---

British Airways is the flagship carrier of the United Kingdom and a member of the Oneworld airline alliance. British Airways Executive Club is the loyalty program for the airline, through which members can earn and redeem British Airways Avios for British Airways award flights, and for award flights with partner airlines. The British Airways Executive Club has become a popular loyalty program to invest in due to the many redemption options on partner airlines and the ease of earning points through credit cards and transfer partners. In this guide, we’ll cover everything there is to know about British Airways Executive Club, including the best way to earn Avios and how to get the most out of your Avios redemptions.

---

Earning British Airways Avios

There are many ways to earn British Airways Avios, and in fact, British Airways Executive Club is one of the easiest loyalty programs to access in Canada and the US through credit cards and transfer partners.You can also earn British Airways Avios by flying with British Airways and Oneworld Alliance partners, and by shopping, booking travel, and purchasing Avios directly from British Airways.

Canadian Credit Cards

In Canada, the fastest way to earn Avios is through credit card loyalty programs that allow you to transfer their points currency to the Avios program.There are two available credit card program options: American Express Membership Rewards and RBC Avion Rewards.Points from both programs can be transferred to British Airways Executive Club at a rate of 1 point = 1 Avios.Additionally, there are frequent transfer bonuses, especially from the RBC Avion Rewards program. These bonuses can be anywhere from 10–50%; though, a 30% transfer bonus is the most common.For earning American Express Membership Rewards points, there are many credit cards that allow you to build up a healthy balance in a short amount of time.You can fasttrack your way to a large points balance with welcome bonuses, and then continue to pad your balance by spending on cards with category multipliers.The RBC Avion program also has a solid lineup of Avion-earning credit cards. The most popular card is the RBC® Avion Visa Infinite†, which consistently offers a welcome bonus of between 35,000–55,000 Avion points.A welcome bonus of 55,000 RBC Avion points could be converted to 71,500 British Airways Avios if transferred during one of the many 30% transfer bonus periods.RBC also offers the RBC® British Airways Visa Infinite† Card. You’ll earn Avios through the card’s welcome bonus and through everyday spending.The welcome bonus for this card has consistently been around 50,000 Avios, with an additional 10,000 points upon card renewal for a second year.The RBC® British Airways Visa Infinite† Card offers the following earning rates:

• 2 Avios per dollar spent† on British Airways flights and vacations
• 1 Avios per dollar spent† on all other purchases

US Credit Cards

In the United States, British Airways Executive Club is a transfer partner with the following transferable points currencies at a 1:1 ratio:

• American Express US Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Capital One Miles
• Chase Ultimate Rewards

What’s more, Chase offers the co-branded British Airways Visa Signature Card which typically comes with a welcome bonus of up to 75,000 Avios.With this card, you’ll also earn Avios on purchases at the following rates:

• 3 Avios per dollar spent (USD) on British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia flights
• 2 Avios per dollar spent (USD) on hotel accommodations booked directly with the hotel
• 1 Avios per dollar spent (USD) on all other eligible purchases

Keep in mind that it’s also possible to earn more Avios on your day-to-day expenses by using an American Express, Capital One, Chase, or Bilt card with their higher category multipliers, and then transferring points over to British Airways Executive Club.Similar to Canada, there are often promotions in the US through which you can get an extra 30–50% when you transfer other loyalty program points to Avios.These bonus offers tend to come around a few times a year, and if you’ve got your eye on a redemption from your Executive Club account, it’s a great way to maximize your account balance.

Flying with British Airways and Partner Airlines

You can earn Avios by crediting any paid flights with British Airways or other partner airlines to your British Airways Executive Club account. Earn Avios on British Airways flightsOn British Airways-marketed flights, you’ll earn Avios based on the amount you spend in British pounds (GBP) on the base fare and carrier-imposed surcharges.In addition, you’ll earn Avios on ancillary costs such as baggage, seat selection, and cabin upgrade fees.The number of Avios you’ll earn on British Airways flights is dependent on your British Executive Club status level, with the levels and corresponding earn rate as follows:

• Blue: 6 Avios per £1 spent
• Bronze: 7 Avios per £1 spent
• Silver: 8 Avios per £1 spent
• Gold: 9 Avios per £1 spent

With partner airlines, including Oneworld alliance carriers, the number of Avios you earn on any given booking depends on several factors, including the class of service flown, the fare booked, and the airline with which you flew.There’s a handy calculator on the British Airways website which you can use to help determine how many Avios you’ll earn on a British Airways or Oneworld airline flight.

Transferring from Other Avios Loyalty Programs

One of the unique characteristics of Avios is that there are other Avios “flavours” with different airline loyalty programs – especially those belonging to the members of the International Airlines Group (IAG).Avios can be transferred 1:1 among programs that use them as currency. Aside from British Airways, the following programs also accrue Avios:

• Qatar Airways Privilege Club
• Iberia Plus
• Aer Lingus AerClub
• Vueling Club

This means that if you’re sitting on a stash of, say, Qatar Airways Avios, you can move them to your British Airways Executive Club account instantly, where they become British Airways Avios.

Transferring from Marriott Bonvoy

The Marriott Bonvoy program also partners with British Airways Executive Club, which means that you can convert Bonvoy points to British Airways Avios at a rate of 3 Marriott Bonvoy points = 1 Avios.You’ll also get an additional 5,000 Avios for every 60,000 Bonvoy points you transfer at one time.However, it’s worth noting that you can usually get better value by redeeming your Bonvoy points for hotel stays; therefore, unless you’re in urgent need of Avios and have no other way to earn them, it’s likely best to save your Bonvoy points for stays instead.

Travel Bookings

British Airways offers bonus Avios when travel is booked with a range of partners.
 For example, you’ll earn an extra 1 Avios per dollar spent through British Airways Holidays.You can also earn Avios with major hotel chains, such as Accor, IHG, and Marriott, as well as on bookings made through the British Airways hotel portal. For Airbnb bookings, you can earn 3 Avios per US dollar/British pound/Euro spent.Budget and Avis also have a partnership with British Airways, and for car rentals with these partners, you’ll earn 5 Avios per £1 spent with Avis and 2 Avios per £1 spent with Budget.

Avios Shopping Portal

British Airways also offers the opportunity to earn Avios online through their shopping portal.By beginning an online shopping session in the portal, you can earn up to 10 Avios per dollar spent on eligible purchases (with the occasional offer for an even higher earn rate).

Buying Avios

Lastly, the quickest possible way to rack up British Airways Avios is to purchase them directly from British Airways.Generally speaking, there are two scenarios in which buying points might make sense.First, if you’re a few Avios short for a particular redemption, you might consider buying points to top up your account so you can immediately enjoy the redemption you want.Second, sometimes buying points and redeeming them for a business class or First Class flight is actually less expensive than paying cash for the same flights.If you’re going to pay cash for a specific flight regardless, it’s worth exploring whether there’s an opportunity to save money. In this case, be sure to find award availability first, and then compare the cost of buying points versus paying cash for the booking outright.If the cost of purchasing the points is less than the cash cost of the fare, you can buy the required points and book the award fare to save some money.

Redeeming British Airways Avios

The way to get the most value out of your British Airways Avios is by redeeming them for flights.

Flights

British Airways Executive Club uses a distance-based award chart for redeeming Avios on British Airways and partner airlines award flights. Use Avios to redeem for British Airways business classThere are two different charts for reference; one chart is for one-way flights booked on British Airways, and the other is for one-way flights booked on most other partner airlines.To figure out how many Avios you’ll need for an award flight with British Airways, you‌ can reference the following chart.Keep in mind that redeeming Avios on British Airways flights tends to come with prohibitively high taxes, fees, and carrier-imposed surcharges; however, by using British Airways’ Reward Flight Saver pricing, you can choose to redeem additional Avios to help cover these costs. Alternatively, it’s often better to use British Airways Avios to book award flights with partner airlines.British Airways is a member of the Oneworld airline alliance. To determine the cost of redemptions with Oneworld partner airlines, you can reference the corresponding distance-based award chart.Oneworld partner airline award bookings typically have a higher cost in points than British Airways, but the taxes and fees tend to be significantly lower.It's worth noting that the cost in Avios for flights with Iberia and Aer Lingus may differ than those on the above charts.

Flight Upgrades

You can also use Avios to upgrade an existing British Airways, Iberia, or American Airlines flight by upgrading cash bookings as well as award flight bookings.The number of Avios required is simply the difference in the cost of Avios between the cabin you want to upgrade to and the cabin you’re currently booked in.You can upgrade a previously booked flight, or you upgrade at the time of booking with British Airways directly.

Other Ways to Redeem British Airways Avios

British Airways Executive Club members have many other non-flight options for redeeming Avios; however, it’s worth mentioning again that you’ll get the most value out of your Avios by booking award flights.That said, if you have no plans to ever fly again, there are options available for you to use up your Avios.You can redeem Avios for hotels, car rentals, experiences, and more through British Airways travel portal.When redeeming this way, you’ll get around 0.6 cents (USD) per Avios point, which is significantly lower than our valuation of Avios at 1.5 cents (USD) each.Lastly, you can also transfer Avios to another British Airways Executive Club member.With this option, you can transfer up to 60,000 Avios at a time and up to 200,000 per year. Executive Club Gold members can transfer for free, and for other members, each transfer will cost 50 USD/GBP/EUR, depending on where your account is based.

British Airways Executive Club Sweet Spots

The British Airways Avios program offers up a ton of value and some incredible sweet spots.In this section, we’ll go over some key areas you’ll want to be aware of if you’re hoping to maximize the value of your points.

Qatar Airways Flights

One of the most popular redemptions with Avios is to book business class and First Class flights with Qatar Airways. Redeem British Airways Avios for Qatar Airways QsuitesNotably, partner redemptions on Qatar Airways don’t follow the partner award charts listed above, and, in fact, they don’t follow any award chart at all.Rather, since Qatar Airways joined the Avios program and Avios became transferable 1:1 between British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club, British Airways has matched award pricing with what was previously the Qatar Airways Qmiles program.This has led to some incredible redemption opportunities on Qatar Airways’s spectacular Qsuites business class.To give you an idea of what type of Qatar Airways award flights are available, here are a few examples of potential bookings:

• One-way business class from North America to Doha for 70,000 Avios
• One-way business class from North America to the Maldives for 85,000 Avios
• One-way business class from the Middle East to Europe for 45,000 Avios

When booking award flights on Qatar Airways, you’ll want to compare the pricing on the British Airways Executive Club website as well as Qatar Airways’s own Privilege Club program, and then book with whichever program is cheaper.Keep in mind that you’ll need to link your British Airways and Qatar Airways accounts first; this way you’ll be able to move Avios around freely between the two.It’s also worth noting that you may see more award availability for Qatar Airways flights when you’re searching in the Qatar Privilege Club booking portal.This can be certainly be helpful if you’re struggling to find award availability through British Airways, but you’ll want to compare the cost to make sure they’re still providing good redemption value.

Short-Haul Flights

Another sweet spot with British Airways Avios comes when you redeem points for short-haul flights that are close to the upper limit of the flight chart’s distance band.Due to the nature of the distance-based award chart, you’ll get the most value out of an award flight booking when the flight’s distance is close to the upper limit of any given zone.For example, Zone 4 with partner flights covers a distance of 2,001–3,000 miles, and flights from the west coast of the US to Hawaii are close to but still under the 3,000-mile distance.This means that a one-way economy flight on this route can be booked for as little as 13,000 Avios.

Multi-Carrier Award Chart

British Airways has an entirely separate award chart for booking flight itineraries with two or more Oneworld airlines.The British Airways Avios Multi-Carrier Award chart is certainly more complicated to understand and book than a standard one-way flight; however, you can get a lot out of your Avios if you’re willing to spend the time searching for flights and then calling in to make the booking.

Tips and Tricks

There are a handful of things you can do within the British Airways Executive Club program to get the most out of your Avios. In this section, we’ll take a look at a few tips and tricks that can help improve your points experience.

Transferring Avios to Other Programs

By transferring Avios from British Airways to Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways, or Iberia Plus, you’ll have access to more redemption options.For example, by transferring Avios and booking with Aer Lingus, you can‌ save on the heavy taxes and fees normally charged by British Airways.By transferring Avios to Qatar Airways, you’ll have access to more business class and First Class award availability with Flexi Awards. Get better Qatar Airways First Class availability with Flexi AwardsThat said, it’s always best to compare the prices between British Airways Executive Club and other Avios currency programs; often the prices will be similar across the programs, but sometimes it’ll make the most sense to book through a specific program.

British Airways Companion Award eVoucher

British Airways Companion Award eVouchers can be earned through select co-branded credit cards, and with a companion voucher, you can save a lot of Avios on award flights.In fact, despite the name, companion vouchers can be redeemed for a solo booking, reducing the cost in Avios by 50%.)

Pooling Points

Lastly, British Airways allows family members to share Avios with a household account.With this option, if you don’t want to pay to transfer Avios to a family member, you can form a household account and pool your Avios together.When taking advantage of this feature, there are a few key rules to be aware of: members of a household account can't redeem their Avios for anyone outside of the account, changes to the registered household account address can only be made once every six months, and Executive Club Members must be 18 years or older before they can spend their Avios.

British Airways Executive Club Elite Status

British Airways Executive Club has four elite status levels: Blue, Bronze, Silver, and Gold.Every British Airways Executive Club member start at the Blue level, and you can reach higher elite status by earning Tier Points and by flying on eligible flights.The yearly requirements for each status level are:

• Bronze: 300 Tier Points and two eligible flights, or 25 eligible British Airways flights
• Silver: 600 Tier Points and four eligible flights, or 50 eligible British Airways flights
• Gold: 1,500 Tier Points and four eligible flights

Tier Points are earned when you fly on cash bookings with British Airways or with a Oneworld airline partner, and you attach your British Airways Executive Club number to the reservation.The amount of Tier Points you’ll earn will depend on the route, airline, and fare class. You can use British Airways’s flight calculator to figure out how many Tier points you’ll earn from any given flight.In addition to earning Tier Points, you’ll need to fly on eligible flights, defined as:

• A flight operated or marketed by British Airways, including its franchisees, such as BA CityFlyer
• A flight operated and marketed by Iberia, including its franchisees, such as Iberia Regional by Air Nostrum

This means that even if you’ve earned enough Tier Points for a given status level, you’ll still have to fly with British Airways or Iberia to‌ earn the corresponding status, and unfortunately, reward bookings don’t count as eligible flights.Each status tier comes with better benefits than the status before, and you can find all of the benefits, including priority check in, priority boarding, free checked bags, and much more.Silver and Gold elite status members will enjoy lounge access when flying with British Airways and partner airlines.Gold elite members have access to additional reward flight availability in economy and the use of First Class check-in desks in addition to other benefits.Each Executive Club status tier also matches to a Oneworld alliance elite status which comes with additional benefits when flying with partner airlines.

• Bronze members match to Oneworld Ruby level
• Silver members match to Oneworld Sapphire level
• Gold members match to Oneworld Emerald level