Do I earn Avios and tier points if I book British Airways flights via Expedia or Opodo?

Do you earn Avios or tier points if you book British Airways flights via Expedia or Opodo?

Like most airlines, British Airways flights are bookable both on its own website as well as that of flight comparison sites and travel agents. In this article we’ll look at whether you still earn Avios and tier points if you book British Airways flights on third party sites such as Expedia and Opodo.

The good news is that Avios and tier points are awarded based on what you pay for your flight and not on where the ticket was purchased. So, for the exactly same ticket, you would earn the same number of Avios and tier points whether you booked via ba.com or Expedia.

To earn your reward points when booking with a third party, you must make sure your Executive Club number is included on the booking. This can be done at any point prior to the flight with ‘Manage My Booking’ on ba.com – the details of which you should have on your flight confirmation email.  You may even be able to add it during the booking process.

If you have forgotten to include your Executive Club number on a recent flight, it is possible to claim back Avios and tier points within a certain time frame as this article explains.

There are still good reasons to book flights at ba.com

Whilst you will still get your Avios and tier points if you book via a third party, it isn’t necessarily recommended.

In most cases the price will be no cheaper, and you may even be charged a booking fee which ba.com would not add.

More importantly, if you book via Expedia or Opodo you do not have a contract with British Airways. Your contract is with the agent. If there are issues with your ticket, British Airways will not speak to you if you booked via an agent. This caused severe problems for travellers during the pandemic as agents struggled to respond to queries or simply refused to deal with them, having drastically cut back on staffing.

The rules are totally different for hotel bookings

To be absolutely clear …. airlines and hotels treat online travel agents such as Expedia and Opodo in entirely different ways.

All airlines, as far as I know, will give you the same frequent flyer miles and status benefits irrespective of where you book. (American Airlines, in late 2024, is planning to stop giving out miles to passengers who book via certain travel agents who do not sign up to certain contractual terms with the airline.)

Hotel chains will NOT give you any loyalty points or status benefits if you book through a third party – you must book direct with the chain to get your rewards and stay credit.

The reason for this is the huge difference in commissions paid.  Airline commissions are now around 1% and British Airways is not too concerned if it has to pay Expedia for processing your booking.  Hotels tend to pay 20%-25% to Expedia and other online travel agents and they will do what they can to encourage you to book direct – including stopping you receiving your points and status benefits.

(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.