Why booking a British Airways flight for less than $2 is not a good way to use your Avios

06.05.2024 - 20:07 / thepointsguy.com / Colm Lacy

British Airways Executive Club recently introduced a tempting new offer to reduce the price of any BA-operated flight to just 1 British pound (about $1.25) by using Avios, but here's why it is not a good deal.

BA has offered short-haul flights for just 1 pound round-trip using Avios (Reward Flight Saver) but has now extended this to all flights operated worldwide in any cabin.

Unlike fixed-price "Book with Avios" redemptions, which are limited in availability, the new 1-pound flights are a reduction of any BA-operated flight by applying Avios to reduce the cash price; it's sometimes referred to as "Avios part payment."

Related: British Airways Executive Club: Guide to Avios, elite status and transfer partners

"We've listened to our Members' feedback and we're really excited to be introducing this latest update for them," Colm Lacy, British Airways' chief commercial officer, said in a statement. "We know that most of our customers choose the lowest cash amount when it comes to making Reward Flight bookings, so we anticipate this to be a popular option for those using Avios part payment too."

Executive Club members will still collect Avios and tier points on any flights booked using cash and Avios. So, while it may seem like a good way to use your Avios and fly for free, unfortunately, it's not. Let's crunch the numbers.

Say you want to fly from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Heathrow Airport (LHR) this summer.

You can book nonstop flights with BA for $1,393 round-trip in standard economy, which includes checked baggage.

You could either pay this cash fare in full or choose to reduce the price with Avios.

I have almost 150,000 Avios in my account, which would not be enough to reduce the price to 1 pound, but I could redeem my entire Avios balance to take $794 off the price.

Redeeming 145,750 Avios to save $794 would give my Avios a value of about 0.0054 cents each, and I would still need to pay the remaining balance of $599.

This is well below TPG's current valuation of Avios at 1.5 cents each.

However, rather than booking a cash fare (which I could reduce the price of with Avios), I could search for an Avios redemption ("Book with Avios") and book the same flights for 60,000 Avios, plus 150 British pounds (about $188).

While I would not earn Avios or tier points for an Avios redemption, as I would for the cash fare, I would save myself 85,750 Avios and $411 with this option. Therefore, I would not have to redeem my entire Avios balance and would pay less cash out of pocket.

Compared with the $1,393 cash ticket (minus the $185 in fees, taxes and carrier charges), redeeming 60,000 Avios to save $1,208 would give my Avios a value of 2 cents each, above our current valuation of 1.5 cents.

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