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Which 30 airlines can you book with Avios points?

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Today I want to look at which airlines you can book with Avios points.

You know about British Airways, of course.  But there are actually 30 airlines which let you use Avios for some or all of their flights.

The list got bigger last year when Qatar Airways adopted Avios as its loyalty currency.  This means that you can now redeem via a number of Qatar Airways airline partners which were not already partners with British Airways, Iberia or Aer Lingus, such as Virgin Australia.

You won’t find the information in this article in one place on any of the Avios websites – iberia.com, ba.com, aerlingus.com, qatarairways.com etc – but we have pulled it all together for you.

EDIT: Added Fiji Airways which has been available since last November

What flights can you book with Avios?

I have listed all of the airlines below which accept Avios redemptions.

The ones marked ‘(BA)’ can be booked on ba.com.  This means that the process is the same as booking British Airways redemptions.

An airline marked ‘(AC)’ can be booked via the avios.com platform.  You can open an avios.com account via the Aer Lingus AerClub or Vueling Club websites and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ on ba.com or avios.com to move your points across.

An airline marked ‘(IB)’ means that you can only book it from an Iberia Plus account. To transfer to or from an Iberia Plus account, the Iberia account must have been open for 90 days and have ‘earned’ at least 1 Avios.  The easiest way to ‘earn’ an Avios in Iberia Plus is to transfer 1,000 Amex Membership Rewards points.

An airline marked ‘(QR)’ means that you can only book it from a Qatar Privilege Club account.  You can use your British Airways Avios balance on the Qatar Airways website by following the instructions here.

Which airlines can you book with Avios points?

This list is alphabetical. In brackets, I have added the programmes which let you redeem Avios for that airline:

  • BA for British Airways Executive Club
  • IB for Iberia Plus
  • AC for avios.com / AerClub / Vueling Club
  • QR for Qatar Privilege Club

Some partners can only be booked by telephone via the service centre of the relevant programme, eg Avianca. You cannot necessarily book all routes operated by a particular airline.

Aer Lingus (AC, BA)

Air Nostrum / Iberia Regional (IB, BA)

Alaska Airlines (BA, IB, QR)

American Airlines (BA, IB, QR)

Avianca (IB)

Bangkok Airways (QR)

Binter Canarias (IB)

British Airways (AC, BA, IB, QR)

Cathay Pacific (BA, IB, QR)

Fiji Airways (BA)

Finnair (BA, IB, QR)

Iberia (AC, BA, IB, QR)

Iberia Express (AC, BA, IB)

Japan Airlines (BA, IB, QR)

LATAM (BA, IB, QR)

LEVEL (IB)

Malaysia Airlines (BA, IB, QR)

Middle East Airlines (QR)

Oman Air (QR, Doha to Muscat route only)

Qantas (BA, IB, QR)

QantasLink (BA – telephone only, read here)

Qatar Airways (BA, IB, QR)

Royal Air Maroc (BA, IB, QR)

Royal Jordanian (BA, IB, QR)

RwandAir (QR)

S7 Airlines (BA, IB, QR but currently suspended)

SriLankan Airlines (BA, IB, QR)

SUN-AIR of Scandinavia (BA)

Virgin Australia (QR)

Vueling (AC, IB)

Oman Air has announced plans to join the oneworld alliance, so you will be able to redeem Avios for all of their flights – and not the existing one route via Qatar Privilege Club – from some point in 2024.

Details on British Airways Executive Club partners can be found on ba.com here.

Details of Iberia Plus partners can be found on iberia.com here.

Details of Qatar Privilege Club partners can be found on qatarairways.com here.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

175 BA Executive Club questions answered, British Airways and Avios

Comments (38)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mohamed says:
    15 Jul15 July 10:12

    Just booked last week LAX-NAN-AUCKLAND WITH FIJI THROUGH BAEC

  • Vit says:
    15 Jul15 July 10:32

    Thanks Rob. I was looking at PG route (BKK-PNH) yesterday. The website showing all flight available by PG. But I guess it won’t be confirmed as available till I send in the request?

    I do need to transfer avios from BAEC –> QR Privilege. Values works out to be 1.2p per avios. So not bad considering I could get 26,000 avios for such route at less than 1.0p currently.

    • marcolau says:
      15 Jul15 July 10:58

      The flight listing on QR website does NOT represent actual Avios availability. Only after you submit the request then QR will check if they are bookable.
      To confirm availability faster, call QR directly and speak to redemption team for verification and booking

  • CC says:
    15 Jul15 July 11:01

    I take it if the flight is under Finnair but is operated by Nordic Regional then it’s not possible to use Avios?

    • Rob says:
      15 Jul15 July 11:26

      Not if Finnair doesn’t own the airline, no.

      • marcolau says:
        15 Jul15 July 12:09

        I was able to book a flight on AY operated by Nordic Regional (e.g. DUB-HEL) by calling BA. If you can found a seat via Alaska then you can try call and ask agent to search for it.

        The only exception is to AY flights operated by Iberia (i.e. HEL-MAD-HEL) where agent found issues in getting this seat properly booked.

        • CC says:
          15 Jul15 July 12:36

          Thanks will give it a try

        • CC says:
          17 Jul17 July 21:26

          Alaska was showing available. Rang BA, CS had to confirm with a manager as there was an asterisk next to the flights, but they said all fine to book, cheers

  • Pogonation says:
    16 Jul16 July 16:02

    As a data point I tried booking VA with QR avios a week ago and firstly this is the only airline partner that doesn’t show up in the online request form and secondly 3 different agents claimed to be unable to see availability on multiple dates (which had availability with SQ, UA, VA).
    In the end I booked with SQ miles.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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