How to benefit from the Avios promotion to spice up your factors by 500%: Expert methods to get you flights for £1 – however you must transfer quick

Jetsetters in the British Airways loyalty scheme have just one more day to turbocharge their Avios points by up to 500 per cent, as its flash promotion comes to an end on Monday. 

Avios, the loyalty currency of British Airways and its partners, is running a points deal through its Balance Boost programme, which allows holidaymakers to boost the number of Avios points they collected between January 1, 2025 and February 9 this year.

Millions of people who collect these points have until 5pm on Monday, February 9 to make use of the deal, which is exclusive to those in the British Airways Club (previously known as the Executive Club).

Avios launched its Balance Boost programme in 2023 as a way to buy more points – and this promotion is the latest offer within the scheme. But it can be fiendishly complicated to get your head around.

There’s still time to make use of the deal and you don’t have to book flights to boost your points as the deadline has been extended by three days. 

Here we break down how exactly you can turbocharge your Avios points and make the most of the Balance Boost promotion while it lasts.

What is the new deal? 

Avios points are rewards mainly earned through spending on specialist credit cards, which users aim to pay off in full each month.

They can also be earned by flying with British Airways, by converting from Nectar points into Avios and through sign-up bonuses from American Express and BA and Barclaycard Mastercards. 

In 2023, Avios created a programme called ‘Balance Boost’, which allows you to buy a lump sum of Avios points worth 100 per cent, 200 per cent or 300 per cent of the Avios points you have earned in the last 30 days through flying, shopping or however you collect them (we share more ways to collect them below).

There is currently a limited-time offer on this programme that makes the boost even more generous. 

The Balance Boost promotion is different this time round as it allows you to boost the points you have collected in the past year since January 1, 2025 – not just the last 30 days.

You have to pay to do this and the prices range from 0.92p and 0.96p per Avios for the first 300,000 Avios, according to frequent flyer website Head for Points.

How to use Avios Balance Boost 

To unlock the offer, you must create an account on the Avios Balance Boost website. 

When you log in to Avios Balance Boost, you will see a list of all of your eligible transactions since January 1, 2025.

You can either select individual transactions, entire categories – for example spending on credit cards – select everything.

You will then be shown your pricing options for how much it costs to boost these points by five times their value, four times, three times, two times or just one time. 

You can boost Avios earned from the BA shopping portal, from credit card spending, from flights or Avios earned from certain ‘hotels and travel’, for example Uber or Hilton hotels.

You cannot boost balance transfers from other airlines, Nectar exchanges, Avios shared or gifted by other members or Avios points you previously purchased.

How much you can boost your points by and what to spend it on

So how much are these points really worth? There are many ways to spend the points. Here’s a look at what you might be able to afford based on how many points you have. 

If you had collected 3,549 Avios points since January, 1 2025, you could boost them by 500 per cent to 32,769 Avios at a cost of £163.25. This could afford you a ‘reward’ return flight to the Greek Island of Mykonos at a cost of just £2 – each one way flight is worth 15,000 points plus £1.

The cheapest return flights to Mykonos with British Airways this summer cost £234. By paying to boost your points and using them on these flights, you would have paid just £165.25 in total – saving at least £68.75. 

You can use Avios to book ‘reward’ flights with British Airways and its partners. These are seats on flights that can be booked with Avios as the main payment method. 

Bear in mind there is always a cash element to pay to cover the cost of taxes, fees and carrier charges.

You could earn 3,549 Avios by spending money with a British Airways American Express Card over the course of a year, which gives you one Avios point for every £1 spend. 

Day to day spending with the card could get you 3,186 Avios, while booking one European flight with BA from London Heathrow to Munich in that time would earn a further 363 Avios. 

You can get a bonus 5,000 Avios if you spend £2,000 within the first three months of having the British Airways American Express card.

Instead of paying for the full 500 per cent increase, you could boost these points by 400 per cent to 29,220 Avios by paying £130.60. You could spend these points on a one-way reward flight to New York. After the points have been used, the ticket would cost just £50. 

Boosting these points by 300 per cent would mean your new balance is 25,671, at a cost of £97.95. You could spend this on a Veuve Clicquot Champagne trio from the Wine Flyer, which Avios has a partnership with. You would have to pay an excess of just £7.49. 

For £66.72, you could boost the points by 200 per cent to 22,122 Avios. You could spend this on a return reward flight to Paris, Geneva or Nice for just £2 if you purchase two one-way, off-peak BA Rewards flights, which start at 10,000 Avios and £1, with British Airways.

If you pay £34.07 for a boost of 100 per cent, you would end up with 18,573 Avios, which you could spend on a one way flight to Fuertaventura for an additional £1. 

If you have a substantial number of Avios, around the 60,000 mark, the best value lies in boosting your points by higher multiples of x3 to x5.

Rob Burgess, founder of frequent flyer website Head for Points says: ‘You must do a 3x, 4x or 5x boost to get the price down to 0.92p per Avios. Do not do a 1x or 2x boost because you pay more.’

After February 9, when the promotion ends, you can boost the Avios you collected in the last 30 days by 300 per cent, 200 per cent or 100 per cent as usual. However, you will no longer be able to boost them by 400 per cent or 500 per cent. 

What’s the catch? 

There is an annual cap of 300,000 Avios through Avios Balance Boost, so you cannot pay to boost more than this number of points. This upper limit is based on boost purchases over a calendar year and not per transaction.

You cannot boost a transaction that has already been boosted.

If you are in Germany, you will not be able to get this offer, which is available globally.

What could you spend your points on?

A ‘companion voucher’ is the holy grail of the Avios scheme. These vouchers allow you to book flights for two people by spending the same number of Avios points as you would for one person. 

You will receive a Companion Voucher when you spend £15,000 on the British Airways American Express Card in a year.

They can be worth thousands of pounds if redeemed for a long-haul business-class flight, which is the best use of this specific voucher.

Here’s an example that shows why it’s so valuable. A return Reward flight for one person to New York in Business Class would be 180,000 Avios plus £375, according to Head for Points. 

With an Amex companion voucher, for two people these flights would be 180,000 Avios plus £750. That means you use the same number of Avios points for two tickets as you would for one but just need to pay the tax charge for the extra passenger.

You could convert your points to Nectar Points, the reward currency of Sainsbury’s, to spend on your shopping in the supermarket. 

You can also use Avios to book hotels – two nights in a four star hotel in Malaga would be 63,525 Avios or if you pay for this in cash (£318) you could collect 3,175 Avios.  

How to turbo-charge your Avios without paying for the points

Shopping 

Shoppers can collect points for making purchases through the Avios shop. This is an online portal where you can buy items from more than 300 outlets and earn Avios points for spending.

Brands on the Avios shop include John Lewis, Harrods, Booking.com, Pizza Express, Apple and Bicester Village. You can earn up to two Avios points for every £1 spent on Apple products through the Avios shop.

You need to use the Avios app where you can register your cards and earn points for spending.

This is only a good way to earn points if you were going to buy items anyway and not just buying things for the sake of getting points.

If you do your shopping at Sainsbury’s, you can collect Nectar points which you can convert to Avios and vice versa.  

Go to the theatre 

Theatre buffs can collect Avios points for tickets to West End shows.

You can earn Avios on TodayTix, the show tickets merchant, if you are a member of the British Airways Club.

Customers need to link their TodayTix Rewards and British Airways Club accounts to earn points.

You can collect 1 Avios per £1 spent, when booking tickets through the TodayTix app or website.

Customers who book to see a show through TodayTix by February 9 will collect an introductory bonus of 500 Avios.

Escape to France 

If you are heading to France in your car through the Channel Tunnel, you can collect Avios on the way by making a booking with LeShuttle.

You will earn three Avios points for every £1 spent on a Standard Ticket booked through LeShuttle’s website or six Avios points for every £1 you spend on a booking if you book a Flexiplus Ticket.

You must log into your Club LeShuttle account or make one as you need an account to collect Avios. Then search for the date and time you want to travel and follow the steps on LeShuttle’s website. You need to add your British Airways Club number to the booking confirmation page.

You will receive your Avios 30 days after you complete your LeShuttle trip.

Have a takeaway night

You can collect up to ten points for every £1 spent when ordering a takeaway from Deliveroo. This the rate for new customers making an order on Deliveroo. Existing customers can collect two Avios for every £1 spend on takeaways from Deliveroo. 

You can collect Avios at Pizza Express restaurants at a rate of three Avios for every £1 spent when dining at its restaurants. 

You need to register your payment card on the Avios website and pay with that card in-store when dining at Pizza Express.

Manage property with Foxtons

Homeowners and landlords can collect Avios points by selling or renting out a house. 

Customers who use Foxtons to let or sell their home can now collect up to 30,000 Avios points, while existing Foxtons landlords who appoint the agent to manage their property can collect 20,000 Avios. 

Landlords and sellers must link their My Foxtons account with their British Airways Club account via www.foxtons.co.uk/account/rewards prior to instructing Foxtons. 

Uber 

If you are an Uber addict you can earn Avios by linking your Uber and British Airways Club accounts every time you book a cab, train, coach or Eurostar through the Uber app. 

You will earn one Avios per £1 spent on all Uber cabs, trains, coaches, boats and bikes in the UK and one Avios per €1 spent on Uber cabs in the Republic of Ireland.