Ways to Buy Avios, Get a Free Stopover With Turkish Airlines, and Which Airline Loses the Most Luggage?

Hey there, Adventurous Travellers! I hope you're having a fantastic Sunday!

This weekend, we have some exciting updates and tips to help you get the most out of travel rewards. If you've been thinking of topping up your Avios balance, you're in the right place!

Let's get started:

• Avoid Airlines Known for Losing Luggage: Learn about the new Luggage Losers site that ranks airlines based on luggage handling performance.

• The Different Ways to Buy Avios: Is it best to buy, boost or subscribe?

• Save Money on a Free Stopover with Turkish Airlines: How to enjoy a free stopover in Istanbul.

• Make Money Getting Bumped from Flights: How one Delta passenger made $5k in one day. Airlines have been known to give up to $10,000 to volunteers who give up their seats!

The Different Ways to Buy Avios

British Airways offers the option to buy Avios, boost Avios earned in the last 30 days, or sign up for an Avios subscription.

But which option is worth the money?

Buying Avios: The Worst Value Option - Best for One-Off Balance Boosts

You can buy between 2000 and 200,000 Avios. The more you buy, the more value you get for your money.

For example, the rate when you buy 2000 Avios is £0.0245 per Avios, but if you buy 200,000, you're buying at a rate of £0.0177.

Whether buying Avios is worthwhile depends on how good the redemption flight is.

Avios can be worth up to 1.5p each, depending on how good a deal you get. There are also promotions throughout the year that enable you to get 50% more. We’ll update you throughout the year as these sales are announced!

These can sometimes be very good value for money, but it's not worth simply buying Avios unless there's a seat you want to redeem straight away before someone else books it.

Avios Balance Boost: The Best Value Option

Did you know you can boost the Avios earned in the last 30 days up to 300,000?

With 3000 Avios, I had the option to boost x1 for £28.80 (£0.0096 per Avios), x2 for £56.41 (£ 0.0094 per Avios), or x3 for £82.80 (£0.0092 per Avios).

This rate applies to all boosts up to 300,000 Avios before changing to £0.0177 for transactions over 300,000 Avios. You can use our balance booster calculator to work this out for your use case.

If you want to top up your Avios balance, this is currently the cheapest way.

However, to boost your balance, you must have earned Avios in the last 30 days. If you haven't and you don't need Avios for now, consider a subscription.

Avios Subscription - Best for Collecting Avios Gradually Long-Term

Avios subscriptions allow you to regularly top up your monthly balance at a fixed price.

Various Avios subscription plans are available, ranging from £26 per month to £199 per month.

There are also yearly plans available at a cheaper rate.

A subscription is better value than simply buying Avios.

Keep in mind that Avios will be credited to your account monthly so that you won't have them all in one go for a quick redemption.

If you choose to do this, pay GBP for the best value.

Note: Earning Avios through Barclays Avios Plus is actually a better value subscription. To do this, you must be a Barclays Premier Banking customer and sign up for Barclays Avios Rewards for £12 per month. You will earn 1500 Avios per month plus 7000 bonus Avios each year. We will cover Barclays Premier Banking in more detail next week!

The Verdict

For the highest tier of 200,000 Avios, you would pay £1789 compared to buying 200,000 upfront for £3215. Through a balance boost, this would be £1,880.

The best value way to earn Avios is to convert hotel points, earn through the BA shopping portal, earn via credit card rewards, and earn air miles on flights.

Save Money on a Free Stopover with Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines has one of the best free stopover programmes around. Have you always wanted to visit Istanbul but never got around to it? Are there still things you want to see and do? 

When you fly with Turkish Airlines, you can have a stopover with a hotel fully paid for by the airline.

To take advantage of this programme, you must have a minimum 20-hour stopover in Istanbul and travel on an eligible flight (look for the stopover Istanbul logo when flying. Here are the eligible routes). The offering is as follows:

Economy Class: 1 night in a 4-star hotel

Business Class: 2 nights in a 5-star hotel

You will need to arrange transport to and from the airport. Many hotels provide airport shuttles.

How to Apply?

1. Prepare Your Details: Provide your name, surname, reservation code (PNR), ticket number, desired accommodation dates, preferred room type, telephone number, and email address.

2. Send Your Application: At least 72 hours before your first flight, email these details to the designated email for your country of departure listed on the Turkish Airlines stopover page.

3. Receive Confirmation: Once your application is processed, you will receive a voucher confirming your hotel reservation.

If you have a layover in Istanbul of 6-24 hours, you can join Touristanbul for free.

A variety of tours are offered depending on the season, including:

• Bosphorus Tour

• Shopping Tour

• Evening Tour

• Turkish History TV series Tour

• Sightseeing Tour

• Full Day Tour

• Half Day Tour

Earning Free Flights

Turkish Airlines is part of the Miles&Smiles reward programme and the Star Alliance.

Earn miles with any Star Alliance airline to redeem free flights with Turkish Airlines. You can also earn points on things like hotel stays.

For example, Marriott has a rate of 3:1.

A Website Dedicated to Which Airline Loses The Most Luggage

When @levelsio had a frustrating experience with Vueling losing a suitcase, he created the site Luggage Losers, which ranks airlines based on how much luggage they are losing right now so you can make an informed choice.

The airlines losing the most luggage right now include:

• Air India

• Aer Lingus

• British Airways

• WestJet Airlines

• Iberia

• SpiceJet

• easyJet

• Vueling

• Spirit Airlines

• Jet2

Most luggage is being lost in Africa, Europe and North America!

The airlines doing best right now are:

• LATAM Brazil

• Alaska Airlines

• Saudia

• Malaysia Airlines

• Garuda Indonesia

• SAS Scandinavia

• Air Asia

• Oman Air

• COPA Airlines

• Thai Airways

• Finnair

The least amount of luggage is lost in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Oceania!

Make sure you look at the airline you're travelling with and the destination on the site.

Will this influence your travel plans?

Making Money Getting Bumped from Flights

When an airline overbooks a flight, the only last-minute solution to avoid delays is ‘voluntary Bumping,’ when passengers are asked to give up their seats voluntarily.

Compensation includes things like travel vouchers, free hotel accommodation, or a seat on another flight, but some airlines give cash incentives when a flight has been overbooked.

Take this example of $5k made in one day!

Delta is notorious for offering large sums of money for giving up seats, with past offers reaching up to $10,000!

If you’re flexible about accepting the offer (with any airline), here’s how it works.

The offer will typically start as an announcement over the intercom. If you’re interested and you hear an announcement like this, run!

If you’re flexible about doing this if an opportunity comes up (with any airline), here’s how it works. The offer will typically start as an announcement over the intercom or when you’ve just gotten on the plane. If you’re interested and you hear an announcement like this, run!

Experts recommend not accepting the airline's first offer. You can often negotiate lounge access or better seats on your rebooked flight, too! Airlines are desperate to prevent delays, and they are likely to agree. 

Final Words

Hopefully, you can use some of these tips to save money on your next adventure, whether you bag a free stopover in Istanbul or you can add to your Avios balance in a more cost effective way.

Want to continue the conversation? Come and join our free Facebook group.

Safe travels, and always aim for the upgrade!

Bye for now!