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

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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).

Flybe and earning Avios

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:

Flybe launches its own Avios scheme

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.

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.

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 (50)

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

  • abc says:
    10 Oct10 October 06:45

    Is the ’10 day window’ for when you did not give your number before the flight and want to get Avios retroactively or for when you did give your number and they just did not give you points? If the former it’s a weird rule that I guess you’ll just have to live with, if the latter, it seems very doubtful that they would be able to get away with it.

  • FlyUpTop says:
    10 Oct10 October 07:01

    On flybe, how do you find avios redemption flights from Exeter as no sign of any through BAEC?

    • pauldb says:
      10 Oct10 October 07:59

      ba.com doesn’t recognise Exeter, so just put in EXT and don’t click on any options it may offer you.

      Worked fime for me, e.g. EXT-AMS 25-28 Feb (and that also bring up plenty more fligths – connections via LCY and MAN).

    • Cuchlainn says:
      10 Oct10 October 10:21

      FlyUpTop,
      Check availability through Avios.com – I use BHD to EMA regularly for DD attending Loughborough Uni and get approx 2.5p per Avios.

  • Andrew says:
    10 Oct10 October 07:42

    Is it still the case that flights bought through a corporate travel agent can not earn Avios – just when bought through their own site?

    • Rob says:
      10 Oct10 October 09:07

      FAQ say you get points via any channel if you read it. Obviously not allowing business travellers to earn would be silly.

      In my experience, when this sort of thing comes up it is down to your corporate TA ripping you off by selling you tickets it isn’t meant to. I had one recently from a reader where the TA was selling package holidays (secretly booking a hotel for the traveller which got ditched) to get lower flight prices but was still charging the client the standard rate. If you never see a price on your eticket then be suspicious.

  • Scottex says:
    10 Oct10 October 07:42

    I’ve stopped chasing flyBe for their lousy scheme, never been on a flight where points haven’t been awarded – why can’t they use something like nectar where you would swipe your card at check in ?

  • IanMac says:
    10 Oct10 October 07:50

    Rob, you made a comment in the article
    “From 1st October, you are earning 50% more Avios on most Flybe tickets.”
    I bought a ticket on Saturday 29 September for a ‘day return’ flight to/from LCY on Monday 1 October but just checking my Avios account it is showing the old 2x £ fare spent. (It posted on 9 October …)
    Using your link to the Flybe Avios webpage, I picked up the statement
    “For Flights from October 1st you will earn 3 Avios per £1 on all ticket types!”

    • Peter K says:
      10 Oct10 October 08:40

      Why not chase it with them in the 10 day window of opportunity?

      • Rob says:
        10 Oct10 October 09:04

        I have no idea how this works beyond what is on their site. Given that the FAQ isn’t even updated yet it is fair to say they are not on top of this.

      • Stu N says:
        10 Oct10 October 09:16

        Because life gets in the way.

        Most vendors who award points will make you wait 1-2 weeks before claiming missing stays and give you a few months to submit the claim.

        By making you wait a full 30 days to submit a claim and then only giving you 10 days from that point, Flybe look to have set the whole thing up to make it as difficult as possible to claim missing Avios. And it’s not as if they have a great reputation for tracking and awarding Avios to start with.

  • Alex says:
    10 Oct10 October 09:42

    From what I remember from a few years back, it was the person *buying* the ticket getting the Avios, not the passenger. Is that still the case? Because I have a customer up North who flies me LCY-EDI a few times a year, but they buy the tickets for me. I’ve never actually tried to claim for the Avios because I thought I wasn’t going to get any…

  • Simon says:
    10 Oct10 October 10:08

    O/T but no bits – Any advice…… have 4 CW LGW to MCO booked…. i now see availability has appeared for same day LHR – MIA….. will BA swap these over for me with no fuss? Or do I need to cancel/rebook blah blah ??

    • Stu N says:
      10 Oct10 October 10:21

      If it’s an Avios redemption booking you should be able to swap as it’s the same zone. You’ll need to phone and pay the change fee plus any differences in taxes, fees and charges.

      • Simon says:
        10 Oct10 October 10:23

        Thanks yes it is Avios. Will give them a call

      • Stu N says:
        10 Oct10 October 10:24

        Change fee is £35 per person I think – difference in taxes, fees and charges should be minimal.

        • Simon says:
          10 Oct10 October 11:12

          Follow up question! Avios I paid for AA flights Orlando – NYC…… presume i can cancel these flights and get the 30k avios back as if it was a BA flight?

        • Stu N says:
          10 Oct10 October 13:59

          Yes, you’ll lose the lower of £35 or taxes actually paid, which on an AA domestic might not be much at all, but the Avios will be returned.

        • Simon says:
          10 Oct10 October 14:30

          Great… Thanks for all your help Stu

  • Dave Taylor says:
    10 Oct10 October 10:10

    Not once have they paid out or allowed me to claim for the points for a flybe flight

    I dont exactly avoid them but I certainly do not consider them part of the alliance

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