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You can now link your Nectar and Avios accounts – this is what you need to do

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The Sainsbury’s and British Airways partnership is now up and running.

You can read our coverage of the Nectar and Avios partnership launch here. Our guide to earning Nectar points is here and our guide to spending Nectar points is here.

How can I transfer points between Avios and Nectar?

The website to link your Nectar and British Airways Executive Club accounts is now live.

On ba.com you should go to this page.

How do you earn your 500 bonus Avios and double Nectar points?

This is how the offer works.

You will receive 500 bonus Avios when you transfer 1,600 Nectar points into 1,000 Avios between 25th January and 14th February.

Once you have done this, you also qualify to receive double Nectar base points on all of your Sainsbury’s shopping up to 19th April.

For absolute clarity, you will NOT receive double Nectar base points on your shopping until you have made a transfer from Nectar into Avios.

Note that:

  • the 1,600 Nectar points must be transferred into your Avios account in one go
  • transfers of less than 1,600 Nectar points into Avios will NOT qualify you to earn double points on your Sainsbury’s shopping
  • you do not receive the bonus if you transfer 1,000 Avios into 1,600 Nectar points and then reverse the transaction
  • the 500 bonus Avios may take 28 days to arrive

Linking your accounts is very easy

Click on this page of the British Airways site.

Once you have provided logged in to both accounts, you’re done. It is very easy.

You will see both your balances together.

Once linked, you can make a transfer.

The minimum transfer out of Avios is 250 Avios, which converts to 400 Nectar points. Transfers must be in chunks of 250 Avios.

The minimum transfer out of Nectar is 400 Nectar points, which converts to 250 Avios. Transfers must be in chunks of 400 Nectar points.

Transfers are instantaneous, which is good news.

Do both accounts need to be in my name?

No.

You can link accounts in different surnames together.

I tried linking my Avios account to a Nectar account in a different name to mine and it worked fine.

This would represent a way of transferring Avios for free between two people by linking and unlinking different Nectar accounts – but be careful.

However, you cannot link and unlink an Avios or Nectar account more than four times in a calendar year. Once you have done this, you cannot link the Nectar card back to ANY Avios account, even one to which it has been previously linked. There is a risk that you end up with a Nectar account which cannot be linked to an Avios account again until 1st January 2022.

Auto-conversion is also possible

You can arrange a weekly conversion of your Avios to Nectar points or Nectar points to Avios.

Once activated, a transfer will take place weekly as long as your Avios balance is above 250 or your Nectar balance is above 400. You can choose which direction to auto-convert.

The ‘cap’ figures shown above – 40,000 Nectar points or 25,000 Avios – are the maximum that can be auto-converted per quarter.

There is a cap on what you can transfer

At no point during the launch of this partnership were we told that there was a cap on the number of points you can transfer. It wasn’t in any of the press information and it wasn’t discussed with me verbally.

There is a cap, however. That said, it is not a huge one.

You are restricted to converting a maximum of 80,000 Nectar points or 50,000 Avios per month via manual conversions.

This is not, I admit, a huge restriction although it will disappoint those who immediately planned to turn 1 million unspendable Avios into eBay, Argos or Sainsbury’s credit.

It appears that the 50,000 Avios per month cap on manual conversions is separate to the 25,000 Avios per QUARTER cap on auto-conversion transfers. This means that the average monthly cap out of Avios is actually 58,333 Avios.

As we are close to the end of the month, anyone looking to move as many Avios as possible should ensure that they use up their January allowance ASAP. You will then be able to move a further 50,000 Avios on 1st February.

If you are part of a British Airways Household Account, you can only transfer your own personal Avios. Other members of your Household Account will need to set up their own Nectar accounts.

To find out more

Go to ba.com here and link your accounts. You can make your first transfer immediately and the points will go across instantly.

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, Sainsbury's and Nectar

Comments (231)

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

  • Nick says:
    25 Jan25 January 14:10

    Anyone else actually read the privacy notice that pops up? By linking your accounts you’re basically giving Nectar and AGL permission to share everything they know about you with each other. So Sainsbury’s get access to all your trip data and AGL all your shopping baskets. When you read this you realise why they’re offering a small bonus, it’s worth the cost to them!

    I will be unlinking my accounts as soon as the bonus hits, then only relinking again when I actually want to transfer. Obviously YMMV, but full and permanent sharing freaks me out.

    • Nick says:
      25 Jan25 January 14:12

      For an example of what they can do with it… one of the problems with supermarket data is that if you’re not spending, they don’t know if you’re at a competitor or away from home. So they send bonus offers to tempt you back, but it’s a waste of money if you’re loyal. Well, now they know.

      And Nectar will now know if you’ve previously spent at Tesco, because they’re getting AGL to (legally) tell them. Very very clever.

      • AJA says:
        25 Jan25 January 15:12

        But how does AGL know that you’ve spent at Tesco? AGL does not get access to Amex or any other credit card spend does it? And if you spend in Tesco you won’t earn nectar points as you aren’t spending in Sainsbury’s. So that’s more likely to get Nectar to offer bonus points to incentivise you to spend them. I admit getting your travel data on BA travel is an indicator of when you might not be at home but since you’re likely not to be in the country what does it matter?

        • Nick says:
          25 Jan25 January 15:48

          You clearly haven’t read the policy! Nectar is giving AGL access to your shopping history and customer segmentations – which comes from your Nectar record – in return for access to flight records from BA/AGL. And ok they won’t know about everyone’s Tesco history but they WILL know if you’ve previously converted Tesco CC to Avios because that’s what they’re being told.

          The bit about not being in the country was about how likely it does/doesn’t make them to give you bonus offers. It doesn’t matter, apart from to make it less lucrative for some.

          • AJA says:
            25 Jan25 January 16:31

            Re Tesco CC to Avios all Nectar learns is that you previously spent at Tesco and can potentially make an estimate on how much you may have spent “if” you did auto-convert and transferred all of your Tesco points to Avios. But how does that help them? Chances are BA already told Nectar how successful its tie up with Tesco was when negotiating the deal. Now they get to know by customer if you sign up.

            Aside from that it is a fair bet anyone who transferred any Tesco points to Avios is now likely to send some Nectar points to Avios assuming they sign up to the new deal. Not everyone will.

            Amex knows far more about me than BA does but Tesco learnt that I am a BAEC member and therefore BA customer because I bought items in Tesco and paid on a BA Amex. Likewise Sainsbury’s has known for a long time too as I paid for my shopping on a BA Amex. Admittedly now anyone who signs up and does not have a BA Amex is revealing a bit more about themselves. But that is how loyalty schemes work.

            Not that it makes much difference as the moment you signed up to get the 500 bonus Avios BA will share all it knows about you (if it hasn’t already) in the time period you keep the accounts linked in order to get the bonus.

    • meta says:
      25 Jan25 January 14:12

      Just note that you can only unlink 4 times per year after that it gets blocked.

      • Nick says:
        25 Jan25 January 14:13

        I won’t be redeeming more often than that. I have only one account with each of BA and Nectar, and won’t be scamming my family for extras.

        • Stu N says:
          25 Jan25 January 15:16

          If you had any serious concerns about privacy and use of data then you wouldn’t have a Nectar card in the first place, IMO.

          • Nick says:
            25 Jan25 January 15:50

            It’s the sharing of data that concerns me, not the holding of it in the first place. It’s a slippery slope that would eventually lead to every company knowing everything about you, and I don’t like that. I admit most people won’t care and that’s fine for them, but I do think people should be more aware of what happens to their data in order to give informed consent.

        • The real John says:
          25 Jan25 January 18:26

          My Nectar cards use pseudonyms. I have linked them to the avios accounts of my household members who don’t even live in the UK.

          In past years I only travelled in or out of the UK on BA about 25% of the time, so Nectar won’t know where I am even if I linked my own account.

          Anyway most of us will not be leaving the UK for a while yet.

          Linking only when you want to transfer, every 3 months is also a solution. I think I will keep my accounts linked because my Nectar points have been stolen and I think they are safer in Avios. Previously used to redeem to ebay every time I reached 500.

    • Richmond_Surrey says:
      28 Jan28 January 12:38

      I don’t shop at Sainsbury’s so AGL won’t learn a lot about me. Just that I use Ebay from time to time for small amounts.

  • Simon Williamson says:
    25 Jan25 January 14:28

    Are you able to have 1 nectar account linked to 2 different Exec Club accounts simultaneously? Wondering if I can link my nectar account to both my partners & my own Exec club or can it only be 1 at a time? And would be both bet the bonus 500 avios in each BA account even if the nectar points are coming from 1 account?

  • john says:
    25 Jan25 January 14:29

    This allows me to empty the Avios from my late wife’s account easily!

  • Greg says:
    25 Jan25 January 15:38

    “Oh dear! Something went wrong” says the BA exchange.shopping.ba.com/ website.

    Have received this message twice, having logged out and back in to both Avios and Nectar accounts. It would seem that the conversion from Nectar to Avios is not as smooth as intended.

    Temporary glitch or something more problematic?

    • sam says:
      25 Jan25 January 16:09

      me too! tried 4 times today so far. must be busy.

    • AJA says:
      25 Jan25 January 16:37

      Have you tried using the Nectar app? It was pretty quick to set up this morning although I did get a “oops we have an error” message flash up but it then told me all was well a couple of seconds later!

      When I did the transfer from Nectar to Avios I got a a 6 digit code texted to me which I needed to enter into the app. Transfer was immediate and Avios show up in my BAEC account.

  • Mark M says:
    25 Jan25 January 16:42

    I am already getting double Nectar points via a Sainsburys insurance package. Now I have done this transfer, do you think I will get 2x or 3x points. (I expect 4x Nectar points is too much to hope for!)
    What do you think?

  • SuziQ says:
    25 Jan25 January 16:48

    Quick warning about trying multiple times! I tried 4 times and had the message “oops we have an error” – I now have 4 redemptions and 3 refunds…..! However on the nectar app I have the right balance – phew!
    We have separate exec club numbers and Nectar cards – although the Nectar is one account with 2 linked cards – both work so double bonus!

  • Ed says:
    25 Jan25 January 17:57

    I’ve been through nearly all the comments in here……My wife and I both have BAEC membership, she has Nectar with enough points to transfer 1600 to Avios for the bonus.
    I have zero Nectar points and have just signed up, what would be the quickest (relatively sensible) way to get 1600 Nectar points so I can do the transfer for the bonus too? Ta.

    • The real John says:
      25 Jan25 January 18:27

      Amex transfer

      • Robert says:
        25 Jan25 January 19:45

        I assume this is only worthwhile doing this if you value the 2x bonus points from shopping that the transfer triggers… Otherwise transferring 1600 MR to Nectar gets you 1500 Avios, while you’d get 1600 Avios with a direct transfer from MR.

        • Clara says:
          25 Jan25 January 20:02

          As well as the 2 x points you get the 500 bonus which nets at 400 in this scenario due to the lower conversion rate Amex to Nectar.
          I’m just about to do this, convert from MR to Nectar then on to Avois.
          I’ll also start shopping at Sainsbury’s for some bits so the double points will be nice!

          • Clara says:
            25 Jan25 January 20:05

            Ignore me, I’m double counting the bonus!
            Still the 2 x points will bet me more than 100 avios on my usual shopping habits.

  • The real John says:
    25 Jan25 January 18:31

    It’s a lot smoother than Combine My Avios at least.

    Just went to Sainsburys and didn’t get double points, but I read the T&Cs again and it says they will be credited later.

    • John W says:
      25 Jan25 January 19:35

      I went to Sainsbury also today and did wonder when there was not double points in the nectar app .
      If you have done many shops, how to remember what is due to you ?. keep the reciepts I guess …….

      • AJA says:
        26 Jan26 January 13:09

        The nectar app lists all your transactions by date so it is pretty easy to keep a track of everything from 25 Jan through to 19 April (assuming the initial transaction posts – which in my experience it always has)

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