Avios points: how they work, how to collect them and how to spend them

Your complete guide to collecting and spending Avios by Rob Burgess, founder and editor of frequent flyer website headforpoints.com.

Avios schemes can seem a bit overwhelming, especially when it comes to frequent flyer programmes.

To help out, I've written a beginner's guide to collecting Avios points especially for loveMONEY readers, explaining how you can earn more and spend them most effectively.

Why is there more than one Avios scheme?

Looking at the three different Avios schemes - avios.com, British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus - can be a bit confusing but it's actually not if you think of Avios air miles as a currency with different ways of earning and spending.

The important things to know are:

As they are free to join, and each has different earning and spending opportunities you should join all three schemes
Using the 'Combine My Avios' function, which each site has, you can move Avios points between the three schemes for free as many times as you want
As you can move them around before you redeem, it doesn't matter which scheme your Avios points sit in day to day

How can I collect Avios points?

As it's very rare that you will use Iberia Plus, I will ignore this scheme for the sake of brevity. You can however find out more about Iberia Plus on Head for Points.

Apart from the obvious method of flying with British Airways, popular collection methods with both avios.com and British Airways Executive Club include:

There are also additional ways of earning with British Airways Executive Club. These include:

Avios.com has its own its own online shopping portal and credit card ranges from Lloyds Bank and TSB. Although this is rarely worthwhile, you can also buy Avios points.

Though this is only advised when you are buying the last few you need for a redemption as the price (around 1.6p per point) is far higher than the 1p of value we recommend you target when redeeming.

The avios.com link to buy points is here, the ba.com link is here.

What is the easiest way of earning Avios points?

Credit card sign-up bonuses are the quickest way to earn large chunks of Avios points quickly.

It is easy to earn 20,000 Avios or more from each card you obtain - American Express Gold is FREE for the first year and gets you 20,000 Avios points for signing up, for example if you convert the Membership Rewards points you receive.

See the 'Credit Cards Update' page on Head for Points for full details of the best offers. Tesco Clubcard also offers an easy route to Avios points if you take advantage of their special promotions.

If Tesco is offering 1,000 bonus Clubcard points for ordering £100 of wine, for example, those would convert into 2,400 bonus Avios points. You can find out more on maximising your Tesco Clubcards on our sister website Shopper Points.

Collect 1 Avios on almost every £1 you spend on the TSB Avios American Express Credit Card

How many Avios points do I earn when flying with British Airways?

You earn 0.25 Avios per mile flown for economy flights, with a minimum of 125 per flight. In higher classes and for having a Bronze, Silver or Gold BA Executive Club card you earn substantially more.

Flights on other oneworld partner airlines, such as Qantas will earn at similar levels.

If we're honest, unless you are flying on business class tickets you are unlikely to earn the majority of your Avios from flying.

At just 0.25 Avios per mile flown on a cheap economy trip, you will probably earn more points from paying for your ticket with a British Airways credit card than you get from the actual flight.

What are Avios points worth?

You can find a long article on what Avios points are 'worth' when redeeming for British Airways long-haul premium flights on this page of the Head for Points website.

If you aim to get at least 1p per point of value then you won't go wrong. Non-flight redemptions are poorer value for money.

In general, you will get 0.5p per Avios of value when redeeming for non-flight items.

Collect 1 Avios on almost every £1 you spend on the TSB Avios American Express Credit Card

What is best use of Avios points?

Redeeming for long-haul Business Class or First Class flights will generally get you the highest 'pence per Avios' value for your air miles.

However, if you don't earn enough points for this, redeeming for BA European flights will usually get you over 1p per Avios of value.

At the end of the day, the best redemption is the one that gets you something you really want! Who cares if flights to Moscow represent great value for the Avios required if you really want to visit Dubai?

Long-haul Economy Class flights often represent poor value due to the taxes imposed.

Redeeming for them only makes sense occasionally in peak season.

How many Avios do I need for a flight?

Flight redemptions start at just 4,000 Avios. This will get you a one-way ticket in Economy to Amsterdam, Paris etc on an off-peak date. This ba.com page explains the amount of Avios needed for different flights.

13,000 Avios (the cheapest long-haul Economy redemption) will get you a one-way seat in economy on BA to the Middle East or India. Premium Economy (World Traveller Plus) seats cost 2x Economy points.

Business Class is 3x and First Class is 4x. Domestic connections to or from London do not require any additional Avios points when redeeming for a long-haul flight.

There is an 'Avios Calculator' on ba.com which shows you how many points are required for any particular flight.

Get 18,500 miles with your first card purchase on the Virgin Atlantic Black Credit Card

Is it easy to find Avios seats when I want them?

That depends. As a single traveller or a couple without children you won't have too much difficulty, although flexibility is always helpful.

You will find it a lot harder if you want tickets for a family of four to a peak holiday destination over Summer, Easter or Christmas.

It is worthwhile spending some time looking at how easy it is to find seats on routes you would fly before committing yourself.

British Airways lets you search for Avios availability at ba.com even if your account has no Avios in it.

Which airlines can I redeem on? Just to make things even more complicated, each of the three Avios schemes has different airline partners.

A full list of the 37 (!) airlines which let you redeem Avios points can be found here. avios.com lets you redeem for BA and Iberia. It also offers seats on Air Malta, Flybe, Monarch and Aurigny - you cannot book these four airlines at ba.com.

British Airways Executive Club lets you redeem for all 15 airlines in the oneworld alliance plus Aer Lingus, Comair (South Africa) and Alaska Airways. Iberia Plus lets you redeem for all 15 airlines in the oneworld alliance plus Vueling, Royal Air Maroc, Iberia Express and others which you cannot book at ba.com.

How can I minimise the taxes when I fly?

There are ways around high surcharges BA imposes on long-haul Avios airmiles redemptions (around £350 per person, return in Economy and £500 in World Traveller Plus, Business and First).

Head for Points published a 17-part series 'Avios Redemption University' articles to learn how to reduce your taxes to as little as £75 for long-haul flights.

You can save substantial sums by redeeming Avios on airlines such as Aer Lingus, airberlin or Iberia instead of British Airways.

Redemptions in Europe have their taxes capped at £35 for Economy flights via the 'Reward Flight Saver' scheme which is why these Avios flights are often great value.

Get 18,500 miles with your first card purchase on the Virgin Atlantic Black Credit Card

How early can I book Avios redemption flights?

All BA flights open for booking at 355 days prior to departure, between midnight and 1am.

British Airways guarantees to make at least two business class and four economy class seats available on every flight at some point.

There are no guarantees over World Traveller Plus or First Class redemption levels.

Further seats are usually made available from time to time depending on how well the flight is selling.

What non-flight redemptions are available?

Avios.com has quite a few options. These include Eurostar tickets, ferry tickets, sports tickets, Disneyland packages and attraction and theme park tickets.

British Airways Executive Club has only a limited choice of non-flight redemptions, mainly wine, hotels and car hire.

You can use 'Combine My Avios' to move your Avios points to whichever scheme has the redemption you want.

What are tier points?

When you fly with British Airways and credit your flight to British Airways Executive Club, you earn tier points as well as Avios points.

Earn enough tier points and you will receive a Gold, Silver or Bronze Executive Club card with special privileges.

Tier points cannot be exchanged for additional Avios points and vice versa.

Can I turn my Virgin Atlantic / American Airlines / other air miles into Avios points?

No. (There is actually a way of converting Virgin Flying Club miles to Avios, but it is pretty poor value.) If you have points in another airline scheme to use up, I would recommend trying to combine them with an Avios redemption via two one-way redemptions.

For example, as both BA and Virgin fly to Dubai, you could build up your Virgin miles so that you have just enough for a one-way redemption to Dubai on Virgin Atlantic.

You could then use Avios points to fly back on British Airways.

Get 18,500 miles with your first card purchase on the Virgin Atlantic Black Credit Card

Can I combine my Avios points with other family members?

Yes you can by getting a Household Account both British Airways Executive Club and avios.com offer. You can learn more in this Head for Points article here.

Do Avios points expire?

It is highly unlikely that this will happen as there has to be absolutely no activity on your account for three years in order for your Avios to expire.

That won't happen to you!

You will find new articles on Head for Points every day, featuring ways to make the most of your miles and points, either by earning more or spending them more effectively.