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Let’s be clear …. avios.com is NOT closing. Your questions answered.

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A disproportionate percentage of my inbox in the last 6-8 weeks has been on the topic of the closure of the avios.com website.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the correspondence from British Airways and Avios on this subject, there is substantial confusion over what is going on.  I thought it was worth taking a bit more time today to clarify certain issues.

BELIEF:  The avios.com website is closing down

TRUTH:  The avios.com website is not closing down, and will actually become far more important than it is at the moment

The thing that is being closed down is the Avios Travel Rewards Programme.  This was set up to be the ‘Avios scheme for people who don’t fly’ and there was a hope that it would compete with Clubcard or Nectar.  It has failed to do this – not helped by the fact that BA doesn’t fly from the regions – and is closing.

Your 3081xxxxxxxx account will be closed very shortly, if it has not already closed, and the balance moved to a British Airways Executive Club account.

Going forward, avios.com is where members of Vueling Club, Flybe, Aer Lingus AerClub and other Avios-earning schemes – except for British Airways and Iberia – will go to manage their accounts and book redemptions.

BELIEF:  I have no way of accessing avios.com once my Avios Travel Rewards Programme account is closed

TRUTH:  Not true.  You can continue to log in at avios.com – and book flights and make other redemptions – using an Aer Lingus AerClub or Vueling Club account

AerClub and Vueling Club accounts use the same 3081xxxxxxxxxx numbering system as Avios Travel Rewards Programme accounts and you can log-in at avios.com using AerClub or Vueling Club details.  Set up a free account at aerlingus.com or vueling.com and test it out.

BELIEF:  I can’t transfer Avios to AerClub or Vueling Club (or vice versa) because they don’t appear on the ‘Combine My Avios’ dropdown menu

TRUTH:  This is not the case

When you use ‘Combine My Avios’, the menu option for avios.com actually refers to ANY Avios account which starts 3081.  As well as Avios Travel Rewards Programme, this includes AerClub, Vueling Club and indeed Avios South Africa.

To move Avios into AerClub, for example, simply use ‘Combine My Avios’, select avios.com as destination and give your AerClub number.

If you want to move between two schemes which use the Avios platform, ie from AerClub to Vueling Club, you will need to move them via BA or Iberia as an intermediary – you cannot move Avios directly between two different schemes on the Avios platform.

Flybe Avios collection

BELIEF:  I can no longer earn Avios from Flybe because my Avios Travel Rewards Programme account has been closed and migrated to BA

TRUTH:  This is not the case

You can give Flybe ANY Avios account which starts with 3081.  If you are flying with Flybe, open an AerClub or Vueling Club account, credit the Avios to that and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them using the route above.

Flybe will launching its own Avios scheme in the near future which will work in the same way as AerClub and Vueling Club.

BELIEF:  I can no longer use avios.com to move Avios between Iberia Plus and British Airways Executive Club, which is often the only functioning route, because my Avios Travel Rewards Programme account has been closed

TRUTH:  This is not the case

Simply open an AerClub or Vueling Club account, which operates off avios.com as I described above, and use that as a ‘middle man’ when you use ‘Combine My Avios’

avios.com closure questions answers

BELIEF:  Avios sent to my old avios.com account will be lost now my account is closed

TRUTH:  This is not the case

Once you Avios Travel Rewards Programme account is closed, any Avios sent to it will be automatically sent to your BA Executive Club account.

Hopefully this clarifies most of the questions you may still have about the closure of the Avios Travel Rewards Programme.  Ask in the comments below if you have any other queries.

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 (165)

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

  • Boi says:
    20 Aug20 August 07:58

    OT:
    I have been traveling and missed several articles. Is the Lloyds Amex still 1.25 Avios/£? And still fx free? We are still on our travels and don’t know what letters are waiting for us.
    Currently it is what we are spending on where Amex is accepted and using the horizon card if Amex not accepted. Is this still ok?

    • Yawn says:
      20 Aug20 August 08:08

      Yup. Even if there is a letter already waiting for you (which I doubt), the card would still be valid for another two months. Bear in mind that the exchange rate on MasterCards is generally better than Amex.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      20 Aug20 August 08:30

      Yes still as is.

      no changes have been formally communicated yet

    • Rob says:
      20 Aug20 August 09:06

      The letters are going out over 45 weeks! Until your letter arrives you’re fine.

  • Mikeact says:
    20 Aug20 August 08:02

    The inclusion of Avios SA is indeed good news after many years…..now to play around with my SA account and see how far I get.

    • Roger1* says:
      20 Aug20 August 08:18

      Yes, we would benefit from the South African scheme but live mainly in Europe. Until now, UK and ZA Avios were separate and could not be combined.

      Have residency requirements changed? Can Brits open SA accounts? I will check again later but it would be useful to know if other FTers can mix UK and ZA Avios.

  • David says:
    20 Aug20 August 08:12

    Under the section “BELIEF: I can’t transfer Avios to AerClub or Vueling Club (or vice versa) because they don’t appear on the ‘Combine My Avios’ dropdown menu”

    It could be worth clarifying that what you can not do directly right now is move Avios between different schemes that BOTH use the Avios.com platfrom, so to move form VuelingClub to AerClub (for example) you would need to go via a non-Avios.com platform using scheme, i.e. BAEC or IB+

    • Yorkieflyer says:
      20 Aug20 August 08:30

      On the subject of Lloyds vouchers, if they are redeemed from BAEC will it be possible to use the household balance or just the individual balance belonging to the voucher holder?

      • GRIMZ says:
        20 Aug20 August 08:55

        Good Question. I have opted out of moving my Avios automatically to BA until I use my household Avios points in BA. I will then transfer my Avios to BA before they close the Avios rewards programme.

      • Rob says:
        20 Aug20 August 09:03

        This is still unclear. I don’t have one of these so I am relying on you lot to feed back your experience.

      • Anna says:
        20 Aug20 August 11:34

        This is a very good question. I will be very annoyed if avios.com can’t use HHA points from BA as I need to make a booking with 2 upgrade vouchers in a couple of weeks and will need to use combined points. Previously I would have transferred those avios to avios.com.

    • Rob says:
      20 Aug20 August 09:04

      Fair point.

    • Brian says:
      20 Aug20 August 11:38

      I have a Vueling Club and an AerClub account. Both have the same number. How this works on the back end, I do not know.

      • David says:
        20 Aug20 August 22:56

        When you login to this single account that you have – logging in directly on avios.com site (NOT going via either airline site) – then, when you click the “your account” drop down menu (top right) – what does it say at the bottom of that drop down menu?
        It should be “You are a member of: ” (then ONE of AerClub, VuelingClub, Kulula, etc).

        While it is certainly possible to link a vueling website login account and an aerlingus website login account to the same account running on the avios.com scheme, I did not think it was possible to formally link the same avios.com account to multiple of the schemes.

        That may well have been the idea, or may well now be the plan, but I did not believe it was actually possible to achieve (unless it has become so very recently).

        People would either see one or the other. Or nothing listed there, if they were part of the avios travel rewards programme scheme (now closing).

    • Memesweeper says:
      20 Aug20 August 12:35

      I wonder if this constraint between different Avios backed schemes will remain, and transfers eventually become impossible as BA and IB get with the new programme.

      Or perhaps we’ll have one big balance and no need of transfers.

      Or lots of balances and some method for sending from Aer Club to Flybe and back again.

  • tartan says:
    20 Aug20 August 08:22

    This answers a question that I had about signing up for e-rewards to nab the 750 avios. It’s been removed from the BA pages but it is still present on the Avios ones. I’ll sign up to AerClub, use that for the Avios account for e-rewards and then combine them over to my BA account

  • Mikeact says:
    20 Aug20 August 08:36

    It will be disappointing when web chat closes at the end of November…..a very useful feature.

  • Tim W says:
    20 Aug20 August 08:41

    Is anyone else as confused as I am?

  • sam says:
    20 Aug20 August 08:57

    i cleared my avios a/c to BA and have an AerClub a/c with a few avios in it. is there any benefit in transferring to aerclub before avios stops transfers or will it be possible to do so in the future? thought it might be useful for N america in a year or two.

  • Jon says:
    20 Aug20 August 09:29

    OT: re Eurostar lounge access with Amex Platinum. Is the card swiped on entry? Or something else, like checking it matches the ticket you’re holding?

    • Rob says:
      20 Aug20 August 09:35

      They check the name and expiry date. They can’t swipe it as they don’t have machines (you can’t buy your way into a Eurostar lounge).

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