Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

How to maximise your Avios from flights if British Airways tier points no longer matter

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Since British Airways announced its new tier point structure, which will make it impossible for many of our readers to retain status, we have had many emails and comments asking us where flights should be credited to earn status more easily.

We’ll come to that over the upcoming weeks, but I think there is something that hasn’t been looked at.

If BA tier points no longer matter to you, you can credit your British Airways and oneworld flights to BA or Finnair or Iberia or Qatar Airways or (flying BA or American) Aer Lingus. All of these schemes earn Avios and all let you transfer them to your British Airways account.

You should no longer be crediting flights to British Airways Club by default.

How to maximise Avios from flights if BA tier points no longer matter

If you thought that you would earn the same number of Avios for a flight irrespective of whether you credited it to BA, Finnair, Iberia or Qatar Airways, you’d be wrong.

We never spent much time discussing this in the past because:

  • most people also wanted to earn British Airways tier points (no longer true) and
  • many people had BA status and would usually earn an Avios status bonus, making BA the clear best choice (soon to no longer be true)

Let’s look at three examples:

Maximising Avios from a long-haul business class flight on BA

Surely a BA flight will be most lucrative when credited to British Airways Club? Not necessarily.

Here’s what you get, assuming you have NO elite status with any of the programmes listed:

Sub-class J / C / D (flexible and semi-flexible):

  • British Airways: 6 Avios per £1 on base fare
  • Aer Lingus: 250% of miles flown
  • Finnair: 250% of miles flown
  • Iberia: 6 Avios per £1 on base fare
  • Qatar Airways: 125% of miles flown

Sub-class R / I (non refundable):

  • British Airways: 6 Avios per £1 on base fare
  • Aer Lingus: 150% of miles flown
  • Finnair: 150% of miles flown
  • Iberia: 6 Avios per £1 on base fare
  • Qatar Airways: 125% of miles flown

Obviously there is no easy answer as to which is best. However, let’s take Heathrow to Cape Town (12,000 miles return) as an example.

For a cheap R or I-class ticket, Aer Lingus and Finnair will give you (12,000 x 1.5) 18,000 Avios for the trip.

Your BA flight would need to cost more than £3,000 + taxes and charges, so roughly £3,500, before crediting to British Airways Club was a better deal.

Spend under £3,500 return and crediting to Aer Lingus or Finnair will maximise your Avios.

How to maximise Avios from flights if BA tier points no longer matter

Maximising Avios from a long-haul business class flight on Iberia

Let’s try the same thing with an Iberia business class flight. Where should you credit that?

Here’s what you get, assuming you have NO elite status with any of the programmes listed:

Sub-class J / C / D (flexible and semi-flexible):

  • British Airways: 5 Avios per €1 on base fare
  • Finnair: 250% of miles flown
  • Iberia: 5 Avios per €1 on base fare
  • Qatar Airways: 125% of miles flown

Sub-class R / I (non refundable):

  • British Airways: 5 Avios per €1 on base fare
  • Finnair: 150% of miles flown
  • Iberia: 5 Avios per €1 on base fare
  • Qatar Airways: 125% of miles flown

As with the BA example, the best option will depend on how much you paid for your ticket. If it wasn’t much, Finnair is likely to give you the most Avios.

For a more expensive trip, British Airways or Iberia – at 5 Avios per €1 – will be your best bet.

How to maximise Avios from flights if BA tier points no longer matter

Maximising Avios from a long-haul business class flight on Qatar Airways

Here’s a slightly different example. This is how many Avios you earn, assuming you have NO elite status, when you fly business class on Qatar Airways:

Sub-class C / J:

  • British Airways: 125% of miles flown
  • Finnair: 125% of miles flown
  • Iberia: 125% of miles flown
  • Qatar Airways: 200% of miles flown

Sub-class D / I:

  • British Airways: 125% of miles flown
  • Finnair: 125% of miles flown
  • Iberia: 125% of miles flown
  • Qatar Airways: 175% of miles flown

Sub-class R:

  • British Airways: 125% of miles flown
  • Finnair: 125% of miles flown
  • Iberia: 125% of miles flown
  • Qatar Airways: 125% of miles flown

Sub-class P:

  • British Airways: 75% of miles flown
  • Finnair: 75% of miles flown
  • Iberia: 75% of miles flown
  • Qatar Airways: 75% of miles flown

This example is easier to understand because no-one credits Qatar Airways flights based on what they cost. All four Avios partners who accept Qatar Airways flights (Aer Lingus does not) use a percentage of miles flown.

As you see, for a Qatar Airways business class flight, Qatar Airways Privilege Club will beat the best Avios earn rate elsewhere if you have a flexible business class ticket

For less flexible ticket types, whilst Qatar Airways usually matches the other options, it would be easier to credit directly to British Airways Club to save yourself the hassle of moving the Avios across. However …. crediting a Qatar Airways flight to Qatar Airways Privilege Club also lets you double dip and earn Accor Live Limitless hotel points at the same time. If you collect Accor points, you should always be crediting to Privilege Club.

Conclusion

If British Airways tier points no longer matter to you, it makes sense – for every different oneworld alliance flight you take – to check the earning rate with British Airways Club, Finnair Plus, Iberia Plus and Qatar Airways Privilege Club, plus Aer Lingus if flying BA or American Airlines.

You can then credit your flight to the scheme which will give you the most Avios, using ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them to ba.com if necessary.

Unfortunately there are far too many permutations to draw up a comprehensive list (Royal Jordanian business class flights in J should go to Qatar Airways or Finnair at 150% vs 125% elsewhere, for example, but C or D sub-class should only go to Finnair at 150% vs 125% elsewhere) so you will need to put in the legwork to maximise your Avios.

Useful links

British Airways – Avios earned by partner airline (scroll down to find your carrier)

Aer Lingus – Avios earned when flying BA or AA

Finnair – Avios earned by partner airline (scroll down to find your carrier)

Iberia – Avios earned by partner airline (click the relevant airline icon)

Qatar Airways – Avios earned by partner airline (click ‘oneworld airlines’)

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Category

British Airways and Avios, oneworld alliance partners

Comments (117)

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

  • John says:
    23 Jan23 January 11:20

    Sorry for the dumb question – how do you credit your avios to other airlines?

    • Rob says:
      23 Jan23 January 13:08

      Book at ba.com without logging in, so you will have the option of adding a frequent flyer number, or book as usual whilst logged in and either call BA or use the Royal Air Maroc websites Manage My Booking facility to pull up a BA booking and change the FF number. (ba.com deliberately blocks the functionality to change FF number.)

  • LD27 says:
    23 Jan23 January 13:09

    Slightly off topic. Like most of us, I’ve been researching other OW schemes. Until IBPL follows BAEC awarding of tier points, anyone who flies frequently but doesn’t meet BA cash requirements would be better to credit to IB from April. They still offer status by sectors flown, like BA does at the moment – 25 flights for Plata (BA Bronze) and 50 for Oro (BA silver).

    • LittleNick says:
      23 Jan23 January 13:15

      Yes I tend to agree, it is a bit harder than old BA exec club scheme but that’s hardly unfair, whether they adopt revenue earning remains to be seen, but we’ll know by end of February as they need to give 1 month notice for it to come into effect for April 25 – March 26 period. I doubt they’d change it half way through the year but it’s quite possible it will change for April 26 onwards depending on how the result of BA changes to IAG etc

    • Rob says:
      23 Jan23 January 13:25

      The Iberia announcement has been pushed back (wonder why ….). I am told that there will be a 12 month window here so the changes won’t come in until April 2026 so, for one year, IB could be the answer.

      I’d also be shocked if IB could have thresholds as high as the BA ones given the dynamics of that market.

      • Phil says:
        23 Jan23 January 13:26

        Has there been any more talk of BA announcements or still all up in the air?

        • LittleNick says:
          23 Jan23 January 13:42

          I suspect BA are probably seeing if they can ride out the storm now at this point. They’ll be looking to get away with their changes as much as possible because quite frankly, they could give one iota

          • LittleNick says:
            23 Jan23 January 13:42

            *couldn’t

          • Rob says:
            23 Jan23 January 15:27

            I was with Luis G last night. He said, seriously, that he wants BA to be the best airline in the world. When asked for clarity that he didn’t mean most profitable by margin, he confirmed he meant ‘best’ as in ‘best’. This is the mindset you’re up against.

          • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
            23 Jan23 January 17:54

            If he wants it to be the “best” then he needs to get the cheque book out and make some real improvements in things like the food, cleanliness and staff training in all parts of the company.

            But if he can’t define what it is will make it “the best” then he hasn’t got a hope in making it happen.

      • LD27 says:
        23 Jan23 January 14:45

        Just a QQ. I have booked flights with BA (31 December sadly) outbound in March inbound April. Is there any way to change where they are credited (ie outbound to BA, inbound to IB)? It’s a BAH. I’m unclear how tier points and Avios will be calculated/credited to BA, let alone IB.

        • LittleNick says:
          23 Jan23 January 15:01

          @LD27 If you want the inbound credited to IB you change your FF no after you’ve taken the outbound but before the inbound. How IB credits is based on the fare class/distance table they have for oneworld partners. That’s fairly straightforward.
          How BA then credit your outbound if outbound is before April will be on the current distance/fare class scheme. It would have been more complicated had both flights been after March, and splitting between BA and IB as I don’t know how BA would apportion the amount of TPs to the outbound if that’s a simple 50% or based on % of spend?

        • LittleNick says:
          23 Jan23 January 15:52

          @Rob You probably can’t say much which is fair enough for obvious reasons but tbh I’m not sure how to interpret that as best could really mean anything, on what metric? Best worst loyalty programme? Joke aside, But seriously, best for the consumer? Best value? Best Business Class? BA have a long way to go if any of these are the case and they have a funny way of showing it. I don’t see how certain aspects they could ever be better than their ME parent airline. They just don’t have the funds to do so and nor should they compete with their ME parent on certain metrics, it’s a different market. But what airline CEO is going to say they don’t want one of their airlines to be the best? He still has a duty to deliver best returns to their shareholders first and foremost, if that means trashing their loyalty scheme in pursuit for shareholders then so be it

          • Phil says:
            23 Jan23 January 16:32

            I think ‘best’ was a nebulous term selected by a media team prepper like ‘working people’ and ‘valued customer’

          • Rob says:
            23 Jan23 January 16:40

            Wasn’t in his speech. Was in unscripted Q&A. And it was very clear what he meant.

            He was also very clear that he only had this ambition for BA, not IB etc.

            He is clearly deluded of course 🙂

          • Lady London says:
            26 Jan26 January 01:31

            Has Luis G. flown on a BA plane recently? Like, just like a normal custmer.

            Clearly not.

            I am not looking forward to my BA flight back from Doha. Arriving at my seat to find crumbs and sometimes worse flying in a biohazard suit on BA might make sense.

  • Bervios says:
    23 Jan23 January 16:16

    I think for the average points collector it’s all getting a little bit too silly and hard to
    understand, not really sure it’s worthwhile with these changes.

    • Ed says:
      24 Jan24 January 07:09

      That’s where I am with this. Seems better to swing CC spend to say Marriott and earn points/status on something I know there will be availability, especially during school hols.

  • Barrel for Scraping says:
    23 Jan23 January 19:48

    When I looked at it this morning I thought BA had added an Avios logo to their tailfin on the orders of IAG Loyalty to promote what really matters to IAG

  • Nigel Walsh says:
    23 Jan23 January 20:25

    I actually just dumped this into ChatGPT and asked it to create a calculator – heres the prompt and outcome – worked a treat. Needs work to make it more robust, but brilliant simple idea –

    https://chatgpt.com/share/6792a545-ea8c-800d-9e93-e7b51b9d2232

    • Chris H says:
      24 Jan24 January 16:32

      I was coming to suggest building an LLM to do just this. It’s an ideal situation – as long as it can be kept up to date with any changes.

  • Vicky says:
    23 Jan23 January 21:56

    From April 1st how are One World tier points calculated and added to a BA Exec’ card when flying on alternative airlines and not BA?
    For example a Qatar flight to say Frankfurt to Delhi stopping at Doha in Club earned x 4 flights and approx 360 Tier points. How will this translate / be added to a BA tier point calculation?

    • Rob says:
      23 Jan23 January 22:32

      % of miles flown, with % based on cabin and ticket flex and whether airline is an Avios issuer.

      Can be as low as 2% for discounted economy.

      • LittleNick says:
        23 Jan23 January 22:47

        Yes % are so low they’ve destroyed partner earning. They need to be about double what they are proposing to be useful

  • Vicky says:
    24 Jan24 January 00:07

    Surely this is going to destory BA’s customer retention?

    • Lady London says:
      26 Jan26 January 01:34

      Only, of the customers BA does not want and won’t run any remedial promotions for.

      Rest assured BA has thought this through.

  • Sevy says:
    24 Jan24 January 14:28

    It would be great if you could do a review of which OW airline we should credit flights to if we want to achieve status with them.

    • Rob says:
      24 Jan24 January 15:00

      We’ll do it before April – we are holding back in case BA decides to make major changes and renders what will be a huge amount of work worthless.

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

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