British Airways Avios is one of the best programs out there for short haul travel. There’s no other program where 9,000 points is enough for a short-haul business class redemption for tickets that can run upwards of $400.
Qantas Business Class
There are a few ways to earn Avios in Canada. American Express Membership Rewards are probably your best bet at a 1:1 transfer ratio. These four charge cards earn points transferrable to Avios:
- American Express Business Platinum Card: Get up to 75,000 Membership Rewards Points!
- American Express Business Gold Card: Get up to 40,000 Membership Rewards Points!
- American Express Platinum Card: Get up to 60,000 Membership Reward Points!
- American Express Gold Rewards Card: Get up to 30,000 Membership Rewards Points!
As well, RBC Avion and HSBC Rewards also transfer to Avios at a 1:1 ratio. However, there’s a deal where you can purchase Avios for just 1.05 cents, a fantastic price to get more points for a cheap price.
Buy Avios for 1.05 cents
You can earn 18,000 points by purchasing a digital subscription to the Irish Independent (newspaper) for 160 Euros. You can also earn 30,000 Avios with other subscriptions, but those deals result in a higher cost per mile.
Buy Avios for 1.5 Cents
If you crunch the numbers, each Avios would cost 1.05 US cents per mile. One-way redemptions start at 4,500 points for coach and 9,000 points in business, excluding taxes, so if award space was available on the space you want, segments like Hong Kong – Taipei, Sydney – Melbourne, or Lima – Cuzco would cost $42 in coach and $95 in business. That’s really good.
Because this is a digital subscription, you don’t need an Irish address to take advantage of this offer. The Avios Rewards site has a clear outline of the process. After purchasing, you’ll receive an email containing a voucher code within the next 28 days. Then, visit the Avios Vouchers site where you can enter your code and membership number to have the miles deposited in your account within 5 days.
Buy Avios – Depositing
What makes this deal even better is that it can be infinitely scaled with BA Household and Iberia accounts. You can have up to 7 members living at the same address to pool their Avios, and you can also transfer Avios between Iberia and British Airways. That means, if you and 6 other people make a household account, taking out two subscriptions per person to deposit separately into BA and IB, you could pool up to 252,000 Avios in the household account. That’s kind of cool.
The promotion runs until November 30, 2017, although it could be pulled earlier.
HT: Head for Points
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Not really a comment for posting, but just a suggestion that you should correct your longstanding spelling mistake in your name at the bottom of the page, under Let’s connect: Twitter etc. where you spell it as Canadian Kilomters
Hah, thanks.
Is it a recurring charge?
I think it’s a one-time payment.
You need to account for BA high fuel charges and taxes. I’m not sure what they are on the routes you mention but they can easily top $500 on transatlantic routes.
They’re pretty much nil on short haul routes. I never recommend redeeming for long-haul BA with Avios.
The deal expiration day stated as end of July in T&C. So not sure if it will be honored. Have any details on that?
the T&C does state: The Avios voucher must be claimed online at http://www.aviosvouchers.com/avios by 23.59 on the 30th June 2017.
They haven’t updated the t and c on that site. I would simply chargeback if the deal isn’t honoured.
They will have legal right not to honor it if T&C stated so – and no refunds will be issued!
No when the product you bought offered the Avios. You’re making the chargeback against the newspaper delivery company, which failed to provide the product you ordered, not Avios.
For Iberia won’t you need an account that’s been open for 90 days/had point activity?
That’s for transferring between IB and BA, yes.
I did it but, no news about the code to claim the 18000 AVIOS.
here is what they just told me: Thank you for contacting Reach Home Delivery.
Unfortunately the Avois Points is not emailed until 28 days after signing up.
Please confirm if you wish to cancel?
Offer looks like only 9000 miles now..
True. I only found out when I came back for more…
I’ve read this post and purchased the subscription immediately.
Got email re 18,000 Avios on August 30.
Avios appeared in my account on September 1.
Thanks Canadian Kilometers 🙂