If you happen to’ve ever dreamed of flying for (virtually) free, upgrading your Financial system seats to the a lot fancier, Enterprise Class, or treating your self to an expensive getaway with out blowing your funds, studying the best way to acquire Avios factors is your ticket there — actually.
Avios is the rewards foreign money of the British Airways Membership (and different airline companions together with Qatar Airways and Iberia), and with the fitting technique, you should use the factors you acquire to e-book flights, upgrades, and extra.
Right here, I’ll stroll you thru the best way to go about incomes Avios factors and the best way to use them to e-book elusive reward seats on British Airways flights.
What are Avios factors?
Avios are the loyalty foreign money utilized by a number of airways, together with British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Qatar Airways. If you happen to’re a member of the British Airways Membership, you’ll earn and spend Avios by way of their system. You should utilize your Avios factors pot to e-book flights on British Airways and accomplice airways, improve your cabin to take pleasure in a extra unique journey expertise, and pay for lodges, automotive rent, and different journey extras. If you wish to go all in, you may even pay to your whole vacation utilizing your factors with BA Holidays
Personally, I discover the great thing about Avios to be of their flexibility and attain—particularly if you perceive the best way to acquire and redeem them well.
How one can earn Avios factors
Flying with British Airways and Oneworld companions
When you’ve joined the British Airways Membership, everytime you fly with British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways, American Airways, or any Oneworld accomplice, you’ll earn Avios, which will likely be deposited in your BA Membership account. The variety of factors you earn will depend on your fare class, what you pay to your flight, and BA Membership tier standing. Sadly, you don’t earn Avios on any reward seat flight you e-book.
Tip: Everytime you’re reserving a flight, at all times embrace your British Airways Membership quantity to make sure you earn your factors.
Bank card sign-ups and spending
One of many quickest methods I’ve managed to rack up Avios is through the use of a co-branded bank card. Within the UK, that’s sometimes the British Airways American Specific, or Avios Barclaycard bank cards:
British Airways American Specific Bank card
This card has no annual price, and presents a very good Avios welcome bonus to new cardholders. You’ll acquire 1 Avios per £1 spent, get further Avios bonuses for card referrals and supplementary cardholders, and have the flexibility to earn a Companion Voucher (2 flights for the price of 1 in Financial system) in case you spend £15,000 in a yr in your card. It is a stable card to begin out with in case you’re new to Avios assortment. I started with this card and my welcome bonus lined half the Avios value of my first reward seat reserving!
British Airways American Specific Premium Plus card
That is the following degree up from the essential BA Amex card. It has the next Avios incomes fee of 1.5 Avios per £1 spent, and an unique earn-rate of three Avios for each £1 spent with British Airways and BA Holidays. The welcome bonuses are a lot larger, plus you may earn a Companion Voucher if you spend £15,000 on the cardboard in a single yr. The distinction with this Companion Voucher is that you should use it in any cabin class – together with Enterprise or First, whereas with the essential BA Amex Companion Voucher, you may solely use it in Financial system.
Use your card for on a regular basis spending—groceries, payments, journey—and watch the Avios add up. I make all my ordinary purchases every month utilizing my card to earn as many factors as I can. So far as I’m involved, that is cash I’d be spending anyway – so why not get rewarded for it?! Simply keep in mind to pay your invoice in full each month, because the Avios incomes worth isn’t any good if you consider curiosity.
Buying on-line
The British Airways eStore is a goldmine for Avios collectors. You’ll discover over 2000 retailers that reward you with Avios for each pound spent. These embrace Apple (5 Avios per £), John Lewis (1), Samsung (5), Reiss (12), B&Q (4) and Dyson (8). Merely click on by way of the BA eStore earlier than making your buy.
You get these factors on high of the factors you earn on the BA Amex card – a double dip!
Bonus tip: I wish to stack this with cashback websites for much more worth.
Resort and journey companions
Now, you won’t be capable of earn Avios in your reward seat flight reserving, however you CAN earn them by way of your lodge keep. You may earn Avios when reserving BA Holidays or the BA Avios retailer, in addition to by way of Reserving.com, Motels.com, Accor, IHG, Marriott, and extra.
If you happen to already acquire lodge loyalty factors, together with Marriott Bonvoy or Hilton Honors, you’ll be comfortable to know you can convert them into Avios.
If you must rent a automotive throughout your journey, automotive rental corporations like Avis and Price range additionally allow you to earn Avios in your bookings.
Eating, wine golf equipment and way of life presents
British Airways companions with a number of eating places and way of life manufacturers, together with The Wine Flyer and subscription platforms like The Spectator or The Economist. If you happen to’re already spending with these, it’s undoubtedly value it to examine in case you can earn Avios too.
If you happen to store at Sainsburys, or have a Nectar card, you may earn Nectar factors and switch them to Avios at a 400:250 fee. This one is nice for topping up your pot. I modified my grocery store to Sainsburys once I began to gather Avios as a result of we spend at the least £150 per week on the household meals store – that’s an additional £600 of Nectar factors (375 Avios) each month!
Shopping for Avios
If you happen to’re quick on factors for a dream journey, however you don’t need to wait round to e-book it, you should buy Avios instantly by way of the British Airways web site. Whereas this normally isn’t one of the best worth, gross sales providing 30-50% bonus Avios could make it worthwhile. Simply preserve a glance out.
Reserving reward seats on British Airways
Why use Avios to e-book reward flights
Avios collectors could make vital money financial savings on flights through the use of factors to pay for them. Some travellers have reported money financial savings of round £7000 when reserving a visit to Japan in Enterprise Class, by paying with factors and utilizing their American Specific Companion Voucher. I’d suggest valuing 1 Avios as 1p when contemplating financial savings. All you must do is examine the Avios value of your journey and evaluate it to the equal money fare on the BA web site to point out you ways a lot you’re saving by utilising Avios to e-book seats.
One of many lesser identified ‘Avios hacks’, which is definitely a specific favorite of mine, is you can cancel a reward seat reserving with BA for simply £35 per individual as much as 24 hours earlier than your flight. If you happen to choose to do it, you additionally get your full Avios value refunded, in addition to taxes and costs – minus £35 an individual. That is actually useful in case your plans change for no matter cause, and it’s an additional profit if you’re deciding whether or not to e-book a specific money fare or to make use of Avios factors. Utilizing this explicit hack lets you doubtlessly e-book a lot of locations and flight instances, then choose your only option.
Understanding Reward Flight Saver
British Airways presents Reward Flight Saver fares, which allow you to e-book flights with a set low price (taxes and costs) plus Avios. If you happen to’re seeking to spend the least money attainable in your flight reserving, short-haul flights inside Europe, typically begin from simply 9,250 Avios + £1. Lengthy haul flights have the next money value – beginning at round £40 – as a result of taxes and costs are larger for these routes.
How one can discover and e-book Avios seats
It’s actually easy to really e-book your reward seats. Simply go surfing to the British Airways web site or cellular app to seek for “Ebook with Avios.”
As a result of BA releases a really restricted variety of reward seats per flight (14 throughout all cabins) availability could be restricted, so plan and e-book early—BA releases reward seats 355 days upfront. There are at present round 40m Avios collectors internationally on the lookout for reward seats, and if you do not forget that BA solely releases 14 seats per flight, you in all probability need to do every thing you may to get forward of the group. On this case think about using an impartial UK reward flight finder software the place you may monitor availability, see flight by flight info and set Alerts to get immediately notified when your perfect seats turn out to be obtainable. I at all times use these instruments – I set as much as 10 Alerts for various routes that I would like and wait to get Alerted. Then I let the instruments do the work for me.
Professional ideas
You’ll have higher luck bagging reward seats in case you’re versatile with dates and instances to your flights – my solely guidelines are that my flights have to be at school holidays. I set my Alerts at the least 6-8 months forward. It’s additionally value noting that in case you’re quick on Avios if you need to e-book, you may high up your fare with money – so you employ a combination of Avios and money to e-book your seats. All you must do is use “Avios + Money” choices if you’re on the BA web site.
Utilizing Avios on accomplice airways
Avios aren’t only for British Airways flights—you may redeem them on all Oneworld companions, together with: Qatar Airways (who typically have decrease money surcharges), Iberia (nice for long-haul to the Americas with decrease charges), American Airways, Finnair, Japan Airways, and extra
Every little thing you must plan your journey in 2025
Frequent errors to keep away from
There are just a few golden guidelines to at all times keep in mind – NEVER let your Avios expire: They’re legitimate for 36 months, however any incomes or spending resets the clock. Think about how heartbroken you’d be in case you’d saved factors for all that point, just for them to fade since you hadn’t used them!
I’d additionally steer you away from utilizing your Avios for poor-value flights. All the time evaluate the money worth vs. the worth of your factors. I stick with the 1p per 1 Avios rule so I can evaluate the money value of a fare to what I might pay if I booked with Avios. I really like doing this as a result of it exhibits me how a lot cash I’m saving in comparison with the money seat reserving – it’s an excellent motivator to maintain on accumulating.
Final however not least, don’t overlook you’ll must pay money taxes and costs. This isn’t even value fascinated by if you’re reserving a brief haul flight in Europe that normally has a £1 price, however some redemptions, particularly long-haul in premium cabins, include money prices of as much as round £600 for First Class. Don’t overlook you’ll must pay this if you e-book.
Remaining ideas
Gathering Avios isn’t only for frequent flyers or journey hackers—it’s for anybody who desires to make their cash go additional when touring. I prefer it as a result of I’m capable of journey extra with my household simply by having a sure bank card, doing the weekly store or paying a family invoice. I even earn factors whereas I’m on my vacation to make use of on the following one. With a little bit of planning and some on a regular basis habits, you could be effectively in your approach to a reward seat on a British Airways flight. If you happen to spot me on the airplane, make sure you say howdy!
Have questions or your individual Avios ideas? Drop them within the feedback.
Kayleigh Hepworth
Kayleigh Hepworth is Head of Advertising and marketing at Reward Flight Finder. Reward Flight Finder is the proper software to seek for British Airways reward flights. If you want to be a visitor blogger on A Luxurious Journey Weblog to be able to increase your profile, please contact us.
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