Which 34 airlines can you book with Avios points – with one we’ve never mentioned?
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In this article I want to look at which airlines you can book with Avios points.
You know about British Airways, of course. But there are actually 34 airlines which let you use Avios for some or all of their flights.
The list has got bigger in the last couple of years as Qatar Airways, Finnair and Loganair adopted Avios as their loyalty currency. This means that you can now redeem via a number of Qatar Airways partners which were not already partners with British Airways, Iberia or Aer Lingus, such as Virgin Australia, Garuda Indonesia and JetBlue.
You won’t find the information in this article in one place on any of the Avios websites – iberia.com, ba.com, qatarairways.com, finnair.com etc – but we have pulled it all together for you.
It’s worth noting that – with no publicity – some China Southern flights have recently appeared on ba.com for Avios redemption.
Not all routes seem to be included but, for example, if you search Guangzhou to Bangkok there is availability, albeit only in economy.
Taxes are nominal – Guangzhou to Bangkok, one way, is 12,000 Avios + £13.50 for example for a three hour flight.
What flights can you book with Avios?
I have listed all of the airlines below which accept Avios redemptions.
The airlines marked ‘(BA)’ can be booked on ba.com. This means that the process is the same as booking a redemption flight on British Airways.
An airline marked ‘(AC)’ can be booked via Aer Lingus. You can open an Aer Lingus AerClub account on its website and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ on ba.com to move your points across. Confusingly, you need to select ‘Avios Partners’ in the dropdown menu. Read this article to learn more about the new-ish Aer Lingus reward booking site, launched in 2024.
An airline marked ‘(IB)’ means that you can only book from an Iberia Club account. To transfer to or from an Iberia Club account, the Iberia account must have been open for 90 days and have ‘earned’ at least 1 Avios. The easiest way to ‘earn’ an Avios in Iberia Club is to transfer 1,000 American Express Membership Rewards points.
Vueling (VC) flights can only be booked by Vueling Club. You can open a Vueling Club account on its website and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ on ba.com to move your points across. Confusingly, you need to select ‘Avios Partners’ in the dropdown menu.
When a flight is bookable across multiple websites, it is worth checking each of them to see if there is a difference in the Avios and the taxes and charges required.
Whilst there is some alignment (a British Airways flight should be identically priced if you book via BA, Iberia, Finnair or Qatar Airways) this is not the case with all partners. Doing a bit of legwork can pay off.
Some airlines also offer extra availability on their own websites. Iberia has extra availability on its own flights if you book via Iberia Plus. Qatar Airways offers a lot of extra Avios seats – albeit for double points – via its own website.
British Airways offers extra availability for Gold members (in economy) and British Airways American Express 2-4-1 Companion Voucher holders (in business). Aer Lingus will occasionally have better availability via its own site even though ba.com is meant to show the same seats.
Which airlines can you book with Avios points?
The airline list is alphabetical. In brackets, I have added the programmes which let you redeem Avios for that airline:
BA for The British Airways Club
IB for Iberia Club
AC for Aer Lingus AerClub
VC for Vueling Club
QR for Qatar Airways Privilege Club
FI for Finnair Plus
LO for Loganair Loyalty
Some partners can only be booked by telephone via the service centre of the relevant programme, eg Avianca. You cannot necessarily book all routes operated by a particular airline.
Such a confusing article when it comes to Aer Lingus. Refers to EI in the text paragraph, then starts using AC (also Air Canada’s code) in the actual list.
More like a missed opportunity for Rob to educate himself on IATA codes. Any articles involving a bit more depth (such as aircraft models, or IATA codes in this instance) demonstrate that the knowledge/understanding is not there.
Is the best way to book American Airlines domestic to do it through ba.com? I mean there is no way to transfer avios nor Amex points into aa.com?
And that will automatically apply my Gold status.
It’s just that reward flights seem less points on aa.com
AA and BA don’t use the same reward currency. BA will only show availability for the cheapest saver redemption space, so AAdvantage may offer more options.
BA/QR and AY are the best ways. The former is cheapest but more complicated. You can use seats.aero and search AA flights but using Alaska, Qantas,Qatar and it’ll be what BA,qr,ay have at their disposal.
@Rob, if the IB account isn’t at least 2 years old it’s not possible to transfer MR points to the IB account. This is due to newer IB accounts having more digits meaning the Amex account not accepting the account. I guess it would have to be MR to BAC then BAC to IB.
Yes, need to get Rhys to sort that. It’s actually our image but everyone thinks its an offical oneworld one and it keeps turning up on other websites, in conference presentations I attend etc!
Is china southern any good? I am sure I already once asked which Chinese airlines were best and also got an answer from our China expert but I can’t remember what it was 😂
I’m sure they’ll be fine onboard- I did have a good experience with them in business class travelling HKG-CAN (stopover for a few days) and CAN-MEL, but that was a long time ago. Their hub airport has recently been renovated/expanded and it’s a very pleasant place to be regardless of whether you have lounge access.
Not sure whether they, or any other Chinese airlines, are any good in terms of handling IROPS- I suspect they aren’t but maybe I am prejudiced.
Air China, China Eastern and China Southern are really much of a muchness. If you want the fake pally service of BA you are out of luck, but it’s very professional, very comfortable and business class customers are well prioritised including luggage delivery. You generally won’t find alcohol in lounges or onboard for domestic flights.
And yes, the comment re handling of IRROPS is pure Sinophobia.
Come on @JDB, I am sure you can tell there’s a difference between Sinophobia and making generalisations through the heuristic [shortcut] of applying one’s understanding of employee empowerment within organisational cultures operating in certain sociopolitical contexts.
I can recommend China Eastern business class. I did this ICN-PKX. Organised, great service on board, Daxing airport is vast. And relevant here is I earned some VS tier points
Thanks for all your responses. I will make a note now so I don’t forget. I would definitely be interested in using a Chinese carrier if I can find seats. Currently, I need seats for a 2 week trip to Taiwan in November.
Done quite a few long haul and international regional business class flights on China Eastern (and their sibling Shanghai Airlines) and each time they were good flights, with the only exceptions being a very limited IFE library and the lounges F&B offerings were not great. I can say the same for XiamenAir.
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