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Rule change for British Airways household accounts

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Buried away in the new Executive Club terms and conditions – which primarily covers the changes required under the Avios devaluation on April 28th – is a small improvement to the way that household accounts work.

As I outlined in this article, a British Airways Executive Club household account allows up to seven people who share the same address to pool their Avios points.  They are explained in more detail on ba.com here.

Each person retains their own account and their own points total, but when logged in they will also see the combined Avios total of the household.  They can make a redemption up to the value of the entire household pot, with the points taken pro-rata from each account.

A household account can only be changed once every six months.  This doesn’t mean that you can only move one person, it means that you get a 24 hour window from the first change to make as many changes as you need.  The door then shuts for another six months.

Family household

From April 28th, there will be an exception to this:

18.1.6. Members who are part of a Household Account, but who are not the primary member of the Household Account can request at any time to be removed by contacting the Executive Club in writing (including e-mail). Members of a Household Account other than the primary member cannot request the other Members of a Household Account to be removed.

I imagine this has been brought in to allow separating couples to regain control of their account.  Under the current rules, you could only leave a household account if the head of the account removed you.  I can imagine that some people effectively lost control of their points because they fell out with the household head.

There is no requirement to be divorcing or separating in order to request your own removal, however, and I am sure that it will prove handy to many people who may want to bring someone into their ‘household’ temporarily.

how to earn avios from credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2021)

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

There are two official British Airways American Express cards:

British Airways American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and a companion voucher for spending £20,000 Read our full review

BA Premium Plus American Express card BAPP

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee 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.

If you have a small business, we especially recommend Capital On Cap’s Visa card which comes with a generous bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (25)

  • Jonathan says:
    6 Feb6 February 06:44

    Morning – apologies for going off topic.

    The BA PP Amex bonus boost ends on the 11th next week, does this type of offer come around regularly or is this a one off by historic standards?
    I’m looking at applying but also have the Gold rewards card at the moment and am about a month off hitting the 3k reward spend. I won’t spend much more than the 10k over the year so need to be careful I don’t bite off more than I can chew (I.e. trying to meet both targets at the same time)!

    • avidsaver says:
      6 Feb6 February 07:04

      This bonus has been offered before on a fairly regular basis. Since the big devaluation of Avios it’s thought that they may re-think and possibly increase the bonus in the future. Who knows? There’s never any certainty with these things!

    • avidsaver says:
      6 Feb6 February 07:56

      Just an extra thought. You only need to spend 2K in 90 days on the Gold Card. 3K on the BA PP Amex.

      • mark2 says:
        6 Feb6 February 08:11

        True, but no 241 with Gold.
        This is even more valuable with higher redemption values. (I have both cards)

        • richie says:
          6 Feb6 February 10:27

          yes there is , you just need to spend 20k instead of 10 on the premium

          • Eastland says:
            6 Feb6 February 13:04

            Thik you got confused there re black/blue BA cards and Amex Gold vs BA premium which is what was being discussed.
            Gold is Amex issued not BA and does not offer a 2-4-1

          • richie says:
            6 Feb6 February 21:30

            appologies , i miss read and thought you were talking about the 2 ba amex cards

    • Frenske says:
      6 Feb6 February 08:12

      I would forget about the BAPP bonus. First reason it usually comes around regularly, maybe twice a year. Just make sure you get the 20.000 gold reward, which is a lot more than the bonus on the welcome bonus. Plus the fact you will need to pay £150 for the BAPP, you better make sure you will hit the companion bonus.
      I have a similar spending amount on AmEx as you. My plan is to use the Gold Reward for about 1 year, cancel it and get the BA AmEx and use it for 1 year and swap again. In my case I don’t go for the PP since I have due a 3 month old baby we will not do long-haul flights for while.

  • Thomas says:
    6 Feb6 February 08:35

    In a BA household account can one members points be transferred to the other members account so that the sum total can be transferred to one Avios account ?
    Basically can Dad’s X amount be added to Mum’s Y amount so a new Avios account can get X plus Y together..

    • TimS says:
      6 Feb6 February 08:53

      Not that I am aware, but you could transfer to two different Avios.com accounts, then combine them into an Avios.com household account and then you CAN allocate 100% of the avios points to one individual when you subsequently break up an Avios.com household account.

  • oyster says:
    6 Feb6 February 09:26

    My infant turns 2 in the next few weeks. I don’t believe I can add him to the BAEC or my household account until he is 2. I want to add my wife too, but should I wait until the child turns 2 before making changes because of the 6 month rule?

    • Frenske says:
      6 Feb6 February 11:00

      Are you sure? We have added our 3 month daughter to the household account. I think?

    • TimS says:
      6 Feb6 February 14:33

      You can add them before they are 2 but they won’t earn avios until they have their own seat (ie usually 2 years old).

  • Phil T says:
    6 Feb6 February 09:38

    I’m due to get the 7500 bonus MR for spend on my Gold card when it renews. If I cancel the card after receiving the bonus will I get a pro-rata refund on the subscription?

    • plastikman says:
      6 Feb6 February 10:10

      Yes.

    • Mike says:
      6 Feb6 February 12:15

      You could also upgrade to the platinum card, get another 15k bonus for that and then cancel to get the fees refunded pro-rata (you keep some of the plat benefits too).

      • ankomonkey says:
        6 Feb6 February 12:36

        When do people do this normally? My Gold first year expires later this month, I have earned but not received the 7500 bonus and I plan to cancel the card. Do people apply for the Platinum upgrade before year-end, at year-end or after the 7500 MR points have posted (or doesn’t it matter?)?

        I just want to ensure I get my 7500 points, but could be persuaded to follow this upgrade route suggestion.

        • Rob says:
          6 Feb6 February 12:45

          The 7500 appears a month after you renew. I wouldn’t do anything until they turn up.

          • Matthew says:
            7 Feb7 February 14:32

            My Gold was due to renew in March with the 7500pts but I phoned Amex and said I wanted to update to Plat. So they added the 7500pts on for me immediately then I upgraded to Plat the day after (via the 15,000pts WYS £1000 link). 🙂

  • Jon Easthope says:
    6 Feb6 February 10:38

    I want to create a household account with my wife and kids. As I’m the avios expert (?) in my house (wife not really that interested) I will be the head of the account, but it’s my wife’s account that has has 2 x 241s attached to it. Presumably they get thrown in to the Household mix, but is there any restriction on me (as head of account) spending them? Obviously when used, my wife will form part of the booking.

    As a specific example, when (or should I say if given recent BAEC changes) 4 spaces open up on an outbound I can presumably use the 241s to purchase this leg by booking online. When the inbound opens up – presumably I have to call up BA to add this, but given that my wife earned them, does this restrict me (as head) adding the return legs or would she have to call instead?

  • DS says:
    14 Feb14 February 09:42

    Where in the T&Cs is the part about a 24hour window?

  • CL says:
    25 Feb25 February 16:14

    Hi, hope this isn’t a dumb question, but are there any disadvantages to my wife and I combining our accounts into a Household account ? (We don’t have any 241’s etc, we just collect Avios from a number of places and then redeem for Reward Flights where we always travel together.)
    And if we do this with BA, should we think about doing this with Iberia and Avios as well ?

    Thanks for your help 🙂

    • Rob says:
      25 Feb25 February 16:39

      Few issues with a BA HHA. avios.com HHA are a pain as you cannot transfer out of them without breaking it up. Look at my Avios Redemption University article on HHA’s.

      • CL says:
        26 Feb26 February 14:36

        Thanks – I really should have looked harder 🙂

        To quote : “What this means in English is: A member of a BA household account CAN move Avios to or from their Iberia or avios.com account (as long as the avios.com account is not a household one). A member of an avios.com household account CANNOT move Avios to or from BA or Iberia”

        Great stuff Rob. Thank you

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