Make of this what you will, but the British Airways Club’s shopping portal in the United States is currently offering 250 Avios per dollar spent on Kate Spade purchases (thanks to JJ for flagging this). That’s of course an unbelievable return on spending.
Now, everyone can decide for themselves whether they want to take advantage of this. It reminds me a little of the American SimplyMiles promotion we saw in 2021, offering 240 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent on select donations. That was ultimately honored, but it was also co-funded by Citi, and I think the fact that the money went to a good cause helped as well.
Personally, I’m less optimistic here, but I’m sharing this so everyone can make their own decision. I took advantage of the SimplyMiles promotion, while personally, I’m not a “buyer” here. Then again, I’d have to imagine if this is not honored, they’d have to find a way to make people whole, and that could also be tricky (that’s just my take, but I’m not a lawyer)…
Unfortunately I have managed to post the following message in a thread below by mistake. Apologies all round.
Thank you Ben, for highlighting this apparent nonsensical points scam. The more you illustrate how this points collection game pans out, the more convinced I become that it simply isn’t worth it for me.
Good luck to those who believe it to be worthwhile.
Anyone know how long it typically takes to get the points? I pulled the trigger on $1000, the US portal has an option to ship to Canada which was nice. Transferring the points to Qatar gets me a nice one way from MEL - YUL next year or a few transatlantic on Iberia.
BA Avios can be transferred to Qatar Avios, right?
Thanks.
Yes
In for $1150 worth of handbags... we'll see what happens, but two multi-carrier 120k or 140k J awards would definitely be worthwhile if this pans out, even with the requisite taxes that BA inevitably will charge.
In for 600$ lets see what happens
Could I just buy a gift card? Or is that dumb because you can’t return it?
BA is not the only portal currently offering unusually high rates per $ for Kate Spade. For example, Wyndham Rewards is offering 190 points per $, Virgin Atlantic is offering 152 points per $, and JetBlue is offering 126.5 points per $.
Almost decided to jump in (since items are available for local pickup), but ran some numbers and - meh.
So, I can get a few handbags for a total of $850 ($900 including tax). That will net 212K miles.
Quick search (never used Avios) shows a TATL business class ticket for 104K avios + $400. So, For $900 + 2 x $400 = $1700 I can (may be) get a business class TATL r/t...
Almost decided to jump in (since items are available for local pickup), but ran some numbers and - meh.
So, I can get a few handbags for a total of $850 ($900 including tax). That will net 212K miles.
Quick search (never used Avios) shows a TATL business class ticket for 104K avios + $400. So, For $900 + 2 x $400 = $1700 I can (may be) get a business class TATL r/t ticket (that in itself earns no miles) on BA.
Might be able to get $200 back by selling the bags on ebay (a quick search shows a glut of offerings of "new in box" Kate Spade merchandise on ebay at list prices less than 40% of the retail).
That is all pretty close to a cash price, and does not seem to make much sense to me.
The base value is that you are paying .4 cents for let's say 1cent value points. While the value of redeeming on BA for TATL is suspect due to the fees (and you must be east coast based for such low fees), at least you got the points at half price more or less. Not counting the lack of mileage earning, usually paying $2000 or so for TATL r/t is a pretty good cash deal,...
The base value is that you are paying .4 cents for let's say 1cent value points. While the value of redeeming on BA for TATL is suspect due to the fees (and you must be east coast based for such low fees), at least you got the points at half price more or less. Not counting the lack of mileage earning, usually paying $2000 or so for TATL r/t is a pretty good cash deal, and hear you can pay only half for one way. Then you have intra-europa and AA/AS redemption opportunities, so the points can go a long way.
If you don't actively use avios already I wouldn't bother tbh. But I will say like all FF programs you have to learn their sweet spots. The real value of avios is not in long haul business redemptions, the taxes and fees they charge, esp on TATL flights, make it a terrible deal.
The real value of avios are in short to medium haul redemptions, esp within Europe, but also within Asia and North...
If you don't actively use avios already I wouldn't bother tbh. But I will say like all FF programs you have to learn their sweet spots. The real value of avios is not in long haul business redemptions, the taxes and fees they charge, esp on TATL flights, make it a terrible deal.
The real value of avios are in short to medium haul redemptions, esp within Europe, but also within Asia and North America. They have RFS pricing in Europe which caps the taxes and fees at a low rate (about $20 per one way economy flight). Availability is usually good and is very handy for flying to and from the UK short haul, esp at short notice.
To add some color - I have probably booked 20+ BA short haul Europe flights in past 5 years for ~7k avios and $20 in taxes one way economy, or $15k avios and $30 taxes in business, when the cash price for these flights is often $400+.
Might not be useful for many but for me it is incredibly useful FF program for shorthaul flights in Europe (also with Cathay and JAL in Asia)
And totally forgot that you can be moving these Avios around to Aer Lingus (or redeeming on them for low fees) and especially Qatar, so it is not liked you are locked into BA redemptions.
I’m in - let’s ride! Thanks for the heads-up!!
nice thanks! in for $100 lets see if i get 25k Avios for my troubles
Do you usually get a confirmation email from BA saying portal purchase was made?
I tried to do a pickup order as I figured if they don't honor on the deal, I just wont pickup. But it wouldn't go through on checkout, it just kept failing with no error message. So i did a delivery order in the end. Probably will just have to return them (made sure none were final sale) but worth a punt. Worst case I waste an hour returning them at local mall. Best case I get 300k avios for $1000 and can resell the items for hopefully $300-$500.
also i picked items that were not marked as "excluded from promotion" was hard to find non-final sale items that were not excluded from promotion but I did
What non final sale items did you get to show without the exclusion note? I'm only seeing cheaper items.
Wont let me post a link but look at handbags e.g. "Do It All Large Tote"
Thank you TH! I just purchased one for my wife. I have been a heavy user of Avios, and my BA balance has dropped from hundreds of thousands to 403, so definitely worth a shot!
Thank you Ben, for highlighting this apparent nonsensical points scam. The more you illustrate how this collection game pans out, the more convinced I become that it simply isn’t worth it for me.
Good luck to those who believe it to be worthwhile.
In for the ride. Low risk fun
I thought about it, but decided against it. BA will almost certainly walk this back - too easy under US law to say you made a mistake, even with all the screenshots as evidence. I’d want to spend $5-10k to make it worthwhile. I agree, if you live near KS then it’s a shot to nothing, but it’s possible posting might take longer than the return policy allows. And it’s not clear under US law...
I thought about it, but decided against it. BA will almost certainly walk this back - too easy under US law to say you made a mistake, even with all the screenshots as evidence. I’d want to spend $5-10k to make it worthwhile. I agree, if you live near KS then it’s a shot to nothing, but it’s possible posting might take longer than the return policy allows. And it’s not clear under US law that BA couldn’t still claim a mistake (harder if they post the Avios but still possible). It took me over a year to get BA to pay a watertight EU261, so will be shocked if they pay out - unless they close it up when the UK wakes up and sees this posted in the morning and only a few take advantage. The AA case was different for many reasons. I would avoid the items that say excluded from promotion.
Went for it for $800. I live near a Kate Spade store so if they don't honor, I'll just return them...thanks for the tip!
Did you check to see if it said "Excluded from Promotion"? I only see FINAL SALE items as not saying this once viewing my cart....
I did, and the items I bought were not FINAL SALE
Actually, I should have stated that more expensive items ($200+) showed excluded, not like cheaper necklaces. What did you buy that
"worked"?
2x $400 deco quilted purses. Some colors were excluded and some were not.
I’m trying… any item I place in the cart has a highlighted message saying “Excluded from Promotion.” Not sure if this is generic referring to discount codes people may have, or this particular discount as arrived at via logging in from BA’s shopping portal. Anyone know?
I am only getting FINAL SALE items to show up without it saying Promotion excluded....
An extra '!' would've really sold that title!!!!