The partnership you didn’t see coming
For the first time, you can use your Avios points to pay for pizza. It’s an early and unexpected Christmas present from British Airways.
What’s the new partnership?
Avios has partnerships with thousands of online and offline businesses where you can earn points. The options for spending more are more limited but growing. Recently, they launched the Avios Shop, where you can swap points for discounts on Apple products and luggage.
As of today, you can now swap your points for food, or more accurately, vouchers to use on food, at PizzaExpress.
- Swaps start at 1,000 points for a £5 voucher
- You can create up to five vouchers every day
- Up to £250 in vouchers per day can be created.
Any vouchers that you create will exist within the recently added vouchers section of the Avios app or website.
It’s worth bearing in mind that you won’t get a voucher refund or a cash refund on any unused element of a voucher, so if you visit the restaurant with a £250 voucher and the bill comes to £240, you will lose that final £10. It will not be carried over to allow you to use it on another visit.
To earn points, you must register your payment card on the Avios website.
There are no time or day restrictions on when vouchers can be used. There are some other important voucher points:
- You can use as many vouchers as you want for a single restaurant bill
- Vouchers only last six months, and then they lapse
- You can’t combine the voucher with any other promo
- A few stores won’t accept vouchers: PizzaExpress Jazz Club Soho, the PizzaExpress Live’s in Holborn, and Covent Gardens, the Pheasantry in Chelsea and the PizzaExpress in Gatwick and Edinburgh airports. You also can’t use the vouchers at any supermarket locations.
How many Avios points do you need for a PizzaExpress voucher?
| Avios Used | Voucher | Value/Avios |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | £5 PizzaExpress Voucher | 0.5p per point |
| 1,985 | £10 PizzaExpress Voucher | 0.504p per point |
| 4,985 | £25 PizzaExpress Voucher | 0.5p per point |
| 10,000 | £50 PizzaExpress Voucher | 0.5p per point |
| 20,075 | £100 PizzaExpress Voucher | 0.498p per point |
| 30,175 | £150 PizzaExpress Voucher | 0.497p per point |
The value you get for each point is roughly 0.5p per point you spend, although this does differ slightly depending on the voucher amount. The absolute best value is the £10 voucher by a small margin.
Is it a good idea to swap your points?
The great thing about the PizzaExpress voucher scheme is that it uses a relatively small number of points. Even if you have a few thousand points spare, you can still get a relatively meaningful discount on a meal.
Using your points for anything other than flights will always give you a poorer value. I wrote about how to value your Avios point,s and the crux is that for most people, the most important thing to consider is the value of experience. Flight prices change regularly, and calculating them back to the number of points won’t always give you a credible answer.
In short, if you have some spare points and enjoy PizzaExpress it’s worth getting a voucher.
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