How does avios work

So many people are missing out of thousands and thousands of points every year and have no idea that within months you could collect enough Avios Points for a Premium Economy or Business Class flight to New York. Avios Points are reward points you can collect whenever you fly British Airways, or any of the other Avios partner airlines.

You can also collect Avios Points when shopping through one of the thousands of partner retailer stores. Each Avios Point you collect is added to your Avios Account Balance which you can redeem for a number of great rewards. The reward you choose is up to you, but popular Avios Point reward choices are flights, flight upgrades, hotels, and car hire. Collecting and spending Avios Points is just like many of the other point schemes out there. Tesco Clubcard is another comparable example — you earn Tesco Clubcard points when you shop at Tesco or fill up at their pumps.

Once you have collected enough points you can either convert to vouchers to spend in store, or convert those points into lots of different activities, days out, experiences etc….

Here are the four airlines currently part of the Avios partner airline schemes, along with a link to their sign up page:. Your account is usually open in an instant. The natural way to earn Avios Points through an airline such as British Airways is when you book and fly. Log in to your account and add your BA Executive Club membership number into your booking, and once your trip is over BA will credit you some lovely Avios Points.

I will show you some examples of some much faster ways to collect Avios Points and really get you on your journey to a free flight, maybe in Business Class to New York. Here are a few examples of how you can really boost your Avios Point collection and get on track to earning those rewards sooner:. This list is by no means exhaustive. There are lots of ways to increase your point balance. It can be fun and frustrating at the same time. Frequent flyers : when you join a frequent flyer programme listed on the Avios website you can start collecting points whenever you fly.

Hotels, car hire and beer and wine : you can use your Avios points to buy accommodation, rent a car or get discounts on beer and wine with partner companies. Activities and experiences : Unfortunately, due to the current situation with COVID, you're unable to book experiences in return for Avios points.

This may change when current restrictions are lifted. Generally you will need 30, or more to fly return to most places outside of Europe, per person, plus fees, taxes and surcharges.

However, you can also use your Avios to pay for part of the flight's cost minus taxes and fees , so if you have only 10, Avios you might be able to put it towards the cost of a flight.

It may be better value to save your Avios to spend in one go to cover most of the flight costs, but they can be useful when you just want an upgrade or a discount. Remember, taxes and fees still apply, so you will never get the whole flight on your Avios. British Airways also has Reward Flight Savers. These are value reward flights where you pay the Avios and a flat fee in cash and you do not have to pay any additional taxes or charges.

These can be a great deal and start from just 4, Avios one-way, off-peak. If you don't have enough Avios points it's also possible to buy some extra points, or ask someone to gift theirs to you. Obviously, these schemes only work for their flights, and as a result they don't accept Avios. However, these schemes do work in a similar way to Avios and you can find credit cards that offer specific airline rewards.

It just means the rewards will only work for you if you plan to fly with those airlines. You can earn points by joining Avios and shopping via their website. Avios has partnerships with several online retailers, including leading high street brands. Each time you spend money with that retailer via the Avios website, you collect a certain number of points depending on each shop's terms and conditions.

Look out for bonus Avios offers from time to time for online shopping. You can also earn points via any of the airlines that are partnered with Avios. By paying for a flight or holiday with British Airways, for example, you can collect Avios points to redeem on future flights. There may be restrictions, or charges if you want to spend Avios earned this way elsewhere.

So be sure to check the terms and conditions first. With an Avios partnered credit card you can collect points fairly easily and possibly even get a large sign-up bonus. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money.

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How to open an IRA. IRA CD rates. There is a separate award chart for redemptions on two more partner airlines. The above chart shows all classes but generally speaking, for premium cabins you will need to multiply the amounts as follows:. Note that if you are doing a mixed-cabin redemption, the number of miles payable will also be the highest fare class amount.

Note that redemptions for long-haul economy flights will usually be poor value, as British Airways adds significant fees, taxes and fuel surcharges to its redemptions. Long-haul premium cabin redemptions i. Note there can be substantial fees and taxes levied on redemptions, especially for those flights operated by British Airways.

You can read about how to avoid these taxes here. There is a complete guide to the best uses of Avios here. But to summarize:. These are where you can redeem Avios for short-haul flights of less than 2, miles in distance operated by British Airways — for example, its substantial route network from the U.

Although premium economy and first class are technically available for Reward Flight Savers, most passengers will use these for European flights that only operate a Europe Traveller economy and Club Europe business class cabin. From London, flights of less than miles include destinations like Glasgow, Aberdeen, Berlin, Copenhagen and Milan.

Flights to 1, miles include Lisbon, Alicante, Dubrovnik and Stockholm. Flights in the third band up to 2, miles are as far away as Marrakech, Athens, Moscow and Helsinki. As well as the huge European route map, Reward Flight Savers are also available on fifth freedom routes operated by British Airways in the Caribbean and Comair flights in Southern Africa, though Comair flights are subject to higher fees and taxes.

You may be able to save money on taxes by booking a U. Reward Flight Savers are priced per flight, not per journey. In this case, it may be better value and more convenient to consider a paid ticket on another airline where it operates a direct flight for a decent price. As well as having the Avios available in your Executive Club account, you must have also earned at least one Avios in the past 12 months prior to making your Reward Flight Saver booking in order to take advantage of the low Avios pricing and fixed fees and taxes.

For last-minute flights especially, Reward Flight Savers can be enormously valuable as their fixed price keeps the flight cost low, assuming there is availability. Another great use of Avios is to upgrade your next flight operated by British Airways, Iberia or American Airlines, subject to availability.

If the carrier does not offer premium economy on your flight, it is possible to upgrade from economy to business class. Currently, upgrades from economy to premium economy on American Airlines-operated flights are not possible. The cheapest economy fares cannot be upgraded — these are the G, O and Q fare classes. The ticket must be issued by British Airways, or a British Airways-registered travel agent, regardless of the operating carrier.

There is the ability to upgrade British Airways flights booked through third-party travel agents, but there are many more terms and conditions applicable. You will still earn Avios and Tier Points for the cash fare you originally purchased that you are then upgrading. You can choose to upgrade just one, or multiple flights within the one itinerary subject to availability, of course. Working out the cost of your upgrade is where it gets a bit tricky.

Instead, looking at the chart for a straight redemption , the cost to upgrade is the full redemption cost of the upgraded class , less the Avios for the lower class you have already paid for. So as an example, if you have an off-peak World Traveller Plus ticket from London to Toronto that you wish to upgrade to Club World, the distance is 3, flown miles one way. That falls into Zone 5, so a Club World would be 50, Avios as a straight redemption.

Deducting the 26, Avios required for a World Traveller Plus redemption that you have already paid as your cash fare , you will need 24, Avios to upgrade this flight to Club World. It is usually cheaper to upgrade during peak calendar days than off-peak calendar days. As with redemptions, upgrades are charged on a per flight basis, so if you chose to upgrade both legs of a return ticket you would be charged two separate Avios amounts to upgrade.