British Airways Frequent Flyer Program

The Executive Club is the frequent flyer program of British Airways. There are four levels of membership of this frequent flyer program: Blue, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Just as you earn ‘miles’ in frequent flyer programs of other carriers, you earn ‘Avios’ with British Airways.

There is a different between the Avios points and the Tier Points. The former are for spending on the rewards while the latter is meant for determining levels of membership programs. The numbers of Tier points earned are dependent on route of travel, operating airline, class of travel and type of ticket. Blue is the entry level membership and you do not need any Tier Point for it. For Bronze, Silver and Gold membership, you need 300, 600 and 1500 Tier Points respectively. Alternatively, you can take 25, 50 flights and fly BA at least four times during a year to get the Bronze, Silver or Gold membership respectively.

Earning Avios

Avios can be earned in a number of ways.

Flights is the first important way of earning Avios. If you fly BA or oneworld Alliance members or its codeshare partners or the ones with which it has exclusive agreement, you will earn the Avios. The only flights which are not eligible for earning the Avios are the reward flights and the flights carrying discounted fares.

There are cabin and tier bonuses to be earned as well on the BA flights. While the Bronze level members earn 25% extra Avios, the Silver and the Gold members earn 100% extra avios as tier bonuses. The tier bonus is in addition to cabin bonuses.

Now let us have a look at how many Avios are to be earned while traveling different cabin classes. 100% of flown miles are awarded as Avios for the Economy (discounted as well as full-fare) cabin class. Premium Economy ( W,E,T fare classes) earn 100% of miles flown. Business class of J, C, D, R, I fare classes earns 150% of flown miles. And, First class travel on F, A fare classes earns 200% flown miles.

Hotels is another area where the Avios can be earned. BA is in agreement with the top hotels, hotel chains and resorts around the world for this purpose. 18 top hotels (chains) such as Accor, Carlson Rezidor, FRHI, Global Hotel Alliance, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, InterContinental Hotels Group, Jin Jiang, Langham, Mandarin, Marriott International, Preferred Hotel Group, Protea Hotels, Shangri-La Hotels, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Starwood Hotels and Resort and Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces are some of the main chains which are partners of BA in its FFP.

Car Rentals is another way of earning Avios. BA has tied up with Avis, the car rental company, where you earn 3 Avios per pound spent and a minimum of 500 Avios for booking car for 1-2 days. A minimum 3- day period would see a minimum of 700 Avios earned.

For the people who are booking flights along with holidays on BA, if they also take the Avis car rental service, they stand to gain by having to pay less car rental and also by way of earning 2 bonus avios for every 1 pound spent on holidays.

Holidays On booking holidays with BA, you stand to gain even more. You will earn 2 bonus Avios for every 1 pound spent on holidays. This bonus is to be earned when you book flight+hotels or flight+car rentals with British Airways.

Parking is another way of earning the Avios.

• You earn 5 Avios per pound spent on airport car parks.

• Airport hotel stay + parking to give you more savings and 5 Avios per pound spent.

• Valet Parking at Heathrow will earn you up to 250 Avios.

• At other Airports of UK, you will earn 5 Avios per pound spent.

Rail transfers from Heathrow to Central London on Heathrow Express Rail will earn you 100 and 200 Avios for standard and first class journey respectively.

Foreign Currency can also earn you Avios. There are two ways in which this can be done.

One way is to make use of American Express and MoneyCorp where you would earn 1 Avios for every pound spent. Second way to make use of Multi-currency Cash Passport where you earn 1 Avios for 1 loaded pound (minimum 50 pound spent).  

Shopping and buying lifestyle products and packages also earns you Avios. Chic Outlet Shopping Villages, Heathrow awards, Dixons Travels (up to 4 Avios per pound spent), High Life Shop (2 Avios for 1 pound),  Business Traveller magazine (400-2000 Avios), AMEX membership rewards, Laithwaite’s Wine, Tesco Clubcard, e-Rewards, RAC vehicle breakdown and recovery services and Shell Driver’s Club.

If you are a wine connoisseur, this way of earning the Avios will definitely be liked by you. The Executive Club wine and other offers will be to your taste.

Buy Avios You can get ahead to buy Avios. you can do it for yourself and also for others. These can be bought online in multiples of 1000 and up to a max of 27000 Avios in a calendar year.

Spending the Avios

You can spend the Avios either independently or together with your household. Here are the avenues which can be used for spending these.

Flights you can make use only of Avios or it along with Money to fly on BA or its partner carriers. The Reward flights are divided into 9 different types of zones and the number of avios to be redeemed are dependent on these zones as well as the 4 cabin class of travel.

Besides the reward flights, you can also upgrade your class of travel using Avios. This is possible on BA, Iberia or American Airlines. You would need 0.5 times of Avios for upgrading Economy to World Traveller Plus and from World Traveller Plus to Club levels. Also, you need 1 times of base Avios for upgrading Economy to Club/Business Class and Club/Business to First Class. For moving from Economy to First Class there is a need of 2 times of base Avios.

Hotels, Car Rentals, Experiences of different nature and buying Wines are some of the other avenues of spending these Avios.