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)…
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.
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.
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!!!!