What is the difference between British Airways Executive Club and Avios?

In this article I want to help you understand the difference between British Airways Executive Club and Avios.

British Airways Executive Club, like many frequent flyer programs, operates in two different ways.

Avios is the reward currency, letting you earn points on your flights with British Airways and purchases with its partners. You can use your Avios for reward flight redemptions or upgrades, or with British Airways’ spending partners which include car rental, insurance, tours and experiences and wine purchases.

Tier points are used for the elite status development program that British Airways offers. They cannot be spent and are only earned on flights with BA and its partners. These tier points determine your status level, from Blue, Bronze and Silver to Gold. Each tier has its own level of benefits, including free lounge access, additional baggage and bonus Avios earning rates.

Are my British Airways tier points and Avios connected?

Your tier points and Avios are not connected. You may hold a very high Avios balance but no tier points, since you might be earning your Avios from spending unrelated to flights, such as via an Avios credit card.

You could also have a lot of tier points but few Avios, if you had recently made a redemption.

British Airways shares Avios as a reward currency with its sister airlines. Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL are all part of the International Airlines Group, IAG. Avios is also used by Qatar Airways and Finnair, even though these are not part of the IAG group.

Despite sharing Avios, each airline operates a different frequent flyer program. Iberia, for example, has a frequent flyer program called Iberia Plus which operates a different elite status program from Executive Club.

Can you move Avios between the different frequent flyer programs?

Yes you can, as this article shows.

You might want to do this because:

• you want to spend them on a particular item which is not available through your ‘home’ program (probably British Airways Executive Club if you’re reading this) – you can only upgrade Finnair flights with Avios, for example, via Finnair Plus

• you have earned some Avios in another program because it is not a BA partner (eg Scandic Hotels only earns Avios in Finnair Plus) and you want to move them across to your main Avios account (probably British Airways Executive Club)

So the difference between British Airways Executive Club and Avios is …..

British Airways Executive Club is the place where members of the British Airways frequent flyer scheme go to see how many Avios and tier points they have, and to spend their Avios with BAEC partners.

Avios is the currency used by British Airways Executive Club – and also used by Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling, LEVEL, Qatar Airways and Finnair.

You can move your points back and forth, instantly and for free, between the various programs.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways 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 2.6 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 sign up for our free weekly or daily email newsletters.)

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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:

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.

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.

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.

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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.