Leading UK cashback site TopCashBack has added a new conversion option allowing people to take their earned cashback as Avios points – into either the BA Executive Club or the Avios.com scheme.
There is a 5% conversion bonus, so you are effectively paying 0.95p per Avios point, so not the cheapest route to ‘buy’ Avios points – but a welcome reliable addition. Although you should certainly buy your annual £50 at 0.4p per Avios via Tesco first (see below).
The New Direct Avios Conversion Routes:
Details have been announced in two blog posts on the TCB website, there are redemption options into both the Avios.com scheme and BAEC:
Avios.com scheme blog post:
www.topcashback.co.uk/blog/brand-new-pay-out-method-avios/view/
BAEC scheme blog post:
www.topcashback.co.uk/blog/another-pay-out-methodwow/view/
Travel merchants are not included – so any cash back from Monarch Airlines, booking.com, etc, can not be converted into Avios (directly) but your other cashback can.
There is a 5% conversions bonus so £1 of TCB cashback would get 105 Avios, therefore you are effectively buying Avios at just over 0.95 pence each.
This is not the best rate ever seen to buy Avios, but I think it is a welcome addition of an official option that should be available on an ongoing basis if you need it to round up for a redemption, to buy them at just under 1p each (0.95p).
Obviously you should do your £50 a year via Tesco first before you even consider this (details below), but after that has been used up…. I’m probably going to continue to take Amazon vouchers (when I know I have a use for them – and which also have 5% bonus), then I might take cash (which you can at least invest) unless I was wanting to buy Avios at that point in time – in which case I would seriously consider this new option.
The Traditional Tesco Route:
TopCashBack allows people to receive up to £50 a year of cashback as Tesco Clubcard points, with a 5% bonus (so £50 > £52.50 of Tesco clubcard), which can be converted into 12,600 Avios (or 13,125 Virgin Flying Club).
Therefore, if you convert to Tesco and then convert to Avios, you are paying just under 0.4p per Avios point – which is a great rate to buy for most people.
(Note the £50 annual Tesco cap does not include Hilton hotels cashback – which can only be taken as Tesco clubcard points, and therefore makes the current 5.5% Hilton TCB cashback rate effectively an amazing 13.86 Avios per pound spent!)
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