Which Avios airline should you credit your oneworld business class flight to?

Before the launch of The British Airways Club, the majority of HfP readers would have credited their business class flights with BA or other oneworld airlines to a British Airways Executive Club account.

Status was relatively easy to earn and there is value to having oneworld status with your ‘home’ airline rather than another alliance member.

Many readers have now given up trying to earn status due to the new tier point requirements. For these people, the only thing that matters when considering where to credit a flight is ‘How many Avios can I get?’.

There are five long-haul carriers which let you collect Avios:

• Aer Lingus via AerClub (not in the oneworld alliance)
• British Airways via The British Airways Club
• Finnair via Finnair Plus
• Iberia in Iberia Club
• Qatar Airways via Qatar Airways Privilege Club

You can credit ANY oneworld flight to a BA, Iberia, Finnair or Qatar Airways Avios account. Only British Airways and American Airlines flights can be credited to AerClub – no other oneworld alliance airline is a partner.

Here’s the key thing you need to know. Each of these frequent flyer programmes has its own Avios earning chart, so exactly the same flight can earn you a different number of Avios depending on where you choose to credit it.

You can then use ‘Combine My Avios’ (when it’s working ….) to move the Avios out of Aer Lingus / Finnair / Iberia / Qatar Airways into a British Airways Club account.

Let’s look at some examples of the best places to credit flights to maximise the Avios you will earn.

IMPORTANT: If you book a codeshare flight, eg a flight operated by Qatar Airways but which you book via ba.com and which has a BA flight number, you will normally earn miles based on the policy of the ticketing airline.

In all examples below, the ‘%’ numbers are based on the distance of the flight in miles, based on the Great Circle method.

Example 1:

You are flying British Airways in business class. Where should you credit it to maximise your Avios?

Remember that the ‘per £’ numbers are based on the NET fare after external taxes and charges are excluded, but including seat selection and additional luggage payments. If the fare value is not clear (eg it is part of a package holiday) then a distance-based model will be used.

The earning rate in The British Airways Club can increase to a maximum of 9 Avios / £1 based on your British Airways Club status.

The earning rate in Iberia Club can increase to a maximum of 10 Avios / £1 based on your Iberia Club status.

Example 2:

You are flying Qatar Airways in business class. Where should you credit it to maximise your Avios?

The British Airways Club guarantees that you will earn at least 300 Avios when you credit a Qatar Airways flight.

Elite members of Qatar Airways Privilege Club will, when crediting to Qatar Airways, receive a status bonus of up to 100% of base miles flown. A top tier Platinum member in ‘P’ class would earn (75% + 100% status bonus) 175% of miles flown.

Example 3:

You are flying Finnair in business class. Where should you credit it to maximise your Avios?

Remember that the ‘per €’ numbers are based on the NET fare after external taxes and charges are excluded. If the fare value is not clear (eg it is part of a package holiday) then a distance-based model will be used.

The British Airways Club guarantees that you will earn at least 500 Avios when you credit a Finnair flight. If you have elite status in The British Airways Club, you will earn a status bonus on Finnair flights of 10% to 25% of miles flown.

The earning rate in Finnair Plus can increase to a maximum of 10 Avios/€1 based on your Finnair Plus status.

Iberia Club has a guaranteed minimum earning rate for Finnair flights. In business class, this is set at 1,250 Avios for J / C / D and 750 Avios for R / I sub-classes. If you have elite status in Iberia Club, you will earn a status bonus on Finnair flights of 10% to 25% of miles flown.

Example 4:

You are flying Iberia in business class. Where should you credit it to maximise your Avios?

Remember that the ‘per €’ numbers are based on the NET fare after external taxes and charges are excluded. If the fare value is not clear (eg it is part of a package holiday) then a distance-based model will be used.

The earning rate in The British Airways Club can increase to a maximum of 9 Avios / €1 based on your British Airways Club status. Iberia flights to Latin America earn at a higher rate when credited to The British Airways Club, ranging from 7 to 11 Avios / €1.

The earning rate in Iberia Club can increase to a maximum of 9 Avios / €1 based on your Iberia Club status. Iberia flights to Latin America earn at a higher rate when credited to Iberia Club, ranging from 7 to 11 Avios / €1.

What about other oneworld airlines?

This article could have been 5x as long, of course. There are 15 airlines in the oneworld airline alliance and flights from all of them can be credited to British Airways, Finnair, Iberia or Qatar Airways accounts.

There are also non-alliance partners such as LATAM which can be credited to more than one of the Avios frequent flyer programmes.

You will need to do a similar exercise for those airlines to see which Avios scheme is the most lucrative.

What I hope you take from this article is that, even though you ultimately intend to have the Avios from your flight in your BA Club account, you shouldn’t necessarily credit the flight to BA if you aren’t chasing status.

Finnair, Iberia, Qatar Airways or (for BA and AA flights) Aer Lingus accounts may be more lucrative. You can move the Avios to your BA account later.

Hat-tip to Indian site PointsMath for the inspiration.