Is A British Airways Household Account Worth It?

It works for me and my wife. We use Avios awards for traveling together only and the household account makes it easy. The total sum is what interests us. I wish pooling would be as easy with some other points/miles programmes.

"Avios accrued in a household account are valid as long as there’s some activity at least every 36 months (in line with the standard Executive Club expiration policy), so this makes it easier to keep Avios alive across several accounts."

Just to be ABSOLUTELY clear, does this mean that Avios accrued in a household account remain valid as long as there’s some activity at least every 36 months by JUST ONE member of the household account even if the OTHER members of the household account do nothing Avios-related for over 36 months?

Another benefit of pooling miles is that when you redeem miles for award tickets for your family, you can put them on one reservation. For example, if you have a family of four, and each person had an individual account with award balances between 70-100K each, then you could book each person a 70K award ticket, but everyone would be on separate reservations, which can cause issues in the case of IROPS and rebookings.

Meanwhile, a family account with 280K award miles would be able to put everyone on one reservation with one record locator (assuming there are 4 award seats on the flight).

Family of 5 here where the kids mostly travel on award tickets, so their mileage earnings are not great. So this is a good option for us. It seems that it might make sense to credit all of their One World flights to BA, even though we're most frequently on Alaska. I'll keep crediting to AS though for better chance at status. Anyone see that differently?

No, each member still has to have their own activity every 36 months, unless (I believe) one of the members is Gold or higher (then their status prevents everyone's expiry).

Making a redemption from a HHA will count as activity for everyone though, as the Avios are drawn pro-rata from everyone's accounts.

Hi Ben, Would be great if you could write a similar post about Emirates family pooling option.
Josh

It's an odd headline asking if it's "worth it". Typically that is for something with an associated cost (or opportunity cost), which this does not have. I have created and undone my household account several times (because you can't transfer miles between Avios programs if account is part of a household). It takes almost no time. It's should just be a post "All about BA family accounts".

What's the expiration of family members avios?

@Ken asked a question I have been trying to find the answer to as well.

Ben - what is the expiration policy? Does adding points to the family account reset the clock for all the members or are the members on their own for the activity (36 months)?

Another interesting comparison would be with the family pooling option of Virgin Australia's Velocity programme, which allows pooling of both points and status credits. Velocity is a pretty niche programme, so I appreciate might be of limited interest to North American readers (although its partners do include United and Air Canada).

I’ve had Avios expire in one account that was part of a HH, so unless the expiration policy changes, each account must have its own activity every 36 months. Also there is no way to figure out when your miles expire except by looking at your activity statement.

Thanks. I think you're right - a redemption is by far and away the easiest method of ensuring that there is activity for every member of a household account.

Is this still true? The article says that it's no longer an issue to transfer between Avios programs if you have a hh account, can't find official info om this regard.

My Avios are about to expire (as BA have kindly told me), so I have added my son to the Family & Friends extension of my Household so that he could use them with his, but I don't think that alone will extend the life of mine — is that true? If so, how can I save them, other than by earning more (not likely to fly anywhere soon enough), buying more (min. £49, so not worth it), or converting them into, say, Nectar (with a loss of value)?

The article mentions BA credit cards. Can I also transfer points from other Chase or Capital One cards? Emirates allows pooling with a "My Family" account, but you cannot transfer credit card points. Can all BA pool members transfer points from the various credit card transfer partners? Also, you mention the option of transferring Avios to other airlines. Is it necessary to create another household account with Iberia or Qatar, or can I transfer from a family BA account to an individual Iberia account?