AnttiV

Just got an email from BA about a new subscription service where you basically pay ££££ monthly to get Avios credited each month.

Somehow I don’t see this as a very attrative offer but can’t blame them for trying…

https://pgt.shopping.ba.com/subscription

marcopizzaiuolo

With the offer price it may not be that bad actually …

Barclays Premier with mortgage, and insurance, £144 annual fee, you get 27300 Avios per year plus an upgrade voucher.

now for £185 they offer you 240,000 Avios and I think that is worth more then the Barclays deal (as I do not think that the voucher can be used for First class upgrades)

Karen Jackson

How much is 240,000 avios worth at sainsburys?

Fatdickie

£8 per 1,000 Avios so £1,920

I suspect there may me a typo somewhere
240k may only be 24k and someone may have typed an additional zero

Fatdickie

​​​​​
Yeah just looked at the link

20,000 Avios per year
(total of 1,667 Avios/month)

Someone has read that as 20,000 Avios per month rather than per year and multiplied by 12 to get 240k

Its paying £185 for 20,000 Avios
worth £160 in Sainsburys

Oxon Flyer

So, what’s the value-for-money analysis of this scheme, relative to the datum 0.8p per Avios ?

JessicaB

The cost of the scheme is 0.89p per Avios if you go for the highest tier, ie £149 per month. One Mile at a Time has said that this is significantly lower than the best offer price that BA has when they do a bonus - the lowest price they have seen is 0.107p per Avios. And if you did buy 200,000 Avios without there being a deal, the price would be £3,215, so that would be 1.6p per Avios, twice as much. Is that what you were asking?

Personally I am tempted. I always seem to end up having to buy Avios and it would be helpful to have this plan working in the background to top up what I earn on the Amex.

Some important bits from the small print:

You can either pay monthly or yearly. If you pay yearly you get two months free. Either way you still only get the Avios credited every month, so basically the upfront payment just makes it cheaper.

If you opt for the monthly payment, the minimum term is 3 months. If you pay upfront annually you're obviously tied in for a year.

As well as the 200,000 which you could buy on this scheme, you can also buy 200,000 more if you need to. So these 200,000 add to the normal 200,000 limit.

BrunswickSq

Buy them on your BA Amex and get 5/£5 extra tier points and 20 % of the way to your companion voucher - so 200,000 could be £1789 for two first class returns to anywhere.

JessicaB

Alas I think you mean extra Avios, not Tier Points (alas). If you pay with a Premium Plus Amex card, you get 3 Avios per £1 spent with BA, so that would be an additional 5,367 if you go for the top plan.

bisonrav

Depends if it counts as spend with BA, which avios purchases tend not to.

JD1905

I'd have been half tempted if reward availability wasn't so poor, even on domestic short haul flights. £179 for 16,667 Avios each month is pretty much a return flight for me and my partner from BHD-LHR each month, the cash price for this now is usually higher.

corporate-wage-slave

I prefer to use 1 penny per Avios as the valuation point. If it's a case of keeping it simple, if you can get 1p or more off a fare via Avios compared to (say) cash, then Avios becomes interesting. It's possible, but tricky, to get 2p value per Avios, or even getting to 3p with low cost WTP to CW UUA. Or Mykonos / Santorini / ski-ing at Half Term holidays when you can get 5p or more. But 2p is a good target for Avios use, and this rules out most part pay with Avios, unless there is a deal on. But getting 1p per Avios is possible on part pay at the £10 / 1000 Avios entry point and very possible if you do a straight redemption and throw more cash in.

So at the very top end of the spectrum, where you are paying on the yearly scheme AND you are totally sure you're going to use Avios, then this is worth consideration IF you struggle to get Avios via travelling or other retail opportunities such as BP. The sort of person would perhaps be a couple who have an annual 2-4-1 jaunt London to Singapore, perhaps a few CE weekend breaks, but not many other earning Avios options. So if you have a Plan, this could be part of that. You earn Avios at below 1p an Avios (0.9p at the top end), you spend at 2p an Avios.

TAP has had a scheme like this for some time, but there one has two interesting twists which BA have not (yet) considered: firstly in addition to the monthly accrural of Avios equivalients (bonus miles), they increasse this by any TAP flights you take, so perhaps 25% extra Avios equivalents on top of the usual earn. They also give some Tier Point equivalents (status miles) every month. It's not a lot but probably swings some people over the status hurdles. If BA had done that I think they would have made the scheme more attractive.

joorinainen

Great value IMHO considering how insane the ticket prices are for some routes and airlines (example QR). Depends of course ones personal travel patterns, routes, YQ's on rewards etc.. I subscribed in a heartbeat for the "adventure package".

HadesNL

Some blogs say this is the best thing ever since sliced bread....

More Avios easy available...
but
Also more Avios means straining award availability resources
Let alone the shock of some steep increases in surcharges + taxes on avios tickets....

carrotjuice

Once many people subscribe to this, cue the next round of stealthy devaluations…