Need some extra Avios? Balance boosting could be the answer.
Sometimes you need to give your Avios balance a boost. Maybe you’re just short of the points you need to book a flight, or you have a longer-term goal and you know that you’ll never collect enough Avios through flights or credit cards. This is when Balance Boosting your Avios can help.
What is Avios Boosting?
On the Avios website, there is an option called Balance Boost. It’s under the Buy Avios menu in the nav.
In simple terms, balance boosting allows you to take any transaction where you’ve already earned Avios (from credit cards, Uber, flights, Avios Shopping or others) and double, triple, or quadruple the points earned.
Boosting your Avios is instant. There are only a few ways to immediately add to your points balance: either you boost your points, or you buy them outright. I compare the cost of both approaches further down this article.
Most other methods of earning points will have a lag of weeks or months. That means if you need points today to book a reward flight, then boosting is one of the few ways that can make an impact today.
BA’s balance boosting works on a “multiplier” of 100%, 200% or 300%. Strictly speaking, multiplying a number by 100% means it stays the same. What BA means is that increasing the points you earn from a transaction by a factor of 100% is doubling the points you earn on that. For the rest of this article, I’ll use doubling, trebling or quadrupling as it’s easier to understand.
How do you boost your Avios?
The process is straightforward:
- Log in to the Avios and then mouse over the Buy Avios menu, and select the Balance Boost option.
- You’ll be presented with a list of transactions on the left-hand side. Select all, or any, that you would like to “boost”.
- Select whether you want to quadruple, triple or double your Avios on the right-hand side.
- Click “Go To Checkout” to complete the transaction. You can pay using your BA Amex or Barclaycard, earning you additional points.
The transactions that you can boost will be from the last thirty days – if you have no Avios posted to your account during that period, then balance boosting won’t help you.
In fact, the boostable transactions shown go slightly beyond thirty days. I can see them for the last 34 days.
What transactions can you boost?
The boostable transactions cover a wide range, including:
- Flights
- Uber transactions
- Amex and Barclaycard points
- Avios Shopping transactions (and promotional rewards)
- Points gifted from Barclays Premier Banking
What’s specifically excluded are points via a Nectar transfer, Avios that have been gifted or transferred from another person or Avios you have bought. Points from non-BA airlines also can’t be boosted.
You can gain up to 300,000 Avios through the balance boost each year, which is 100,000 more than you can buy per year (buying Avios is limited to 200,000 per year. These are separate limits, so you could buy and boost up to half a million Avios each year. The years are calendar years, running from January to December.
You can actually boost beyond the 300,000 Avios per year, but you will be charged a higher rate to boost. The T&Cs reference a pricing table that does not exist, so I’m uncertain what this increased rate will be.
However, bear in mind that you can only boost a transaction once. This is important if you’re considering regularly boosting Avios to increase your points over the long term. You’ll need a constant flow of transactions to keep that process going.
Is boosting your Avios balance cost-effective?
Boosting is, without a doubt, the cheapest way to buy Avios points. It is significantly cheaper than buying points (even with most promotions, when they are active).
The downside to boosting is that you must have transactions from the last 30 days to boost. If your account is quiet or empty in terms of activity, then this approach won’t help.
There are three price points based on whether you double, triple or quadruple boost.
How much does it cost to boost your Avios?
| Boosting Option | Quoted Rate | Price per Avios |
|---|---|---|
| Quadruple Boost | 109 Avios per £1 | 0.9174p per point |
| Triple Boost | 106 Avios per £1 | 0.9434p per point |
| Double | 104 Avios per £1 | 0.9615p per point |
How does buying Avios compare to boosting them?
If you compare the price per point to buying Avios, you can see how much cheaper it is to boost. The savings are greater for smaller numbers of Avios, but even at 100,000 it is almost 50% cheaper to boost vs buy.
| Avios Bought or Boosted | Buy vs Boost | Boosted Sabving |
|---|---|---|
| 2,000 Avios | 2.45p/point to buy, 0.92p/point to boost | 62% cheaper to boost |
| 10,000 Avios | 1.95p/point to buy, 0.92p/point to boost | 52% cheaper to boost |
| 100,000 Avios | 1.78p/point to buy, 0.92p/point to boost | 48% cheaper to boost |
It’s also worth considering the minimum number of points you can purchase on Avios.com: 2,000. If you need fewer than that, then boosting makes even more sense, as you can simply boost a low-value transaction.
Do you earn Avios from the payment for boosting Avios?
Yes – if you pay using your Amex or Barclaycard Avios card you’ll earn even more points. If you have a British Airways Premium Plus Amex card you will earn at the standard rate. You will not earn the additional 1.5 points per British Airways transaction, as technically, you’re not buying the points from BA, but from a subsidiary.
Can you boost Avios from an Amex Membership Reward Points transfer?
Yes – I’ve tested this. Simply select the transfer transaction, and you can boost as many of these transactions as you need.
Summary: Is it better to boost?
Yes – it is significantly more cost-effective to boost Avios than buy them. If you need to increase your points balance quickly, for example, if reward flight availability has just opened up, then this is a reliable and fast option. The points will be in your account immediately.
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