Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What do you need to know about the closing of the Avios Travel Rewards Programme?

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Starting on Monday, avios.com (as opposed to British Airways Executive Club) is emailing members that the avios.com platform running the Avios Travel Rewards Programme is to be wound down.

You will no longer be able to have an avios.com account.  All Avios account balances for UK members will be transferred to a British Airways Executive Club account, with new accounts opened where necessary.

This is a massive process, with 2.4 million avios.com account holders impacted by the closure.

Why is avios.com closing?

The reason – which is not in the Avios email you will receive – is that IAG is moving to a ‘one Avios’ platform.  I understand that the avios.com website will remain and it is where ALL members of any Avios-based loyalty scheme (except perhaps Meridiana) will go to redeem their miles.

avios.com will be just a platform – it will no longer be a stand-alone scheme in which you can hold an Avios balance.

The other reason it is happening is failure.  Avios was meant to become a stand-alone ‘coalition’ (as we call them in the trade) loyalty programme, like Nectar.  Ironically, of course, Nectar has also just thrown in the towel and been sold to Sainsbury’s.

This was never going to work.  For Avios to succeed on its own, it had to offer valuable rewards to people across the UK.   With British Airways remaining a London-centric airline, that was always going to be hard.

Avios DID have partnerships with other airlines.  Unfortunately Monarch went bankrupt and Flybe, with its own financial problems, changed its route network every ten minutes.  Aer Lingus added a few more options but Avios wanted ludicrous sums in taxes and charges.  Air Malta and Aurigny were little known redemption options and in any event were pulled in early 2017, as were Eurostar redemption options.

The killer blow was doubling the cost of BA short-haul redemptions in 2015 – previously regional connections to Heathrow were free.  It made no sense at all for someone in Newcastle to pay 18,000 Avios plus £70 in taxes to fly to Nice via Heathrow.

There were two other issues:

Tesco has been playing down the role of Clubcard, with big reductions in the number of promotions available making it harder to run up large balances to convert to Avios

The new EU credit card fee rules, combined with Amex’s withdrawal of the licence it gave Lloyds, meant that the Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card was on borrowed time

The bottom line is that there was little benefit in anyone outside the M25 collecting Avios via avios.com if they were not a frequent flyer.

Will I lose out when my account at avios.com closes?

No.

The only possible issues are:

some partners who are only on the avios.com platform may disappear if they do not want to transition to being BA partners (some may not be able to due to conflict with existing BA partnerships)

moving Avios from Iberia to BA may get harder, as ‘Combine My Avios’ rarely works when you try it.  Most people end up going Iberia to avios.com and avios.com to BA, a route which will now close.

the little-known ability to slash the taxes on Aer Lingus redemptions by calling BA and using Avios sitting in BAEC may disappear

When is avios.com closing?

At some point between 21st May and the end of July, your avios.com balance will be moved to a British Airways Executive Club account.  You can access virtually the same redemption options, at the same prices, via BAEC.

If you don’t want to do this – and I can’t think of a good reason to refuse – you can fill in a form on avios.com to opt out.  This must be done by 20th May.  You will have six months to use your points before your account is closed.  The opt-out period lasts 30 days.

What is happening to the Lloyds Avios Rewards credit cards?

They will continue for now, although they will remain closed to new online applications.  You will need to call to use your upgrade voucher.  The same goes for those with the old TSB Avios cards.

Avios told me today that the Lloyds agreement is ‘multi year’ and will continue.  This implies either that they will keep it closed to new online applications but let it run on for some time for existing cardholders OR there is a medium term plan to launch a new Visa / Mastercard product.

How will I collect Avios from Flybe in the future?

Flybe its launching its own Avios-based loyalty programme which will run on the Avios platform.  It will be very similar to the Aer Lingus and Vueling schemes.

Avios told me today that this will launch ‘in 2018’ but is not imminent.

Will estore continue?

Yes, via ba.com.  Some retailers may be withdrawn because they will conflict with BA’s commercial arrangements with other partners.

What happens if I auto-convert Tesco points to avios.com?

All is fine, they will automatically be redirected after the closure of avios.com.

I have an avios.com Household Account.  What happens when that is shut down?

There is guidance here.  The account will be split equally unless you tell them otherwise (you can ask for one person to get 100% of the points).  If any of the Avios accounts are linked to Aer Lingus or Vueling then there may be issues as these will not be transferred to BA.

What is happening to Avios South Africa?

Nothing.  That programme will remain open.

Conclusion

There is nothing to worry about from the closure of avios.com and the UK Avios Travel Rewards Programme.  The end result may even be a cleaner, easier to follow Avios landscape.  It is not, repeat not, a hidden devaluation!

More information can be found on ba.com here.

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

Comments (385)

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

  • HappyHarry says:
    9 Apr9 April 15:36

    I hope Iberia credit my 9000 Avios which are outstanding since December for an Avios promo – I dread them being stuck in the IB scheme with the indirect CMA route no longer available 🙁

  • Kk says:
    9 Apr9 April 15:38

    Do I need to be worried if my BAEC account has a US address and my Avios account has a UK address?

    (Presently I earn UK spending points from Lloyd’s Avios, and the spending in the rest of the world using Chase Visa, but the latter requires , since about 2 years ago, a US-regiatered BAEC account or else the points from Chase don’t get deposited)

    • Rob says:
      9 Apr9 April 16:24

      Yes, because you can’t transfer from Avios to BA whilst that is the case. The question is whether – when Avios forcibly moves you – they allow it.

      • Doris Williams says:
        9 Apr9 April 21:28

        By pure coincidence I decided to start using the BA exec again and switch over from the avios account. I didn’t have any miles in my exec account so I transferred over 1000 miles on April 2nd just to test the transfer process, I checked the account the next day and the miles had been deducted with a reference of expired miles! I phoned them up and was told it was because I hadn’t used it for a couple of years. I said what would have happened if I had transferred my entire balance of 200,000 miles? Would I have lost them all? They said yes. I’m shocked, they won’t give me the miles back. I’m nervous of transferring any more.

        • Kk says:
          9 Apr9 April 22:33

          This is a bit bizarre. You are saying because of no transactions for 2+ years in BAEC anything transferred to it gets voided??

      • kk says:
        9 Apr9 April 22:42

        Rob, thanks for the answer.

        Actually, I just got home and tried to transfer 100 Avios to BAEC – it worked fine, despite difference in the registration address on the accounts.

        I suppose I should just transfer all of them, is there any point of keeping them in Avios at all?

        • Rob says:
          9 Apr9 April 23:31

          It seems, based on something I saw elsewhere, that Avios has drastically reduced the security requirements today. It is far easier to make transfers, presumably to ease call centre pressure.

  • BA-flyer says:
    9 Apr9 April 15:40

    I still convert Clubcard vouchers to Avios at the old 800 rate. I’m assuming that if I convert to BAEC instead, they will go though at 600. I might need to think about redeeming my Clubcard vouchers now, whilst I can get more.

    • Darren says:
      9 Apr9 April 16:31

      I currently get the 800 rate on BAEC. Try it with a couple.

    • RussellH says:
      9 Apr9 April 17:50

      I started to transfer Clubcard vouchers to BAEC about 9 months ago, having previously sent them all to Avios at the 800 rate.

      Tesco tells me that they are sending me 600 Avuios, but 800 end up at BA
      🙂

  • Chiara says:
    9 Apr9 April 15:51

    Hello Rob thank you for your interesting post, do you think that every transaction pending will be paid from BA? I have many Hilton reservation pending that will be completed in late august and also some on december… Hilton actually is not partner with BA… do you think that we can really sleep relaxed??

    • Doug M says:
      9 Apr9 April 21:12

      How do they get away with this. I thought things had to be fairly transparent, that is you can’t headline an offer for x and then use tiny printed T&C’s to say except in 98% of cases.

  • TripRep says:
    9 Apr9 April 15:52

    Rob – what happens to Avios Shopping transactions that can take months to credit? eg Hilton.

  • AJD says:
    9 Apr9 April 15:56

    I got a letter this morning through the post informing me of this also.
    I have an “E-Rewards” account set up via Avios.com which has allowed me to collect around 24,000 Avios a year for the last two years which is the maximum redemption for surveys filled in. I currently have a balance with E-Rewards that means I can redeem the maximum points for the next four months without doing any more surveys, (I sometimes get time on my hands working a split shift!). These are transferred to my Avios account and then ultimately moved to our household BA Avios account as they build up.
    My wife has an E-Rewards account in her own name set up from the BAEC website and similarly collects the maximum points which are moved directly to our household account from the E-Rewards redemption page.
    As Avios are closing I don’t want them to automatically create another BA account for me as that would undoubtedly be against BA terms and conditions, so I wonder what the position is for the outstanding E-Rewards points that I cannot transfer until after the closure date of Avios.com. I presume that anyone with an E-Rewards account that feeds into an Avios.com account will have to change the destination of their redemptions, so there may be quite a few people similarly affected – that is if E-Rewards will allow this change, I haven’t heard from them as yet.
    More importantly going forward I wouldn’t want E-rewards to inadvertently think that I have set up more than one account in my name as both redemptions would go to the same BA account, (which would be against their T & C of one account per person) as whilst it may not be a lot of points for some, for us they slowly contribute to our household balance at a rate of 48,000 a year so we would like to continue doing occasional surveys.

    • mark2 says:
      9 Apr9 April 16:50

      Can you transfer to Iberia (e-rewards account vary)? You will get a better rate as well as being able to do extra transfers.

      • AJD says:
        9 Apr9 April 19:32

        I’ll look into that, I’ve never created an account with Iberia but maybe if E-Rewards is going to have to redirect redemptions from Avios.com that would be preferable to us than BAEC. Thank you for the suggestion.

  • preacher says:
    9 Apr9 April 15:56

    I have an Aerclub and BAEC account. Does anyone know whether I should move my Avios points to BAEC now to prevent them being “stranded” in Aer Lingus, or will “combine my avios” continue to work in the same way as now?

    It’s all a bit confusing as Aerclub members access all their account info, redeem flights etc through avios.com at the moment, anyway. So if avios.com disappears, what happens next?

    • danksy says:
      9 Apr9 April 16:23

      Ditto that – I have the same experience where AerLingus appears to “skin” the Avios site.

      BTW I have over 600k domiciled in Iberia Avios which are in effect “stranded” because I made the mistake of setting up my middle name as by second surname… this means they won’t match with Avios so I can’t transfer the points out to either BAEC or Avios…. grrrr

      • Cate ⛱️ says:
        9 Apr9 April 16:31

        I did the same. Just phone Iberia up and they will transfer for you. Just make sure both names are the same on both accounts and match your passports.

      • mark2 says:
        9 Apr9 April 17:13

        I did the same when I set up my wife’s account (although she has done transfers previously).
        There is a form to fill in which they will send you if you ask at clasica@iberia.es I think.
        To my amazement it only took 5 days, although they did not tell me that it had happened.

        • mark2 says:
          9 Apr9 April 17:16

          The form is to correct the name and is called ‘Rectification Data Document’

        • Matty says:
          9 Apr9 April 20:52

          If you have an aer club Avios this will remain an Avios account on Avios.com

  • Ed Greenson says:
    9 Apr9 April 16:30

    Before its too late is an Avios.com transfer of minimal amount of points to Iberia plus enough to keep Iberia plus account active or do I need to make an Amex membership rewards transfer.

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