Do I have to live in the UK to join British Airways Executive Club?

In this article I want to look at whether there are any geographic restrictions to joining British Airways Executive Club.  Do you need to live in Britain to join British Airways Executive Club?

Executive Club is British Airways’ frequent flyer membership program, allowing you to collect and save Avios, the British Airways equivalent of airmiles. Once you save enough, you can choose to spend them by booking reward flights or part-paying cash bookings with Avios to reduce the fare.

Joining the Executive Club also allow you to earn elite status with British Airways, which come with benefits including lounge access, free seat selection, bonus Avios earning rates and many more. You can read a brief explanation of the different British Airways Executive Club tiers here.

You do not have to live in the United Kingdom to join the Executive Club.  It is open to citizens of almost every country.

The exception to this is residents of Australia and New Zealand. Unless you have an address elsewhere in the world, British Airways recommends that you join Qantas’ frequent flyer program since both airlines are part of the oneworld alliance and therefore elite status and reward earning and spending can easily carry over.

This odd anomaly dates back to 2003 and is a remnant of the joint venture British Airways and Qantas had. British Airways appears to have little appetite to change this small rule despite the fact that they are no longer in a joint venture together.

If you live in Spain, of course, you may find it easier to join Iberia Plus and earn Avios with them.  You can still transfer your Avios to British Airways Executive Club via ‘Combine My Avios’.

If you live in the home country of another oneworld airline (eg Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong) you might find it more convenient to join that and credit your flights there.  However, it is relatively easy to earn status with British Airways Executive Club compared to other oneworld schemes and – for example – even if you live in Doha you may find BAEC more attractive than Qatar Airways Privilege Club even though it is not your ‘home’ scheme.

There is no ‘right’ answer, however, as your personal travel pattern is a key part of the equation.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 2.4 million monthly page views.  Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios?  Click here to read our latest news stories and click here to join the mailing list for our weekly or daily email newsletters.)

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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:

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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