For many years British Airways has operated both an Executive Club loyalty program as well as an Avios Travel Rewards loyalty program. To complicate things, the currency for both is called ’Avios,’ meaning you can earn and redeem Avios in either program, as well as transfer Avios between them.
Continue reading: Avios And British Airways Executive Club Are Merging — But Don’t Panic
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
So, to be clear, all the redemptions (such as the West Coast to Hawaii deal with Avios) will stay the same after they "Brexit" Avios Travel Rewards, correct?
@ Elgin H - yes absolutely. No changes to earning or redemption rates in Executive Club.
Erm, isn't this article basically a complete rip off from British site Head for Points?
@ Pat and @ Tommy Trash -- no changes to Iberia Plus or transfers between the two -- I've updated the post to reflect that -- thanks.
@ Lumma -- I received an email from Avios Travel Rewards today informing me of the changes to my account which was the basis of this post. The problems with Travel Rewards, and the confusion/duplicity between the two programs has been widely understood, discussed and reported in the UK (where I am based) for some time.
But there is potential downside for transfers from Iberia/EC to EC/Iberia, using Avios portal for holders of household accounts. We cannot directly transfer from Iberia to EC and vice versa, must use Avios portal as in-between point. This move WILL destroy our ability to transfer.
I hate to say it, but I agree with Lumma. This article read like someone had read the Headforpoints article on the Avios/BA changes and then changed some of the words in it.
I get that the underlying news story is very much in the public domain, but your analysis of the reasons for the changes are very suspiciously similar to Rob's (HfP's) and the structure of the article is the same. I hope i'm wrong, but this reads a bit like a university essay that someone has copy/pasted and changed some words in the hope of defeating antiplagiarism software.
Even if your thinking was inspired by the HfP analysis - which, frankly, I think it must have been - the proper thing to do is acknowledge that.
Agree - At the very least this article has been heavily influenced by Headforpoints.
Also no mention of other airlines that use avios as a currency e.g. FlyBe, Are Lingus and Meridiana and what happens in terms of transferring points between those programmes.
@Miro
That was my first thought. Being unable to transfer avios between BA (household account) and Iberia is a big deal.
Doesn't Aer Lingus use the Avios.com platform for its loyalty program?
The only thing I ever used Avios.com for was to find availability on Aer Lingus, and then called BAEC to book. For some reason, Avios.com charges significantly higher taxes+fees on Aer Lingus flights than BAEC. While BAEC uses the actual fuel surcharge from the revenue fare, Avios.com seemed to make up taxes+fees out of thin air. I'm hoping that I'll still be able to book Aer Lingus through BAEC with low taxes+fees.
@James - thank you for the reply, I appreciate that (for what that’s worth!). And thank you.
I’m a longtime London-based reader of OMAAT and am excited to have a London-based addition to the team, so look forward to reading much more from you (although it’s fair to say that my tastes are more “Etihad apartment” than “Ryanair”!).
@James
Any idea what might happen to avios reward credit cards, specifically the Lloyds card?
Thanks for noting that this does not impact Iberia Plus. I hope that this program can stay separate, as I like the way that it often has lower fuel surcharges, plus am happy about the new credit card in the US which is a separate product from the British Airways card.
@ Luke - no changes announced to the card now although as per H4P, I understand they are not accepting new applications
@ Chris - you are welcome. I have a long list of topics I plan to write about on this site (and believe me I prefer premium classes to LCCs too). If there are any UK specific topics you would like covered please let me know!
@ James - the youthful looks of the person in the photo alongside your name lead me to suspect that you may not have first-hand knowledge of the full history of Avios. We olduns have bravely born the several transformations - from the original paper Air Mile vouchers to today's virtual Avios balances. Originally (more than twenty years ago), there were only 'Air Miles'. And with 'Air Miles' came exceedingly beneficial accrual opportunities; I recall it took only a couple of Sainsbury's Supermarket trolley-loads of bacon to acquire enough 'Air Miles' for myself and a friend to fly BA Business Class from Heathrow to San Francisco and back! Thereafter, the BA Exec Club decided it wanted its own 'currency' - BA Miles - with 'Air Miles' as the poor relation, retained for use by non-BA Exec Club, bacon-buying members. Later on, BA Miles and Air Miles were all transformed into Avios, at appropriate convertion rates, albeit whilst still being held in separate AirMiles/BAExecClub accounts, with transfers possible between the accounts. Or am I teaching you to suck eggs?
ps. I left most of the bacon, still in the trolleys, in the Sainsbury's car-park. I wonder what became of it....
There's at least one upside and one potential downside I can think of for UK travellers. First the upside. You can currently earn standalone Avios on things like petrol purchases and utility bills in the UK. When the programmes are merged you will easily be able to maintain an Exec Club Avios balance without flying a single BA flight or having to resort to the BA shopping portal. Doing so also means you will have access to the discounted redemption rate for European flights (saving 1000 Avios on a round trip). The downside is currently you can use the standalone Avios for flights on Flybe from some regional UK airports (former BA Connect routes) at a very good rate (similar to BA flights from London so avoiding the BA sector connection penalty). I can't see BA offering this when the Avios programmes are combined as Flybe is not a Oneworld partner.
@ MikeW - I share your concerns. I sometimes buy Flybe flights between Southampton and Bergerac, for holidays and to visit relatives. I do hope that Flybe retains its links with the Avios programme.
ps At this stage of an OMAAT post, it is traditional for its author to include a gratuitous insult aimed at one or more of other OMAAT contributors. Please forgive me for not having the metal or inclination to do that.
You keep avoiding the Aer Lingus questions. They have the Avios.com platform as their frequent flyer program. What program is Aer Lingus going to have now?
@ Kevin, @ tassojunior - apologies, I've been trying to hunt down the answer for you! Vueling and Aer Lingus will continue to use the Avios platform after Travel Rewards closes.
There have been rumours for quite some time that IAG Group wish to bring British Airways and Aer Lingus much closer together (with EI potentially even joining oneworld), but this has been happening far slower than expected.
@Kevin, @tassojunior
The article on head for points appears to answer your question. Extract below:
"I understand that the avios.com website will remain and it is where ALL members of any Avios-based loyalty scheme (except perhaps Meridiana) will go to redeem their miles. avios.com will be just a platform – it will no longer be a stand-alone scheme in which you can hold an Avios balance."
@Luke Self : Well, that's about as clear as muddy water. The implication of the quoted passage is that it will no longer be possible to log in to the BA website to book a flight using Avios/cash. Are you serious?
@ James : You started this fiasco. Please help!
This is going to make it harder to transfer Avios between programs :(. Also, the Avios.com shopping portal has a few stores that BA eShopping doesn't.
I use my avios points to visit my son in Paris on Eurostar, will I be still able to do this?
Is it still possible to transfer BA avios in a household account to an iberia account? I'm trying to help my dad book a flight, and his Iberia account hasn't been open long enough to transfer the points so I'm trying to transfer from our household account (where I have 0 avios) to my Iberia account.
A word of warning.
I transferred my Avios points over on the 2nd July to my BA account as suggested by Avios.
On the 3rd of July BA decided to expire those accounts.
Avios won't help me and BA simply said they will ask Head Office if I have have my points back.
Neither the Avios site or BA warned of historical points possibly being expired.
@Jonathan Phillips, A few years ago, without explicitly informing customers, BA and/or Avios introduced 'points-expiry' rules for the programme(s). I found myself having 'lost' about 130,000 Avios. A firmly worded telephone call resulted in my account being credited with the missing Avios. The moral of this story is that you have to fight your corner when dealing with business organisations; executives' bonuses and expence accounts have to be funded somehow!
It is rubbish to say that the value is staying the same, I have just run a scenario, heathrow to gibratar for 1 person on exactly same dates in and out and same flight time, the difference was 1000 more point and nearly £10 more in so called taxes, pluis with avios you have always had 1 luggage allowance free, BA exec has 2 tiers, hand only or pay more
@CHARLE PREECE
You are 100% correct. Having had to transfer the Avios, which were in my 'Avios' account, to my 'BA Exec Club' account, I find that I can no longer go online and book Avios Rewards Flights on Flybe's Southampton to Bergerac route. I have sent three emails to BA Exec Club, and have to date received unsatisfactory and unhelpful replies. So far, no-one at BA has been able to state whether or not, and, if so, when and how, I will be able to book Flybe Rewards Flights using the Avios that are now, due to BA's arbitrary action, by necessity in my BA Exec Club account. The whole thing stinks.
Apparently the new award table will be...
0-650 miles = 6000 Avios
651-1150 miles = 9000 Avios
1151-2000 miles = 11000 Avios
2001-3000 miles = 13000 Avios
I am an avios member, I recently tried to join the exec club but was prevented from doing so because “ my e mail address is already registered” . I have been traveling weekly, for the past 6 weeks, on Comair, between Cape Town and Johannesburg but my awards are not being added. Please advise
I have been an Avios member for a number of years. I want to try to use my points for car hire next year in the Channel Islands but I can’t find my Avios membership number. How do I access this?
Dealing with Avios was always so straightforward and easy
Trying to deal with BA Executive Club is nightmarish and head splitting by comparison
we want to fly Vancouver to Australia. Quantis flys direct and is a one world member.How do we use our BA Avios point to book flights? On line in Executive club does not offer up any member flights.
I have been trying to use my avios points against a flight.
It asks me to log in and has been very difficult . When I log in, its almost impossible to do so. Just need for someone to guide me how to redeem using BA account.
Have been trying to get my airmail 2
use for Granddaughters 16th Birthday.
Don't no my B.A. Ex number have E.mailed three times and called but NO REPLY NEED HELP PLX .Ashley
Had an email to say from BA Executive Club to say that my Avios points would expire in August this year as there has been no activity on my account. In order to avoid just collect/spend/shop using Avios. However I couldn’t remember my password etc., They sent me an email to reset my password, and I tried several times but it just doesn’t work. Tried for a couple of hours to reset. You get a message to say your password is reset. Then when you try to log on with new password, it won’t accept it. I give up. It’s useless!