Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Oman Air’s oneworld alliance entry date is confirmed

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We have been waiting a long time for Oman Air to join the oneworld airline alliance.

This will allow you to redeem (and earn) Avios on Oman Air flights. With British Airways no longer flying to Muscat, and Oman Air offering a high quality product, this is worth a look.

Whilst there has been no media release, various documents sent to travel agents in recent days confirm what I was told by the UK team a couple of months ago and, indeed, had been reported since last year. Oman Air will join oneworld on 30th June.

oman air oneworld alliance joining date

I suspect that a lot of Avios availability will be showing on Day 1, but that it will quickly be snapped up.

We ran two hotel reviews in 2023 after my last visit – the beach resort of Jumeirah Muscat Bay and the mountain resort of Alila Jabal Akhdar. An older review of The Al Bustan Palace, A Ritz Carlton Hotel, is here.

New openings this year have included a Hotel Indigo in the mountains near Alila and a St Regis resort in Muscat.

We will try to do a fresh flight review before the end of the year.


best credit card to use when buying flights

How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (June 2025)

Some UK credit cards offer special bonuses when used for buying flights. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, using one of these cards could sharply increase the credit card points you earn.

Booking flights on any airline?

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card earns double points (2 Membership Rewards points per £1) when used to buy flights directly from an airline website.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. These would convert to 20,000 Avios or various other airline or hotel programmes. The standard earning rate is 1 point per £1.

You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card earns double Avios (3 Avios per £1) when used at ba.com.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Avios. The standard earning rate is 1.5 Avios per £1.

You do not earn bonus Avios if you pay for BA flights on the free British Airways American Express Credit Card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

You can apply here.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

Buying flights on Virgin Atlantic?

Both the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard and the annual fee Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earn double Virgin Points when used at fly.virgin.com.

This means 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 3 Virgin Points per £1 on the paid card.

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points on the free card and 18,000 Virgin Points on the paid card.

You can apply for either of the cards here.

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Comments (41)

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

  • Sussex bantam says:

    I’ve flights on Oman booked with my family for early July so this might be very fortuitous timing. Presumably I can just add our BAEC numbers just before check in ?

  • S13SFC says:

    I’ve a couple of flights booked to BKK via MCT with Oman Air.

    I wonder what they’ll do with my Sinbad points etc.

    • Rhys says:

      Oman Air isn’t joining Avios. It will retain its own programme, but because you can book oneworld redemptions across airlines you’ll be able to redeem Avios.

      • Sussex bantam says:

        Does this mean we can earn avios on Oman ? I’m a little confused !

        • Rob says:

          Yes, if you put a BA account number in your booking (from 1st July).

          Oman Air itself is not adopting Avios though for its own members.

  • Matt says:

    Mixed feelings about this. I’m based in the ME and have been transferring AMEX MR points to Etihad to redeem via their partnership with Oman air for the last few years. Availability even in business class has been wide open whenever I tried to book anything so I’m guessing the glory days are now over for me.

    • David says:

      Have you checked that with Avios you might get more value? Why so pessimistic?

      • Deek says:

        All that avios demand for reward seats coming online, likely to be a lot harder to get seats.

        • kevin86 says:

          Hopefully this won’t encourage the influencer type airheads who usually go somewhere else I won’t name, to go to Oman instead.

  • Iain C says:

    Is there any word on a new higher tier (above Gold) for Sinbad to align with Oneworld Emerald?

    Also, off topic, but The Club status no longer require four flights on BA metal, correct?

  • Birdy says:

    Oman Air London to Muscat flights are already bookable with avios via Qatar. I flew back from Muscat in biz last month for 62,000 avios + £29 and it was very good.

  • Jake says:

    Has it been confirmed avios redemptions will follow the standard BA partner award chart?

    Does anyone know if Oman Air guarantee/ are good at releasing business class seats to partners?

    • Rob says:

      If it doesn’t, book them via Qatar or Finnair instead!

      Oman Air has virtually no partners except Etihad at the moment so we have no idea what will be offered, but clearly – with a very small home market – I doubt they will hold much back.

  • Alan Hunt says:

    Love the idea of an “Escape Lounge” – you enter and have to solve a series of ingenious puzzles with the incentive of potentially missing your flight if you fail! 😉 The could be onto a winner here!

    • David says:

      And you need a crystal worth 200,000 Avios to get the person out? We’re onto a winner.

  • ADS says:

    just looked up StatusMatcher to see if there were any pre OW opportunities …

    but it looks like WY are pretty tight on status matches!

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

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