British Airways has launched a new Balance Boost promotion that allows members to purchase additional Avios at 1.2 US cents (1.63 SG cents) each.
Unlike the year-round Balance Boost feature, what’s different this time is that members can boost all Avios earned from 1 January 2024 to 3 February 2025, instead of just the last 30 days. Also, the maximum boost has been increased to 4X for this promotion, compared to the usual 3X.
Buying Avios for 1.63 SG cents could make sense if you have an immediate redemption in mind, with sweet spot redemptions to Europe and within Asia.
What is BA Balance Boost?
I realise I’ve never covered BA Balance Boost before, so I’ll start with a brief explanation of how it works.
The basic idea is that you can buy a lump sum of Avios equivalent to 100%, 200% or 300% of the Avios earned in the last 30 days from activities including flights, hotel points transfers or credit card points transfers.
The pricing depends on your account currency (for those of us in Singapore, it’ll be USD).
โ๏ธ British Airways Balance Boost (First 300,000 Avios per year) |
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Account Currency | 1X | 2X | 3X |
GBP | 0.96p | 0.94p | 0.92p |
USD | 1.25ยข | 1.22ยข | 1.20ยข |
EUR | 1.15ยข | 1.13ยข | 1.11ยข |
โ๏ธ British Airways Balance Boost (Beyond 300,000 Avios per year) |
|||
Account Currency | 1X | 2X | 3X |
GBP | 1.77p | ||
USD | 2.35ยข | ||
EUR | 2.12ยข |
Note how the price increases significantly for any Avios boost after the first 300,000, effectively capping this at 300,000 per calendar year (this refers to the post-boost amount, so you could boost 100,000 Avios at 3X and enjoy the lower price).
Also note that this doesn’t allow you to generate miles out of thin air, as you could with a traditional miles purchase offer. You can only boost whatever Avios have been credited to your account in the past 30 days- no activity, no boost.
You can only boost a transaction once, and boosted Avios are credited instantly (in practice; in theory BA covers its butt by saying there may be a delay of up to three working days).
Here’s a list of Avios transactions that can be boosted. In the Singapore context, AMEX, Citi and HSBC points transfers can all be boosted, but Heymax and OCBC can’t (presumably because they both use the Ascenda platform, which is ineligible).
โ Qualifies | โ Does Not Qualify |
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BA Balance Boost promotion
Boost Avios |
From now till 4 February 2025, 7.59 a.m SGT, BA Balance Boost is running a promotion that makes two big changes from the status quo:
- Members can boost Avios earned for the whole of 2024, as well as 1 January to 3 February 2025, instead of just the past 30 days
- The maximum boost has been increased to 4X, instead of 3X
The cost per Avios for the 4X multiplier is the same as that of the year-round 3X multiplier
โ๏ธ British Airways Balance Boost (First 300,000 Avios per year) |
|||
Account Currency | 1X | 2X | 3X / 4X |
GBP | 0.96p | 0.94p | 0.92p |
USD | 1.25ยข | 1.22ยข | 1.20ยข |
EUR | 1.15ยข | 1.13ยข | 1.11ยข |
โ๏ธ British Airways Balance Boost (Beyond 300,000 Avios per year) |
|||
Account Currency | 1X | 2X | 3X / 4X |
GBP | 1.77p | ||
USD | 2.35ยข | ||
EUR | 2.12ยข |
Once again, if you boost more than 300,000 Avios, the price per Avios becomes very unattractive, so keep below this threshold.
You can see how many Avios are eligible for boosting by logging into your account, clicking Buy Avios, then Balance Boost. Here’s what I see in my account.
As you can see, I have 39,150 Avios eligible for boosting, so assuming I took the 4X option, I would be purchasing 156,600 Avios at a cost of US$1,879.20, or 1.2 US cents (1.63 SG cents) each.
If you’ve earned more than 75,000 Avios last year, remember to deselect transactions to reduce the total to 75,000 Avios or less (assuming you want the 4X multiplier). If not, you’ll slip into the >300,000 Avios pricing band, which is much more expensive.
It’s worth reiterating that you can only boost transactions that have not been boosted before, so if you took advantage of BA Balance Boost on a given amount of Avios prior to the launch of this promotion, it won’t be eligible.
If you intend to convert credit card points to take advantage of this promotion, do note that only HSBC offers instant transfers (OCBC does too, but isn’t eligible for Balance Boost). AMEX and Citi transfers take 24-48 hours, so don’t leave it till the last minute.
The Avios “hub-and-spoke” model
As a reminder, British Airways, Aer Lingus, Finnair, Iberia and Qatar Airways all share the same Avios currency. Avios can be instantly transferred amongst these programmes at a 1:1 ratio, with no conversion fees.
You’ll need to route everything through the “hub” of British Airways Executive Club. For example, if you want to transfer Qatar Avios to Finnair Avios, you would first transfer Qatar to British Airways, then British Airways to Finnair.
What can you redeem with British Airways Avios?
Since British Airways Avios can be transferred to Qatar Privilege Club at a 1:1 ratio, whatever sweet spots the latter has are equally applicable to the former.
For instance, you could find some good value redemptions between Singapore and Europe and the USA.
โ๏ธ One-way Business Class Awards | ||
Destination | Qatar Privilege Club | KrisFlyer |
Doha | 50,000 | N/A |
Athens, Bucharest, Sofia, Thessaloniki | 70,000 | N/A |
Barcelona, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich | 75,000 | 103,500 |
Houston, New York | 95,000 | 111,500 |
*Assumes QPC Avios redeemed for Qatar Airways, KrisFlyer miles for Singapore Airlines. Not all destinations served by each carrier. |
It will cost you 70,000-75,000 miles for a one-way Business Class ticket to Europe, versus 103,500 miles for KrisFlyer, and 95,000 miles for a one-way Business Class ticket to the USA, versus 111,500 miles for KrisFlyer.
While you will need to transit in Doha, keep in mind that Qatar Airways serves many destinations that Singapore Airlines does not such as Boston, Chicago, Miami and Washington DC, so either way you’d be looking at a one-stop itinerary.
โ ๏ธ Important Note |
Back in December 2023, Qatar Privilege Club introduced peak and off-peak pricing. The prices quoted above reflect off-peak pricing. Peak pricing will cost 20% more. When searching for awards, always look for the “off-peak” label. Anything without a label is peak pricing. Peak and off-peak pricing only applies to redemptions on Qatar Airways. |
Even if you don’t plan to fly with Qatar Airways, there are some excellent partner redemptions to consider. Qatar Privilege Club partners with Bangkok Airways, which allows you to redeem tickets on the Singapore to Koh Samui route for just 6,000 miles. Commercial tickets on this route are often expensive, so there’s potential for great value here.
Here’s some other examples of sweet spots worth considering (with the operating carrier in brackets).
From SIN to | Business Class | Economy Class |
Kuala Lumpur (MH) | 12,500 | 6,000 |
Hong Kong (CX) | 22,000 | 11,000 |
Colombo (UL) | 22,000 | 11,000 |
Perth (QF) | 38,750 | 13,000 |
Sydney (QF) | 62,000 | 20,000 |
Helsinki (AY) | 62,500 | 30,000 |
What credit card should I use to boost Avios?
BA Balance Boost transactions are processed through Points.com in USD (for Singapore-based accounts) under MCC 4722 (Travel Agencies), instead of the usual MCC 7399.
Here’s the best cards to maximize the miles earned on your purchase:
Card | Earn Rate | Remarks |
Apply |
4 mpd | Max S$1K per c. month. Must choose Travel as bonus category |
Apply |
4 mpd | Max S$2K per c. month. Must choose Travel as bonus category |
Apply |
4 mpd | Max S$1.5K per c. month |
Apply |
4 mpd | Min S$1K, max S$2K FCY spend per s. month |
Apply |
3-4 mpd | 3 mpd for regular, 3.5 mpd for PB, 4 mpd for PP. No cap |
Apply |
3.2 mpd (till 31 Jan 25) |
Min S$800 per c. month, no cap |
Apply |
2.8-3.2 mpd | Min. S$4K per c. month, no cap. Earn 2.8 mpd with min. S$800 per c. month |
Apply |
3 mpd | Min S$2K per s. month, no cap |
Apply |
2.4 mpd | No cap |
S. Month= Statement Month | C. Month= Calendar Month |
Isn’t Citi PayAll cheaper?
Another way of buying British Airways Avios would be through the Citi PayAll service, which is available to Citi cardholders with a 2.6% fee.
From now till 28 February 2025, the platform is running a promotion that upsizes the earn rate to a flat 1.75 mpd across participating cards, reducing the cost per mile to 1.49 cents each.
Card | Base | Bonus | Cost Per Mile (@ 2.6% fee) |
1.6 mpd | 0.15 mpd |
1.49ยข | |
1.3 mpd | 0.45 mpd | 1.49ยข | |
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1.2 mpd | 0.55 mpd | 1.49ยข |
0.4 mpd | 1.35 mpd | 1.49ยข |
To illustrate how this works, suppose you spend S$5,000 on Citi PayAll during the promotion period:
- You will earn 8,750 miles (S$5,000 x 1.75 mpd)
- You will pay an admin fee of S$130 (S$5,000 x 2.6%)
- The cost per mile is therefore S$130/8,750 miles = 1.49 cents
This is obviously lower than the cost of buying via Balance Boost, but comes with a big caveat: you’ll only receive the base miles first; the bonus component will only come by 23 May 2025.
That is a very long time to wait, so if you need your Avios now, then the Balance Boost would be the better option.
Conclusion
British Airways is now running a limited-time enhancement to its BA Balance Boost feature, allowing the boosting of all Avios earned from 1 January 2024 to 3 February 2025 by up to 4X.
This represents a cost of 1.63 SG cents per mile, a relatively low price compared to what we see during regular points sales. That said, you could buy Avios for less through Citibank cards and Citi PayAll, but only if you’re willing to wait till May 2025 for them to be credited.
As always, do not buy Avios (or indeed any loyalty currency) speculatively; only do so if you have a definite redemption in mind. No-notice devaluations can and do happen, which would leave you high and dry.
Checked with Amaze and avios boost showed up as MCC 4722 instead
The MCC for the boost isn’t 7399. Turns out to be 4722.
thanks for the dp. will update the cards section
Hi Aaron
Are we able to do multiple transfer in order not to hit 300k miles else will be charged a higher rate?