Get up to 1,000 tier points every year, for 125,000 Avios
Who would have thought it? Thanks to the deeply unpopular changes to the BA frequent flyer program, you can now trade in your Avios points for Tier Points via a back door. How do you do it, and is the trade worth it?
How can you buy BA tier points?
With all the changes to the BA Executive Club, one announcement received the least attention. That was the ability to “contribute” to Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and, in return, get Avios and Tier points. Just to be clear, by contribute, BA mean pay cash.
I’d question whether anyone would willingly give BA money to support SAF. However, as a scheme to buy tier points, it’s valuable. Throw in some bonus Avios, and it’s a genuinely useful way to boost your tier points balance.
The scheme is limited to 1,000 tier points per year. That is far below what you’d need to achieve Bronze status. That requires 3,500 points. However, add on 2,500 tier points earned from a BA Amex Card, and you’ve just moved up from Blue to Bronze.
There’s a dedicated website for the SAF scheme. A recent change has introduced a new way to earn tier points.
You can now swap Avios for Tier Points
Instead of using cash to “contribute” towards SAF and therefore get your hands on tier points, you can now use Avios.
The site calls it part payment, but you can pay for the entire transaction using Avios points. Alternatively, you can use Avios points to reduce the total cost, so it’s a part cash and part points transaction. This works in a similar way to using Avios to part-pay for a flight.
You will even earn Avios points when you pay using Avios.
How does it stack up?
To buy 1,000 tier points, you’d have to pay £1,000.
Using Avios instead of cash would cost you 250,000 points. You would get 10,000 Avios back as part of the deal.
That values the Avios at 0.42p, which is a poor but not horrific value. This takes into account the Avios you get back on the transaction.Part paying doesn’t bring any efficiencies; the rate remains at 0.42p.
If you pay using a British Airways Amex, then you will not earn points at the double (3x) rate as you’re not paying BA. The transaction is with Chooose (sp), a third-party software provider.
The transaction will earn at the standard rate, so if you choose to pay all or part of the SAF contribution via your card, then you would get 1 to 1.5 points per £.
When should you use Avios to pay for tier points?
- If you have a ton of points that you won’t need.
- If you only want to top up a small number of tier points to reach a target, and you don’t mind burning the points to do so.
The 1,000 limit on buying tier points via SAF means that it will only be beneficial in very specific circumstances, typically when you’re close to retaining your status or moving up a band and have no other way to earn tier points.
You might think that you can achieve Bronze status through this approach by spending £25,000 or more on your Amex card. The latter will get you 2,500 tier points, just over 70% of the way towards Bronze. Spend £1k on SAF and you’ll get the final 1,000 tier points you need, but does that represent good value?
What the real value of tier points and BA Bronze?
The most valuable perk of Bronze, in my opinion, is that you, and anyone on your booking, can select a seat for free seven days before a flight. That makes it more likely you can get a good seat, versus fliers with no status, or who are Blue, who can choose 24 hours out. Removing the risk of not sitting together or getting terrible seats destresses the period before a flight.
That perk can be bought for much less – see my guide to buying BA bronze status. I did this last year, and for £38. You’ll need to have some level of status with a hotel group, but you can get this if you pay for an Amex Platinum card. We have a business one which costs £650, or you can get a personal one for the same price.
Assuming you get the personal Platinum card, that means for £650 plus the £38 status match cost, you get the same key perk as Bronze members PLUS additional perks from card ownership. They include lounge access, travel insurance, dining credit and more hotel benefits. That’s on top of the signup bonus, which can be very healthy.
Despite the SAF scheme being a little…odd…it is the easiest way to earn tier points. It’s also the fastest, with points being awarded within 72 hours. The reality of a test transaction I ran is that the Avios and tier points landed in my account within ten minutes.
