Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

How to earn Avios when you fly United Airlines, a member of Star Alliance

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As there are six separate Avios loyalty schemes – British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, Aer Lingus AerClub, Vueling Club, Qatar Airways Privilege Club and Finnair Plus – which each have their own partners, you would expect some oddities to turn up.

This is one of the biggest ones.  Bizarrely, Aer Lingus AerClub lets you earn Avios when flying United Airlines, which is a member of the competing Star Alliance.

United Airlines of the US is a long-standing Aer Lingus partner.   Under the old Gold Circle loyalty programme – before Aer Lingus was bought by IAG – it was possible to credit United Airlines flights to Aer Lingus.

Earn Avios flying United Airlines

To be honest, I was expecting this feature to go away when IAG bought Aer Lingus, closed the Gold Circle scheme, launched AerClub and adopted Avios.  I was wrong. It has even survived Aer Lingus and United ending their codeshare agreement in 2023.

Now that British Airways tier points are, for many, no longer important, earning Avios by flying on United Airlines becomes more interesting.

United Airlines remains an Avios earning partner

As you can see from this page of the Aer Lingus website, United Airlines remains a partner.  

You can earn Avios points in AerClub when you credit United Airlines flights at the following rates (click to enlarge):

The % figures are based on the number of miles flown.

With British Airways now basing Avios earning on the cost of your flight (from 6 Avios per £1, based on the net cost excluding taxes and charges) it may be a better deal to fly United Airlines to maximise Avios earned. You won’t earn any British Airways Club tier points but that won’t matter for many people once the new thresholds come into play in April.

You cannot use a British Airways Executive Club number.  You need to join AerClub and move the Avios across to BA via ‘Combine My Avios’. We explain how ‘Combine My Avios’ works here.

Where can you fly with United Airlines from the UK?

Here is the current direct schedule for Winter 2024 which runs until the end of March. Other destinations in the US, Canada etc are available with connections on United or partner carriers.

London Heathrow

  • New York/Newark – 7x daily
  • Washington/Dulles – 2x daily
  • Chicago O’Hare – 2x daily
  • San Francisco – 2x daily
  • Houston – 2x daily
  • Denver – 1x daily
  • Los Angeles – 1x daily

Edinburgh

  • New York/Newark – 1x daily

There will be additional Edinburgh services to Chicago and Washington during the summer season.

From Heathrow these are, of course, routes where British Airways and its partner American Airlines operate too. If United is substantially cheaper, however, it is an option if you still want Avios and are willing to sacrifice tier points. From Edinburgh this is a way to earn Avios to the US on a direct flight.

PS.  It is not possible to redeem Aer Lingus miles for United flights.  This would have been very interesting indeed.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (February 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:

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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits 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

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus 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 (18)

  • daveinitalia says:

    UA will get more attractive when ITA move over to Star Alliance. Anyone who matched to top tier ITA status in one of their numerous status matches probably still have that status to this day because ITA kept extending it. This year though they’ve decided they’ll only extend it if you take at least ONE flight!

    Anyone else get a double nights offer from IHG yesterday by email? It seems a targeted offer.

    • Mike Fish says:

      I got the double nights offer. I’ve registered we’ll see if works on the current stay or I’ll have to wait until Friday.

  • AndrewT says:

    So can we now get more Avios flying with United than BA, or is it not quite that bad?

  • JRC says:

    Need to travel to San Francisco regularly, BA fares look ridiculous (upto £10k in Business), any loopholes to earn tier points from other carriers?

    • Rob says:

      Finnair? Obviously American too. Remember (until 31st March) connecting on the East Coast would double your tier points.

  • Andrew. says:

    EDI-IAD commences 30th March
    EDI-ORD commences 2nd May
    EDI-NYC goes twice daily from 23rd May

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    Is the earning chart right? It’s listing Y as a business class fare bucket. Also odd to see F listed as a non-earning class

    • Rob says:

      It was copied from the Lingus site yesterday ….

      • Barrel for Scraping says:

        I wasn’t saying you’re wrong but maybe someone at EI did or does UA really have such weird fare buckets?

        • Jonathan says:

          wheretocredit.com (I think it’s .com)
          should be able to help with finding out what ticket codes earn how much

  • Adam says:

    Depending on your ticket number, I believe if you purchase through United at least, you will only earn revenue based, waiting for a recent trip to post to confirm, but that is what is stated on the United site.

    • daveinitalia says:

      Yes, United is revenue based except when it’s not possible to determine the underlying fare and then it’s based on miles

  • Peter says:

    If the UA £350 off £700 Amex offer pops up again this will be a very cheap way to earn Avios

  • Jason says:

    I have 10k+ miles in my United account. Can I set up a new AerClub account and transfer these across?

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