Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Anyone received Avios points from a Flybe service yet?

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Flybe launched as an Avios partner on October 27th.  Since then, you have been able to earn points by including your avios.com number in your Flybe booking.  Only codeshare services with a BA flight number can be credited to ba.com.

The earnings rate (2 or 4 Avios per £1 spent excluding taxes) is not fantastic although, to be honest, it will be a lot more competitive with BA after the changes of April 28th kick in.

I have received a handful of emails recently from Flybe passengers who have not received Avios points from their flights.  These are not one-offs, they are from people who take Flybe services on a regular basis and are not receiving anything.

Here is one quote from a reader:

“I’ve flown 5 times with them in the short space of time they have had Avios and not one single flight has been credited to my account.  I’ve been in contact with Flybe, who duly investigate and reply saying I’ve been credited the miles.  I then look at my Avios account and I haven’t.”

Here is a quote from the HfP comments section on Monday:

“I had 2 Flybe flights credit ok in early December but of the 3 flights flown since none have credited.”

and another:

“Yet to see a single point posted for my husband.”

Paul posted a possible solution:

“I got my Avios for 2 flights after writing locators to technicalsupport@flybe.com and sending them my Avios.com number with spaces between each number (otherwise their system sees it as a CC number and does not show to support staff).  Takes around a month for them to answer but works.”

Flybe has made retroclaiming incredibly hard.  You only have a 10 day window in which to file your claim for missing miles.

Here are the official rules from flybe.com:

Please ensure you have checked the eligibility criteria which are detailed in the Terms and Conditions and allowed 30 days after completion of your whole Flybe itinerary for the Avios to be credited to your Avios account.

Contact the Flybe Customer Service team for investigation via our dedicated Avios contact form here.

You have up to 40 days from completing the eligible Flybe flight to query your Avios application. In the event that you do not make a claim within the specified period, any Avios that are not claimed will be lost.

You must do it no earlier than 30 days and no later than 40 days from the date you flew.  I’ve never seen anything like this before ….. except of course from firms selling goods with dubious ‘cashback’ deals which can only be claimed by posting the claim form on a full moon in June from Hong Kong.

Do post below if you have any experiences to add.  Sadly, my planned Flybe trip this month was scuttled when the flight time was moved by a modest six hours and I was forced to cancel.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (31)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Zoe says:

    Obviously Flybe and Avios are not subject to the same rules as financial institutions but this is the complete opposite of the ‘treating customers fairly’ ethos. My husband is without Avios for several flights already I’ll try the emailing solution later.

  • bill says:

    Nothing for my flights

  • Alex says:

    It’s worse than that; it says 30 days from completing your whole itinerary but 40 days from the actual flight. So if you fly them somewhere for a 2 week holiday and then come back on them, your 40 day window for the first flight would have expired long before the 30 day window is up!

  • Smid says:

    Flybe is a pretty damn shitty airline. It’s systems are half arsed, its ways are half arsed.

    I realised when trying to claim expenses for them, they don’t actually produce a breakdown in flight price on a receipt. They do if you ask. Every flight. To their tech support. So you get a total for a return flight, and not even what each leg cost, never mind taxes and such. That’s if you print off your email. The receipt you request from the website mentions NOT COST AT ALL. Complaints about this to them seems to get them send various breakdowns for individual flights flown with no mention of ever intending to be able to provide a real receipt in the future.

    Then there’s the ability to book luggage in the hold, or book a seat, one way on a return. Took them three weeks to reply to that. You can’t. I got around it by booking one way.

    But nope, 7 flights flown in last month, no avios credited. Keeps saying I have those crappy reward points which as far as I can tell, will need to fly a weekly return for 3 months before you get a return flight. I don’t think I’m a member either, no new members past October, and I started flying last month. So no, flybe, I expect avios to be a total and complete pain from them. If I get a single one from them. They’ll not bother to employ any IT to change it.

  • Thomas says:

    Same issue here, four eligible flights and no points yet, did pick Flybe over Lufthansa flights for the AVIOS points – have tried to contact airline but nothing back yet, will try again and see if anything comes back.

    Had a similar issue with Le Club Accor and their pre-xmas promotion as well – wonder if AVIOS earnings will become harder as we move forward in general?

  • David says:

    Same story here Rob, zero Avios for half a dozen flights

  • Think Square says:

    My flights originally got credited to their old scheme. After a lot of messing about, I was pointed at their technical support form, which got results. (On the upside they managed to credit some flights twice). I now put a reminder in my calendar for 30 days after each flight.

    re: Paul’s possible solution: I had signed up with the 16-digit Avios number, but they told me they needed the 9-digit one.

  • callum says:

    You not knowing who they asked doesn’t mean their research is fake… Not that they even need to ask anyone – they could just look at data from the other train operators who are using nectar.

    Though, sorry to say, your whole campaign seems a bit pointless. Virgin know full well people would prefer the old scheme – they merely don’t think scrapping it will make them leave. Given the nature of travelling by train I’d be inclined to agree!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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