The OneWorld Avios program is a versatile currency in the world of travel rewards, offering a wide array of redemption options that cater to both frequent and occasional flyers. While British Airways was one of the original curators of the Avios, the program has become integrated with Aer Lingus, Iberia, and Qatar Airways. Consequently, this guide should almost be renamed the Ultimate Guide to Aer Lingus/Iberia/Qatar Airways/British Airways Avios.
While I don't think many would consider Avios to be a top tier frequent flyer program, Avios has its use cases with certain redemptions.
This guide delves into the nuances of earning and spending Avios, explains the expiration policy, sheds light on how British Airways prices award flights, highlights some sweet spot redemptions, discusses other program-specific nuances, and cancellation policies.
How To Earn Avios
Flying On British Airways & Partners
Earning Avios via British Airways flights is pretty straightforward: you earn a set number of Avios per GBP you spend.
The higher your status, the more points you earn, which makes for good loyalty incentives.
For partner flights, Avios are typically determined based on a combination of the miles flown and fare class. Each partner airline has its own metrics/rules, so the best way to determine how many Avios you'll earn on these flights is via the British Airways website.
Credit Card Transfer Partners
British Airways is transfer partners with several major credit card issuers, making it relatively easy to come by these miles:
Credit card issuers have historically offered occasional transfer bonuses to British Airways. In the past few years, it's pretty standard to get a ~30% bonus when transferring your points to British Airways.
Buy Avios
Like all major airlines, it is pretty easy to buy Avios. However, although buying Avios at face value is not typically a great deal (>2 CPP cost), if you combine promotional sales, then it can be reasonable to buy Avios.
Additionally, British Airways has a unique product called the "Avios Subscription" which allows you to continuously earn Avios on a month to month basis for a monthly/annual fee. The best plan (the annual "Adventurer" plan) costs £1,989/year, but gives you 200,000 Avios in a year (16,667 Avios/month). Converting to USD CPP, this comes out to about 1.25 CPP to buy Avios, which is definitely not a bad rate to purchase Avios outright by any means.
How To Earn British Airways Status
British Airways status is based on an entirely different system than Avios: Tier Points. Tier Points are earned when flying on British Airways, oneworld partner airlines, and BA subsidiaries. Earning Tier Points is generally a complicated formula based on the distance traveled, fare class, and route. You can use the Tier Point calculator to determine this.
Furthermore, to qualify for BA status, you must have at least four one-way cash flights on British Airways or Iberia during each membership year.
There are three key British Airways status tiers:
- Blue: 0 tier points
- Bronze: 300 tier points & 2 eligible BA flights
- Silver: 600 tier points & 4 eligible BA flights
- Gold: 1,500 tier points & 4 eligible BA flights
Benefits include business/first class lounge access, extra checked bags, priority check-in/boarding, and more.
Do Avios Expire?
Avios remain active as long as you collect, spend, purchase, or share at least one Avios every 36 months. This policy encourages members to engage with the program regularly to keep their Avios from expiring.
Notably, qualifying activity includes transferring points, meaning you could reset the 36 month timer by transferring in even just 1,000 points from AMEX, Chase, Capital One, or Bilt.
Wait, Are My Avios In My Qatar/Iberia/Aer Lingus Accounts The Same As British Airways Avios?
One of the most unique things about Avios is that they are used as the frequent flyer currency for multiple airlines. All the companies using Avios are owned by International Airlines Group (IAG).
This means you can transfer Avios 1:1 within these programs. For example, if you have 1,000 Qatar Avios, you can transfer them instantly to your British Airways account to use them accordingly.
What Airlines Are Partners With British Airways?
As a part of the Oneworld alliance, British Airways has several immediate partners that offer reciprocal status recognition and mileage earnings:
British Airways also has several codeshare partners, where another airline operates the flight, but British sells seats on that airline under its own airline code. Some codeshare partners include Aer Lingus, airBaltic, Airlink, Bangkok Airways, China Southern, Fiji Airways, IndiGo, Kenya Airways, Loganair, Vistara and Vueling Airlines.
How British Airways Prices Award Flights
Please note that British Airways award pricing changes frequently, oftentimes in the more expensive direction. These charts may be come out of date (and some prices already seem to be so).
British Airways uses a distance-based award chart for flights booked with Avios, making short-haul flights particularly attractive. The number of Avios required for a flight depends on the distance of the segment and the class of service. This system can offer excellent value, especially for shorter, direct flights within Europe and other regions.
Notably, there are two pricing charts (that are not easily accessible on the British Airways website right now). One is for flights booked directly with Avios flying on British Airways; the other is for Avios bookings on partner airlines.
British Airways Avios pricing for award flights flying on British Airways. Chart from Prince of Travel. Since awards are typically subject to change, these prices may have minor differences than what's currently searchable; Zone 1-3 for example, seem to be off by about 750 miles.
British Airways Avios pricing for award flights flying on partner airlines. Chart from Prince of Travel
British Airways Avios Sweet Spots
The Avios program as a whole has a variety of sweet spot prices that are considered deals on their own. Notably, you can stack transfer bonuses with these sweet spot deals to get even more value out of your points.
Showcasing Avios deals can get extremely complex since we're dealing with technically 4 different programs that don't have complete parity on their pricing. Thus, this section will showcase British Airways specific Avios deals.
To find these awards, you'll need to use the British Airways website directly; we can't currently search for British Airways results very easily on Roame.
West Coast To Hawaii In Economy: 16k Avios One Way
For flights flying 2,001–3,000 miles, you can find economy seats on partner airlines like American Airlines or Alaska Airlines for just 16,000 Avios one way during off-peak travel dates. These flights should be pretty easy to find on the British Airways website.
SkyView search example. This search features a 25% transfer bonus.
USA <> South America In Economy Class: 11k Avios One Way
Finally, an option that matches the hidden award chart! For LATAM bookings to South America, you can find economy seats starting at just 11k miles one way. Premium economy is also a pretty solid deal here too, starting at just 16,500 Avios with low taxes.
If you can find it, LATAM business class is also an equally fantastic deal, at just 22,000 Avios one way. Although LATAM is no longer part of OneWorld, these seats should still be bookable via the British Airways website.
US Airports <> Doha Via Qatar Airways Business Class For 70k Miles One Way
While British Airways says they have a specific partner award chart, there are pricing exceptions. In this case, British charges only 70,000 Avios one way to fly on Qatar Airway's business class—an awesome deal.
This deal is available from many US airports, including:
- Atlanta
- Boston
- Chicago
- Dallas (DFW)
- Houston
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- New York
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Washington DC (IAD)
Award taxes are bit steeper than the standard U.S. rate of $5.60, usually around $200–300 one way.
British Airways Multi-Carrier Rewards
British Airways loves its award charts. For economy award flights booked on two or more OneWorld partner airlines, they follow this pricing:
British Airways Cancellation Policy
British Airways has a complicated reward flight cancellation/redeposit policy where your region of departure will determine the fee. For example, if you are departing out of the United Kingdom and want to cancel/redeposit your Avios award ticket, the fee is 35 British Pounds. However, for North America departures, the fee is $55 USD. To see the entire pricing table, follow this link.
Notably, there is no charge for Gold Members to cancel their award tickets.
Conclusion
British Airways Avios program is an ok frequent flyer program. While it has its moments, when compared broadly to the likes of Air France or Aeroplan, I fail to really see where you can derive tremendous, consistent value from the program on a long term basis.
