Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.

  • Jonny says:
    20 Aug20 August 13:28

    Off topic – but can the Amex gold credit card (only one available onlineto be applied for) be upgraded to the platinum?

  • fivebobbill says:
    20 Aug20 August 13:53

    Follow your own referral link from BA and sign up for the SPG. If you spend £5k on it in 3 months you’ll have 48,000 SPG/Mariott points (£30,000 bonus, 3,000 referral bonus, and 15,000 for the additional £5k spend).
    If you spend another £670 on the card that’ll take you over 50,000 and be enough points for a free 2 night stay at a category 4 hotel.
    You’ll also pocket the referral avios from your BA account.
    All the while you’ll be eating well into that 6 month wait to re-apply for another Amex Gold…

    • fivebobbill says:
      20 Aug20 August 13:54

      Forgot to mention, the SPG card has a £75 pa fee, but is refunded pro rata if cancelled.

    • Matt says:
      20 Aug20 August 14:20

      You can self-refer yourself for another different AMEX card and get the referral bonus?
      I’ve never heard of anyone doing that successfully before – did the points post for you?

      • fivebobbill says:
        20 Aug20 August 14:28

        Did for me, although I referred via BAPP, I would have thought it was much the same…

    • sdon says:
      20 Aug20 August 14:44

      I thought Amex have stopped their 6 months wait and that you only get the bonus once in your life? Or has that not taken affect yet?

  • Lee says:
    20 Aug20 August 14:18

    I have a BA exec account but BA emailed to say they had opened a new one for me but I don’t know why and they don’t reply to emails, it sounded like it had something to do wit the Avios overhaul. I also have Avios account linked to my Aerclub account with the same 3081 number. I don’t know if I should be doing anything on these various accounts.
    O/T I have a BA 2-4-1 and am looking to get a second one so our family of 4 can use this together for business class flights. My question is can we use the 2-4-1 to also book hotel as with BA at the same time to save on cost of getting hotels separately. We are looking at the Caribbean, maybe Barbados. Thnaks fr any help.

    • Cuchlainn says:
      20 Aug20 August 14:55

      Lee,
      BA 2-4-1 vouchers only work for BA flights , not hotels / car hire etc. You must book BA flights (no other airline, even Aer Lingus / Iberia etc ) and those flights must originate in UK.
      Other than that good luck getting 4 CW flights to Caribbean.

    • Rob says:
      20 Aug20 August 15:08

      No

  • KevMc says:
    20 Aug20 August 14:43

    OT despite my SPG and Marriott accounts being previously linked, I now seem to still have two separate accounts and logins (and only Gold Elite in both, not Platinum) – should they not now be all in one?

    • Rob says:
      20 Aug20 August 15:05

      No, for the full merge to go ahead you have to action it yourself.

      • KevMc says:
        20 Aug20 August 15:23

        Are we supposed to be able to do this yet? I can’t find any way to do it from the ‘Profile’ section.

        • Kinkell says:
          20 Aug20 August 20:34

          like you , (am still Gold….no Plat for me either !), and don’t know how / where to link accounts. Any one hep?

        • TGLoyalty says:
          20 Aug20 August 22:30

          They will send you a link. Think it was happen slowly so there aren’t too many happening at once

  • mike says:
    20 Aug20 August 15:24

    hi raffles,

    similar to you i completed the marriott platinum challenge in july, and so became platinum elite. however, I have not been transferred to platinum premier elite in the new program over the weekend as I should have been, in the app or my online account. I have remained platinum elite. Are you in the same boat, or has your platinum elite mapped across correctly to platinum premier? cheers

    • Lee says:
      20 Aug20 August 15:34

      No one has been mapped to platinum premier yet worldwide if you obtain Platinum from challenge

      • mike says:
        20 Aug20 August 16:01

        thanks Lee. is your expectation that we will not be mapped at all to platinum premier, or that there is simply a delay? if it is the former, strikes me as a tad unfair, given that it is essentially a downgrade in the new scheme which was not advised prior to taking the challenge.

    • Rob says:
      20 Aug20 August 20:50

      I am Platinum and expected to be Platinum, not Platinum Premier.

  • Mr Dee says:
    20 Aug20 August 16:52

    So predictable the Amex > SPG is 2 MR for 3 spg/marriot now, I hope the transfer start as planned tomorrow

  • Dave says:
    20 Aug20 August 17:06

    On a similar (but unrelated) note, I received an email today from Virgin Red about the combination of VirginRed with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Interesting to see how this develops and how it may affect miles redemptions! Copied mail below:

    “We just wanted to get in touch to let you know about an exciting development we’ve been working on here at Virgin Red HQ.

    We’re always looking for more ways to improve and develop our offering further and, as a result, we will be bringing together Virgin Red and the currency of Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club – miles – to create a new Virgin-wide loyalty programme.

    A new company, Virgin Group Loyalty (VGLC), will be established to own and manage this exciting programme – ensuring the loyalty rewards you receive are truly outstanding. The new loyalty programme will launch in 2019 and we look forward to writing to you about the benefits joining the programme will offer closer to the time, rest assured you’ll be the first to know. ”

    • PhilW says:
      20 Aug20 August 18:56

      This is the text from Virgin Flying Club email I got today

      “As a valued Flying Club Silver member, I wanted to share some exciting news.

      Today we’re announcing that Virgin Group and Virgin Atlantic have agreed to create a new company that will launch a Virgin-wide loyalty programme, to reward customer loyalty across Virgin branded companies with unique and differentiated reward opportunities.

      The new loyalty programme will use the Flying Club currency, ‘miles’ and will bring you more opportunities to earn miles, with the result of getting you to Reward Flights sooner. The new loyalty programme plans to launch in 2019 and I look forward to writing to you about the benefits of joining this programme closer to the time.

      I want to reassure you that there won’t be any change in the way you interact with us or the benefits you currently receive as a Flying Club member. Flying Club will continue as Virgin Atlantic’s frequent flyer programme and will continue to use miles as its currency. You will still continue to earn Tier Points and earn and spend miles across Virgin Atlantic, Delta Air Lines and our partners as you do today. “

  • David S says:
    20 Aug20 August 17:31

    I have an Avios Family account and they have created a new BAEC account for my wife (even though she already has one) but it has a zero balance. They haven’t created a new BAEC account for myself not transferred my share on my Avios balance into my existing BAEC account. So I can’t access my Avios points even though I need them and Avios say I wont see the points until the scheme closes but they either cant or wont give me a date. Any thoughts ?

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? EARN POINTS WORTH 10,500 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!