Can you convert Club Eurostar points to Avios?

I get the occasional reader email asking if you can convert Club Eurostar points into British Airways Avios points.

The answer is yes, you can, but there are two snags:

• it is a bit fiddly, and more importantly …..

• you will lose a lot of value

How do you convert Eurostar points to Avios?

You won’t find anything on the Eurostar website about converting points to Avios.  This is because you need to move your points via an intermediary.

Eurostar only has one points partnership which allows direct transfers.  This is with Accor Live Limitless, the loyalty scheme for the Accor hotel group.  Accor owns Ibis, Novotel, Sofitel, Fairmont, Mercure and various other brands.

Full details are on the Accor website here.

Accor Live Limitless is a partner with British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus, so you can move points from Club Eurostar to Accor Live Limitless to Avios.

What are the transfer rates between Accor Live Limitless and Club Eurostar?

The snag with these transfer deals is that they are never generous.  Accor Live Limitless is a revenue based loyalty scheme, with 1 Accor point worth 2 Eurocents off a hotel room.  There is no redemption chart – the number of points needed for a free night is based on the cash cost of the room you want.

Because it is revenue based, it is hard for the Accor scheme to be too generous on transfers because it needs to make a profit on transfers in.

The transfer rate between Eurostar and Accor is:

• 500 Club Eurostar points gets you 1,500 Accor Live Limitless points

You need a minimum of 1,000 Club Eurostar points to convert them to Avios because of the Accor rules we explain below.

What are the transfer rates between Accor Live Limitless and Avios?

Here’s the interesting thing.

For weird historical reasons, Accor has a different deal with Iberia Plus and British Airways.

• Accor Live Limitless points transfer at 1:1 into Iberia Plus (3,000 point minimum) – see the Accor website here 

• Accor Live Limitless points transfer at 2:1 into British Airways Executive Club (4,000 point minimum) – see the Accor website here 

Only an idiot would transfer from Accor to British Airways instead of using Iberia Plus.

The smart thing to do is to open an Iberia Plus account, transfer your Accor points into Iberia Plus, and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move your Avios from Iberia Plus to British Airways Executive Club.

This HfP article explains how ‘Combine My Avios’ works.

Is it worth moving Club Eurostar points to Avios?

On the face of it, no.

I value a Club Eurostar point at 12p-15p as this article explains.

I value an Avios point at 1p, although you can often do better as this article explains.

So …. this is how it goes:

• 1,000 Eurostar points (value £120-£150) gets you 3,000 Accor points (worth €60 of hotel rooms) gets you 3,000 Avios in Iberia Plus (worth £30)

The value gets worse at each level:

• You get more value for your Eurostar points using them for train tickets than for Accor hotel rooms

• You get more value for your Accor points using them for hotel rooms than for Avios points in Iberia Plus

Of course, life isn’t always that simple.

Perhaps you have Club Eurostar points you won’t use and will expire?   In this case, Accor points or Avios points is better than nothing.  You can always stop Club Eurostar points expiring by transfering a small number of American Express Membership Rewards points though.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it is always good to have more redemption options.  This one involves a noticeable loss of value, on my valuations, but you may have a different view than me on what your Eurostar points are worth.

You can find out more about the Accor / Eurostar partnership on the Accor Live Limitless website here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2023)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

SPECIAL OFFER: The sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 25,000 Membership Rewards points (was 20,000 points) if you apply by 8th August 2023. Click here to apply.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.