DEVALUED: Avios to Nectar points conversion rate cut (again) from 11th March

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• kevin says:

  27 Feb27 February 09:45

  I know I’ve only been playing this game since 2020 and the pandemic affected the industry in extremis, but it seems to me that it could be goodnight Vienna very soon. Sadly I was only an observer from the back row during the hay days but as a relative newbie it just seems that every few weeks when I open HfP there are announcements of changes to various aspects, always dressed up as something good for customers. But then experts like Rob and Rhys et al analysis it, it turns out to be yet another kick in the teeth.

  I remind myself that IAG and others have a company to run and needs to make money which is fair enough. Unfortunately we in GB/Ireland have limited options for airline loyalty as only BA have a route network that is worthwhile. I can see many of us bailing out and opting for the LCCs more so now.

  • Rhys says:

    27 Feb27 February 10:06

    The hay days are always yesterday!

    • Will says:

      27 Feb27 February 20:54

      It always appears that way for sure.
      I think of tax/fee free armies redemptions, Clubcard points for mobile phones, one world sapphire with Amex plat, the insane Lloyds cc sign up bonus (was it 17.5 x or 35x on spend? I can’t remember now) more recently you might cite the emirates F1 auctions.

      But in spite of all of that I can’t help thinking it’s easier to get information than ever before, easier to earn points, alliances and partnerships open new opportunities like never before, if your into it there’s tons of information around tier point running and ex EU business class fares.

      You can now earn points AND upgrade vouchers with Barclays, Amex and Virgin cc in the UK.
      The Marriott / SPG merger opened up huge redemption opportunities and a relatively quick route to status via the cc/annual offers where often you’ll save the mattress run fare in breakfast charges alone let alone SNA’s.

      The going is still great!

• Don says:

  27 Feb27 February 10:00

  PS. If the conversion process starts working again, how does one convert HOUSEHOLD Avios to Nectar?

  • Rob says:

    27 Feb27 February 10:10

    You need a separate Nectar account for each member of the household.

    • Don says:

      27 Feb27 February 10:19

      Thanks Rob

• lumma says:

  27 Feb27 February 10:02

  As someone who’s only ever transferred from Nectar to Avios, I hope this doesn’t push Sainsbury’s into making it more difficult to earn Nectar points through the bonus points offers in the app.

  • WillPS says:

    27 Feb27 February 10:51

    I can’t see why it would. The cost to JS is similar regardless of how you spend the Nectar points.

    (This isn’t to say bonus point offers are definitely staying btw, there’s a confusing mix atm of Nectar Prices, MY Nectar Prices and bonus offers right now, my gut instinct is that at least one of the latter 2 will go in time).

    • Rob says:

      27 Feb27 February 11:08

      Of course it isn’t.

      If you spend in Argos / Sainsbury’s / Habitat then, as Nectar is owned by these companies, it isn’t ‘cash out’. For other partners, it is.

      As an extreme example …. let’s say I gave you a voucher worth £100 of HfP advertising or £100 off a BA flight. If you take the advertising it costs me £0, unless the space could have been sold to someone else, whereas if you take the flight it costs me £100.

      • WillPS says:

        27 Feb27 February 11:16

        False equivalence. There is nothing Sainsburys/Argos sell which costs them nothing.

        They make almost no profit on fuel, so if you spend your 2 Nectar points on 1p of fuel you’ll likely cost them more than if you got them to pay BA 0.8p for the points instead.

        On a more extreme and less realistic redemption – they lose money on almost every item of produce they sell, so if you exchanged your entire Nectar balance for carrots, bananas and lettuce the cost would be far higher than the 1p value of the points.

      • lumma says:

        27 Feb27 February 11:25

        Isn’t that the exact point I’m making though? As things stand, it’s easy for me to earn 800+ Nectar per week, which will autoconvert to 500 Avios, which lets assume will cost nectar £5 versus £4 off at Sainsbury’s or Argos. Surely it’s better for Sainsbury’s to reduce the number of points you can earn or make their own redemptions more desirable, especially if less people are converting in the other direction.

        Maybe there’ll be a bigger push on things like the Nero deal (which is a good deal on a value to the customer basis but I believe will cost Nectar a nominal amount as it’ll be funded by Nero who hope you’ll buy a cake or a sandwich alongside your coffee)

        • WillPS says:

          27 Feb27 February 11:38

          You think JS are paying BA more than 0.5p per Nectar point? I very much doubt that.

        • Rob says:

          27 Feb27 February 11:59

          I know what many partners pay for Avios – companies are happy to tell you if you ask. 0.5p should be correct, because that’s 0.8p per Avios and that’s the floor I believe.

  • YC says:

    27 Feb27 February 10:51

    Been trying to convert last few days nectar-avios but keep getting stuck once I hit ‘convert points’ with a forbidden error page. Anyone got a tip to get round this?

    • Matt says:

      27 Feb27 February 17:21

      Have you tried converting via the nectar app. You need to link your BA account but that way works for me

• Ant says:

  27 Feb27 February 11:32

  Have a household account of 5 and last week transferred a load of Avios across to Nectar with a total value of £450 from 3 of our Avios accounts to 3 different Nectar cards. BA already make it difficult by having a 10 day delay between redeeming your Avios and the points arriving in your Nectar account and say this is due to fraud (albeit there is no delay if moving points the other way from Nectar to Avios). 2 of my kids are at uni and so a load of free shopping from Sainsburys is of much more value to them than having Avios points that are difficult to use (especially when you live in the north) and you’re constantly worried that you might lose them due to inactivity.

• strickers says:

  27 Feb27 February 11:37

  No email for me and I auto convert.

  • WillPS says:

    27 Feb27 February 11:51

    from: British Airways Executive Club
    date: 26 Feb 2024, 14:42
    subject: The Avios to Nectar points conversion rate is changing

    In case that helps you find it in spam or similar.

    • strickers says:

      27 Feb27 February 13:18

      Thanks, nothing there.

• ecugkq30 says:

  27 Feb27 February 11:40

  Getting 2x J seats to Cape Town in half term for 200k avios and £900 vs. £10k+ for a cash fare was very much worth a couple of midnight calls to the BA agents!

• Andy says:

  27 Feb27 February 11:58

  Guess it’s time to cash out some more Avios to Nectar then… can always transfer MR points in if I need to boost the balance again

  But tending to fly less and less on BA these days

  • Alex G says:

    27 Feb27 February 14:36

    Of course the beauty of Avios is that there is a wide choice of quality airlines that you can earn and redeem with. You don’t need to set foot on BA.

• BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

  27 Feb27 February 12:55

  The only people calling at midnight are those that want a specific date on a very specific route – and there are only a handfull of those because once the initial allocation goes it’s rare for more to be released.

  No one is booking LHR-JFK or LHR-AMS 355 days in advance!

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