If you’ve ever dreamed of flying for (nearly) free, upgrading your Economy seats to the a lot fancier, Business Class, or treating your self to an expensive getaway with out blowing your finances, studying find out how to accumulate Avios factors is your ticket there — actually.
Avios is the rewards forex of the British Airways Club (and different airline companions together with Qatar Airways and Iberia), and with the precise technique, you need to use the factors you accumulate to ebook flights, upgrades, and extra.
Here, I’ll stroll you thru find out how to go about incomes Avios factors and find out how to use them to ebook elusive reward seats on British Airways flights.
What are Avios factors?
Avios are the loyalty forex utilized by a number of airways, together with British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Qatar Airways. If you’re a member of the British Airways Club, you’ll earn and spend Avios via their system. You can use your Avios factors pot to ebook flights on British Airways and companion airways, improve your cabin to get pleasure from a extra unique journey expertise, and pay for accommodations, automotive rent, and different journey extras. If you need to go all in, you possibly can even pay to your total vacation utilizing your factors with BA Holidays
Personally, I discover the great thing about Avios to be of their flexibility and attain—particularly while you perceive find out how to accumulate and redeem them neatly.
How to earn Avios factors
Flying with British Airways and Oneworld companions
Once you’ve joined the British Airways Club, everytime you fly with British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways, American Airlines, or any Oneworld companion, you’ll earn Avios, which can be deposited in your BA Club account. The variety of factors you earn relies on your fare class, what you pay to your flight, and BA Club tier standing. Unfortunately, you don’t earn Avios on any reward seat flight you ebook.
Tip: Whenever you’re reserving a flight, at all times embody your British Airways Club quantity to make sure you earn your factors.
Credit card sign-ups and spending
One of the quickest methods I’ve managed to rack up Avios is through the use of a co-branded bank card. In the UK, that’s usually the British Airways American Express, or Avios Barclaycard bank cards:
British Airways American Express Credit card
This card has no annual payment, and gives Avios welcome bonus to new cardholders. You’ll accumulate 1 Avios per £1 spent, get additional Avios bonuses for card referrals and supplementary cardholders, and have the power to earn a Companion Voucher (2 flights for the price of 1 in Economy) for those who spend £15,000 in a yr in your card. This is a stable card to begin out with for those who’re new to Avios assortment. I started with this card and my welcome bonus lined half the Avios value of my first reward seat reserving!
British Airways American Express Premium Plus card
This is the subsequent stage up from the fundamental BA Amex card. It has a better Avios incomes fee of 1.5 Avios per £1 spent, and an unique earn-rate of three Avios for each £1 spent with British Airways and BA Holidays. The welcome bonuses are a lot greater, plus you possibly can earn a Companion Voucher while you spend £15,000 on the cardboard in a single yr. The distinction with this Companion Voucher is that you need to use it in any cabin class – together with Business or First, whereas with the fundamental BA Amex Companion Voucher, you possibly can solely use it in Economy.
Use your card for on a regular basis spending—groceries, payments, journey—and watch the Avios add up. I make all my common purchases every month utilizing my card to earn as many factors as I can. As far as I’m involved, that is cash I’d be spending anyway – so why not get rewarded for it?! Just keep in mind to pay your invoice in full each month, because the Avios incomes worth isn’t any good while you think about curiosity.
Shopping on-line
The British Airways eStore is a goldmine for Avios collectors. You’ll discover over 2000 retailers that reward you with Avios for each pound spent. These embody Apple (5 Avios per £), John Lewis (1), Samsung (5), Reiss (12), B&Q (4) and Dyson (8). Simply click on via the BA eStore earlier than making your buy.
You get these factors on prime of the factors you earn on the BA Amex card – a double dip!
Bonus tip: I wish to stack this with cashback websites for much more worth.
Hotel and journey companions
Now, you may not have the ability to earn Avios in your reward seat flight reserving, however you CAN earn them via your lodge keep. You can earn Avios when reserving BA Holidays or the BA Avios retailer, in addition to via Booking.com, Hotels.com, Accor, IHG, Marriott, and extra.
If you already accumulate lodge loyalty factors, together with Marriott Bonvoy or Hilton Honors, you’ll be joyful to know that you may convert them into Avios.
If you must rent a automotive throughout your journey, automotive rental corporations like Avis and Budget additionally allow you to earn Avios in your bookings.
Dining, wine golf equipment and life-style gives
British Airways companions with plenty of eating places and life-style manufacturers, together with The Wine Flyer and subscription platforms like The Spectator or The Economist. If you’re already spending with these, it’s positively value it to test for those who can earn Avios too.
If you store at Sainsburys, or have a Nectar card, you possibly can earn Nectar factors and switch them to Avios at a 400:250 fee. This one is nice for topping up your pot. I modified my grocery store to Sainsburys once I began to gather Avios as a result of we spend a minimum of £150 per week on the household meals store – that’s an additional £600 of Nectar factors (375 Avios) each month!
Buying Avios
If you’re quick on factors for a dream journey, however you don’t need to wait round to ebook it, you should purchase Avios instantly via the British Airways website. While this often isn’t the perfect worth, gross sales providing 30-50% bonus Avios could make it worthwhile. Just maintain a glance out.
Booking reward seats on British Airways
Why use Avios to ebook reward flights
Avios collectors could make vital money financial savings on flights through the use of factors to pay for them. Some travellers have reported money financial savings of round £7000 when reserving a visit to Japan in Business Class, by paying with factors and utilizing their American Express Companion Voucher. I’d advocate valuing 1 Avios as 1p when contemplating financial savings. All you must do is test the Avios value of your journey and examine it to the equal money fare on the BA web site to point out you ways a lot you’re saving by utilising Avios to ebook seats.
One of the lesser identified ‘Avios hacks’, which is definitely a selected favorite of mine, is that you may cancel a reward seat reserving with BA for simply £35 per individual as much as 24 hours earlier than your flight. If you decide to do it, you additionally get your full Avios value refunded, in addition to taxes and costs – minus £35 an individual. This is actually useful in case your plans change for no matter purpose, and it’s an additional profit while you’re deciding whether or not to ebook a selected money fare or to make use of Avios factors. Using this specific hack permits you to doubtlessly ebook plenty of locations and flight occasions, then choose the best choice.
Understanding Reward Flight Saver
British Airways gives Reward Flight Saver fares, which allow you to ebook flights with a set low payment (taxes and expenses) plus Avios. If you’re seeking to spend the least money attainable in your flight reserving, short-haul flights inside Europe, typically begin from simply 9,250 Avios + £1. Long haul flights have a better money value – beginning at round £40 – as a result of taxes and expenses are increased for these routes.
How to seek out and ebook Avios seats
It’s actually easy to truly ebook your reward seats. Just go browsing to the British Airways web site or cellular app to seek for “Book with Avios.”
Because BA releases a really restricted variety of reward seats per flight (14 throughout all cabins) availability will be restricted, so plan and ebook early—BA releases reward seats 355 days upfront. There are at the moment round 40m Avios collectors the world over on the lookout for reward seats, and while you keep in mind that BA solely releases 14 seats per flight, you in all probability need to do every part you possibly can to get forward of the group. In this case think about using an impartial UK reward flight finder software the place you possibly can observe availability, see flight by flight info and set Alerts to get immediately notified when your perfect seats turn out to be obtainable. I at all times use these instruments – I set as much as 10 Alerts for various routes that I need and wait to get Alerted. Then I let the instruments do the work for me.
Pro ideas
You’ll have higher luck bagging reward seats for those who’re versatile with dates and occasions to your flights – my solely guidelines are that my flights have to be at school holidays. I set my Alerts a minimum of 6-8 months forward. It’s additionally value noting that for those who’re quick on Avios while you need to ebook, you possibly can prime up your fare with money – so you employ a combination of Avios and money to ebook your seats. All you must do is use “Avios + Cash” choices while you’re on the BA web site.
Using Avios on companion airways
Avios aren’t only for British Airways flights—you possibly can redeem them on all Oneworld companions, together with: Qatar Airways (who typically have decrease money surcharges), Iberia (nice for long-haul to the Americas with decrease charges), American Airlines, Finnair, Japan Airlines, and extra
Everything you must plan your journey in 2025
Common errors to keep away from
There are a couple of golden guidelines to at all times keep in mind – NEVER let your Avios expire: They’re legitimate for 36 months, however any incomes or spending resets the clock. Imagine how heartbroken you’d be for those who’d saved factors for all that point, just for them to fade since you hadn’t used them!
I’d additionally steer you away from utilizing your Avios for poor-value flights. Always examine the money worth vs. the worth of your factors. I persist with the 1p per 1 Avios rule so I can examine the money value of a fare to what I’d pay if I booked with Avios. I really like doing this as a result of it reveals me how a lot cash I’m saving in comparison with the money seat reserving – it’s an incredible motivator to maintain on accumulating.
Last however not least, don’t neglect you’ll have to pay money taxes and costs. This isn’t even value interested by while you’re reserving a brief haul flight in Europe that often has a £1 payment, however some redemptions, particularly long-haul in premium cabins, include money prices of as much as round £600 for First Class. Don’t neglect you’ll have to pay this while you ebook.
Final ideas
Collecting Avios isn’t only for frequent flyers or journey hackers—it’s for anybody who desires to make their cash go additional when touring. I prefer it as a result of I’m capable of journey extra with my household simply by having a sure bank card, doing the weekly store or paying a family invoice. I even earn factors whereas I’m on my vacation to make use of on the subsequent one. With a little bit of planning and some on a regular basis habits, you will be effectively in your method to a reward seat on a British Airways flight. If you see me on the aircraft, make sure to say howdy!
Have questions or your personal Avios ideas? Drop them within the feedback.
Kayleigh Hepworth
Kayleigh Hepworth is Head of Marketing at Reward Flight Finder. Reward Flight Finder is the proper software to seek for British Airways reward flights. If you want to be a visitor blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in an effort to increase your profile, please contact us.
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