Buy miles from 1.53 Singapore cents with BA’s ‘Avios Balance Boost’

Many of our readers in Singapore take advantage of Avios points alongside the more common KrisFlyer and Asia Miles alternatives for a variety of good value redemption options, including Business Class flights to Europe for as little as 62,500 miles and Economy Class hops to Koh Samui for just 6,000 miles.

While these redemptions are quite specific, and of course there is far less choice than you’ll get from the likes of KrisFlyer to and from Singapore, they are often excellent value.

With four banks offering transfers to Avios from credit card points in Singapore, it’s good to know that there’s also an interesting way to double, triple or quadruple your transfer after converting for a reasonable cost, which could help you unlock award flights you didn’t think you could stretch to.

Does it make sense? Let’s take a look.

British Airways ‘Avios Balance Boost’

British Airways Executive Club (BAEC) launched its ‘Avios Balance Boost’ deal back in June 2023, but it’s not something that really caught our eye until around a year later, when we first wrote about the option.

So what does that mean?

Well first and foremost – you’re buying miles if you participate in this offer, which won’t make sense for everyone.

Effectively you can double (1x), triple (2x) or quadruple (3x) any British Airways Avios you have earned in the last 30 days by paying a fee, including those you have accrued through flight activity, shopping, hotel points transfers or a credit card points transfer.

You won’t be able to boost points credited to your account via:

• Avios conversions from other Avios partners like Qatar Airways and Finnair
• Avios exchanged from shopping partners, like Nectar in the UK
• Avios purchased, shared or gifted

Here’s how the pricing looks per Avios point, depending on which currency drives your BAEC account, which is based on your registered address.

As you can see the cost per Avios reduces slightly as you boost in larger multiples.

If like me your BA Avios account is registered in the UK, you’ll be able to boost your Avios balance from as little as 0.92 British pence (~1.61 Singapore cents each), but if like most of our Singapore-based readers your pricing is denominated in USD, it’s actually slightly cheaper at 1.2 US cents (~1.53 Singapore cents each).

Earlier this year, BA offered a 4x Avios boost for all points accrued in 2024 (not just those in the last 30 days), effectively allowing a quintupling of your original miles haul (e.g. earned 10,000 Avios, turn it into 50,000 Avios).

In 2023 British Airways offered a 10% bonus on any boosted Avios, which if repeated would reduce the cost per Avios to as little as 0.84 British pence (~1.47 Singapore cents each) or more likely for Singapore-based readers 1.09 US cents (~1.39 Singapore cents each).

The rates shown above are only valid for the first 300,000 Avios you boost in a calendar year. If you boost further Avios after that, the rate becomes very expensive, and this is unlikely to be worth it, as shown below.

Avios Balance Boost pricing is subject to change, and you can check the latest rates here.

How it works

You can check how many Avios in your BAEC account are eligible for boosting by logging on to your account and clicking ‘Buy Avios’ then ‘Balance Boost’.

This will then display any eligible Avios credited to your account in the last 30 days, grouped into spending categories, which you can further expand to only boost specific account credit amounts if you wish (at transaction level).

Last year I made a free transfer from my HSBC Reward points across to BAEC (25,000 points to 10,000 Avios), which credited instantly.

Since transfers from credit card points into Avios are eligible for boosting, this transaction immediately appeared on the Balance Boost page for my account.

Note that the sliding scale defaults to 2x boost Avios, but you can move it to 1x or 3x as you wish, and the new boost pricing will be displayed.

I went ahead and boosted the Avios by 3x for GBP 276 (this would be priced at USD 360 if your account is Singapore-registered).

After making payment by credit card, the additional 30,000 Avios were added to my account instantly.

On completion I had 40,000 Avios instead of 10,000, which could then be used to redeem an award straight away via the BA Avios portal, in whole or in part, just like any other points in your account.

These Avios can also be transferred free and instantly 1:1 into the likes of Qatar Airways Avios or Finnair Avios to make a redemption on those sites, which can open up additional options, like Bangkok Airways awards and lower-Avios fuel-surcharge-free Cathay Pacific intra-Asia awards.

Remember that the ‘Avios Balance Boost’ is not exclusive to credit card points transfers. You can also boost other points earned in the programme, like those accrued from paid flights and hotel points transfers too, provided they dropped into your account in the last 30 days.

Multiply your credit card transfer

BA’s Avios Balance Boost gives you the option to transfer credit card points into Avios, then buy up to three times that amount for a fee, which could unlock a valuable redemption option you didn’t think you could achieve with your miles, at a competitive cost.

For example if you transfer 50,000 Citi Miles into 50,000 BA Avios, you will then be able to boost your Avios as follows:

• 50,000 additional Avios for US$625 / S$796 (1.59 cents per mile)
• 100,000 additional Avios for US$1,220 / S$1,554 (1.55 cents per mile)
• 150,000 additional Avios for US$1,800 / S$2,293 (1.53 cents per mile)

At the top end, this 50,000 Citi Miles transfer therefore allows you to accrue 200,000 Avios in total (50,000 initial transfer + 150,000 boost), for a fee of S$2,293.

That’s enough Avios to fly round-trip from Singapore to Helsinki and back on Finnair in Business Class (125,000 Avios), and still have enough left over for a Qatar Airways Business Class Qsuite redemption from Singapore to London (75,000 Avios).

Even if you don’t want to go quite that far, simply doubling your miles (1x boost) can work out as a good deal.

For example, if you have 70,000 Citi Miles accrued on your Citi PremierMiles card and you transfer those into 70,000 BA Avios points, you’ll have enough for a one-way Business Class flight from Singapore to Athens on Qatar Airways.

For a fee of US$875 / S$1,116 (1.59 cents per mile), you can then double that deposit to have 140,000 Avios in your account instead, enough to redeem a round-trip award on this route, or for two of you to travel one-way, instead of just one.

Even if you have 140,000 Citi Miles in your account, you might prefer this method since you will be able to retain 70,000 of them for a transfer into another frequent flyer programme, like KrisFlyer, for example if you also wanted to use that stash for a Singapore – Auckland award in Business Class on SIA (68,500 KrisFlyer miles).

As always, don’t buy Avios via this Boost offer unless you have a firm plan on how to use them, ideally with award space you have already checked in advance.

No-notice devaluations in the Avios programme have happened before, and could easily happen again.

Which banks transfer to BA Avios in Singapore?

You can transfer credit card points to British Airways Avios from four banks in Singapore, as shown below.

Singapore Bank to BA Avios transfer partners

= Same transfer ratio as a KrisFlyer conversion
= Poorer transfer ratio than a KrisFlyer conversion

Here’s an important point though – for some season OCBC transfers to BA Avios cannot be boosted. That’s not a big issue, because they transfer at a poor ratio anyway – which you probably shouldn’t be considering.

Here’s what we know from various reader data points about transfers into BA Avios that then can and can’t be boosted:

  Can be boosted

• Amex SG
• Amex UK
• Amex US
• Barclaycard UK
• Capital One US
• Chase US
• Citi SG
• HSBC SG
• Heathrow Rewards
• IHG
• Marriott Bonvoy

  Can’t be boosted

• Bilt Rewards US
• Heymax Max Miles
• OCBC SG

Note also the Heymax Max Miles transfers into BA Avios are similarly not eligible for boosting.

Good value Avios awards

If you’re not too familiar with the kind of awards you can unlock using Avios points in this part of the world, while the programme certainly can’t compete with KrisFlyer in terms of the scale of options available, there are still some great Oneworld and partner redemption opportunities worth knowing about.

These include:

• Malaysia Airlines Singapore to KL Business Class for 12,500 Avios (for a Oneworld ‘lounge safari’ at Changi).
• Finnair Business Class Singapore to Helsinki for 62,500 Avios, with minimal taxes and good award space.
• Qantas Singapore to Perth for 38,750 Avios in Business Class or 13,000 Avios in Economy Class.
• Qatar Airways Qsuite trips from Singapore to Europe for 70,000 to 75,000 Avios.

Finnair Business Class to Helsinki is the cheapest miles award in this cabin between Asia and Europe – 40% less than the 103,500 KrisFlyer miles Singapore Airlines charges for a Saver award in this cabin on its own non-stop Europe flights.

You can also link your British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club accounts and transfer Avios 1:1 for free between the two, also unlocking some more ‘sweet spot’ redemptions in that programme, such as:

• Great value Cathay Pacific intra-Asia awards in long-haul J seats, with no fuel surcharge, like Singapore – Bangkok in Business Class for 16,500 Avios + S$67 and Singapore – Hong Kong for 22,000 Avios + S$67.
• Bangkok Airways Singapore – Koh Samui flights for 6,000 Avios.
• Virgin Australia flights from 6,000 Avios in Economy Class and 12,000 Avios in Business Class.

Recently there’s also a new option to transfer BA Avios into the Loganair programme for a wide range of UK domestic flights on the regional carrier, often priced at over GBP200 (~S$350) one-way, for only 6,500 Avios, with minimal taxes and fees.

Qatar Airways used to offer ‘Boost your Avios’

In mid-2024, Qatar Airways Privilege Club (QRPC) also joined the ‘Boost Avios’ party, and in this case you could multiply earned Avios by 1x, 2x, 3x and 6x too, double the upper limit imposed by BA.

QRPC also allows you to boost Avios earned over the last three months, not just the last 30 days, including credit card points transfers.

The downside? The cost of boosting Qatar Avios was fixed – and unattractive – at 1.8 US cents (~2.3 Singapore cents) per Avios point boosted, a significantly worse deal that BAEC offers, and almost certainly not worth considering.

It’s academic now anyway.

While Qatar Airways did cut the cost of Avios boosting to a slightly more palatable level in August last year, the whole option has now been suspended.

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British Airways’ Avios Balance Boost represents one of the most competitive ways to purchase miles, with rates starting from just 1.53 Singapore cents per Avios for Singapore-based accounts.

This pricing compares very favourably to most airline miles purchasing options, making it attractive for travellers who need to top up their balance for specific redemptions. The flexibility to boost any Avios earned in the past 30 days – including credit card transfers – adds significant value to the programme.

The most practical applications include scenarios where you’re just short of a valuable redemption, such as converting a one-way award into a round-trip, or unlocking premium cabin awards that would otherwise be out of reach. Additionally, the boost option can help preserve your credit card points for other loyalty programmes like KrisFlyer, while still securing excellent-value Avios redemptions such as Finnair Business Class to Europe or Qatar Airways Qsuite awards.

However, it’s crucial to approach Avios Balance Boost strategically rather than speculatively. Only boost points when you have confirmed award availability and a firm travel plan, given the Avios programme’s history of devaluations.

(Cover Photo: British Airways)