Get a 25% bonus when you transfer Nectar points to Avios – worth it?

Avios has launched a conversion bonus for anyone sitting on a pile of Nectar points.

Let’s take a look at the deal. Full details are on avios.com here.

The standard conversion rate of Nectar points to Avios is 400 : 250. This has remained unchanged despite two devaluations for people converting in the opposite direction.

As a Nectar point is worth 0.5p when spent at Sainsburys, Argos etc, you are giving up £2 of free shopping in return for 250 Avios. In other words, you are buying Avios for 0.8p. This is a decent deal.

Until 30th April, you will receive a 15% or 25% bonus on every transfer INTO Avios.

A one-off transfer will get you a 15% bonus.

An auto-conversion transfer will get you a 25% bonus. Assuming you are moving over your entire Nectar balance, you might as well activate auto-convert and then, if you wish, disable it later.

(For clarity, there is no bonus in the opposite direction. The rate from Avios into Nectar remains at 400:400.)

This looks pretty attractive. For every 400 Nectar points you convert, you will receive (with a 25% bonus) 312 Avios.

Put another way, you are giving up £2 of free shopping to earn 312 Avios, so you are ‘paying’ 0.64p per Avios. It’s an excellent return.

If you happen to be sitting on a pile of Nectar points with no real plan for them, you should seriously think about this deal.

What is the small print?

There doesn’t seem to be much, which is good:

• The offer runs to 30th April

• Transfers must be in multiples of 400 Nectar points

• You can make multiple transfers in that period and get the bonus on all of them

It seems that anyone who already auto-converts their Nectar points into Avios will receive the bonus automatically.

I expect the bonus to post in arrears, not with the original transfer.

The usual caps apply – you can manually transfer a maximum of 80,000 Nectar points into Avios per calendar month so, as this offer does not straddle a month end, you are capped at 80,000 Nectar points. Automatic conversions are capped at a lower level – a maximum of 40,000 Nectar points per calendar quarter.  

The only caveat I would make is to remind you that Marriott Bonvoy will become a Nectar transfer partner very soon – see here. If you value Marriott points as much as (or more than) Avios, you may want to hold off and see how good that deal turns out to be.

You can see full details on avios.com here.