $943. Obviously the points here would have a huge value to me.

Now, BA does allow you to purchase Avios for yourself (https://www.britishairways.com/trave...rchaseType=Buy). Buying 9,000 points would cost $273. So even if I were to just buy those points outright to book this flight, I would only spend 273 + 55 = 328 which is much much below the cash price of $900+. At this point I would gladly buy the points and book the flight that way.

Unfortunately, it seems I'm not allowed to buy points since I have a balance of 0. I checked the terms and conditions and it says

"5.The Purchaser must be a Member of the British Airways Executive Club and aged 18 or over and have at least one Avios Point in their Executive Club account."

When I try to go through the purchase process, I get "•The Executive Club account you specified is not eligible to purchase Avios."

Is there a quick way I can earn Avios for this flight? I am traveling in 2-3 weeks and would like to book it ASAP (though BA still has plenty of award seat availability on those flights). I looked at the BA Visa with 50k signup bonus, but mailing times + time for statement to close and points to post means I wouldn't get it in time. If I could even just get 1 Avios point so that I can buy the rest, that would be a lifesaver.

I don't have any Amex MR, and I just got approved for a CSP yesterday, so obviously don't have the card yet and can't spend to get UR points.

snuffi

quickly do a pile of erewards surveys, or a transfer from another account?

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Doesn't BA have an affiliated online shopping mall?

jerry a. laska

Fastest is to purchase the avios at ba.com. Otherwise have a look here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...arn-avios.html

icegreen

Rewards for thoughts? When you enrol with Rewards for Thoughts and complete your first survey, you’ll collect 600 Avios
http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/...avios/shopping
click on Join Rewards for Thoughts

shorthauldad

Find a place where frequent fliers, err, frequent, find a forum with a few people who might have lots of Avios, quickly make a friend or sixteen, pick one, and have them book the flight for you?

Then buy them $273 of drinks as a totally unrelated gesture?

The thought of buying 9k Avios for $273 makes me wince, although I understand why the OP wants to do this

EDIT: to the OP - have you got any hotel points or Amex MRs you could convert?

HIDDY

Let us know which route it is. I'm sure someone will come up with a much cheaper fare than that. Even a return ticket will likely be cheaper.

asdf098

I'm looking into erewards / Rewards for Thoughts. Unfortunately I don't have any points that I can transfer in. I checked the other threads linked here and some people suggest using the shopping portal. I'm going to give that a try and see if it works for me.

asdf098

The route is PHL-YYZ Mar 31 - Feb 10. I fly between these two cities a lot and it's always expensive. It's possible with United for around $450 return with stops but that's still more expensive than the US Airways/Avios option.

Cymro

Can you register for Avis Preferred via http://www.avisba.com

Worst case scenario, you have to rent a car for a few dollars for a day.

madfish

What about avios suitcase on facebook then transfer these to BAEC?

Cymro

Doesn't that require a UK registered Avios account though?

I know that there is a minimum period for Iberia accounts to be open before you can transfer - not sure if that applies to pure Avios accounts as well.

BLHD

A couple of months ago the contact centres were happy to add 1 Avios to an account for precisely this reason. Give BA a call.

asdf098

Update: Called BA and they refused to add 1 point to my account -- told me to use the online shopping portal.

Also just tried rewards for thoughts, got the following message:

Looking into the other options listed here and in other threads...

wadewadewade

That's an Iberia only restriction