There are times when buying Avios is a good idea – more on that to come soon – but there are also times when you can ‘buy’ Avios in a round about way. One of those times was through buying a subscription to the Economist. Another has just been available with Avis.

Through British Airway’s Black Friday sale, a three day car hire would give an additional 5,000 Avios.

I knew that I needed a car at some point in March to help move some bits from work, so I went ahead and booked a 4 day hire to coincide with a possible trip up to see family.

Using the BA website, I found a category C car for £111.

This will earn me 700 Avios for the hire from Avis, plus 111 Avios for hiring through BA Holidays. I paid on by BA AmEx, so will get 333 Avios there, and the 2% cash back from TopCashBack will get be 233 Avios with the 5% bonus, giving a grand total of 1377 Avios before the bonus is awarded. This works out at 1.72p per Avios which is much higher than I would pay straight up.

However, buying them from the BA website is an interesting comparison. 6,000 will set you back £111 and that will earn 166 Avios, so the price is practically the same.

In my case, however, I also get a car for 4 days included in the price which makes my deal all the sweeter! I know that I can use the 4,500 for a one way flight to Nice which I would happily pay £75 as part of a return, so I know that I will be getting good value.

It is always worth doing the maths when you see s deal like this and jumping in if you think it will work for you.