A seventh airline will be adopting Avios as its rewards currency, and this is an especially exciting development for aviation geeks.
In this post:
Clan Loganair transitioning to Avios currency
Loganair, which is the UK’s largest regional airline, will be adopting Avios as its loyalty currency as of some point this year. This will make Loganair the seventh airline to join the global Avios network, which otherwise includes British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways, Finnair, Aer Lingus, and Vueling.
While we don’t have an exact timeline yet, the transition to the Avios currency will be automatic for existing Clan Loganair members (the name of Loganair’s loyalty program). One of the awesome things about Avios currencies is that you can transfer rewards at a 1:1 ratio between programs.
Loganair adopting Avios as its currency means that it’ll be possible to earn and redeem Avios across currencies for travel on Loganair, which adds a lot of flexibility.
Now, it remains to be seen what redemption values on Loganair will look like. It’s possible that each Avios just gets you a certain dollar amount toward the cost of a ticket, which would limit the ability to get outsized value. But at a minimum, being able to collect Avios for revenue tickets on Loganair is an improvement.
Here’s how Luke Lovegrove, Loganair’s Chief Commercial Officer, describes this:
“We strive to offer our customers added value at every stage of their journey, and partnering with IAG Loyalty to adopt Avios as the currency of our Clan programme is a significant development that will open up a world of new benefits for our customers. We’re excited to bring these changes to life in 2025 and look forward to welcoming both Clan and Avios members onboard.”
Meanwhile here’s how Veronica Vicars, IAG’s Chief Growth Officer, describes this:
“We’re thrilled to welcome Loganair as the newest member of our Avios family, marking a significant milestone as our seventh airline partner. With Loganair’s addition, we’re now able to offer customers even greater opportunities to earn and redeem Avios across their important domestic network in the UK and beyond, providing greater choice and value. This is yet another step towards achieving our ambition to make Avios the most flexible and widely accepted travel loyalty currency globally.”
Why I’m excited about Loganair joining Avios
For those not familiar with Loganair, it’s a large Scottish, regional airline, with a fleet of 32 passenger aircraft. The airline has quite the varied fleet, from the 49-seat Embraer ERJ-145, to the eight-seat Britten-Norman Islander. The airline serves 1.5 million passengers annually across 70 routes.
What’s so cool about the airline is some of the remote service it offers to communities in Scotland. For example, I recently wrote about the best flights for aviation geeks, and two of those routes are operated by Loganair:
- Loganair operates the world’s shortest commercial flight, between Westray and Papa Westray; the flight is blocked at two minutes, and typically spends about a minute in the air, as it covers a distance of just 1.7 miles
- Loganair operates to the world’s only commercial beach “runway,” as the airline flies from Glasgow to Barra, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland
I’m hoping to take both of these flights in the coming months, as I’d certainly appreciate the opportunity to earn and redeem Avios!
Bottom line
In the coming months, Loganair is expected to adopt Avios as its rewards currency, making it the seventh airline to use this as its currency. Given that this is otherwise a niche carrier, I’d say this is great news, since it means a lot more people can earn and redeem useful rewards for Loganair flights.
What do you make of Loganair using Avios as its rewards currency?
FWIW you could and still can earn Avios and TPs via BAEC on Loganair flights booked on the BA website -- As far as I know, they don't need to be bought in conjunction to a BA flight, only needs to be a BA codeshare.
Loganair used to be a BA Franchise and oneworld affiliate in the early years of the alliance. At the time, BAEC was also Loganair's home loyalty programme. This is a great step back, but we are not back to those days yet.
It appears Avios trying to position itself as a global program. Will be interesting to see if any other One World or other airlines adopt it, my only concern then being bigger devaluations and moving to a Delta model of 1c / 1 mile redemptions
I hope they don’t award Avios based on distance flown for Westray to Papa Westray…
@Ben, you forgot one Avios airline. Level. Loganair is the 8th airline to use Avios, not including affiliates.
Level is not an Airline. It's just a brand of Iberia. They do not have an AOC.
That is not correct. They have their own AOC.
In fact this is their Spanish AOC number: ES.AOC.166
Iberia's is:
ES.AOC.001
I hope Ben fixes the article.
If only the trend continues with other One World airlines.