canadavid

It is possible to buy Avios at a discounted price on french private sale website www.vente-privee.com
You need to register for an account ot access the sale.
Avios can be credited to both BA or IB.
100000 maximum and it expands validity of your avios for 36 months

⇒ 2 000 Avios for 21€ instead of 54€
⇒ 4 000 Avios for 45€ instead of 91€
⇒ 8 000 Avios for 99€ instead of 164€
⇒ 12 000 Avios for 145€ instead of 238€
⇒ 20 000 Avios for 229€ instead of 385€
⇒ 35 000 Avios for 399€ instead of 665€

Then it is 0,0114€/avios
Is it a good price ?

memesweeper

For me, that's not quite cheap enough to make me buy. Close though!

Anyone's buying decisions should be based on
- do you trust the retailer
- are you a bit short for a likely redemption coming up soon
- what value do you get from your redemptions

BA or bust

I would be quite wary of buying Avios anything but through the official routes, because there is a risk of not getting anything, having someone strip your account or BA rejecting the transaction and you having no recourse.

Buyer beware!

memesweeper

I've had them fail to credit through official routes! (Iberia and Groupon )

Blueboys999

OK, who is going to take 1 for the team?

Cris L

But no Avios deal showing!

im wondering if this is because it located me in U.K.?

canadavid

Probably. It has to be on the french website (categorie "Le Voyage")

By the way, i already made 50-60 purchase on this website without any problem. It is reliable website !
You get a voucher and can redeem it on the following website: https://www.aviosvouchers.com

flygod

In UK terms, that is almost exactly 1p per avios.

I just "paid" 0.73p per avios to BA by using the "part pay with avios" on a reward ticket.

And in the BA Avios sale I got offered a 30% discount.

Yes, if I had used all those routes, was avios poor and wanted to use my 241, then I suppose it is an OK deal.

But to be frank, I almost always find better deals in business, paying cash, on the routes I fly.

Keeping my avios for the recent last-minute deal for a funeral and - perhaps - direct to the Maldives one day. (Had though take Qatar from EDI, rather than BA via LGW, but the electronic ban is now persuading me otherwise. I like reading my Kindle!)

waffle

Qatar is not (currently) affected by the UK electronics ban.

:D!

Do you mean part pay with avios on a paid ticket? If yes, then you didn't pay for the avios. BA paid you to buy back your avios.

It is also possible to buy additional avios at the point of making a redemption, if you don't have enough, but this doesn't have a specific name

But if booking up to 12 months in advance it may be better not to assume anything

corporate-wage-slave

Correct, so this is poor use of Avios, since you are getting some 0.73p value per Avios, and in my opinion you should be looking for 2p value or more.

However some part pay options give over 1p: sometimes BA has a deal on in this area, about twice a year (not at the moment) where the effective value is over 1p. Also with some part pay combinations, notably with Iberia and Level, that figure is much better, so you can save (e.g.) 25,000 Avios for an extra £150, a rate of 1.67 pence. The BA equivalent would cost around £300. Finally some BA part pay rates are neutral, so near the 1p mark, in which case it may be worth paying more cash tactically, if you can get more 2p value elsewhere or can combine with a 2-4-1. Plus of course if the alternative was cash (due to having insufficient Avios for highest Avios rates) then you have to be wary of comparing a relatively flexible Avios ticket with an inflexible cash ticket.

[Though be careful, Iberia redemptions cannot be cancelled away from Iberia,Level,BA, Vueling, Nostrum, plus multi-partner bookings]

ringingup

Can you clarify on this? I thought Iberia redemptions booked via Iberia were refundable.

BA6501

You can cancel an IB Avios ticket on IB/BA/VY/YW. Partner redemptions can't be cancelled. I'm not 100% sure on multipartner awards.

corporate-wage-slave

That's what I said? There is a small cancel fee for IB however.

David-A

I think @flygod does mean a reward ticket as they said, not a revenue (paid).

Although I believe @flygod is talking about a reward ticket.

i.e. they have reduced the number of Avios they would have used, in return for contributing some cash.
I've often effectively bought Avios at well under 1p each using this method, the figure of 0.73p seems entirely believable to me.

With hindsight, I wish I had not done this as often, as I still have far, far too many Avios for my liking when considering devaluation risk. At least cash can be invested/interest, etc.

But reducing Avios for cash is a jolly good approach to buy them - but find the sweet spot on the scale you are offered. It can vary which notch is cheapest.