Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Do the Avios changes make you better or worse off? We run the numbers

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

As we covered extensively here, British Airways has now confirmed the date that Avios earning will move to a revenue based model.

For tickets bought after 18th October, the number of Avios you earn will be driven by what you spend and your British Airways Executive Club status.

This replaces the current system which is driven by your travel class, the distance you fly and your elite status.

There was a lot of debate in our comments about who would be better off and who would lose out.

To put this to bed, we decided to test examples to different cities in different travel classes for different elite status members.

We worked out how many Avios you’d earn if you booked at BA’s cheapest current price. More importantly, we worked out the break even figure where the new scheme becomes more attractive.

The results are all over the place and its hard to say ‘this is good, this is bad’. In general:

  • the break even figure is generally (but not always) higher than any leisure traveller is likely to pay, meaning that leisure travellers will generally lose out
  • Gold members are worse off than Blue, Bronze and Silver members of the Executive Club due to the loss of their 100% status bonus

Our analysis only looks at non-refundable tickets. Ignore what we have published if you travel on fully flexible tickets. Refundable tickets require a separate set of calculations because they earn more Avios under the current structure. This is especially noticeable in economy.

How did we work out our numbers?

  • we did a dummy booking on ba.com to get a fare breakdown, allowing us to remove Air Passenger Duty, airport charges and other taxes and charges which will not earn Avios under the new structure
  • we used the Avios calculator on ba.com to work out how many Avios each route would earn under the current structure – for economy flights, we assumed they were in the cheapest possible ticket bucket which earns 25% of miles flown
  • we calculated the break even point by taking the current number of Avios you would earn and working out (for each elite status level) how much you would need to spend going forward – adjusted for taxes and charges – to earn the same number of Avios
  • we have ignored any Avios you may earn under the new system from paying for seat selection or for excess baggage

Here’s an example of how it works:

  • a flight has taxes and charges of £100
  • this flight currently earns 6,000 Avios if you are a Blue member
  • a Blue member will earn 6 Avios per £1 going forward
  • the breakeven figure is therefore (6,000 Avios / 6 = £1,000 + £100 of taxes added back) £1,100
  • a Blue member would be better off under the new structure if this particular flight cost over £1,100, and worse off if it cost less.

Let’s get into our examples. The first one is a bit ‘wordy’ but the rest are short and sweet:

London to New York

This is a short route with relatively high fares, which means the new structure should work well.

Club World (business)

A quick look at BA’s Low Fare Finder tool shows that return Club World flights to New York are currently selling for between £1,945 to £3,734. (Recent sales have dropped to below £1,300, so this is still relatively high.)

I picked a random date in one of the cheap months and it priced through to £1,981, of which it turns out £299 is government and airport taxes. This leaves £1,682 of eligible Avios-earning spend.

Under the new scheme, you would earn on a £1,981 ticket:

  • 10,092 Avios if you are a Blue member (currently 10,374)
  • 11,774 Avios as Bronze (currently 12,104)
  • 13,456 Avios as Silver (currently 13,832)
  • 15,138 Avios as Gold (currently 17,290)

In order to earn the same number of Avios as under the mileage-based scheme, you would therefore have to spend:

  • £2,028 as a Blue member
  • £2,028 as a Bronze member
  • £2,028 as a Silver member
  • £2,220 as a Gold member

If you would typically pay more than £2,028 to fly to New York in non-refundable Business Class on BA, you will be better off going forward. If you are more likely to be on a £1,299 sale fare, you will lose out.

World Traveller (economy)

Low Fare Finder shows that return economy flights to New York are currently selling for between £360 and £796.

I picked a random date in one of the cheap months and it priced through to £396, of which it turns out £195 is government and airport taxes. That leaves just £201 of the base fare and carrier surcharges as eligible Avios-earning spend.

Under the new scheme, you would earn:

  • 1,206 Avios if you are a Blue member (currently 1,730)
  • 1,407 Avios as Bronze (currently 3,460)
  • 1,608 Avios as Silver (currently 5,188)
  • 1,809 Avios as Gold (currently 8,646)

(The reason that a Gold earns so much at present is because of the status bonus. This gets you 100% of mileage flown, on top of the 25% of mileage flown which you earn in discount economy.)

In order to earn the same number of Avios as under the mileage-based scheme, you would therefore have to spend:

  • £483 as a Blue member
  • £689 as a Bronze member
  • £843 as a Silver member
  • £1,155 as a Gold member

I doubt many leisure travellers spend £843, or £1,155 for Gold, on an economy ticket to New York, which is the point at which they are better off from October.

In the following examples we’ve put the results into a table to save space:

Geneva

Club Europe (business)

The lowest monthly fares in business class are currently between £282 and £368.

Based on a £282 fare, you have £206 of Avios-eligible spend and £76 of taxes and charges.

Status tierAvios earned
(current)
Avios earned
at £282 (future)
Break even cost
Blue1,5001,236£326
Bronze1,7501,442£326
Silver2,0001,648£326
Gold2,5001,854£353

This isn’t bad – £326 to £353 is a relatively low break even figure here for Club Europe and most passengers will therefore be better off going forward.

Euro Traveller (economy)

The lowest hand-baggage-only fares per month are currently between £80 and £122.

Clicking through in one of the cheapest months, the overall Avios-eligible base fare is just £20 whilst taxes and airport charges are £60 from Gatwick.

Status tierAvios earned
(current)
Avios earned
at £80 (future)
Break even cost
Blue250120£101
Bronze500140£131
Silver750160£153
Gold1,250180£198

A Blue members would arguably struggle to pay less than £101 on most dates so would come out ahead. It gets trickier for a Gold who would need to pay over £200 to be better off from October, although there are many dates in the ski season where you can pay far more than this.

Madrid

Club Europe

The lowest BA fares to Madrid in business class are currently £338 return according to Low Fare Finder.

I found a fare for £338 return of which £66 was taxes and airport charges. This leaves £272 as the Avios-eligible portion.

Status tierAvios earned
(current)
Avios earned
at £338 (future)
Break even cost
Blue2,3581,632£459
Bronze2,7521,904£459
Silver3,1442,176£459
Gold3,9302,448£502

As this is a longer route that Geneva, the current distance-based system is proportionately more generous. £459 is a high bar for a leisure traveller to come out better under the new system.

Euro Traveller

In economy, the lowest monthly fares for the year ahead are between £74 and £172 depending on season.

Clicking through, I found a return trip for £72. Only £21 of this is the Avios-earning fare, with the remaining £51 comprising taxes and airport fees.

Status tierAvios earned
(current)
Avios earned
at £72 (future)
Break even cost
Blue394126£116
Bronze788147£163
Silver1,180168£198
Gold1,966189£269

I doubt there are many Gold members paying over £269 for economy flights to Madrid and so coming out ahead in the future. A Blue member, on the other hand, is likely to come out better under the new structure given a break even figure of just £116.

Remember that the ‘current’ figure is for a non-refundable economy ticket. A fully flexible economy ticket currently earns a Gold member 3,144 Avios and the break even point is £400. This is easy to achieve, meaning that such travellers will be better off.

Singapore

Let’s take a look at a very long haul route. BA’s Low Fare Finder tool shows that return Club World flights to Singapore are currently selling for between £3,087 and £4,312. World Traveller Plus / Premium Economy will set you back £1,519 to £2,373.

Club World

In business, the lowest fare for the next 12 months is £3,087 return. This is very high by historic norms, of course.

This includes £292 of taxes and charges, leaving an Avios-earning base fare of £2,795. Let’s see what you earn now and from 18th October if you pay the cheapest possible £3,087 return, and what you’d need to pay to be better off:

Status tierAvios earned
(current)
Avios earned
at £3,087 (future)
Break even cost
Blue20,29216,770£3,674
Bronze23,67419,565£3,674
Silver27,05622,360£3,674
Gold33,82025,155£4,049

Again, a Gold member has the highest break even figure. They would need to spend over £4,049 return on a non-refundable ticket in Club World to Singapore before they were better off under the new earning rates.

£3,674 seems a high break even level for everyone else, but you need to remember that it is impossible to book BA on this route for less than £3,087 at present.

World Traveller Plus (premium economy)

The lowest monthly fare to Singapore currently available in World Traveller Plus is £1,519.

Of this, £292 represents taxes and charges leaving an Avios-eligible base fare of £1,227. Here is what you earn based on paying £1,519 return and the amount you would need to pay to be better off in the future:

Status tierAvios earned
(current)
Avios earned
at £1,519 (future)
Break even cost
Blue13,5287,362£2,546
Bronze16,9108,589£2,707
Silver20,2929,816£2,828
Gold27,05611,043£3,298

Depending on status, you’d need to be paying over £2,546 (Blue) to £3,298 (Gold) for your non-refundable World Traveller Plus ticket to Singapore before you were better off. I doubt there are many people spending this much unless travelling for business.

The break even point would be higher for anyone who travels on flexible World Traveller Plus tickets because such tickets earn more than a non-refundable one under the current structure.

Dubai

Club World

Flight prices to Dubai are remarkably consistent throughout the year, with the lowest monthly fare ranging between £2,413 and £2,429.

I found a flight for £2,412 return, of which you can earn Avios on £2,140. The remaining £272 is taxes and charges.

Status tierAvios earned
(current)
Avios earned
at £2,412 (future)
Break even cost
Blue10,26012,840£1,982
Bronze11,97014,980£1,982
Silver13,68017,120£1,982
Gold17,10019,260£2,172

As a shorter route, Dubai doesn’t earn too highly under the current system. Given that BA’s cheapest ticket is currently £2,412, everyone will be better off – although pre-covid it was common to see BA fares around £1,500 in sale periods.

The break even point would be higher for anyone who would normally travel on a flexible Club World ticket because such a ticket earns more than a non-refundable one under the current structure.

World Traveller

Economy tickets to Dubai are similarly flat across the year, hovering between £502 and £577.

I found a flight for £502 return, of which £334 is the Avios-earning portion and £168 represents taxes and charges.

Status tierAvios earned
(current)
Avios earned
at £502 (future)
Break even cost
Blue1,7102,004£453
Bronze3,4202,338£656
Silver5,1302,672£809
Gold8,5503,006£1,118

A Blue member can’t help but be better off here, given that BA isn’t selling any economy tickets to Dubai for less than the £453 break even point over the next 12 months.

£1,118 is a high bar for a Gold member to spend in non-refundable economy, especially as Lufthansa / SWISS often sell UK to Dubai for £1,299 in business class in sales.

Conclusion

Unsurprisingly when moving from a system driven by distance to one based on cost, people who pay most for their tickets are the big winners.

That said, as the tables above show, it’s not that simple. There are some short routes with high fares where you can’t (at current fare levels) be any worse off under the new structure, which is good news.

In general if you currently pay high fares to fly on short routes, you have a good chance of being better off.

If you currently pay low fares to fly on long routes, you have a good chance of being worse off.

(I’d point out that the fare examples we’ve used above are higher than long term averages, and that BA is not currently running a sale. If we see fares drop back to pre-pandemic levels next year then more people will be worse off under the new structure. We recently saw the return of £1,300 sale pricing in Club World to New York.)

If you are currently a Gold member, you have a higher chance of being worse off due to the loss of your current 100% status bonus.

And remember ….

Don’t forget that:

  • it’s also possible that you could earn more Avios from your hotel or car hire at your destination than from your flight
  • many travellers are more motivated to earn tier points towards Executive Club status than Avios from their flights, and would arguably be happy earning zero Avios as long as their tier points kept flowing
  • you can continue to earn Avios based on distance flown by crediting your flight to Qatar Airways Privilege Club (and transferring them back to BA), by booking via BA Holidays or any sort of package holiday or – for a codeshare flight – booking via another airline

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 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

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.

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

50,000 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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.

Comments (109)

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

  • Paul says:

    I mainly fly to US. If I book with American Airlines and quote my BA Avios number, I assume I receive points under this new BA arrangement? (how much I spent with AA, rather than the distance flown approach).

    • Indy500 says:

      +1

    • Mouse says:

      The article yesterday said the scheme only applies to BA and Iberia flights

      • Rob says:

        Old system (for now, apparently BA does see what you spend on transatlantic AA flights so it may change).

        • Marcw says:

          What about the tier bonus? Will the old ones apply or the new ones?

          • Rob says:

            Old one – the new bonus isn’t a ‘tier bonus’ as such, its just a different rate.

          • Marcw says:

            Right – but the bonus you’ll earn on BA Holidays bookings is different to the current bonuses
            Executive Club Bronze, Silver and Gold members will collect 15%, 30% or 50% extra Avios on top of the base flight award.
            That is my question… Because everything starts with “on bookings where we don’t know the price you’ve paid, we will award you based on distance and cabin. So I wonder if they also reduce the bonus from 18 Oct on flights that are awarded based in distance and cabin.

    • Doug M says:

      It’ll change I bet. People mentioned loss of 261 on the return, but if you book AA out and BA return how will they know how to apportion the cost?

      • Nick says:

        If you book anything under the joint businesses there’s full data sharing of ticket price, fare constructions, and everything needed to apply the same logic. They see it exactly the same as their own tickets, and the pro-ration methodology is standardised across the joint venture so it’s the same for BA/AA as it is if you take two BA flights. So there isn’t much that has to happen before it can be extended. Non-joint venture flights or routes are very different as these don’t have competition clearance to be shared.

        If you want to see how it works get hold of an e-ticket receipt (Finnair website is easiest if you have an Amadeus PNR, or a BA call centre can email you one), it’s easy to work out.

      • baec_newbie says:

        You don’t automatically lose UK261 just because you book with AA. It’s down to the operating carrier – from the UK/EU it makes no difference as it applies regardless. To the UK/EU it applies, regardless of who you book with or under which code, if you fly with a UK/EU airline (i.e. BA).

  • Traveler says:

    It’s nice to do analysis, but why would anyone think that BA is doing this for the benefit of the flying public? The bean counters are continuing to destroy the value proposition.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      Stop with the ‘bean counters’ nonsense

      Walsh and Cruz – who aren’t accountants – did more to destroy the value proposition of BA than any accountant.

      • LittleNick says:

        S.Doyle is an accountant, he is the CEO and therefore ultimately responsible though granted this could have been pushed down from Gallego.

  • Colin says:

    I’d love for BA to comment on this article!

  • Max says:

    It would be interesting to see how many Avios you earn on these routes if crediting to Qatar. And how earning compares with other carriers, eg. Virgin.

    • PlaneSpeaking says:

      +1

      • Mikeact says:

        Earning is only half of it…redeeming for award seats on BA or any other carrier is the other half….and therefore can be very difficult to compare.

  • Scottydogg says:

    Quick off subject question as i can never access the forum.
    The Grain Store in Gatwick South , can you still get the credit in there with the Priority card obtained from having Amex Platinum ?
    Im sure i read somewhere they had stopped it if your PP is from Amex ? i could be getting confused so just wanted to check

    • Niall says:

      There is a daily chat in forums which is better for this. You can still access the grain store. Other restaurant options with PP don’t work with Amex issued cards. Grain store is the exception.

    • Rob says:

      Yes, but only that one plus a cafe in Berlin.

  • bafan says:

    Cutting earnings but I can do the “BA Avios Booster” and get 52000 for $640. Kinda wild.

    • Doug M says:

      BA detaching earning their frequent flyer currency from earning by flying. I don’t think 10 people will change behaviour from this change. I’m definitely worse off, but I’m not sure this is enough to make me change.

    • apbj says:

      Exactly. Better off buying cheaper fares and then buying the Avios separately compared to buying a more expensive ticket. I guess this is partly intentional, to reward the corporate/refundable fare crowd while still allowing some access to Avios for those ‘in the game’.

  • AJA says:

    I think the reality is that BA is not doing this for the benefit of passengers of any status. It is doing it because it is maximising revenue at the same time as trying to reward us less ie doing cost cutting which it is well known for doing.

    BA must have worked out that rewarding those who pay the most on flexible tickets will still cost them less by making the savings from the rest of us that only ever pay for inflexible tickets and take advantage of sales (which despite the lower fares are designed to increase revenue by increasing the number of bums on seats).

    And I think it is targeting Golds who having earned their 1500TP then take advantage of flying economy and using their status to quaff champagne, sorry prosecco, in the Galleries First lounge. I suspect what BA wants is to reduce the numbers of those Golds but increase the number who pay (or their employers) more money to fly with them.

    We can all whinge and complain and say “right that’s it! I’m off!” To airline B C or D.

    But as with all devaluations that have occurred in the past people continue to fly with BA regardless. BA knows this. We know this.

    BA have given us the carrot of earning Avios under the old scheme by booking a BAH. Or fly on another OW carrier ticket and earn more Avios by foregoing the TP needed for status.

  • SonicStar817 says:

    I’ve done my math with my regular routes and unless I’m willing to fork out my life savings to BA, I stand to lose significantly in terms Avios earnings. Its a bit disappointing especially seeing that I was initially planning on going for Gold this collection year (thankfully I had talked myself out of it before the change was announced). I wonder how long it will be before they start messing with Tier Points.

    • Richie says:

      The first clue to ‘messing with TPs’ may be when the double TP offer is enhanced away.

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.