Avios is the rewards points currency of several airlines, including Aer Lingus, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, and Qatar Airways. While each airline has its own loyalty program, one of the great things is that you can transfer Avios between accounts in the various programs at no cost. In this post I wanted to take a closer look at how that works.
In this post:
The five “flavors” of Avios rewards points
There are five loyalty programs that accrue Avios:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- British Airways Executive Club
- Finnair Plus
- Iberia Plus
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club
While each program accrues Avios, the way that Avios can be earned and redeemed differs between programs. That’s the beauty of Avios, as you can move around your Avios between the various programs based on how you’re looking to redeem, as they each have their own sweet spots. I’ve written about the best uses of British Airways Executive Club Avios, Iberia Plus Avios, and Aer Lingus AerClub Avios.
This feature can also be useful in the context of credit cards. For example, there are three credit cards in the United States earning Avios:
- Aer Lingus Visa Signature® Card (review)
- British Airways Visa Signature® Card (review)
- Iberia Visa Signature® Card (review)
In other words, any of those cards could be useful if you’re looking to earn a specific flavor of Avios.
Furthermore, some major transferable points currencies partner with only some programs that earn Avios. For context:
- Amex Membership Rewards partners with Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, and Qatar Airways
- Chase Ultimate Rewards partners with Aer Lingus, British Airways, and Iberia
- Citi ThankYou partners with Qatar Airways
Since you can move Avios between most of these currencies, that allows you to transfer points in ways that might not otherwise be possible. It can also be worthwhile if there’s a transfer bonus, since you could indirectly use that for another currency.
How to combine Avios between accounts
Avios can be combined between accounts at no cost. There are no limits to how many Avios you can transfer, and you can transfer them back and forth between accounts. So don’t think of an Avios transfer as some final decision that can’t be undone.
Let me just clarify a few further restrictions to be aware of when it comes to transferring Avios:
- You can only transfer Avios between accounts in your own name; in other words, you can’t transfer your British Airways Executive Club Avios to someone else’s Qatar Airways Privilege Club account
- You’ll want to make sure that all your frequent flyer accounts have matching personal details; make sure your full name and other personal details match between accounts, or else you may run into issues
- Moving points to and from Iberia Plus comes with additional restrictions, including that you can’t move points to or from Iberia within 90 days of joining the Iberia Plus program, and your Iberia Plus account must have also had some activity within the past 36 months to be eligible for transfers
- You can’t move points directly between British Airways and Iberia if your British Airways Executive Club account is part of a household account
Now, the actual process of transferring Avios between accounts isn’t necessarily as easy as it could be:
- There’s not a single website that allows all transfers, but rather the best website for making a transfer depends on what you’re trying to do
- All these websites tend to be glitchy, so you may find that you sometimes have issues even if you’re doing everything right
Let’s take a look at the best option for transferring each type of Avios (I’m ranking them roughly based on how valuable I think the transfer option is). I’ll be linking to the pages for initiating a transfer. I won’t be writing a step-by-step tutorial, though, since I think it’s actually pretty straightforward once you’re at the correct link (though if people are still confused, let me know and I’ll update this post to add screenshots, etc.).
Transfer Avios to & from British Airways Executive Club
British Airways’ website allows you to transfer Avios to and from Iberia and Qatar Airways. I find this to be the easiest website to use to transfers, and you can find British Airways’ “combine Avios” link here. This is my go-to option when I’m looking to transfer Avios (and since I don’t really use Aer Lingus AerClub, it covers all my needs).
Transfer Avios to & from Qatar Airways Privilege Club
It’s only possible to move Avios between Qatar Airways and British Airways. So if you wanted to move Avios from Qatar Airways to Iberia (for example), you’d have to do so in two steps. To transfer Avios from Qatar Airways to British Airways, you can either do so through British Airways’ website above, or you can find Qatar Airways’ “combine Avios” link here. Both are easy to use.
Transfer Avios to & from Iberia Plus
Iberia’s website allows you to transfer Avios to and from British Airways and Aer Lingus. I find Iberia’s website a pain to use, though you can find Iberia’s “combine my Avios” link here. Personally I’d only use this as a last resort, as I prefer to use British Airways’ website.
Transfer Avios to & from Aer Lingus AerClub
The generic Avios website allows you to transfer Avios between British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus. Therefore this is the best option if you’re trying to transfer Avios to and from Aer Lingus, since Aer Lingus’ website isn’t useful for that. You can find Avios’ “combine my Avios” link here.
Transfer Avios to & from Finnair Plus
Finnair is the newest airline to use Avios as its currency, and the program just transitioned to the Avios platform in March 2024. As of now, it’s not possible to move rewards between Finnair Plus and other Avios currencies, but that’s expected to change in the coming months. I’ll be sure to post an update when it does.
Bottom line
It’s nice how it’s possible to transfer Avios between the various currencies, depending on whether you’re earning with British Airways, Qatar Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus. Since each “flavor” of Avios has its own sweet spots, this is a nice feature.
Unfortunately the process of actually transferring Avios between accounts can be a bit cumbersome at times, so hopefully the above is useful for anyone who could benefit from this feature. I find British Airways’ website easiest to use for these purposes, and that will cover you for Iberia and Qatar Airways.
If you’ve combined Avios between accounts, what was your experience like?
It seems that the option of transferring between Aer Lingus and BA is no longer available on either BA, Aer Lingus or the avios.com site
To transfer avois between Aer Lingus (now referred to as "Avios Group") and British Airways, you now do this on BA's website, not on Avios.com.
I found this by visiting the Help site at Avios.com (https://www.avios.com/en-GB/help)
It states: "Please visit combine my Avios for British Airways Executive Club members." with a link to https://www.britishairways.com/travel/combine-avios/execclub/_gf/en_gb
On that page, you can transfer between BAAer Lingus in both directions.
To transfer avois between Aer Lingus (now referred to as "Avios Group") and British Airways, you now do this on BA's website, not on Avios.com.
I found this by visiting the Help site at Avios.com (https://www.avios.com/en-GB/help)
It states: "Please visit combine my Avios for British Airways Executive Club members." with a link to https://www.britishairways.com/travel/combine-avios/execclub/_gf/en_gb
On that page, you can transfer between BAAer Lingus in both directions.
As already noted the combine Avios link " find Avios’ “combine my Avios” link here" does not work with the error message returned "page not found". Can you please give updated instructions? Thanks, Simon
The “combine my Avios” link at https://www.avios.com/us/en_us/my-account/combine-my-avios is dead - get the “error 404” message. Anyone have an updated link? Thanks
I should have added that transferring on the Iberia website does not work either. You simply receive a message stating that "Combine my Avios is not available at the moment. Please try again later"
I just tried yesterday to move avios to Air Lingus without finding any means to do so and thought this post from today would have been just what I needed.
Please provide updated instructions and please refrain from posting links that you have not checked (I tried the same link yesterday and it was not working even then).
Several of us would definitely appreciate your assistance!
same as the other commenter, i have been trying to move some Avios from BA to Aer lingus. I can't do it on BA.com and the avios site seems to be providing only "404"s. Searches provided outdated info or report the same error message. What is up? Would love if someone who has connections could check into this.
The link you have in the Aer Lingus section for Combine My Avios no longer works, it's a 404 page. The avios.com site is now completely meaningless, it only hosts links to sign up for accounts at the airlines, there's no functionality to do anything there and no help/contact info. I've been trying to transfer points from BA to EI today to no avail. The combine function on BA just errors out, and there doesn't seem to be any other way to do it.
I’m sure combining Avios to/from Iberia works for someone, but after 4 weeks and 60 tweets, I have given up. Doesn’t work, and probably won’t ever work for me. I did my original booking using BA 4 weeks ago and the began the process of trying to get my Iberia account to link up for future transactions. Verified addresses, etc. but no go. To the credit of agents on twitter, I just went back and...
I’m sure combining Avios to/from Iberia works for someone, but after 4 weeks and 60 tweets, I have given up. Doesn’t work, and probably won’t ever work for me. I did my original booking using BA 4 weeks ago and the began the process of trying to get my Iberia account to link up for future transactions. Verified addresses, etc. but no go. To the credit of agents on twitter, I just went back and forth trying to resolve, to no avail, with friendly comments, before I gave up the last few days. Good luck to all who try,
Here in Canada, BA is the only Avios earnable from credit cards/transferable points. But all my redemptions have been Lingus/Qatar. Lingus is deeply flawed so it takes confidence to try again, when doing it right fails. But transfers between BA/QR either way is straightforward and rarely fails. I find that logging into all relevant accounts regularly (and when logged into QR, ensuring the BA link is open) gives me confidence that the process will work...
Here in Canada, BA is the only Avios earnable from credit cards/transferable points. But all my redemptions have been Lingus/Qatar. Lingus is deeply flawed so it takes confidence to try again, when doing it right fails. But transfers between BA/QR either way is straightforward and rarely fails. I find that logging into all relevant accounts regularly (and when logged into QR, ensuring the BA link is open) gives me confidence that the process will work when I need it. I wish I didn't need Lingus but DUB-YYZ is a popular route for my flock and now and then AC's dynamic pricing is, well, a bit too dynamic.
Thanks for the update following some of the Avios program updates. I was able to move Avios from Iberia to BA despite me being part of a household account with BA. This was in Jan before the revamp of avios.com, but do know that the restriction was supposed to be in place at that time as well.
I have transfered Avios successfully in the past, but after a transfer of roughly 12000 IB Avios were deducted there, but never credit to BA and after months of back and forth with Iberia, I just won’t risk a transfer anymore. Iberia is an absolute nightmare to deal with. Phone numbers on their website are disconnected, several departments kicking the can to another one, giving me both phone numbers and email addresses that are no...
I have transfered Avios successfully in the past, but after a transfer of roughly 12000 IB Avios were deducted there, but never credit to BA and after months of back and forth with Iberia, I just won’t risk a transfer anymore. Iberia is an absolute nightmare to deal with. Phone numbers on their website are disconnected, several departments kicking the can to another one, giving me both phone numbers and email addresses that are no longer in service, and when I finally seemed to get to the right place, I was told they needed proof that the Avios weren’t credited anywhere. Meanwhile their own email message to me that the transfer failed wasn’t considered acceptable proof. Screenshots of all my Avios accounts showing no transfer credits were also deemed unsatisfactory. And then the phone number and email I was dealing with was disconnected again. 12000 Avios are a roundtrip flight within most of Europe. Not to mention the hours I spent thinking this is just a glitch and easily rectified. The whole premise, that I am being informed of a failed transfer without crediting the points back is actually speaking volumes.
One piece of hope is that Aer Lingus are updating their Avios site and have said it will be fully updated till April 15. Maybe the link will be added at that time??