How to transfer 54,000 Avios per year to someone
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We ran a long article yesterday on the discovery that British Airways has slashed the cost of transferring Avios from one person to another to just £15.
Given that you previously had to pay a crazy £175 to transfer the annual cap of 27,000 Avios to another person – even though no new Avios were being created – this is a genuine improvement.
There was one snag though …. what happens if you want to transfer more than 27,000 Avios to the same person in this calendar year? As it is only 11th January you have a long time to wait until the annual cap resets.
Good news! As Inside Flyer pointed out yesterday, Iberia Plus has adopted the same fees for transferring Avios. For just £15 you can move up to 27,000 Avios from one Iberia Plus account to another.
Let’s assume that you have maxed out on sending 27,000 Avios in 2023 to a certain person. This is how you send another 27,000:
- open an account with Iberia Plus – ensure that ALL details match your BA account (name, address, email, date of birth) or you won’t be able to make transfers
- activate the account by earning 1 Avios in it, or wait 90 days – your choice (the easiest option is to transfer 1,000 American Express Membership Rewards points into your new Iberia Plus account). The account is blocked from making transfers until there is some activity on it.
- use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move up to 27,000 Avios from your British Airways Executive Club account into your new Iberia Plus account
- use ‘Share Avios’ at Iberia Plus to send up to 27,000 Avios to whoever you want to share with, for a flat £15 fee
- the recipient – who obviously needs their own, activated, Iberia Plus account – can then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them from Iberia Plus to their British Airways Executive Club account
This is obviously a bit of a faff if one of the two parties doesn’t already have an activated Iberia Plus account,. For those of you who do – and I have long advocated having an activated Iberia Plus account just in case any good Avios redemption offers come along – it’s an easy process.
Plan B would be use a third party with a British Airways account. You transfer 27,000 Avios to Person A and 27,000 Avios to Person B, all from your BA account. You then give Person B £15 to cover their fee to move their 27,000 Avios to Person A, giving Person A a total of 54,000 transferred Avios for a total outlay of £45.
How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (March 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 Mastercard
Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review
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 £12,000 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.
Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa
Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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.
SPECIAL OFFER: You receive a huge 120,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply for American Express Business Platinum by 9th April 2024. You receive 80,000 points for spending £12,000 within 90 days and a further 40,000 points if you retain the card for 14 months. Click here to apply.
SPECIAL OFFER: You receive 60,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply for American Express Business Gold by 9th April 2024. Remember that the card is FREE for the first year. You receive 40,000 points for spending £6,000 within 90 days and a further 20,000 points if you retain the card for 14 months. Click here to apply.
American Express Business Platinum
Crazy 120,000 points bonus (to 9th April) and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review
American Express Business Gold
Huge 60,000 points sign-up bonus (until 9th April) 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.
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