How can you turn Avios points into cash?

With the economic situation looking difficult, we are getting an increasing number of emails asking:

• Can you turn Avios points into money?

• Can you sell Avios points?

• Can you turn Avios points into pounds?

Surprisingly, the answer is (sort of) ‘Yes’.

Even more surprisingly, the conversion rate if you turn your Avios into cash is very good.

How do you turn your Avios points into cash?

You can cash in your Avios for (sort of) money if you transfer your points into the Nectar loyalty scheme. This only works if you live in the UK.

In January 2021, Sainsbury’s became the official Avios supermarket partner. That means you can now convert your Nectar points into Avios and Avios into Nectar points.

What is interesting about converting Nectar and Avios points is that you can transfer them back and forth, as often as you like, with no loss of value.

If you transfer your Avios points into Nectar points, you get 0.8p per Avios to spend at Sainsburys, eBay.co.uk, Argos etc.

This is very generous and, bizarrely, gets you far more value than many ‘official’ Avios redemptions. Use your Avios to book a hotel, hire a car, pay for a seat reservation or pay for excess luggage via ba.com and you only receive 0.5p per Avios.

You will also struggle to beat 0.8p per Avios if you try to spend them on Economy long haul flights on British Airways.

Whilst Nectar points are, obviously, not the same as cash, they are pretty close to it. There isn’t much that you can’t buy at Sainsburys, Argos or eBay.co.uk.

What is the conversion rate between Avios and Nectar points?

The conversion rate is:

• 250 Avios = 400 Nectar points
• 400 Nectar points = 250 Avios

Here is the key thing: there is no value loss in either direction. You can transfer your points as often as you want and you will still have the same amount you started with.

In theory, you could now keep your entire Avios balance with Nectar and just move the points across to Avios as you need them. There is no benefit to doing this, but you won’t lose out either.

How to convert Avios points into Nectar points

You can convert Nectar points to Avios via the British Airways website here.

You must convert a minimum of 250 Avios which will get you 400 Nectar points.

If you are transferring FROM Avios, there is a 10 day delay. This is deliberate due to previous issues with hackers accessing British Airways accounts and emptying the Avios onto untraceable Nectar cards.

The transfer is INSTANT if you are transferring TO Avios from Nectar.

How do you spend your Nectar points?

Once your points are in your Nectar account, it is very easy to spend them.

• Sainsburys – you can scan your Nectar card at the till and choose to pay with points. The only ‘catch’ is that, for security reasons, you must previously have earned Nectar points for shopping in the same branch of Sainsburys.

• Argos – we wrote this article about how to spend Nectar points at Argos. You can redeem up to £500 (62,500 Nectar points) per transaction.

• eBay.co.uk – you need to convert your Nectar points into eBay vouchers online, and then pay with these vouchers when you make your next purchase. This article explains how to spend Nectar points at eBay.

What value do you get for ‘selling’ your Avios like this?

Let’s look at the maths here.

400 Nectar points, if spent at Sainsburys, eBay.co.uk, Argos etc would get you £2 off your shopping. As you are giving up 250 Avios, you are getting 0.8p per Avios. (250 Avios are given up in return for 200p and 200/250 = 0.8.)

0.8p is a decent deal for ‘selling’ Avios.

To be honest, I find that I do a lot better than that. I have a spreadsheet of all the Avios I have redeemed for the last nine years, and I have got 1.2p of value per Avios based on my own valuation of the flights I took.

However, if you would prefer to turn your Avios into cash, converting your Avios points into Nectar points is a good deal.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 2.4 million monthly page views.  Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios?  Click here to read our latest news stories and click here to join the mailing list for our weekly or daily email newsletters.)

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also good bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These are available to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.