Flybe increases its Avios points earning rate by 50% – and the Flybe Avios scheme goes live

It is now four years since Flybe abandoned its own reward scheme and adopted Avios as its reward currency.

Flybe recently hired a new Head of Loyalty (ex-Avios) and he appears to have set about making immediate changes.

From 1st October, you are earning 50% more Avios on most Flybe tickets.

Historically the cheaper ‘Just Fly’ and ‘Get More’ ticket types on Flybe earned 2 per £1 / €1 spent. ‘All In’ flexible tickets earned 4 per £1 / €1.  That distinction has now gone and all tickets now earn 3 Avios per £1 / €1 spent on the fare (excluding APD).

For clarity, this new rate applies to ALL flights taken from 1st October irrespective of when you booked them.  If you receive the old rate of 2 Avios per £1 then you should drop Flybe a note.

As well as the base fare, you can also earn Avios on whatever you pay for hold luggage, standard and extra leg room and preassigned seating.

3 Avios per £1 is generous, in my view.  On routes where Flybe and BA compete at London City, you are likely to earn more Avios taking Flybe given that the cheapest British Airways economy tickets only earn 125 Avios!  You won’t earn tier points on Flybe however.

You can find out more on the Flybe website here.

The Avios / Flybe loyalty scheme is now live

Flybe has now launched its own co-branded Avios scheme, operating off the avios.com platform.

You can only credit a Flybe ticket to an avios.com account (Flybe, AerClub or Vueling Club) and not to British Airways Executive Club or Iberia Plus.  Any account starting 3081xxxxxxxxx will work.

You can now open an avios.com account via Flybe.  Following the link on the Flybe website here to register.

Membership is only available to UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands residents.

You end up with two sets of details, one to get into flybe.com and one to access avios.com.  Your avios.com account will look like this – note the Flybe logo at the bottom:

Your Avios can be transferred to British Airways using the ‘Combine My Avios’ function on ba.com or avios.com.

Children cannot earn Avios via Flybe because avios.com does not allow children to have accounts.

When do I receive my Avios?

Here is an interesting one. Unlike every other airline I can think of, you only receive your points when you have flown your return journey. The outbound points will not be posted after the flight.

If you miss one flight on your itinerary, you will forfeit your Avios points for the entire trip.

There is an impressive catch if your points do not post.  You can only claim missing Avios between 30 and 40 days from when you took the return flight.  Claims made before 30 days, or after 40 days, will be dismissed. Flybe really needs to get a grip on this.  Leaving a window of just 10 days when you can submit a claim for missing points is frankly silly.

PS. Here is the new Flybe livery launched a few weeks ago:

Conclusion

I’m pleased to see Flybe boosting their Avios earn rate.  If nothing else, it produces fresh competition for British Airways on routes where they compete.

Remember that Flybe now flies from Heathrow to Aberdeen and Edinburgh.  I reviewed the Flybe Heathrow to Edinburgh service, which departs from Terminal 2, here.

If you want to know more about Flybe’s participation in Avios, their Avios page is here and there is an updated FAQ here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 2023)

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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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

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.

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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.