If you happen to’ve ever dreamed of flying for (nearly) free, upgrading your Economic system seats to the a lot fancier, Enterprise Class, or treating your self to an opulent getaway with out blowing your finances, studying how one can gather Avios factors is your ticket there — actually.
Avios is the rewards foreign money of the British Airways Membership (and different airline companions together with Qatar Airways and Iberia), and with the precise technique, you need to use the factors you gather to ebook flights, upgrades, and extra.
Right here, I’ll stroll you thru how one can go about incomes Avios factors and how one can use them to ebook elusive reward seats on British Airways flights.
What are Avios factors?
Avios are the loyalty foreign money utilized by a number of airways, together with British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Qatar Airways. If you happen to’re a member of the British Airways Membership, you’ll earn and spend Avios via their system. You should 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 resorts, automobile rent, and different journey extras. If you wish to go all in, you’ll be able to even pay on your total vacation utilizing your factors with BA Holidays
Personally, I discover the fantastic thing about Avios to be of their flexibility and attain—particularly whenever you perceive how one can gather and redeem them well.
How you can earn Avios factors
Flying with British Airways and Oneworld companions
When you’ve joined the British Airways Membership, everytime you fly with British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways, American Airways, or any Oneworld companion, you’ll earn Avios, which might be deposited in your BA Membership account. The variety of factors you earn will depend on your fare class, what you pay on your flight, and BA Membership tier standing. Sadly, you don’t earn Avios on any reward seat flight you ebook.
Tip: Everytime you’re reserving a flight, at all times embody your British Airways Membership quantity to make sure you earn your factors.
Bank card sign-ups and spending
One of many quickest methods I’ve managed to rack up Avios is through the use of a co-branded bank card. Within the UK, that’s usually the British Airways American Categorical, or Avios Barclaycard bank cards:
British Airways American Categorical Bank card
This card has no annual price, and presents Avios welcome bonus to new cardholders. You’ll gather 1 Avios per £1 spent, get additional Avios bonuses for card referrals and supplementary cardholders, and have the flexibility to earn a Companion Voucher (2 flights for the price of 1 in Economic system) if you happen to spend £15,000 in a yr in your card. It is a stable card to start out out with if you happen to’re new to Avios assortment. I started with this card and my welcome bonus lined half the Avios price of my first reward seat reserving!
British Airways American Categorical Premium Plus card
That is the subsequent degree up from the essential 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’ll be able to earn a Companion Voucher whenever 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 Enterprise or First, whereas with the essential BA Amex Companion Voucher, you’ll be able to solely use it in Economic system.
Use your card for on a regular basis spending—groceries, payments, journey—and watch the Avios add up. I make all my standard purchases every month utilizing my card to earn as many factors as I can. So far as I’m involved, that is cash I’d be spending anyway – so why not get rewarded for it?! Simply bear in mind to pay your invoice in full each month, because the Avios incomes worth isn’t any good whenever you consider curiosity.
Purchasing 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). Merely click on via the BA eStore earlier than making your buy.
You get these factors on high 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.
Resort and journey companions
Now, you won’t be capable of earn Avios in your reward seat flight reserving, however you CAN earn them via your resort keep. You’ll be able to earn Avios when reserving BA Holidays or the BA Avios retailer, in addition to via Reserving.com, Inns.com, Accor, IHG, Marriott, and extra.
If you happen to already gather resort loyalty factors, together with Marriott Bonvoy or Hilton Honors, you’ll be comfortable to know you can convert them into Avios.
If you must rent a automobile throughout your journey, automobile rental corporations like Avis and Funds additionally allow you to earn Avios in your bookings.
Eating, wine golf equipment and life-style presents
British Airways companions with a lot of eating places and life-style manufacturers, together with The Wine Flyer and subscription platforms like The Spectator or The Economist. If you happen to’re already spending with these, it’s undoubtedly price it to test if you happen to can earn Avios too.
If you happen to store at Sainsburys, or have a Nectar card, you’ll be able to 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 after I began to gather Avios as a result of we spend no less than £150 every week on the household meals store – that’s an additional £600 of Nectar factors (375 Avios) each month!
Shopping for Avios
If you happen to’re brief 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. Whereas this often isn’t the perfect worth, gross sales providing 30-50% bonus Avios could make it worthwhile. Simply maintain a glance out.
Reserving reward seats on British Airways
Why use Avios to ebook reward flights
Avios collectors could make important 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 Enterprise Class, by paying with factors and utilizing their American Categorical Companion Voucher. I’d advocate valuing 1 Avios as 1p when contemplating financial savings. All you must do is test the Avios price of your journey and evaluate it to the equal money fare on the BA web site to indicate you the way a lot you’re saving by utilising Avios to ebook seats.
One of many lesser identified ‘Avios hacks’, which is definitely a specific favorite of mine, is you can cancel a reward seat reserving with BA for simply £35 per particular person as much as 24 hours earlier than your flight. If you happen to choose to do it, you additionally get your full Avios price refunded, in addition to taxes and charges – minus £35 an individual. That is actually useful in case your plans change for no matter purpose, and it’s an additional profit whenever you’re deciding whether or not to ebook a specific money fare or to make use of Avios factors. Utilizing this specific hack lets you doubtlessly ebook a variety of locations and flight occasions, then choose your only option.
Understanding Reward Flight Saver
British Airways presents Reward Flight Saver fares, which allow you to ebook flights with a set low price (taxes and costs) plus Avios. If you happen to’re trying to spend the least money doable in your flight reserving, short-haul flights inside Europe, usually begin from simply 9,250 Avios + £1. Lengthy haul flights have a better money price – beginning at round £40 – as a result of taxes and costs are greater for these routes.
How you can discover and ebook Avios seats
It’s actually easy to really ebook your reward seats. Simply go online to the British Airways web site or cellular app to seek for “E-book with Avios.”
As a result of 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 present round 40m Avios collectors the world over searching for reward seats, and whenever you keep in mind that BA solely releases 14 seats per flight, you most likely need to do every part you’ll be able to to get forward of the gang. On this case think about using an unbiased UK reward flight finder device the place you’ll be able to monitor availability, see flight by flight info and set Alerts to get immediately notified when your very best seats grow to be obtainable. I at all times use these instruments – I set as much as 10 Alerts for various routes that I would like and wait to get Alerted. Then I let the instruments do the work for me.
Professional ideas
You’ll have higher luck bagging reward seats if you happen to’re versatile with dates and occasions on your flights – my solely guidelines are that my flights have to be at school holidays. I set my Alerts no less than 6-8 months forward. It’s additionally price noting that if you happen to’re brief on Avios whenever you need to ebook, you’ll be able to high 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 + Money” choices whenever you’re on the BA web site.
Utilizing Avios on companion airways
Avios aren’t only for British Airways flights—you’ll be able to redeem them on all Oneworld companions, together with: Qatar Airways (who usually have decrease money surcharges), Iberia (nice for long-haul to the Americas with decrease charges), American Airways, Finnair, Japan Airways, and extra
The whole lot you must plan your journey in 2025
Frequent errors to keep away from
There are just a few golden guidelines to at all times bear in mind – NEVER let your Avios expire: They’re legitimate for 36 months, however any incomes or spending resets the clock. Think about how heartbroken you’d be if you happen to’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. All the time evaluate the money worth vs. the worth of your factors. I stick with the 1p per 1 Avios rule so I can evaluate the money price of a fare to what I might pay if I booked with Avios. I like doing this as a result of it exhibits me how a lot cash I’m saving in comparison with the money seat reserving – it’s an ideal motivator to maintain on accumulating.
Final however not least, don’t overlook you’ll must pay money taxes and charges. This isn’t even price serious about whenever you’re reserving a brief haul flight in Europe that often has a £1 price, however some redemptions, particularly long-haul in premium cabins, include money prices of as much as round £600 for First Class. Don’t overlook you’ll must pay this whenever you ebook.
Closing ideas
Accumulating Avios isn’t only for frequent flyers or journey hackers—it’s for anybody who needs 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 properly in your technique to a reward seat on a British Airways flight. If you happen to spot me on the airplane, remember to say howdy!
Have questions or your personal Avios ideas? Drop them within the feedback.
Kayleigh Hepworth
Kayleigh Hepworth is Head of Advertising and marketing at Reward Flight Finder. Reward Flight Finder is the right device to seek for British Airways reward flights. If you need to be a visitor blogger on A Luxurious Journey Weblog with a view to elevate your profile, please contact us.
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