Has avios.com removed its ‘extra’ award availability?

One of more interesting quirks of the separate avios.com and British Airways Executive Club schemes is that avios.com had additional reward availability for European economy flights.

This goes back to the days of the old Air Miles scheme, when it was run totally separately from BA Miles.  Because Air Miles was designed to appeal to the ‘man in the street’, it was made more attractive by making European economy flights – the core redemption product of the Air Miles scheme – easier to get.

This was done by making Economy ticket bucket ‘G’ – one of the cheaper price bands for cash tickets – also available for Air Miles redemptions.

When Air Miles became avios.com, this practice continued.  You had the odd situation where ba.com would not show any reward availability but – by using Combine My Avios – you could still book by moving the required points over to avios.com and booking from there!

This now seems to be over.

Various discussions over at Flyertalk, one of which references a conversation with an Avios phone representative, confirm that ‘G’ class availability is no more.

(One extra benefit of these ‘G’ seats, if you got one, was that you would earn Avios points and British Airways tier points when you flew it.)

Whilst I can see the logic for standardising the two systems, this does devalue the avios.com product.  By making it harder for low volume Avios collectors to get the flights they want – which will usually be economy European flights – they are more likely to stop collecting.

I understand that a recent BA survey found that under a third of British Airways Executive Club members were happy with how easy it was to spend their Avios points.  I have no idea what the figure is for avios.com, but it will be heading downwards.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2025)

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 Mastercard

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

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 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

30,000 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

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.