Avios to Nectar point swap value cut

You’ll get less for your points from 11 March.

If you’re sitting on some Avios or Amex Reward points that you plan to swap to Nectar then this is big news. Here’s what you need to know, and what you need to do.

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What’s changing

We’ve had a number of members of our Facebook community share an email they’ve received from British Airways Executive Club stating:

“We’re changing the Avios to Nectar conversion rate We wanted to let you know that from 11 March 2024, the conversion rate for Avios to Nectar points will be changing.

When converting Avios to Nectar points, the current conversion rate is 300 Avios = 400 Nectar points. From 11 March 2024 that will be changing to 400 Avios = 400 Nectar points.

The Nectar to Avios conversion rate will remain the same.

This change will take place automatically and your British Airways Executive Club and Nectar accounts will continue to be linked so you don’t need to do anything.“

We’re waiting for confirmation from British Airways and Nectars on this, but the number of reports we’ve got indicate it’s as shared above.

What this means

This revamp of the Nectar:Avios exchange rate means the “cash” value of those Avios points drops from 0.67p per point to 0.5p per point. That’s a reduction of 25%.

The rate the other way, swapping Nectar to Avios stays the same at 400 to 250.

This isn’t the first time it’s changed. Back in October 2022, the value moved from 400 Nectar to 250 Avios (which valued an Avios at 0.8p) to its current exchange rate.

Why this matters

Since the Avios and Nectar partnership launched in early 2021, it provided a way to boost the value of points earned not just via Avios cards, but also any American Express Membership Reward points.

Since Amex points convert 1:1 direct with Avios, exchanging first to Avios and then to Nectar would also be worth 0.67p in Nectar points, rather than a direct 1:1 swap from Amex to Nectar which was worth only 0.5p.

But the change means there’s no point adding in that extra step. Instead you’ll get the same valuation if you swap them direct into Nectar (or any other partner with the same valuation, such as gift cards)

Here are some examples from popular cards with what the effective cashback rate on spending will be:

Card	Current equivalent cashback via Avios to Nectar	From 11 March 2024 equivalent cashback on new conversion direct to Nectar
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card	0.67% to 1.01%	0.5% to 0.75%
American Express Platinum	0.67%	0.5%
British Airways American Express	0.67%	0.5%
British Airways American Express Premium Plus	1%	0.75%
Barclaycard Avios	0.67%	0.5%
Barclaycard Avios Plus	1%	0.75%

There’s also an impact on welcome bonuses, which represent large numbers of points. Here are some examples of the values you can expect under the old and new conversion rates:

Number of points	Current equivalent cashback via Avios to Nectar	From 11 March 2024 equivalent cashback on new conversion direct to Nectar	Relevant cards
20,000	£134	£100	American Express Preferred Gold Rewards (standard offer)
25,000	£167.50	£125	Barclaycard Avios Plus, British Airways Amex Premium Plus, Amex Preferred Rewards Gold (boosted offer)
30,000	£200	£150	Amex Platinum
75,000	£500	£375	Amex Platinum (boosted offer)

What you need to do

If you have any Avios or Amex Reward points that you want to convert to Nectar then you need to swap them ASAP. Remember to swap the Amex points first to Avios and then to Nectar.

However there are limits. There’s a maximum of 50,000 Avios points that can be swapped in a month in a single manual exchange. So if you get in a swap before the end of February and another at the start of March, you can exchange 100,000. That’ll earn you an extra £167 in Nectar points versus doing it after the new rules begin.

You can also set up auto-covert to exchange more points each Monday. This gives you potentially one week before the 11 March deadline to swap over up to 25,000 (this is the three-month cap for this method). Remember to cancel the automatic change if you don’t want additional points to go at the new rate.

Here’s my step-by-step guide on how to change your points over.

You also might want to consider cancelling any Amex cards with high fees which you still can. Pro rata refunds are meant to end at some point in 2024 (perhaps as soon as 1 March), though there’s always a chance implementation will be delayed for the second time (it was due in October 2023).

How this changes the best cashback & reward cards

American Express Nectar

This card collects Nectar points rather than Amex or Avios points so there’s no change here. You’ll still get 2 Nectar for every £1 spend, working out as 1% back.

American Express Preferred Reward Gold

The Amex Preferred Reward Gold card gives you a bonus if you spend at least £5,000 on the card each year, increasing the value of the points earned to between 0.86% and 1% – if you add in the Avios to Nectar step.

That obviously now changes. The range, when swapped in the same way, is now between 0.5% and 75%. That’s still better than most other Amex cards, but you may as well use the Amex Nectar card which gives a constant 1% back in Nectar points for each £1 spent.

The value of the welcome bonus also drops. When boosted to 25,000 points (plus 3,000 points from spending £3,000) you’ll now make £140 as a new user – only £15 more than the Platinum Cashback card.

Amex Platinum

Rather than get 0.67% per £1 spent, it’s now worth 0.5%. But the big impact is on the welcome bonus profit. When boosted to 75,000 points (as the most recent offer was) and added to the 10,000 points earned from spending to trigger the bonus, converting to Nectar via Avios will be worth £141 less.

Since the card comes with a huge £650 annual fee it makes it much harder to hack the welcome offer to make a profit.

Barclaycard Avios and British Airways Amex

If you have the free version of these cards you’ll now get the equivalent of 0.5% back on spending. That’s still better than the next best non-Amex credit cards, so I still rate this as the best backup card for domestic spending.

However, Chase Bank offers 1% cashback for 12 months on its debit card, so that is a better all round card to use except when you want additional consumer protection provided by credit cards.