Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Should you be concerned about losing your Avios and Virgin Points to bankruptcy?

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Is there a risk of losing your Avios points and Virgin Flying Club points if the airlines go bankrupt?  And is it even a realistic possibility?

To be honest, this isn’t an article I wanted to write.  However, I am being inundated with emails from readers who are concerned about the value of their points being at risk so it only seems fair to address it.  I hope that my many friends at Avios Group, BA, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Group Loyalty Company take it in good grace.

I have a lot of skin in this game

Let me put my own cards on the table.  AwardWallet (sign up here, it’s free) shows that I am currently sitting on 6.1 million points across my family members.  Assuming 1p per point of value if spent well, this is £60,000 of value which is potentially at risk.

Avios wing 14

In theory I should be concerned.  However, ‘only’ 2.5 million of these are realistically at risk.  I define ‘at risk’ as meaning they are airline miles.

I don’t see ANY risk to my hotel points since the hotel chains are now all asset-lite businesses which own virtually no hotels and employ comparatively few staff.  IHG, for example, reported a 54% operating profit margin in 2019.

It throws off so much cash that it literally has no idea what to do with it.  Since 2014 IHG has given $3.6 billion back to shareholders ON TOP of their usual dividends.  They are going to have a difficult year, and may need to delay any loan repayments due this year, but it won’t get worse than that.  Occupancy rates in China are already looking strong again after lockdown was ended.

I don’t see any risk to American Express Membership Rewards points either.  Amex isn’t going anywhere in a hurry.

That still means, of course, that I have £25,000 of value ‘at risk’.  Should you – can you? – bail out?

I’m not, for clarity.

Avios wing 12

Should you cash out your Avios balance?

No.

The obvious reason is that IAG is sitting on around €9 billion of liquidity.  If things get so bad that IAG goes bankrupt then we will pretty much be at the end of the world as we know it, living in caves, and your Avios will be the least of your worries.

To be fair, I should highlight the fact that British Airways has recently had its debt downgraded to ‘junk’ status although this report assumes that IAG would let BA, its biggest operation sink in order to save the rest of the group.  In reality, Virgin Atlantic, Norwegian and easyJet will collapse long before British Airways and, by then, the Government would have no choice but to act.

Let’s be more practical for a minute.

I generally value an Avios at 1p and, as my ‘what is an Avios worth?’ article shows, you should actually do a lot better.

If you want to cash out now in panic, however, you obviously won’t be booking BA flights which is where the best value is usually found.

There are other issues too:

you can’t realistically book partner flights.  It is likely that tickets on, say, Qatar Airways would be cancelled if IAG went bankrupt as Qatar Airways would not be paid.

you can’t realistically book hotels using Avios.  As the hotel won’t be paid until after your stay, your room will almost certainly be cancelled if IAG disappears.

the same goes for ‘experiences’ rewards and Avis car hire rewards

Assuming that you don’t book a hotel on Avios for a stay over the next month, the ONLY easy way to cash out Avios TODAY, with 100% certainty of receiving something, is to order a pile of wine via Laithwaites via this page.  The order is executed immediately and you’ll have the champagne, wine or beer within a couple of days.

It’s a terrible deal though, as is redeeming Avios for hotels or car hire.

You are getting around 0.5p per point, compared to 1p+ if you eventually redeem them for flights in premium cabins.  Redeeming in panic and losing AT LEAST half the value of your points is not smart, especially given the low risk of IAG hitting critical trouble.

Should you cash out your Virgin Flying Club points?

My answer is the same for Virgin Flying Club points, with caveats.  Non-flight redemptions generally come out at under 0.5p per point so you’re losing a lot of value.

There are two caveats here though:

the risk of Virgin Atlantic going bust is substantially higher than with IAG.  It is compounded by the fact that Delta, its minority shareholder, is restricted by European rules in what it can do since it is already at its 49% ownership limit.   The sums required are far beyond what Sir Richard Branson could rustle up.  The Government has just rejected Virgin’s first application for a £500 million bailout.

Virgin Flying Club points don’t have real value until you have enough for a long-haul premium flight.  If you have a few hundred thousand Virgin points then, yes, they are probably worth 1p each.  If you have 20,000 Virgin points, they are certainly not worth £200 because there is no way of using them for a premium redemption.

There is another quirk.  Your Flying Club points are not owned by the airline.  They are owned by Virgin Group Loyalty Company, a standalone business which is jointly owned by Virgin Group and Delta Air Lines.

Does this make your points more or less safe?  It depends on how well capitalised Virgin Group Loyalty Company is.  Does it have enough money in the bank so that it could fund a ‘run’ on redemptions?  I am guessing it doesn’t.  My guess is that it was set up with only a modest cash balance on the basis that – month to month – money coming in from selling points to the airline and other partners would match money spent on redemptions.

The easiest options for emptying your account would be:

1:1 into IHG Rewards Club points (minimum 10,000 points) – gets you 0.4p per mile based on my IHG valuation

2:3 into Hilton Honors points (minimum 10,000 points) – gets you 0.5p per mile based on my 0.33p Hilton valuation

£50 Virgin Group voucher for 12,500 miles – gets you 0.4p per point

There are various hotel and partner flight redemptions too, but as with IAG it is likely that your booking would be cancelled if Virgin Atlantic / Virgin Group Loyalty Company went down as there would be no-one to foot the bill afterwards.

If you want to redeem for any of the above, DO NOT CALL due to long queues.  It is easier to use the SMS text message service on 07481 339184.  Note that it will take a couple of days to get a text reply.  The service operates 24 hours and you MUST reply within 60 minutes of being contacted, even if it is 3am.  Failure to reply in 60 minutes means that your case is closed and you need to restart the process.

Conclusion

I’m not bailing out of my points balances.  I don’t see any realistic risk in the case of Avios / IAG.  Even with Virgin Atlantic, I’m not prepared to take a 50%+ discount on what I should get for my points to liquidate them in a fire sale.

Some people have told me that they might switch to a cashback, hotel or Membership Rewards credit card for the next few months.  I can see the emotional reasoning behind that.

Logically, however, it makes no sense.  The new points you earn are no different from the points you already have.  If you’re unwilling to keep accumulating more airline miles then logically you should bail out of your current balances too.  Similarly, if you happy to keep your Avios and Virgin Flying Club points where they are, you should be happy to keep on earning a few more via your cards.

If there is a lesson to learn here, it is one I have been banging on about for years.

Transferable points (ie Amex Membership Rewards, Tesco Clubcard, Heathrow Rewards, HSBC Premier credit card points) are more valuable than non-transferable points (Avios, Virgin points) because you have more options.  1 Amex point is worth MORE than 1 Avios, even though they transfer 1:1, because the Amex points give you a lot more flexibility on top.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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

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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 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.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (336)

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

  • Chris says:
    17 Mar17 March 12:11

    Slightly different airmiles question, and I have emailed AAdvantage so if they reply with anything I’ll post it, but I wondered about miles totals expiring during the current flight suspensions. As I have a handful of AAdvantage points I was going to book an overnight in a US hotel in May when I’m out there to stop them expiring, but now that may just be a waste (though possibly a way of stopping them expire).

    Do we know if any of these organisations are planning on amending their expiry rules. (Do apprecaite this isn’t their biggest concern but it could well start to hit more people if it continues).

    • Chabuddy geezy says:
      17 Mar17 March 15:31

      You can earn 5 miles to keep your stash alive by posting on the award wallet blog.

    • Lyn says:
      19 Apr19 April 18:51

      I think I read somewhere that American are temporarily suspending mileage expiration. It could be worth a search or an e-mail to AAdvantage customer service.

      • Lyn says:
        19 Apr19 April 18:52

        Sorry I didn’t read your post properly and see that you had already sent an e-mail to them. Still could be worth a search though.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    17 Mar17 March 12:19

    BA have cancelled the last leg of a CDG-LHR-Denver-LHR-CDG trip. Just arrived at LHR and Paris flight was tomorrow morning.

    Offering to rebook or cancel. What would I get as a cancellation fee. Does 261 apply for a cancellation with less than 24 hours notice?

    • TripRep says:
      17 Mar17 March 13:19

      v unlikely, these are after all exceptional circumstances beyond BA’s control

    • Lady London says:
      17 Mar17 March 17:41

      Duty of care is all you would get i.e. the overnight accommodation needed, relevant
      mealtime food and drink no alcohol, transport costs to and from hotel.

      Defo no compo due extraordinary circ’s

      • Lady London says:
        17 Mar17 March 17:45

        Colin defo take the rebook if you can use it. Any refund likely to be close to zero as most of the value of your ticket has been delivered already I am guessing maybe £30 and maybe less unless BA have a better policy in place.

        Chance of compo is below freezing point. Even if you could almost argue that your particular flight cancellation was commercial (and probably be right), such arguments have been found not to work when there is an overall exceptional circs imperative to cancel flights like yours generally.

    • Lyn says:
      19 Apr19 April 19:11

      Colin, if you want tomorrow’s flight rebooked I think you would need to get that done today, or at least before the flight’s original departure, and it would probably have to be done by phone.

      BA cancelled my short-haul flight for March 31 on an already partly flown itinerary, like yours. It took me so many days to reach them by phone that it was already past that date. They told me that in this situation a cash refund for the last flight was the only option since it was already after the date. In my case this was what I wanted since I don’t know when to reschedule with Schengen entry restrictions. However. I won’t know how much I will get back until I receive it, which they said can take up to 4 weeks.

      • Lyn says:
        19 Apr19 April 19:15

        Sorry, I’ve just looked at the date of your post. I thought this article was from today.

  • Ken says:
    17 Mar17 March 12:32

    “Logically, however, it makes no sense.”

    It makes complete sense.

    The AMEX platinum cash back give between 0.7 and 1.1% return, after fees and before introduction offers, for most spenders.
    You can buy Avios all the time for 1.1p

  • Yan says:
    17 Mar17 March 12:34

    @marcw also as a scientist I found it pointless and frustrating to discuss science (which is also evolving rapidly for this epidemic) on a travel blog. It is their choice to believe in what they want to hear. We are now in an uncharted territory where everyone has to take care of themselves.

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      17 Mar17 March 12:36

      Amex Preferred Gold card upped bonus to 20,000 MR. Limited time period for new card holders.

  • Doug M says:
    17 Mar17 March 12:38

    Surely your final point also relies on Amex, HSBC, HR and Tesco being financially more stable than an airline. It may well be they are, but you’re not removing the risk, just changing it. The flexibility is true of course.

    • Rob says:
      17 Mar17 March 13:01

      They are more stable than an airline though, I don’t think anyone doubts that.

  • Anna says:
    17 Mar17 March 12:44

    Just miraculously got through to You First, CSA said they were having a quiet moment! She was not aware of the removal of the online cancellation facility and agreed it will cause them a lot more work! She tried to cancel my Easter flight to MIA but said that the system was stopping her from doing so and that she would have to send it to another department for a manual refund, so we’ll see what happens with that. Looks as though we’ll have to pay the £35 pp fee but frankly that’s preferable to being stuck with a voucher.
    Now I’ll have to wait and see whether the refund can actually be actioned manually and they don’t bounce a voucher back to me…

    • meta says:
      17 Mar17 March 12:52

      You blinked! 🙁

      FCO now advising against all travel worldwide. Now let’s see what BA does.

      • Anna says:
        17 Mar17 March 13:36

        Hedging my bets, I still have my GCM and AGP flights to cancel yet! Just cancelled my 5 night redemption at the Westin which was the lowest point so far.

    • Lady London says:
      17 Mar17 March 18:01

      The non cancellation thing is probably because they’re still working on revising schedules overall at this point.

  • P says:
    17 Mar17 March 12:46

    Right then.

    Got £10k to sink into a FTSE/similar tracker. I appreciate things may go downhill in the short term but I have the money and willing to park it for the next 10-20 years.

    What’s the best way about this?

    • Sam says:
      17 Mar17 March 13:03

      I have the same
      @shoestring, can you advise please (or anyone else)?

      Which is the best online platform?

      Thanks!

      • Genghis says:
        17 Mar17 March 13:11

        For £10k and to keep things relatively simple, open a Vanguard ISA account and put 88% in FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF (VEVE) and 12% in FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (VFEM).

        @Sam the “best” online platform depends on a number of factors, principally how much you’ve got, how often (and what – OEICS or ETFs) you’ll trade. Have a look at the Monevator comparison table. I use Vanguard for simplicity as I trade once a month across 7 different ETFs / OEICS in a slice and dice to save a few bps.

        • Sam says:
          17 Mar17 March 13:19

          Thanks Genghis! If its 5k, what would be best? The only reason I mention the online platform is because a financial advisor once advised when you are starting out, open a stocks and shares ISA essentially and I think? You can do that via an online platform (Hargresves was a name that came up and AJ Bell from memory). I’m not planning on trading a lot, just somewhere to keep the money (in the process of buying a house atm and even that I’m thinking should I be doing it but I will still have 5-10k comfortably)

        • Genghis says:
          17 Mar17 March 13:26

          For £5k it’s the same advice. If you’re getting up to about £60k and not trading you should be thinking about moving to a fixed fee provider or least running the numbers.

          Tbh though, if you’re moving house I’d keep a bit more cash.

          Our bonuses were paid this week. I’ve upped the amount of cash available in case the worst happens but I’ll be investing once the new ISA year opens.

          • Sam says:
            17 Mar17 March 13:36

            Thanks Genghis. When you say fixed free provider or running the numbers, what do you mean? (Sorry if that is a stupid question). Yes I will be keeping the cash too, although I’m hoping given what is going on exchange and completion doesn’t happen until July or later!

          • Genghis says:
            17 Mar17 March 13:46

            Let’s take some examples:
            1) Vanguard ISA charges 0.15% platform fee + cost of the funds (OCR / trading fees, any spread on the ETF, but that’s the same across all the platforms). So having £10k invested at Vanguard would cost you £15 a year to Vanguard for managing the platform. This includes all trading costs.
            2) Hargreaves Lansdown on shares / ETFs charge 0.45% a year (up to £45) but there’s also trading costs, £11.95 per trade for at ETF say, so you’d be paying a hell of a lot more on £10k.
            3) Someone like iWeb (owned by LBG) charge £25 set up + £5 a trade.
            Hopefully you can see that how you much you invest, how you trade and what you trade affects what you pay.

          • Genghis says:
            17 Mar17 March 13:46

            OCR = OCF, not sure where that came from

          • Sam says:
            17 Mar17 March 14:05

            Thanks Genghis!

        • Novice says:
          17 Mar17 March 15:38

          Too late…

          Went on a buying spree; tesla, Amazon, any company we need in the future…

          • Novice says:
            17 Mar17 March 16:47

            Thanks Genghis…

            I’m hoping the fact I’m young early 30s is gonna mean in the long-term with my buying sprees.

            I personally don’t wait for a bottom as I have a bit experience due to Economics/business degree and the fact I have been trading since a teenager.

            I’m a writer though so it’s mainly a hobby. I enjoy the thrill.

          • Genghis says:
            17 Mar17 March 17:17

            Fair enough. IMO good investing is boring. It’s about doing the same thing month after month and staying the course. No thrills in the investing I do

          • The Savage Squirrel says:
            17 Mar17 March 19:30

            I’m with Genghis.

            I know I can’t call the market bottom – but I’m quite happy to drip feed money into boring Vanguard tracker funds over the next several months and have alraedy started – so I’ll get plenty of money in AROUND the bottom. If it turns out it already hit the bottom then I got my first payment pretty much perfect and am now drip-feeding into a cheaper but rising market; that’s fine too.

    • bill says:
      17 Mar17 March 13:24

      i was wondering about the same / similar.
      is it a good time to buy airline shares for long term investment – eg: 1 – 5 years – easyjet or iag

    • the_real_a says:
      17 Mar17 March 14:13

      Cost price average. Drip feed over – say 12 months. No-one knows how the markets will go.

      • bill says:
        17 Mar17 March 14:28

        ok, thanks. im not in finance !

        • RedEyeDonkey says:
          17 Mar17 March 15:56

          Yeah I started averaging in already – obviously slightly too early given news that followed but you can never know the perfect bottom to buy or the perfect top to sell so averaging in and out of positions is the way to go and with diversification – invest in travel stocks/airlines/airport owners all sorts not just one airline as if it does go pop/does get nationalised etc you could have gone too ‘all in’ on one thing. Of course it might be a terrible decision and travel stocks might never go much above what you buy at in 3-5 years time vs now – but I’m just saying what I’m doing… averaging in and keeping it spread out with ones I think have the best shot of surviving which I assume means having a bigger slice of the pie when all is said and done.

          • Novice says:
            17 Mar17 March 16:51

            Yes I agree.

            But if someone were to ask my personal opinion I think if you were investing for long-term, you should be looking a tech firms which are working on the future eg. Google, Amazon and other such companies.

  • Dan says:
    17 Mar17 March 13:17

    OT – Amex has a 20,000 MR point offer for the PRGC

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