How can you stop your British Airways miles expiring?

How do you extend the expiry date of your British Airways miles?

Today I want to take a look at what you can do to stop your BA Avios points (British Airways frequent flyer miles) from expiring.  It is so easy that you would be crazy to let it happen.

Avios is the air miles reward currency used by British Airways Executive Club.  It is also used by other frequent flyer programs (Qatar Airways, Finnair, Iberia and Aer Lingus are just a few).

For every eligible flight with British Airways or its partner airlines you earn a certain number of miles.  You can see your Avios miles balance in your British Airways Executive Club account.

Unfortunately, Avios do not last forever.  In reality, they do – because your Avios shouldn’t be expiring if you are on the ball.

Here is the rule.  If you do not earn, spend, purchase or share at least one Avios every 36 months they will expire. However, if you keep your account active and have any miles earning transaction going through your account every three years, your British Airways points will never expire.

This means that it is very easy to keep your account active as all you need to do is earn or spend at least one Avios point every 36 months.  This is easy even if you are not a regular flyer. British Airways has a lot of partners, including high street brands, to allow you to earn Avios on your daily spending.

It shouldn’t be hard – once every three years – to take a British Airways or a partner flight, credit a hotel stay to BA, credit an Avis or Budget car rental, transfer some points from Heathrow Rewards / American Express Membership Rewards / BPme Rewards / Nectar etc.  Spending Avios also counts as activity on your account.

As a last resort, go to this page of ba.com and buy the minimum possible number of Avios.  This will reset your expiry date for another three years.

In reality, anyone who is even vaguely interested in keeping their British Airways miles balance alive should be able to find a way to earn or spend just one Avios point every three years.  This is enough to keep your British Airways miles from expiring.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 2.5 million monthly page views.  Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios?  Click here to read our latest news stories and click here to join the mailing list for our weekly or daily email newsletters.)

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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:

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. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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.

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.

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.