You no longer earn Avios and British Airways tier points when flying Emirates

One of the ‘things you didn’t know you didn’t know’ about frequent flyer miles was that it has historically been possible to earn Avios and British Airways Executive Club tier points when flying with Emirates.

The reason for this is that Emirates has a codeshare deal on many routes with Qantas.

Qantas was the only oneworld airline where you could earn Avios and BA tier points if you travelled on a codeshare flight operated by a non-oneworld airline.

This was a carve out agreed by British Airways and Qantas from the rules about what flights do and do not qualify.

Under the arrangement, as long as your Emirates flight was booked under a Qantas (QF) flight number and not an Emirates (EK) flight number, you would receive Avios.

I got my wife to try this out back in 2015.  She had to fly to Singapore for a conference and got herself routed London – Dubai – Singapore – Dubai – London.

This is what posted on ba.com (click to enlarge):

As you can see, full long-haul tier points – 560 tier points for the return trip – and Avios were received.  Whilst it states that all four flights were ‘operated by Qantas’, this was not the case.  Three were on Emirates with only QF1 being on a Qantas aircraft.

The rules have now changed

Take a look at this page of ba.com which shows how many Avios and tier points you earn when flying on British Airways and its partner airlines.

Under the Qantas section, the wording has changed. This seems to have happened a couple of months ago.

It now says:

Executive Club Members can collect Avios on:

• Flights marketed and operated by Qantas or Qantas Airlines affiliates under the QF designated code
• Flights marketed by Qantas but operated by Jetstar booked as oneworld fare in L class only
• Flights marketed by Qantas or Qantas Airlines affiliates and operated by Qantas, a Qantas affiliate, British Airways, or another oneworld carrier

The final point used to say that flights operated by “another third party under a codeshare agreement” would count. It doesn’t say that now.

Feedback on Flyertalk suggests that this isn’t an accidental wording change. Tier points and Avios are no longer appearing for the Qantas-coded Emirates services. Some people have managed to get them added by submitting retroactive claims but this may be a mistake by the people who are processing them.

A KLM flight is also impacted

It was also possible to earn Avios and British Airways tier points on one KLM route.

Qantas has a codeshare with KLM on its Amsterdam to Singapore route, and in return KLM codeshares on Qantas services from Singapore to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

If you booked Amsterdam to Singapore on KLM, but using the Qantas flight code, you could credit it to British Airways Executive Club and earn tier points and Avios.

This loophole is also likely to have been closed given the changes to the wording above.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 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.

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.