Points Reckoning
Updated December 29th, 2019
Trying to value British Airways Avios is a bit like riding a points ad miles roller coaster. BA offers some absolutely fantastic award opportunities, contrasted with some truly abysmal ones. Taking a look at the distribution curve below, we see that it’s quite a bit flatter than say, Southwest’s. In other words, this means that you have a greater chance to score a fantastic deal, AND a greater chance to score a terrible one. This month, we’re assigning an ACRV of 0.62¢ per British Airways Avios. Unfortunately, this represents a 29% decline in value since last year.
| Current | Previous Period | $ Change | % Change | |
| Intra-Europe Value | 0.76¢ | 0.85¢ | -0.09¢ | -11% |
| International Value | 0.48¢ | 0.91¢ | -0.43¢ | -47% |
| Overall ACRV | 0.62¢ | 0.88¢ | -0.26¢ | -29% |
| Intra-Europe Non-Zero Average | 1.07¢ | 1.47¢ | -0.40¢ | -27% |
| International Non-Zero Average | 1.93¢ | 1.96¢ | -0.03¢ | -2% |
| Non-Zero Average | 1.50¢ | 1.72¢ | -0.22¢ | -13% |
| Award Availability | 62% | 68% | n/a | -7% |
| Average Fees | $121.65 | $191.46 | -$69.81 | -36% |
Oh those Fees!
Despite finding several very lucrative award opportunities, two things absolutely eviscerate British Airways Avios’ value: availability and fees. Let’s start with the latter.
Carrier imposed fees, taxes, fuel surcharges; call them whatever you want. British Airways has a metric ton of them. On the domestic(intra-Europe) side of our equations, they weren’t outlandish at $44.02. In fact, that’s actually a decrease of a few dollars since last year. However, move over to the international side, and get this, we’re averaging a gut-wrenching $246.03 per ticket! Ouch. As I deduct fees from the lowest available cash price, it can really wreck a value. Just for comparison’s sake, US competitor Delta is currently averaging just $14.48.
To make matters worse, there were several data points in which fees British Airways charged for an award ticket EXCEEDED the lowest price cash alternative. In these cases, I simply recorded a finding of no-availability, or a redemption value of zero dollars. Had I not done this, it would have actually resulted in a finding of negative value.
No Award Availability = $0 Redemption Value
Since November 2017, I’ve been averaging in a zero every time I could not find an award ticket for one of our hypothetical city pairs. Unfortunately, a few zero’s can bring down an average very quickly. The rational being, that if a carrier does not offer award availability on a given route, the underlying award currency is essentially worthless. At least at that given data point.
| Redemption Count | ||
| Exceptional | >6¢ | 1 |
| Great | 4-5.99¢ | 0 |
| Good | 3-3.99¢ | 2 |
| Respectable | 2-2.99¢ | 7 |
| Acceptable | 1-1.99¢ | 15 |
| Terrible | <1¢ | 23 |
| No Availability | 0¢ | 30 |
| Award Availability | 61.54% | |
As the chart above illustrates, I was able to find award availability on 61.54% or 48 out of my 78 hypothetical city pairs/dates/fare classes. Though not the worst I’ve seen, it’s far from the best. Most US domestic carriers maintain near 100% availability.
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times
As mentioned above, we were on a roller coaster. Take a look at the spread between the best and worst redemption values below. You’ll notice a near-worthless redemption of 0.04¢ and a phenomenal one of 6.02¢. In case anyone’s curious, the latter was from a premium economy seat on Iberia from Madrid to Miami. It was offered for just 31,750 Avios + $197.02 in fees. The lowest priced cash alternative was $2,107. That is a great redemption.
Our Take
Ultimately, British Airways Avios are an award currency that is nice to have available as an option. However, I don’t consider them worth primarily accumulating via card spend. The backup date to the prom if you will. That said, opportunities for high value, premium-cabin international award flights do exist, especially if you’re willing to be a little bit flexible with your dates. To standardize valuations, I always look for availability on Fridays. That said, there were plenty of Thursdays and Saturdays that did show award availability.
Compared to Industry Peers
[wpdatatable id=15 table_view=regular]For more information about how we value airline/hotel and other award currencies, please visit our valuation method and changelog pages.