From 25 January 2021, all existing and future Avios air miles can be converted to Sainsbury’s Nectar points at the rate of roughly 0.8p per Avios. This means you can now use your Avios air miles towards purchases at places like Sainsbury’s, Argos, eBay and many more. Under the scheme, Sainsbury’s customers can also exchange Nectar points for Avios air miles, at a rate of 400 Nectar points to 250 Avios.
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Several cards on the market let you exchange their loyalty points for Avios. At the time of writing, American Express Membership Rewards points can be exchanged at a rate of 1:1, for example, and you can also swap 400 Sainsbury’s Nectar points for 250 Avios. IHG Rewards Club points can be converted too (call 0871 226 1111), but you’ll need at least 10,000 of them first. HSBC has also periodically run promotions allowing Premier customers to exchange reward points for Avios.
The number of points you need to use per flight depends on which zone you travel in. The zone depends on the distance between your departure airport and your destination, and there are nine zones. Generally, if you’re travelling in Europe, your flight will be within Zones 1 and 3 (up to 2,000 miles away).
You still need to pay taxes and charges on flights. But under Avios’ “Reward Flight Saver” scheme, you pay a fixed £35 fee on most short-haul economy flights in Zones 1-3, as long as you earn at least one point during the year before you book. You can choose to pay for your flight with Avios points, or a combination of points and money.
The cost of flights in Avios points is fixed – it doesn’t fluctuate as it does if you’re paying in cash. However, availability can be lower, so book early if you want to use your points. Booking generally opens 355 days before a flight.
The changes of July 2018 move all Avios members to the BA Executive Club, and promise to bring even more options than before.
You can choose to collect and spend Avios with BA, Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus. The changes also mean you can now fly with LATAM, Malaysian, S7, Royal Jordanian, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Finnair, Qatar, and Japan Airlines, Air Italy and Alaska Airlines.
BA flies to Europe only from London, and you used to be charged in Avios points for both sections of each leg of the journey if you had to fly to London first. However, new airlines fly to European destinations from other cities in the UK, such as Manchester or Liverpool. Plus, there are more destinations, hotels and experiences you can spend your money on.
It’s worth noting that many of these cards have a foreign exchange fee of 3%, so you may wish to get a separate credit card for spending money abroad.
Although the British Airways American Express credit card bonus might seem like a reason to go for it over the American Express Rewards credit card, you could get better value for your money going for the Premium Plus card, which has a fee of £195 per annum. This is because the earn-rate of Avios points on the Premium Plus is 1.5 (rather than 1) for every £1, which would give you 10,000 extra Avios points on a spend of £20,000. You also get an extra year to use your two-for-one voucher.
Although an annual fee can put some people off, it’s always worth weighing this up against the extra benefits that these cards typically entitle you to. Ultimately, whether or not the fee is worth paying will come down to how many points you expect to earn over the year, and how much those points will then go on to save you – you could be surprised.
If you don’t want to pay a fee, there are another couple of notable free cards. The Amex Gold is the best for sign-up bonuses, with an offer of 10,000 membership rewards points, which is the equivalent of 10,000 Avios points. However the annual fee is only waived for the first year.
Representative example: When you spend £1,200 at a purchase rate of 22.2% (variable) p.a., your representative rate is 22.2% APR (variable).
There are also cards aimed specifically at hotel stays, such as the IHG Rewards Club credit card, which includes offers for IHG properties like Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn.
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