Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

New Avios partner coming: Royal Air Maroc is joining the oneworld airline alliance

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Casablanca-based Royal Air Maroc announced on Wednesday that it is joining the oneworld alliance, the airline alliance which includes British Airways.  oneworld is one of the three global airline alliances, with other two being Star Alliance and SkyTeam.

This gives the oneworld alliance an African member for the first time, if you don’t count BA franchise Comair.

Star Alliance already has Ethiopian and South African in its ranks whilst SkyTeam has Kenya Airways.

Royal Air Maroc 787

Once it becomes a full member, you will be able to earn British Airways tier points and Avios, as well as spend Avios, on Royal Air Maroc flights.  This is not scheduled to happen until mid-2020, however, as substantial IT work is required to get the partnership in place.

Royal Air Maroc Express, the regional subsidiary, will become an affiliate member of oneworld.

oneworld will have 14 members once Royal Air Maroc is integrated.  As well as BA, the other airlines involved, on which you can already earn and spend Avios, are:  American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LATAM, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines.  Fiji Airlines is also joining as a looser ‘oneworld connect’ member.

Here is a screenshot of where Royal Air Maroc flies from its Casablanca base – click to enlarge:

Royal Air Maroc route map

The airline flies to 94 destinations in 49 countries, carrying 7.3 million passengers per year on a fleet of 55 aircraft.  Long-haul routes include New York, Washington, Montreal, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo which primarily use new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners.  You can connect from Manchester, London Heathrow and London Gatwick via Casablanca.

The real benefit, though, is the addition of numerous new African destinations to the oneworld route map.   The alliance gains 34 new destinations and a surprising 21 additional countries.

The addition of Royal Air Maroc will also allow you to earn Avios and tier points on flights to Casablanca, a route no longer offered by British Airways.

One thing remains a mystery ….

Two years ago, Royal Air Maroc announced that it was adopting Avios as the currency of its Safar Flyer loyalty programme.  Since then ….. radio silence.   I have no idea if this deal is now dead or not.

Overall, whilst this isn’t an airline I can see myself using in the short-term, it is a good addition to oneworld and adds some valuable new destinations to the network. 

You can find out more about Royal Air Maroc on its website here.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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

Get 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

30,000 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 – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) and NO FX fees Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.

Comments (46)

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

  • Peter K says:

    They have no flights to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia? Shocking!

  • Ant says:

    Africa’s first high speed rail opened last week from Casablanca to Tangier… for those who like that sort of thing. Rabat is a fascinating city too and not too far away.

    • Alex Sm says:

      I also heard only good things about the Tangier-Fez rail link (not that high-speed) with picturesque views and heritage trains

  • Jonathan says:

    It would take more than a few Avios/Tier Points to get me on RAM. I do some work with an NGO in West Africa & despite being one of the few airlines with decent regional coverage we are forbidden from using them due to a catalogue of issues with lost baggage & misconnections where people have been abandoned. Anyone who complains about the state of BA CS has a real treat in store!

    • Stewart says:

      Who else are you going to use to Bamako, or Conakry, or Ouga? TK is a very long detour… This is great news 🙂

  • Nick says:

    Rob, fyi, still getting desktop view on iPhone over 50% of the time.

    • Lumma says:

      Do you not have a “view mobile site” link at the very bottom?

      • Rob says:

        The hosting company told me yesterday that they think they can fix it.

        Basically, it is a joke. The new hosts use cache more extensively than usual, eg instead of fetching a new page each time it is requested it simply sends out a copy of the previous request (every 30 seconds it does update). The problem is that it is failing to differentiate between mobile and desktop in some cases. So, if your request triggers the ‘update every 30 seconds’ action and you are on a mobile, it will serve a mobile page for the next 30 seconds to everyone.

        Except …. on desktops it is always serving the correct version. Which is odd.

        Anyway, they claim a fix is very close. If not, we will dump them and switch host again although I’d rather not. What isn’t clear is why one of the biggest WordPress hosting businesses in the world has this issue.

        • Alan says:

          Is it maybe an iOS issue? I always get desktop version on desktop and always get mobile on my Android phone (Chrome for both). Works flawlessly. Email alerts also working perfectly so please don’t move host!

  • Spk says:

    OT – Amex plans to open Centurion lounge in Heathrow.

  • James says:

    If BA’s IT people (outsourced to the lowest bidder) have to get involved the date will be more like 2030.

  • James says:

    Not really a like-for-like replacement of Qatar !!

  • Anna says:

    Slightly OT – this still does nothing for the UK regions! I was looking at which One World partners fly abroad from MAN on any kind of regular basis as I am toying with planning Christmas markets trip for next year – the only direct option would be Helsinki with Finnair!

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      I dont think UK regions are a OW priority. As I am sure you are aware, there are lots of good cash options from MAN or LPL. Until HfP take us seriously OW won’t.

    • Liz says:

      We just came back from the Helsinki on Monday and the Xmas markets weren’t great. We did Munch 3 years ago and they were much much better. Helsinki was mainly food, woolly socks, gloves and hats and wooden kitchen utensils. Found one lovely shop with a Xmas shop in the basement where we managed to get a few nice decorations. Our trip was postponed from Sept so was never meant to be a Xmas market trip. Also did Tallinn and the market was much the same. Also not one shop had a sale on so everything full price till after Xmas – no bargains to be had.

      • CV3V says:

        I went to Salzburg one Christmas, arriving on boxing day and found the markets being packed up. I asked a trader why they were packing up and he explained that Christmas was yesterday – so no more Christmas market! Enjoyed the Berlin Christmas market, and the boxing day sales there were good.

    • filipino_chino says:

      Sun Air fly from MAN to BLL (Denmark), normally an expensive flight (£200+), my stepfather always enjoys his flight with them.

      Iberia Express fly to MAD

      BA have a few flights to mainland Europe too

      Aer Lingus flight to Dublin, Shannon and Cork

      These are the ones i know of, hopefully we have more?

      • Mr(s) Entitled says:

        There is an excellent Christmas Market in Manchester. We usually combine that with a night in the Hilton. Tick that box beforehand and you can take another OW Carrier further afield east or west.

        • Anna says:

          Manchester is my home town so would like something a bit more exotic! It would be nice to have more options to earn avios and tier points generally. BA flights to Europe only operate at weekends during the summer months, so are useless for short breaks or holidays at Easter or half term. There doesn’t seem to be much in Billund, I don’t know if they have Xmas markets?

      • Nick says:

        Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong (and on from there).
        Qatar to Doha (and on from there).
        AA to PHL and others (and on from there).
        Plus BA and IB, is really the 5 biggest oneworld airlines all serve MAN. Really not that bad for a regional airport!

        (Slight correction though, Aer Lingus is NOT in oneworld!)

        • Anna says:

          I don’t really class MAN as “regional” as it has 3 terminals and is the biggest UK airport outside London. And despite the routes served by AA, a lot of northerners still travel to the US via LHR because prices from MAN are so high.

    • marcw says:

      If you leave in the regions, trying to get status is pointless – it will be such a waste of time. nevertheless, keep earning Avios though (or other ffp miles/points).

      Use the advantage of choosing the cheapest (or nicest? affordable? quickest?) available option, instead of alliance airlines deciding where you have to go.

      • Alan says:

        Yep must say I’ve stopped retaining BA Gold now – with the doubling of RFS cost there’s no benefit in choosing BA over LCC for short haul and for long haul I’m either paying for C or redeeming for C/F so get the majority of the benefits. I’m pushing more to acquire hotel points as I’ve found them better for availability and of even greater value given the weak GBP.

        • marcw says:

          I’ve started shifting my strategy to hotels and accommodation as well. Flights have gotten cheaper (while redemption fees more expensive), while Hotels are getting more expensive.

        • Kipto says:

          What doubling of RFS cost ? Have I missed something ?

          • Alan says:

            Domestic connections used to be free for all flights, a couple of years ago they changed it to long-haul only – made European RFS trips pretty poor value from non-London airports as an extra 9k + £35 cost to the existing redemption cost. Most nearby European ones already cost 9k + £35 hence reference to doubling – is less than doubling for further away RFS routes but still generally makes it cheaper to go LCC (even after paying for extra legroom, etc.)

      • Mr(s) Entitled says:

        This is me.

        If I use an Airline scheme to ‘buy’ flights I am flying in a class that has all the benefits I need. If I am just looking to hop somewhere direct I’ll buy on price, invariably with an airline where status is meaningless but I’ll go where I want, when I want. Lounge access can be obtained many ways.

        Hotel points are proving much more useful and this is the vast majority of my collecting and status chasing.

        • Anna says:

          Which is great if you CAN go when you want! If you have to travel in the school holidays there is no such thing as an LCC, you’re paying £300-400 pp for a flight to mainland Europe or the Canaries but getting the same product as when that flight costs £100 in term time. If I’m paying that price I really like to have some kind of return on it (apart from the precious family holiday, obviously!) Now either Ryanair or Easyjet (can’t recall which) are taking Amex I might re-visit them when they provide the most direct route to where I want to get to!

        • Mr(s) Entitled says:

          I travel in the school holidays. Increased demand equals increased price. Same will be true of your hotel. And everything else.

          We still use Center Parcs. That makes my wallet bleed but I’ve given up looking at term time prices the week before we go. It would mean we never went anywhere.

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

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