How To Transfer Avios Between Accounts (BA, IB, QR, EI, AY)

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’d like to take an updated look at how this works, especially since the functionality for moving points between programs has recently been improved considerably, so this should really streamline things.

The five primary “flavors” of Avios rewards points

There are five loyalty programs from major global airlines that accrue Avios:

• Aer Lingus AerClub
• British Airways Club
• Finnair Plus
• Iberia Club
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club

Okay, Loganair and Vueling also participate in Avios, though I won’t be as focused on those in this post, since I find redemptions to be of limited value.

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 Club Avios, Iberia Club Avios, Finnair Plus Avios, Aer Lingus AerClub Avios, and Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios.

This feature can also be useful in the context of credit cards. For example, there are three credit cards in the United States that are issued by Chase and earn 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
• Capital One partners with British Airways and Finnair
• Chase Ultimate Rewards partners with Aer Lingus, British Airways, and Iberia
• Citi ThankYou partners with Qatar Airways

Since you can move Avios between these currencies, that allows you to redeem 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 various 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 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
• You need to have two-factor authentication set up on all of your accounts in order to be able to move points to or from those accounts
• If you’re part of a household account, only the points belonging directly to you can be moved, and not those that were accrued by another member of the household account

In the past, the process of actually moving Avios between accounts was super frustrating, as the process differed between each set of programs. Fortunately this has now been simplified, and can be done at this link, through the central avios.com website.

There you can log into your preferred Avios loyalty program, and then initiate the process of moving points. There’s then a dashboard that gives you all the options of which programs you can transfer Avios to.

Once you select the partner you want to transfer rewards to, you’ll be directed to log into that partner account. If you haven’t yet linked your accounts, the process takes a second, while otherwise, you’ll immediately be able to start moving Avios.

This is honestly so much easier than the old process, so I’m happy to see this improved.

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, Finnair, or Aer Lingus. Since each “flavor” of Avios has its own sweet spots, this is a valuable feature.

While transfers between programs have long been possible, the process has recently been streamlined, and is easier than ever before. You can now move Avios between all programs at this link. This is such an improvement over the old system, where everything was just unnecessarily complicated. Just keep in mind you need to set up two-factor authentication for accounts, in order to be able to move rewards.

If you’ve combined Avios between accounts, what was your experience like?