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Will British Airways ever tell people that the Nectar conversion rate is devaluing?

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As we revealed last month, the Avios to Nectar conversion rate is being devalued on 11th March.

The rate drops from 300 Avios = 400 Nectar points to 400 Avios = 400 Nectar points. Remember that, two years ago, it was 250 Avios = 400 Nectar points.

Following this change, Nectar will become a relatively pointless part of the Avios universe. Converting into Nectar, with its fixed 0.5p per point redemption rate, will be no better than using Avios for any other non-flight redemption, and in some cases will be worse.

Will BA ever tell people that the Nectar conversion rate is devaluing?

British Airways has still not notified Avios members that the conversion rate is changing on Monday. Take a look at the BA / Nectar page for example.

The only people who know are those who have auto-conversion set up, since they needed to have time to cancel it if they didn’t want to accept the new rate.

We know that Avios is desperate to stop people converting to Nectar – after all, you used to get this begging message popping up when trying to convert:

…. but making a decision not to tell people of a fairly major change is not on. Even a warning email to those people who have converted Avios to Nectar in the past would have been enough.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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

Category

British Airways and Avios, Sainsbury's and Nectar

Comments (95)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Jonathan says:
    8 Mar8 March 05:37

    Does purchasing VS red / FC points with their credit card earn double points ?

    (Spending with VS directly and Virgin Holidays yields double the amount points compared to ordinary spending, this would stack up well with spending the first £5K on the plus card before 14th April

  • daveinitalia says:
    8 Mar8 March 06:27

    70% bonus is not a big deal anymore it’s the new normal. I though when I was reading it the text sounded familiar and the last time they ran the greatest ever bonus was December 2023.

  • Sam Wardill says:
    8 Mar8 March 06:49

    It would be a shame if nationwide offload the credit cards. The current owners are truly awful. I had to take them to the FOS when they charged the annual fee 2 months early.

  • G says:
    8 Mar8 March 06:59

    I am surprised Amex aren’t doing something with Virgin? I know Virgin want to keep things within one eco-system, but with the demise of Virgin money; perhaps it makes sense to reach out to amex?

    • John G says:
      8 Mar8 March 08:26

      Does the deal Amex have with BA allow Amex to issue another airline branded card in the UK?

    • BJ says:
      8 Mar8 March 08:27

      I cannot recall if amex UK ever had an airline card with any airline other than BA? Perhaps the BA agreement prevents them from doing so?

      • daveinitalia says:
        8 Mar8 March 09:46

        Sounds likely because all other airline Amex cards in the UK (such as bmi) were issued by MBNA.

        • Rob says:
          8 Mar8 March 10:05

          MBNA did AA, United, BMI, Etihad, Lufty and Emirates!

          • Jonathan says:
            8 Mar8 March 12:20

            Those all died many year ago now, it’s particularly unfortunate if your main earning route for a program is now only available via Marriott, even they can’t do any airline you can of, I think AAdvantage for one at least ?

          • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
            8 Mar8 March 14:26

            When I had one my VS Amex was via MBNA and then they stopped.

    • Harrier25 says:
      8 Mar8 March 12:12

      …and lose the free FX in Europe, the ability to use it everywhere and the flexibility on where to spend the points. No thanks to Amex!

  • Steve S says:
    8 Mar8 March 07:11

    I thought CYBG bought Virgin money

    • @mkcol says:
      8 Mar8 March 07:58

      That’s what I came here to say!

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
      8 Mar8 March 08:00

      They did, and whilst legally the company is still Clydesdale, they trade as Virgin.

      • RussellH says:
        8 Mar8 March 10:53

        I shall be delighted to see the end of the ridiculous Virgin Money brand (who wants a bank that apparently has no experience with money?). Pleased to read that Nationwide will stop paying Branson for the dubious pleasure of using his “brand”.
        Presumably (or perhaps not), even though Nationwide will drop the Clydesdale name, bank notes will continue to bear it?
        Or will it be Nationwide bank notes, or will they stop issuing their own notes?

        • Alex G says:
          8 Mar8 March 12:22

          Who wants a bank that apparently has no experience with money?

          The same people who will ride on an airline that doesn’t go all the way 😉

        • John says:
          8 Mar8 March 23:35

          I sell Scottish banknotes to collectors in Asia. I don’t think clydesdale notes are even being printed any more, they did the run of new 5/10/20 polymer from 2015-9 and that was it, it’s basically impossible to get new ones now, meanwhile RBS and BOS are still actively manufacturing them

  • Mark says:
    8 Mar8 March 07:11

    The Virgin Atlantic credit cards can be a pain to deal with when things go wrong, but the 2-4-1 vouchers more than make up for the grief. Could this be an end to the card as we know it. As Rob says, Nationwide do not appear to take risks with anything.

    • RussellH says:
      8 Mar8 March 10:57

      The lack of a website does not exactly make life easier!

  • TheThunderer says:
    8 Mar8 March 07:20

    Virgin credit card service is the worst. I took out a £5k 12m zero rate cash transfer – they took the whole lot back from my current account via DD a few weeks later. Then didn’t initially agree with my complaint. Finally accepted they were in the wrong and agreed to pay £200 compo within a week. Hadn’t happened after two months so I had to go to the ombudsman… Yuck, never again

    • John says:
      8 Mar8 March 09:57

      Sounds like you had a DD set up to repay the full balance

      • zapato1060 says:
        8 Mar8 March 14:19

        Yes but according to OP it seems they were incapable differentiating between 12 and 1 month.

    • cin4 says:
      9 Mar9 March 18:50

      No, it’s bad but still nowhere near as bad as Barclays.

  • Ben says:
    8 Mar8 March 07:20

    And presumably don’t want to pay Virgin for the pleasure of using the brand.

    • Ken says:
      8 Mar8 March 08:28

      I’m always amazed what people will pay for the Virgin brand in some areas.
      I think it was £15m a year to Branson.

      Was Yorkshire (in particular) or Clydesdale a worse option ?
      Not sure sexy is what you want from loans, savings and pensions.

    • RussellH says:
      8 Mar8 March 10:57

      They have already said that they will stop that waste of money.

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