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Douglas
Last Updated: 23 Sep 2026
Collecting Avios needn’t mean building up enough for full British Airways reward flights. You can also use your Avios to get a discount on regular BA flights paid for in cash.
It’s a more quickly achievable goal - you can use as few as 1,000 Avios, but, as you have to be logged into your BA Club account to see this option at the time of flight search, it may be one you are not aware of.
Part paying with Avios does generally give you lower value for your Avios than redeeming in other ways so it’s useful to make some quick comparisons and decide if this is right for you.
Unlike British Airways reward flights, where you’ll need an Avios flight finder to chase the reward seats, the part payment option is available on every cash booking.
When you are logged into your BA Club account and choose a flight, you will see Part Payment with Avios as an option on the summary page before you pay.
You will be offered a scale of prices you can discount your flight by, arranged in bands, for instance, £10 off with 1,000 Avios and upwards.
The higher the cost of your flight, the greater the number of Avios that you will be able to offset against it, and the value declines the more Avios you use. Here is an example of an economy return flight to Athens:
You cannot use Part Pay with Avios to pay the whole amount.
Be careful not to use the ‘book with cash and upgrade with Avios’ option as that is a different concept for when you want to bag a higher category cabin.
Note also the difference between ‘Part Pay With Avios’ and ‘Pay with Avios and Money’. The latter option is offered only when you are booking an Avios redemption ticket, i.e. a reward flight, and you don’t have quite enough points and opt to buy some extra.
The part payment option can be used on British Airways flights, American Airlines flights between the UK and North America and on British Airways codeshare flights with selected partner airlines including Aer Lingus, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, Qatar and Qantas (see the full list and other details of the scheme here).
To calculate the value of your Avios, take the discount you receive for part payment and divide by the number of Avios you would need to use. For instance, if you need to pay 1,000 Avios for a saving of £10 then each Avios in that instance is worth 1p. If you need to pay 19300 Avios to get £90 off then the per-Avios value is 0.47p.
You’ll notice if you do the maths, that the value of your Avios declines after the first band of part-payment options. So, while they may be worth 1p each if you put the lowest amount towards a BA economy flight, the higher bands represent lower values of 0.5p or 0.6p each.
This means you’ll get more value from your Avios by taking the smallest discount off several flights rather than using all your Avios at once. Psychologically, though, it may feel more of a treat making one chunky saving rather than £20 off here and there.
Generally speaking, the price per Avios for an economy flight should not fall below 0.8p to make the redemption worthwhile, so you should do some quick sums to ensure this is the case. Look out also, for occasional BA promotions on Avios redemptions.
Remember, however many Avios you decide to use at once, you will always have to pay the fees and taxes for the flight. It’s the same on reward flights when the entire fare is otherwise paid with points.
If you are purely looking for Avios' best value and are not set on a flight discount, you should look at the Avios link up with the Nectar rewards scheme, which, if you are a member, now means that you can convert your Avios into Nectar points.
Nectar points are worth 0.5p each when used to shop in Sainsbury’s, Argos, eBay and other retailers in the scheme. However, as you can transfer at a rate of 1 Avios to 1.6 Nectar Points, this means that on conversion your Avios will actually be worth 0.8p, which could be regarded as an absolute minimum value.
It’s a lot faster to build up enough points to make an Avios redemption for a flight discount than it is to wait to build up enough for a full reward flight.
Part-payment is perfect if you just want to dabble in Avios collection rather than sign up for more substantial ways of earning rewards, for instance through Avios credit cards or bank accounts, or if you don’t take many BA flights.
The scheme is more flexible. You can part-pay on all BA flights (and some with partner airlines) and will have the full choice of seat availability. This is in contrast to reward flights when only a handful of seats are released for each flight and you’ll need BA’s or our own Avios flight finder to track them down.
You can still earn Avios on your flight along with tier points, which help you towards treats such as upgrades, when you book a flight with Avios as part payment, whereas you can’t on British Airways reward flights. Curious about how British Airways Tier Points work? You can find a full breakdown on our dedicated page here.
The more Avios you spend towards your flight, the lower the redemption value of those Avios.
The face value of Avios usually works out lower if used in part payment than if used towards a reward flight. So, you may wish to play the long game.
You could also get better value simply by converting your Avios to Nectar points and spending them in various shops.
Find available reward seats with British Airways and Iberia.
If you’re chasing the best value, Part Payment with Avios is unlikely to give you that. But if you like the idea of saving towards discounted flights, it’s an easy, flexible option that doesn’t require a huge Avios stash and helps you to use your points.
Ultimately, what you decide to do with your Avios will hugely depend on your travel plans, the cost of the flight and your own finances. It’s a matter of personal priorities.
