Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Using your Avios points to pay for British Airways seat selection is coming soon

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‘The Club’, the British Airways Executive Club online magazine, is – bizarrely – very rarely the source of any useful information about British Airways Executive Club.

Here is a typical article from ‘The Club’ – ‘Singer Celine Dion on her favourite holiday, where she’s visiting next and her packing essential’ ……

However, the March 2018 edition does have some genuine news.  As you can read here (click, select country, then click this link again):

Later this year, Executive Club Members will be able to use their Avios to pay for and reserve seats in advance via Manage My Booking. This additional benefit is one of a number of new initiatives which will give members more ways to use their Avios. 

The same page includes a reminder of the new Run Gatwick fun run on Sunday 13th May, which we have covered on Head for Points before, which will raise money for BA’s Flying Start charity.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (98)

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

  • Alex W says:
    5 Mar5 March 04:47

    I can’t wait to find out more about the “initiatives” for wasting thousands of Avios on stuff which either used to be or should be free. First food and drink, now seat selection, what next?

    • Charlie says:
      5 Mar5 March 05:33

      Lounge access, fast track security….

      • Alex W says:
        5 Mar5 March 05:44

        Next you’ll need to swipe you BAEC card to go to the loo!

        • Rob says:
          5 Mar5 March 08:33

          There is ‘chatter’ about lounge access changes. It would not surprise me if access was tightened (either stripping it from HBO fares or raising tier point thresholds) with paid access – cash or Avios – introduced at the same time.

          There is also talk of moving to a Qantas / AA model where you will need to pay a few hundred pounds for a lounge access card IRRESPECTIVE of your status or your class of travel. Remember that AA elite members cannot access AA lounges on some tickets, even though BA elites can access AA lounges on the same ticket.

        • JamesB says:
          5 Mar5 March 09:20

          It would not surprise me, I suspect we will see seat selection fees increased at the same time as avios can be used. If talk about the lounge access proves to be correct then holding the amex platinum card long term becomes even more appealling. Personally, I would likely never fly BA premium again if lounge access was not included. I suspect we may see them start to drop benefits like lounge access on reward tickets before they do so on revenue tickets.

        • guesswho2000 says:
          5 Mar5 March 09:35

          Quick point re Qantas (and Virgin Australia for that matter, although the Oneworld parts don’t apply) – they don’t operate like AA (or the other US airlines) in terms of lounge access. Yes, they (and VA) sell access to their lounges, but status pax can access Qantas Clubs (and all other Oneworld lounges) even on domestics. This is not the case for AA status pax on US domestic flights, which is the point Rob was getting at.

          So access for QF pax is not a paid/membership requirement irrespective of status/class of travel.

        • Hanna says:
          5 Mar5 March 13:45

          So it might be worth waiting before doing next point tier run to extend status. Priority Pass will be cheaper and you don’t have to fly on dirty planes any more.

        • RIccatti says:
          5 Mar5 March 16:16

          Those would be excellent initiatives for BA/IAG, accountants rejoyce and bonanza for C-suite will be imminent. There is no doubt we will see more chargeable – everything BA thinks they can get away with. This is not about service or brand anymore.

          Unfortunately, that will mess things too. There simply be less travel. Rather than suffering on a flight with no bells and service to look forward to — one would run several videoconferences to get the same thing achieved. Leisure travel will be cut down as well. Otherwise, one-off lunch at a decent airside cafe will do just as good. The smarter FT cohort will find some way as Aegean in Star Alliance or minor OW airline, such as buying monthly status with S7. But that erodes the idea of an airlines alliance, particularly with giants like Emirates or BA-AA-IB-.. trans-Atlantic cartel. What is next, IATA?

    • the_real_a says:
      5 Mar5 March 05:47

      huh – you can now pay for seat selection with avios?

    • James B says:
      5 Mar5 March 06:01

      The thing I most detest about BA is seat selection fees in their ‘premium’ cabins. Their fares are a joke even before the fees. Not thrilled about paying avios for them either, I imagine it could be as high as 10000 avios per longhaul CW seat. The question is how popular will it be and therefore the impact on availability of seats at check in.

      • Lady London says:
        5 Mar5 March 13:44

        Especially as these don’t seem to apply to corporates. Corporates I have worked for have always had free seat selection from time of booking for their travellers.

        • Lady London says:
          5 Mar5 March 13:45

          Let them unbundle Business and First tickets too, and then we’ll see what people are prepared to pay for.

      • James says:
        5 Mar5 March 14:09

        Absolutely agree.

      • Doug M says:
        5 Mar5 March 20:27

        I like them. Keep the good seats free for status holders.

    • John says:
      5 Mar5 March 06:41

      If you’re prepared to pay money for seats then you should be prepared to pay avios

      Obviously BA is hoping that people who aren’t prepared to pay money may not mind paying avios so much

      Since the Uturn on status seat selection on HBO doubt this means anything for status holders

      • JamesB says:
        5 Mar5 March 09:27

        I am not prepared to pay either, even on a redemption flight. Maybe if BA prices were consistent with their products and services but they are already way overpriced.

    • Adam says:
      5 Mar5 March 07:07

      Seat selection on CW should be free you would think but sadly not!

    • Thomas Howard says:
      5 Mar5 March 08:44

      I’m not convinced BA understand the damage they’re doing to their brand with all of this nonsense. It has the potential to be perceived as a premium brand but everything they do pushes it closer to Ryanair. They should have followed the Qantas lead and created a budget short haul brand (Jetstar) to compete with the budget carriers and retained the BA (and maybe Iberia) as a high quality product.

      As it is, IAG have a complete dogs dinner of brands frequent flyer schemes and everything they do make it worse.

      • Catalan says:
        5 Mar5 March 08:53

        They did. It was called GO. A very successful low cost carrier from British Airways. So successful that Willie Walsh panicked and sold it to easyJet (would you believe).

        • Rob says:
          5 Mar5 March 09:12

          Not quite right, it went to 3i who kept it for, ooh, perhaps 2 weeks before selling it on to easyJet and making millions (literally) for the investment team.

          Slightly sore point because I looked at this myself – this was at the start of my private equity career – and we decided not to pursue it.

        • Lady London says:
          5 Mar5 March 13:47

          Haha Rob that’s a very interesting thing to know.

        • Thomas Howard says:
          5 Mar5 March 14:01

          From memory GO was fairly successful for an airline that only lasted 3 years and was cut by Rod Eddington as soon as he took over because it was cannibalising the short haul market – selling it to easyJet didn’t stop that it just meant BA had no offer at that price point. Anyway, Walsh is the current ring master and its a shambles, the trend on YouGov brand index is clear.

      • simon says:
        5 Mar5 March 09:32

        £2.6bn operating profit last year, with better predicted for 2018. While their brand image may be changing for the worse, their bottom line is benefiting.

        • Thomas Howard says:
          5 Mar5 March 13:36

          Carillion produced a profit every year for the last four, and increased it year on year for 3 out of 4, but short term decisions have a nasty habit of coming back to bite you in the ass. I’m not saying IAG is about to collapse but it doesn’t seem to have a long term vision.

          BAs strength is in its airport slots at the UKs hub airport, if that ever changes its screwed because people won’t be using it for its high quality service or good value fares. There is a lot of quality competition out there travelling east, and better value travelling west.

        • simon says:
          5 Mar5 March 15:53

          Fair point. But i cant think of many company executives with a long term view….. Pump up the share price, get paid, leave a mess…. and repeat…..

  • Richard says:
    5 Mar5 March 06:02

    Wrt amex points. Does anyone on here have the strategy of near solely using them by transfers to pay for hotels and then fly to the places on cash in economy/very good business fares? Does it work? Do you feel you get good value for the points?
    Just thinking about what my personal strategy should be. seems much less effort than furiously hunting for availability on rewards tickets and with “surcharges” only going one way… If the ratios were 1MR gets 0.67 star/2 marriott or 3 hiltons it would be obvious but with the less good ratios perhaps it throws too much value away?

    • Genghis says:
      5 Mar5 March 06:46

      You need to run the numbers for your travel goals. I don’t feel bad about transferring to SPG.

      • Roger says:
        5 Mar5 March 07:34

        Yes to SPG.
        Amex to SPG 2:1 ratio is not bad at all, particularly if you can justify 1p vale for Amex MR and 2p for SPG.

        In my experience I have always managed to get more than 2p value out of SPG Points.

        At the moment there is a 8% bonus if you transfer Amex MR to SPG and from there to Avios if you follo my example below.
        180000 MR transfers to 90000 SPG points which is then converted to 270000 Marriott points
        Which you can then use for Travel Package with Avios earned as 162000 Avios plus Category 1 to 5

        If you do not use hotel, just return the certificate straight away for 45000 Marriott or 15000 SPG points, so net cost is only 75000 SPG points for 162000 Avios, or in other words 150000 MR points for 162000 Avios or 8% bonus

        • Rob says:
          5 Mar5 March 08:34

          The best use of Amex points on my valuations is hotel stays via Radisson Rewards / Club Carlson. 2nd best use is redeeming for a Melia hotel voucher. Miles come further down the list.

        • Alex W says:
          5 Mar5 March 10:12

          Amex to SPG to Marriott travel package gets 1.5p per MR I reckon. 7 nights in a hotel plus 168,000 Avios, think how many seats you could reserve with those!

          • Rob says:
            5 Mar5 March 10:27

            Nah. Hotel is Cat 5 max so 7 nights is likely to be worth £500-£700. £1700 for 1p per Avios. You are still well under 1p per Marriott and that assumes you can use 7 nights in a Cat 1-5 Marriott.

        • Alex W says:
          5 Mar5 March 15:13

          That’s still 1.3p per MR which I’m happy with. Now to find a Marriott I’m happy to stay for a week in!

    • John says:
      5 Mar5 March 06:55

      I don’t redeem long-haul because I find BA Gold to be worthwhile for me, but I can’t make the cut unless I pay for my long-haul flights (on cheap / convoluted deals). So I don’t want my Avios balance to get too high as it only gets used for short-hauls.

      Yes, I feel I get good value from hotel transfers because I tend not to worry about what the actual prices are, I just set a value for the points and if that is a price I would pay, I just go for it Obviously if the paid rates are ridiculously low that changes things.

      I don’t worry about “throwing away value”, otherwise I would be permanently depressed after deleting my Bitcoin wallet in 2009. I could have sold that for 10x the maximum value of every point I’ve ever earned.

      • Pangolin says:
        5 Mar5 March 15:39

        There were only a handful of people in the world (Satoshi included) who owned Bitcoin in 2009. The value then was a fraction of a cent. I’d certainly be depressed as even a tiny amount in 2009 would be enough to make you a multimillionaire at today’s values (the famous case of the guy who spent 10K BTC on a pizza didn’t even happen until 2010).

    • Peter K says:
      5 Mar5 March 07:33

      As said above, it depends on what you want. I would never pay for long haul business class flights so the Avios scheme has value for me to get what I want in that direction.
      I am happy to swap MR for hotel points however if it allows a good redemption. Remember that some hotel brands (eg Hilton) only charge you for 4 nights when you book for 5, so you are getting more value there.
      Basically forget to a certain extent about “best value” and concentrate on getting what you want.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:
      5 Mar5 March 09:02

      I always transfer for hotel points, in my case Hilton. I find Avios increasingly difficult to use (live near MAN: RFS dont make sense, better LCC flying direct, numerous options long haul. Need to travel as a family. Must consider school dates etc etc).

      Hotels give me significantly more freedom. They do not require booking at midnight 355 days in advance. I can cancel for free if plans change. I value the perks because I do eat breakfast and more than once the Exec Lounges have saved me a dinner out.

      Fundamentally I attach greater value to a nice hotel than a nice plane experience. Even at the back of the plane I can while away a few hours knowing that it is merely the conduit to my holiday. But a bad hotel I could be stuck in for days. I’d rather secure the hotel and back fill the travel.

    • Lady London says:
      5 Mar5 March 13:49

      Yes Richard it can be very good if you decide to just fly whichever airline gets you there in enough (dis)comfort that you’re prepared to have.

  • Anna says:
    5 Mar5 March 06:47

    On the plus side, the more people using avios for BOB and seat selection, the more reward seats will be left for the rest of us!

    • Mikeact says:
      5 Mar5 March 08:15

      You wish !

    • TripRep says:
      5 Mar5 March 08:19

      Hmmm might be a bit of a jump in reaching that conclusion.

      More likely is that those that can afford to waste Avios on seat selection have a very good stash for redeeming on future flights…?

      Of course there’s always those that are clueless about their value, take the guy wanting to fly BA business to Iceland from Scotland the other week.. 😀

      • guesswho2000 says:
        5 Mar5 March 10:27

        I flew BA J between Iceland and Heathrow once (actually it was LHR-KEF)…but only because I needed to fly then and there was no Y availability. I was slightly annoyed when Y availability showed up a couple of weeks later, but hey ho! I had BA Silver, so didn’t benefit from flying J on the ground at LHR either.

        I was in the Avios rich category though, so wasn’t bothered about it too much, just didn’t want to pay cash.

        The other way round there was no lounge at the time, at least you can use the Saga club in KEF now if you’re flying from there in J (I assume).

        • mark2 says:
          5 Mar5 March 11:44

          Presumably that is Icelandic Saga rather than over 50 Saga, although the latter would be fine for me.

      • Harkirat says:
        5 Mar5 March 12:28

        We are flying KEF is J next week because we had 2-4-1 to burn. SAGA lounge looks good which is benefit we didn’t expect when we did the booking.

  • Rich01924 says:
    5 Mar5 March 09:16

    OT – just tried logging into my Club Carlson account, redirected to a radissonrewards.com url that isn’t yet live….wondering if this could be more than just a rebrand…anyone know?

    • Rob says:
      5 Mar5 March 09:20

      Some very minor changes but effectively just a rebrand. Will cover it tomorrow.

    • Kiran says:
      5 Mar5 March 10:31

      Yep – new iOS app appeared today too.

  • N says:
    5 Mar5 March 10:37

    OT – NH Hotels. I have an Amex Plat (and the various statuses that come with it), is there anything of note that I can do for an upcoming stay that I need to book at an NH hotel in France?

  • TripRep says:
    5 Mar5 March 11:39

    very O/T – Anyone recommend Prague hotels, travelling with friends who’d like to pay less than approx £80 a night

    I’ve stayed at the Hilton before (bigger conference sized one further out) thought it was v good, but prices seem to be > £150 for the dates I’m after in the summer. Got a few Club Carlson/Radisson Rewards points I might splurge on the Park Inn there for us and friends, anyone stayed there, seems to be decent value at 5000pts + ~£35

    • Luke says:
      5 Mar5 March 12:00

      Jurys inn is decent hotel, Park inn is a bit off town centre, nothing exciting about HI and IC neither…Novotel is OK, good location (should fit the budget). Usually when I stay in Prague I rather book room using sites like agoda, expedia etc – expecially in low season you can get 5* centrally located hotel for 50-60£ (my record was 19,5£ for 5* Hotel President down the river bank 🙂

      • mark says:
        5 Mar5 March 12:45

        although not a chain we stayed hotel uniq and would say it easily beats any Hilton I’ve stayed ins recently. Walking distance to old quarter, breakfast was really good and rooms were modern and comfy.

    • TripRep says:
      5 Mar5 March 14:16

      thanks for the tips, will have a look, cheers!

      ps Mark, which Hiltons have you stayed in recently, I’ll put them on my blacklist… 😉

      • mark says:
        5 Mar5 March 14:38

        Gatwick, Glasgow, Brighton, London Met. Hotel UNIC was nicer than them all and the customer service was better. cheaper too!

        • TripRep says:
          5 Mar5 March 17:58

          thanks, bit surprised at Glasgow, had many good stays there, staff always friendly

          Been a year since I’ve been at the rabbit warren that is Gatwick, was part of our delay coming back from the Maldives so BA were paying, hence didnt really care about for value for money

    • David says:
      5 Mar5 March 20:47

      Prague Haultin Old Town is decent, with a nice lounge. I got a huge suite and a free bottle of (almost) drinkable Czech fizz. (as diamond) Well located too…

      • David says:
        5 Mar5 March 20:48

        Too much Hilton booze tonight to be able to type. Whoops.

  • Steve says:
    5 Mar5 March 11:55

    O/T – does anyone know what the refund T&C’s are likely to be on an Avios redemption booking? Think I may have been a little hasty over the weekend with a booking to SF, assume I will get the Avios back will BA hit me on the taxes/fees etc?

    Probably being thick but a dummy cancellation isn’t that clear…..

  • Cuchlainn says:
    5 Mar5 March 12:30

    OT – PRG Amex Offer : Spend £500 on Etihad booking using Amex card get £100 statement credit – bagged but only available to first 2,500 cardholders.

    • Luke says:
      5 Mar5 March 12:50

      Sadly not on my Amex Gold – I have rather useless 100£ off 800£ spent on Emirates bookings…

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