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Oman Air joins oneworld today – Avios flights may already be bookable

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We have been waiting a long time for this, but Oman Air joins the oneworld airline alliance today.

This means that you can 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.

If you are interested in booking Oman Air to Muscat with Avios, I strongly recommend you do it now. Availability may never be as good as this. With few partners before it joined the alliance, there wasn’t a lot of demand for redemption seats.

(EDIT: the official press release, which arrived at 6am, suggests that benefits are fully available from tomorrow even though it joins today. This may mean that Avios seats don’t appear on ba.com until tomorrow. The comments below suggest that seats ARE bookable now via Qatar Airways Privilege Club.)

Oman Air joins oneworld today - Avios flights may already be bookable

Last time I looked at Oman Air’s availability for its own frequent flyers it was rare to see more than two seats available in business class. You may be out of luck if you are booking for a family.

It isn’t clear how many Avios will be needed. This very old Avios partner chart (click to enlarge):

Oman Air joins oneworld today - Avios flights may already be bookable

…. is still usually accurate for long haul flights even though many partners now deviate from it for short haul. This would imply, given a travel distance of 3,629 miles from Heathrow:

  • 41,500 Avios return in Economy
  • 122,000 Avios return in Business

You CANNOT use a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 Companion Voucher or a Barclays Avios upgrade voucher on Oman Air.

Taxes and charges between Heathrow and Muscat if you book on Oman Air’s own website using its own miles are:

  • £225 return in Economy
  • £391 return in Business

There is no guarantee that British Airways will charge the same amount but it is as good a guide as we can give.

Book Oman Air with Avios

Get a quote via Finnair and Qatar Airways

Finnair and Qatar Airways both use Avios as their frequent flyer currency.

Whilst flights on Finnair, BA and Qatar usually cost the same wherever you book them, there is a lot of divergence when it comes to the Avios and charges cost for partner flights.

We will run the numbers ourselves in the next couple of days, but if you plan to book today it is worth seeing what you would pay if you move your Avios to a Finnair Plus or Qatar Airways Privilege Club account.

Our Oman reviews

There are two flights per day from Heathrow Terminal 4 to Muscat, with a day flight leaving around 8am and an overnight flight leaving around 8pm. Total flying time is just over seven hours.

We were meant to be flying to Muscat tomorrow to celebrate the launch, but obviously the situation in the Middle East made that difficult. It will hopefully be re-arranged, but until then you can take a look at our 2019 review of Oman Air business class on the Boeing 787 fleet.

(Note that, since that review was written, First Class has been decommisioned and turned into a ‘business plus’ product. You can book this for cash but it is very unlikely it will be redeemable for Avios for IT reasons.)

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 can hopefully do some more Oman and Oman Air content if the launch event is rearranged.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (August 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 Card

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

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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 Credit Card

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 points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 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 Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

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

The American Express Business Gold Card

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.

Category

oneworld alliance partners

Comments (28)

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

  • RJ says:
    30 Jun30 June 06:30

    I can’t see anything yet.

    • t0m says:
      30 Jun30 June 07:09

      Yes, pricing on the Qatar web site does look a little “sporty”. 80k in Business from MNL to MCT. Couldn’t find availability yet via BA, Finnair, or AA. Alaska have had availability with Oman for months (the equivalent flight is 60k Alaska Mileage Plan miles).

      • Phillip says:
        30 Jun30 June 07:44

        Sadly, a lot of availability via Alaska over the last six months seems to have evaporated!

  • AJP says:
    30 Jun30 June 06:39

    Anyone had any luck adding BAclub number to an OmanAir booking?

    • JM says:
      30 Jun30 June 12:05

      The OW carriers (including BA) appear in the drop down for adding club numbers, but the system would not accept my BA club number. Maybe more early IT glitches?

    • Charlie says:
      30 Jun30 June 12:57

      By chance, I am in Muscat at the moment. I had an Aeroplan booking combining Oman Air and Gulf Air. Managed to remove Aeroplan number (which often is a struggle to do) and add my BA Gold number. Boarding pass is showing as Emerald. Much slicker than the last time I was here before COVID. Although beers are now £12 per pint. Taxis are inexpensive – especially if you download the OTAXI app – no need for cash. Zero cost visa for 14 days (unlike a couple of other Gulf countries for example). At Muscat airport, remember to find a kiosk to scan your passport for complimentary WiFi before security.

    • 1ATL says:
      1 Jul1 July 02:31

      Numbers can be added without issue as of 01JUL.

  • Ziggy says:
    30 Jun30 June 06:55

    March 13 & 27 2026:
    LHR-MCT via QR in Business Class = 69,000 Avios + £384.32
    MCT-LHR via QR in Business Class = 69,000 Avios + 79OMR (~£142)
    LHR-MCT-LHR via QR in Business Class = 138,000 Avios + £562.02

    • tony says:
      30 Jun30 June 07:02

      I assume you mean booking WY seats on the QR website?

      The issue is that QR only charge 45k Avios (plus money) to go LON-DOH-MCT, so a premium of 50% for the nonstop is quite punchy.

    • John says:
      30 Jun30 June 08:36

      Just as a data point, it was already possible to book WY using QR avios, although there was a comment on here saying that was not meant to happen (which I didn’t quite understand).

      About 8 months ago I paid 20000 avios + £130 for LHR-MCT in Y, as my J flights on Star Alliance suddenly got cancelled exactly 14 days in advance

  • Pointsjunkie says:
    30 Jun30 June 07:46

    I don’t see any Oman seats on the BA website

  • Paul says:
    30 Jun30 June 09:02

    It incredible that despite the time taken to get them on board that for the Finnair Plus scheme at least there is no information on earning rates.

    • AviosTraveller says:
      30 Jun30 June 09:20

      The information is available on Iberia Plus airline partners webpage, including Avios price.

      • John says:
        30 Jun30 June 11:09

        I doubt Iberia tells you how much you will earn when crediting oman to finnair

  • Pogonation says:
    30 Jun30 June 09:50

    All that time to join and AY doesn’t even have a redemption table for them. No availability viewable through BAEC or AA either. Pretty poor start from oneworld airlines.

  • Lady London says:
    30 Jun30 June 12:09

    Don’t hold your breath. Alongside dynamic pricing the other hostile change we’re seeing from lots of airlines is the removal of published award rate charts. Like heaven forbid any provider of a loyalty currency should actually display a reward price commitment they’ll honour.

  • Noman Air says:
    30 Jun30 June 20:04

    Maybe their Customer Service Dept will move up a notch from rock bottom, I have given up on a refund from two years ago after my Business Class flight from KUL was not confirmed.
    Tread carefully folks!!!

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