Do you earn Avios and tier points on reward or redemption flights?

Do you earn Avios and tier points on British Airways reward or redemption flights?

In this article I want to look at whether you earn Avios or British Airways Executive Club tier points when you take an Avios reward or redemption flight.

To progress beyond Blue membership with British Airways Executive Club there are several requirements. You must collect enough tier points in a given membership year to cross the tier’s threshold. To achieve Bronze, for example, you must cross 300 tier points.

You will earn tier points on “eligible flights”. The amount you earn will depend on your class of travel and flight length; longer flights and bookings in higher class cabins will all earn you more tier points per segment than a simple economy fare from London to Paris, for example.

Eligible flights count as:

any British Airways operated flight, no matter the flight number

a flight with a British Airways flight code but operated by another airline

an Iberia operated flight with an Iberia flight code

Reward or redemption flights (using Avios) are NOT eligible. You will earn neither Avios nor tier points on such bookings.

Reward flights also do not count towards the two ‘eligible’ BA flights you need along with 300 tier points before you can be promoted to Bronze, or the four ‘eligible’ flights you need along with 600 tier points to be promoted to Silver.

PS.  Whilst British Airways does not give tier points on Avios reward flights, Virgin Atlantic DOES give tier points – but not Virgin Points – when you book a redemption flight.

(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.