British Airways is offering an amazing deal this weekend when you part pay for your British Airways flight bookings with Avios. Even though the promotion is mainly aimed at British members, I believe that any Executive Club member can take advantage. The offer will run until midnight UK time (7pm Eastern time) on Monday, August 23rd, 2021.
The promotion enables Executive Club members to save 2 pence per Avios. (approximately 2.8 US cents) This is roughly double what people often use as their rule-of-thumb valuation of an Avios. Instead of booking award flights and being limited to award space, you would be booking a revenue fare, but receiving a substantial discount in exchange for some Avios. And since you’ve booked a revenue fare, you will earn more Avios after your flight, as well as “Tier Points” for elite status purposes.
The number of Avios you can spend will depend on the base fare you are paying, but if you book a one-way flight from the United Kingdom you are likely to see offers such as:
- 250 Avios = £5 ($7) discount
- 450 Avios = £9 ($12.50) discount
- 800 Avios = £16 ($22) discount
- 1,400 Avios = £28 ($39) discount
- 2,000 Avios = £40 ($56) discount
- 2,500 Avios = £50 ($70) discount
If you book a return trip (again ONLY departing from the UK), the discounts will vary, but still reflect the 2p per Avios headline valuation. Click here for all of the details…
For the Avios collector based in the United Kingdom, this is a very exciting promotion! But it wouldn’t be InsideFlyer if we couldn’t think of an even better travel hack…
Step 1 – Buy a One-Way Jersey to London Ticket Costing £57.60
Jersey is an island in the English Channel, closer to France than England. Pick any random date in the autumn or winter and aim for a one-way flight costing exactly £57.60. (approximately $80)
Because taxes are so low for ex-Jersey departures, you would be paying a base fare of £50.
As the underlying fare is £50+, you will be offered the option of saving £50 in exchange for 2,500 Avios:
Step 2 – Cancel Your Booking and Request a Future Travel Voucher
Wait an appropriate number of days to legitimately decide to change your plans. 😉 Then request a Future Travel Voucher from British Airways.
The fact that you Part Paid with Avios will conveniently disappear, and you will be issued with a Future Travel Voucher in the amount of £57.60, which you can spend at your leisure – until September 30th 2023 at the moment – on ANY British Airways flight.
Even though your voucher will be denominated in British pounds, you can use it on BA flights priced in dollars, euros, or any other currency. The exchange rate will be correct – rather than a made-up rate that favors the airline – although you will have to accept the exchange rate fluctuations between now and when you decide to use your travel credit.
Why Specifically Jersey to London One-way?
Well… I believe it has the lowest ratio of taxes to total fare for a British Airways flight, at least departing from a UK airport. (which is a fundamental requirement of this promotion, so don’t bother looking at flights departing from the United States)
And you cannot Part Pay with Avios any fare components that are tax-related. Therefore, if you are looking to scale up this travel hack but want to keep the actual cash cost to a minimum, then you need the specific route that has the lowest taxes to be paid.
Bottom Line
Depending on how many one-way flights from Jersey to London you are willing to book – you will need to “invest” £7.60 ($10.50) of actual cash each time – you can essentially turn many thousands of Avios into British Airways travel credit on a 2p for 1 Avios basis, credit that you can use on normal, paid fares.
I also cannot remember off the top of my head whether there is a limit on the number of Future Travel Vouchers that you can apply to a single booking – i.e. it would take a large number of £57.60 vouchers to get yourself to London in Club World for example.
But if you expect to visit London or Europe before 2023 and are willing to gamble on British Airways travel credit, this could be the travel hack of the year…
