6000 Free Avios – It’s a Bad Deal but Why?

There are a number of UK credit cards on the market which offer sign-up bonuses ranging from 6,000 Avios to 35,000 Avios. But what are 6000 Avios points worth (worse case) and is paying for a credit card to obtain 35,000 Avios worth it?

I would highlight at this point that the 5000 Avios offered by the British Airways card (6000 Avios if you are referred by a friend – which most people are!) is in fact poor for a free credit card.  Alternative free cards on the market offer as much as 12,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 in the first 3 months. American Express points can easily be transferred to Avios at an exchange rate of 1 point to 1 Avios. Read on to find out why you should avoid the British Airways own-branded credit card and instead sign up to the American Express Gold Card.

What Are 6000 Avios Points Worth?

Ok, so you’ve signed up to the BA card and have been referred to earn 6000 points rather than the standard 5000 but what could this get you?

Worst-case scenario

One of the least efficient uses of Avios points would be to redeem for an experience on the BA website – redemption examples found here. Let’s look at the Harry Potter Tour for example. The tour would require 12,800 Avios points per person, which would be out of reach if you only had 6000 Avios but redeemable if you had the free American Express Gold Card which offers 10,000 points (or 12,000 points if you use this link). The cash price for the ticket would be £43 as shown below.

This use would value your Avios at 0.3p per point and would be a terrible waste as I’ll cover below.

Redeeming your 6000 Avios points for flights

What are 6000 points worth if you were to redeem for flights? The value of 6000 Avios points is likely to differ depending on people’s flying habits so I’ve set out a number of examples below to illustrate just what they could be worth.

Example 1 – Dan goes skiing every year during the Easter holidays and flies with BA. Dan uses his 6000 points for a one-way BA flight between London and Chambery, France (he pays for the return journey with cash). The flight would use 4,500 Avios and a further £17.50 in taxes. The same flight would cost £91, providing a saving of £73.50. In this instance Dan would be getting 1.6p per point which is considerably better than the 0.3p if he were to deem for a Harry Potter experience.

Example 2 – Sandy is flying to Barcelona in June and would usually choose the cheapest flight including one hold bag. A one-way flight to Barcelona would require 6,500 Avios (Sandy has spent £500 on the card which has earned a further 500 Avios) and £17.50 in taxes. Skyscanner is showing that the cheapest one-way flight would be Ryanair and the price including a hold bag would be £40.63. In this instance Sandy has only saved £23.13 which equates to a rate of 0.4p.

As we’ve seen from the above, the 6000 Avios points have a different value depending on how you use them. If you fly with BA during busy periods the value of your Avios points are likely to be higher than those of travellers who would choose to fly with a budget, low-cost operator.

So back to the original question, what are 6000 Avios points worth? Anywhere between £18 and £96 depending on how you use them.

However the 22,000 points with the Gold card could be worth as much as £352, which alongside the travel insurance and the 2 free lounge passes is an incredible perk for a free credit card. Note that after a year the annual fee is £140 pa, however there’s nothing stopping you cancelling your card before then and signing back up after six months and redeeming the sign-up bonus again….

We’ve also seen that there are other free cards currently on the market which offer a considerably higher sign-up bonus and additional travel perks such as free travel insurance and 2 free lounge passes. The current sign-up bonus for the BA Amex Card is 5,000 Avios points however you can increase this to 6,000 points by using this link and scroll down to the free version of the card. Alternatively should you wish to sign up for the American Express Gold Card you can increase the total number of points in the sign-up bonus from 10,000 points to 12,000 points if you use this link.

If you’re new to Avios or would like to learn about possible hacks to travel further for less then you may find my Avios Points Hacks post interesting. Alternatively if you’d like to read about how I used two credit cards to treat both myself and my other half to a First Class flight to Sao Paulo then read my first class review here. Included within the review is a step-by-step guide as to how you, too, can earn enough points using a credit card to fly First Class…. It’s easier than you think!

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