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NEW: Earn Avios on all China Southern flights, not just codeshares

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Since 2019, British Airways has had a Joint Business Agreement with China Southern.

A Joint Business Agreement is stronger than a codeshare agreement. It typically means that:

  • the airlines will co-ordinate their schedules where both fly the same route
  • the airlines will co-ordinate their schedules in order to match longhaul with connecting shorthaul flights
Earn Avios with China Southern
  • the airlines will jointly set pricing on routes where both fly
  • the airlines will jointly share revenue, irrespective of which airline carries the passenger
  • passengers will be able to mix and match airlines on return trips
  • frequent flyer benefits will be fully aligned

China Southern is believed to be heading towards membership of the oneworld airline alliance, but this has not yet been confirmed.

Despite the Joint Business Agreement, it was only possible to earn Avios on China Southern flights if they were booked under a BA flight number. This has now changed.

China Southern flights with a CZ flight number will now earn Avios.

You can see details on the ba.com airline partner page here. The rates run from 25% of miles flown for discounted Economy to 150% of miles flown for First Class.

Note that you will not earn BA tier points on flights booked under a CZ flight code. You will earn tier points on China Southern flights with a BA flight number.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

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

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 £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 – 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.

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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

Comments (57)

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

  • David says:
    6 Apr6 April 09:34

    I imagine everyone not eligible for the offer will get it.

  • Richie says:
    6 Apr6 April 09:43

    I spotted the CZ A380 at LAX a while ago, looks great in reality, would be good to see it at LHR.

    • lumma says:
      6 Apr6 April 10:05

      I don’t think they’d fly the A380 to London. It’s not a big enough market.

      • DeB2020 says:
        6 Apr6 April 10:14

        Actually they did for a while in 2020-21. Managed to take photos of it.

        • lumma says:
          6 Apr6 April 11:08

          Interesting as Air China used to usually fly just A330s on London to Beijing

      • Richie says:
        6 Apr6 April 10:33

        Where are their A380s based?

        • jjoohhnn says:
          6 Apr6 April 11:32

          In the Mojava desert, presumably being scrapped! They are not in the fleet anymore.

    • daftboy says:
      6 Apr6 April 10:30

      Apparently they flew their last A380 flights in November 2022 – so that’s the end of that!

  • Paul says:
    6 Apr6 April 09:54

    The IHG link (and code) didn’t work for me and I’ve no issue with that since I wasn’t targetted.

    “We’re sorry, this offer is not available to you. A list of current offers can be found on the IHG® Rewards Club Offers page. We look forward to having you as a guest.”

  • VALittleRed says:
    6 Apr6 April 11:17

    Not sure how Cathay Pacific management would feel about China Southern joining oneworld?

    • jjoohhnn says:
      6 Apr6 April 11:33

      The talk was that China Southern would replace Cathay.

      • VALittleRed says:
        6 Apr6 April 11:39

        Huh? They can boot a member out of oneworld? Or make it so uncomfortable for Cathay they’d leave? Would personally be quite disappointed if cathay was not in OW

        • jjoohhnn says:
          6 Apr6 April 11:43

          You and all the other T3 visiting BA gold members 😉

          I don’t think they could be kicked out per-se but that was the rumour before about them co-existing. Although this was all pre-covid so who knows now. It could be China Southern become a Oneworld Connect member. That might be more palatable for the co-existence.

          • VALittleRed says:
            6 Apr6 April 12:45

            *Soon to be gold. Not only T3, I actually fly cathay (redemptions/cash) in asia as have family out there. I certainly choose cathay over BA for LHR/HKG route on a cash booking if prices are similar

    • qrfan says:
      6 Apr6 April 12:28

      Airlines seem to put up with a lot of this within an alliance though. RJ and QR co-exist in oneworld. Emirates and Qantas had a very close alliance whilst both Qantas and QR remained in OW. Cathay was a founding member so can’t see them leaving.

      • VALittleRed says:
        6 Apr6 April 12:49

        Fair point. Wouldn’t complain if CZ joined Oneworld as long as Cathay stays

      • QFFlyer says:
        6 Apr6 April 14:22

        The EK/QF tie up is still ongoing, and that’s no different to many partnerships that airlines have with other partners outside of alliances, a bit different to EK joining Oneworld (which I can’t see happening anyway).

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      6 Apr6 April 13:57

      There are lots of airlines that have partnerships outside of their alliances.

      Wasn’t it Ali Baker of QR who said alliances like OW and *A were important but out of alliance partnerships were becoming just as important?

      The BA/EI is outwith OW.

      The AA/B6 partnership is another one as well.

      VS got into bed with DL as a code share partner long before the joint venture and then VS joined sky team.

      CX is a big boy and can make its own decisions about staying in OW or not and if it choose to leave then CZ joining OW would likely be way down the list.

      • QFFlyer says:
        6 Apr6 April 14:25

        I agree with what you’re saying, however there’s usually other reasons. EK/QF is strategic, BA/EI have the same parent, VS/DL involved the latter owning a huge stake in the former. Don’t know enough about AA/B6’s tie up.

        But yes for sure CX doesn’t have to automatically just jump ship because CZ join OW, if indeed that does happen. CX already have regional competition with MH & JL, I don’t see how this would be hugely different.

        • QFFlyer says:
          6 Apr6 April 14:27

          Not to mention LA/JJ’s merger was instrumental in JJ joining Oneworld (same with AA/US), then the merged LA’s tie up with DL was instrumental in them leaving OW altogether.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
          6 Apr6 April 17:12

          I think the BA/EI arrangement predates IAG buying EI and if it was IAG related then surely it would also apply to IB as well.

  • Edwin says:
    6 Apr6 April 11:34

    “China Southern flights with a CZ flight number will now earn Avios.”
    How does it work exactly? When I fly with CZ I need to contact them to get Avios rather than CZ’s points?

    • jjoohhnn says:
      6 Apr6 April 11:44

      Presumably you can put your BA frequent flyer number in the booking instead of CZ.

    • Rob says:
      6 Apr6 April 12:42

      You will have the option of adding your BA number to the booking.

  • Jet says:
    6 Apr6 April 14:32

    Is it possible to redeem avions for CZ flight?

    • Rob says:
      6 Apr6 April 17:39

      Seems not although I would have expected it to launch in parallel.

  • ianM says:
    6 Apr6 April 17:15

    If you’re on a VPN the IHG website likely won’t like that.

  • James says:
    6 Apr6 April 19:45

    Sincere apologies in going off-topic here, but can anyone advise how one takes advantage of the £100 Dell Credit on the AMEX Business Gold card please?

    Is it simply a case of using the Business Gold card to make payment and then a credit of £50 is applied to the card later or is there more to it than this?

    Furthermore, does the transaction have to made on the Dell Business website or can I purchase on the personal website? Currently eyeing up a decent little laptop on special offer on their personal website.

    Many thanks

    • Rob says:
      6 Apr6 April 20:01

      Opt in required I think.

      Yes, spend whatever – personal, business, warehouse all seem ok – and up to £50 is credited back.

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