When do my Avios points expire? How can I stop my Avios expiring?

In this article I want to explain when your Avios points expire and what you can do to stop your Avios points expiring.

As you already know, Avios is the reward currency used by British Airways Executive Club and several other frequent flyer programs (Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL).

For every eligible flight with British Airways or its partner airlines you earn a certain number of Avios. You can see your Avios balance in your British Airways Executive Club account.

Unfortunately, Avios do not last forever. If you do not earn, spend, purchase or share at least one Avios every 36 months they will expire.

However, if you keep your account active and complete one Avios transaction every three years or less your points will never be removed.

Luckily, it is very easy to keep your account active and to earn or spend at least one Avios every 36 months, even if you are not a regular flyer. British Airways partners with a long list of businesses, including high street brands, to allow you to earn Avios on your daily spending.

It is very, very easy – once every three years – to take a British Airways or a partner flight, credit a hotel stay to BA, credit an Avis car rental, transfer some points from BPme Rewards / Nectar / Heathrow Rewards / American Express Membership Rewards etc.  Spending Avios also counts as activity on your account.

In reality, anyone who is even vaguely interested in their Avios balance can find a way to earn or spend just 1 Avios point every three years, which is all you need to do to keep your Avios points alive and not expiring.

(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.