What Are Avios Points? How Do They Work?
Key Takeaways
Avios is a loyalty scheme: you sign up, buy qualifying products and earn points
You earn Avios points by buying flights, booking hotels, hiring a car and much more
You can spend Avios points on holidays, shopping, upgrades and more
How can I collect Avios points?
Discover how to earn Avios points through flights, shopping, and spending on your credit card.
Avios works just like any loyalty scheme – if you spend money at certain places, you earn points which you can later redeem. They’re best known for being collected – and spent – on flights, but there are many other ways to collect them.
In fact, you could start collecting them without even trying, as long as you shop at the right retailers.
What are Avios points?
Avios is British Airways’ loyalty scheme – a bit like Tesco Clubcard or Sainsbury’s Nectar. Just like those schemes, Avios lets you earn points every time you either book a flight through an eligible airline, spend using an Avios-affiliated credit card, or when you shop at an Avios retail partner.
You can then exchange your Avios points for flights, upgrades, hotel stays, car hire and more.
How do Avios points work?
They work like any other loyalty scheme – you sign up, buy the qualifying goods or services to earn the points, which you can then spend once you have enough of them.
British Airways is the best known airline that uses Avios, but its partner airlines do too – these include Iberia, Aer Lingus, and others within the IAG and Oneworld networks.
How are they different from tier points?
Avios points are collected and then spent, while tier points bring different benefits the next time you fly. Tier points show your progression through an airline’s loyalty scheme.
You collect tier points every time you book a flight with a partner airline, and once you earn enough points, you progress to the next ‘tier’, which will unlock different benefits. These can include lounge access, priority check-in and extra baggage allowance.
The two have different expiration dates, too. Avios points expire if you don’t collect, spend, buy or share at least one Avios point every 36 months (i.e. three years). Tier points expire at the end of each membership year, so if you want to keep those benefits, you’ll have to remain a frequent flyer.
How can I collect Avios points?
There are a few different ways:
You can collect Avios points by booking a flight with British Airways or one of its partner airlines (adding extras like pre-booking your seat, paying for extra baggage and upgrading your seat will also bolster your points – as with all loyalty schemes, the more you spend, the more points you accrue).
You can also earn Avios points by booking a hotel or hiring a car through partner firms. Make sure you sign up to Avios first though – you can do so through the British Airways website.
You can also earn points by shopping with certain retailers through the Avios shopping portal. These include all kinds of brands like Apple, M&S, John Lewis, Sainsbury’s, Travelodge and Boots.
Signing up for an Avios credit card will earn you points every time you spend, regardless of where you’re shopping. And you can get 5,000 bonus Avios points if you spend £2,000 within the first three months on a British Airways American Express credit card.
You can also earn Avios points every time you use Uber, and you can convert points from other reward schemes like BPme, HSBC Credit Card Rewards Programme and RevPoints into Avios points.
Booking a flight
Booking a hotel or hiring a car
Shopping with certain retailers
Any other ways?
How can I spend Avios points?
You can spend your Avios points in a number of ways.
You can book a flight (referred to as a ‘reward flight’) either on British Airways or its Oneworld partners. You will have to pay for the taxes, fees and carrier charges separately, but this can be as little as £1 to Europe or £100 to further afield (plus the Avios points, of course). Don’t have enough for a complete reward flight? Use your Avios points as a partial payment towards the total cost.
You can also put Avios points towards the cost of a holiday package, for car hire, hotels, experiences like tours, or wine. Or you can use Avios points to upgrade your seat next time you fly.
There are other ways to spend them, too. You can spend them in The High Life shop or High Life Cafe, donate to charities through the BA Better World Community Fund, or to pay for your contribution to sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).
You can also transfer Avios points to other reward schemes like Nectar (and vice versa). So if you’ve collected a lot of Avios, you can transfer them to your Nectar account and spend them at Argos, Sainsbury’s, Vue cinemas or anywhere else that takes Nectar points.
Book a flight
Holiday extras
Transfer your points
How much are Avios points worth?
It depends. When redeemed against flights (i.e. used as air miles), they are generally worth about 1p each, but they can be worth up to around 1.5p or as little as 0.5p, depending on where you spend them.
Do Avios points expire?
They do. If you don’t collect, spend, buy or share at least one Avios point every 36 months, yours will expire.
Can I transfer Avios points to someone else?
You can transfer Avios points from your account directly into someone else’s, for them to spend how they see fit. The points will be sent to the recipient’s British Airways Executive Club account instantly. There’s a £50 fee, but transferring is free for Gold members.
Members of a family account can pool their points or share them with other members of the account, including children.
You can also buy Avios points as a gift for someone (like a digital gift card).
What is the best use of Avios points?
Most people use them for reward flights, or to reduce the cost of their next flight, hotel or package holiday. That’s the way to get the most value from them, as they are typically worth around 1p each when used for travel-related transactions.
How do I join a program that uses Avios?
Just head to the Avios site and sign up to the relevant airline’s reward program.
Can I claim Avios points for past flights?
Yes, but you need to do so within six months of the flight. And if you’ve just signed up, you can claim for any flights within the last three months before you joined.
To claim missing points, you’ll need to fill out an online form.
