use Avios for (virtually) free flights: Get rewarded on your on a regular basis spending

In case you’ve ever dreamed of flying for (virtually) free, upgrading your Economic system seats to the a lot fancier, Enterprise Class, or treating your self to an opulent getaway with out blowing your price range, studying easy methods to gather Avios factors is your ticket there — actually. 

Avios is the rewards foreign money of the British Airways Membership (and different airline companions together with Qatar Airways and Iberia), and with the correct technique, you need to use the factors you gather to e-book flights, upgrades, and extra. 

Right here, I’ll stroll you thru easy methods to go about incomes Avios factors and easy methods to use them to e-book elusive reward seats on British Airways flights.

What are Avios factors?

Avios are the loyalty foreign money utilized by a number of airways, together with British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Qatar Airways. In case you’re a member of the British Airways Membership, you’ll earn and spend Avios by way of their system. You should use your Avios factors pot to e-book flights on British Airways and companion airways, improve your cabin to get pleasure from a extra unique journey expertise, and pay for resorts, automobile rent, and different journey extras. If you wish to go all in, you’ll be able to even pay on your total vacation utilizing your factors with BA Holidays

Personally, I discover the fantastic thing about Avios to be of their flexibility and attain—particularly once you perceive easy methods to gather and redeem them well.

earn Avios factors

Flying with British Airways and Oneworld companions

When you’ve joined the British Airways Membership, everytime you fly with British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways, American Airways, or any Oneworld companion, you’ll earn Avios, which will probably be deposited in your BA Membership account. The variety of factors you earn depends upon your fare class, what you pay on your flight, and BA Membership tier standing. Sadly, you don’t earn Avios on any reward seat flight you e-book.

Tip: Everytime you’re reserving a flight, all the time embrace your British Airways Membership quantity to make sure you earn your factors.

Bank card sign-ups and spending

One of many quickest methods I’ve managed to rack up Avios is through the use of a co-branded bank card. Within the UK, that’s sometimes the British Airways American Specific, or Avios Barclaycard bank cards:

British Airways American Specific Bank card

This card has no annual price, and affords a very good Avios welcome bonus to new cardholders. You’ll gather 1 Avios per £1 spent, get further Avios bonuses for card referrals and supplementary cardholders, and have the flexibility to earn a Companion Voucher (2 flights for the price of 1 in Economic system) should you spend £15,000 in a 12 months in your card. It is a strong card to begin out with should you’re new to Avios assortment. I started with this card and my welcome bonus lined half the Avios price of my first reward seat reserving!

British Airways American Specific Premium Plus card 

That is the following degree up from the fundamental BA Amex card. It has a better Avios incomes charge of 1.5 Avios per £1 spent, and an unique earn-rate of three Avios for each £1 spent with British Airways and BA Holidays. The welcome bonuses are a lot greater, plus you’ll be able to earn a Companion Voucher once you spend £15,000 on the cardboard in a single 12 months. The distinction with this Companion Voucher is that you need to use it in any cabin class – together with Enterprise or First, whereas with the fundamental BA Amex Companion Voucher, you’ll be able to solely use it in Economic system.

Use your card for on a regular basis spending—groceries, payments, journey—and watch the Avios add up. I make all my typical purchases every month utilizing my card to earn as many factors as I can. So far as I’m involved, that is cash I’d be spending anyway – so why not get rewarded for it?! Simply bear in mind to pay your invoice in full each month, because the Avios incomes worth isn’t any good once you think about curiosity. 

Procuring on-line

The British Airways eStore is a goldmine for Avios collectors. You’ll discover over 2000 retailers that reward you with Avios for each pound spent. These embrace Apple (5 Avios per £), John Lewis (1), Samsung (5), Reiss (12), B&Q (4) and Dyson (8). Merely click on by way of the BA eStore earlier than making your buy. 

You get these factors on prime of the factors you earn on the BA Amex card – a double dip!

Bonus tip: I wish to stack this with cashback websites for much more worth.

Lodge and journey companions

Now, you won’t be capable to earn Avios in your reward seat flight reserving, however you CAN earn them by way of your resort keep. You’ll be able to earn Avios when reserving BA Holidays or the BA Avios retailer, in addition to by way of Reserving.com, Lodges.com, Accor, IHG, Marriott, and extra. 

In case you already gather resort loyalty factors, together with Marriott Bonvoy or Hilton Honors, you’ll be comfortable to know you could convert them into Avios.

If it’s essential to rent a automobile throughout your journey, automobile rental firms like Avis and Price range additionally allow you to earn Avios in your bookings.

Eating, wine golf equipment and life-style affords

British Airways companions with a lot of eating places and life-style manufacturers, together with The Wine Flyer and subscription platforms like The Spectator or The Economist. In case you’re already spending with these, it’s positively value it to verify should you can earn Avios too.

In case you store at Sainsburys, or have a Nectar card, you’ll be able to earn Nectar factors and switch them to Avios at a 400:250 charge. This one is nice for topping up your pot. I modified my grocery store to Sainsburys once I began to gather Avios as a result of we spend not less than £150 every week on the household meals store – that’s an additional £600 of Nectar factors (375 Avios) each month!

Shopping for Avios

In case you’re quick on factors for a dream journey, however you don’t need to wait round to e-book it, you should buy Avios immediately by way of the British Airways web site. Whereas this normally isn’t the very best worth, gross sales providing 30-50% bonus Avios could make it worthwhile. Simply maintain a glance out. 

Reserving reward seats on British Airways

Why use Avios to e-book reward flights

Avios collectors could make vital money financial savings on flights through the use of factors to pay for them. Some travellers have reported money financial savings of round £7000 when reserving a visit to Japan in Enterprise Class, by paying with factors and utilizing their American Specific Companion Voucher. I’d advocate valuing 1 Avios as 1p when contemplating financial savings. All it’s essential to do is verify the Avios price of your journey and examine it to the equal money fare on the BA web site to indicate you the way a lot you’re saving by utilising Avios to e-book seats. 

One of many lesser recognized ‘Avios hacks’, which is definitely a specific favorite of mine, is you could cancel a reward seat reserving with BA for simply £35 per particular person as much as 24 hours earlier than your flight. In case you choose to do it, you additionally get your full Avios price refunded, in addition to taxes and costs – minus £35 an individual. That is actually helpful in case your plans change for no matter purpose, and it’s an additional profit once you’re deciding whether or not to e-book a specific money fare or to make use of Avios factors. Utilizing this specific hack lets you probably e-book numerous locations and flight instances, then decide the best choice. 

Understanding Reward Flight Saver

British Airways affords Reward Flight Saver fares, which allow you to e-book flights with a set low price (taxes and expenses) plus Avios. In case you’re trying to spend the least money attainable in your flight reserving, short-haul flights inside Europe, typically begin from simply 9,250 Avios + £1. Lengthy haul flights have a better money price – beginning at round £40 – as a result of taxes and expenses are larger for these routes. 

discover and e-book Avios seats

It’s actually easy to really e-book your reward seats. Simply go online to the British Airways web site or cell app to seek for “Guide with Avios.”

As a result of BA releases a really restricted variety of reward seats per flight (14 throughout all cabins) availability will be restricted, so plan and e-book early—BA releases reward seats 355 days prematurely. There are presently round 40m Avios collectors the world over in search of reward seats, and once you keep in mind that BA solely releases 14 seats per flight, you in all probability need to do every thing you’ll be able to to get forward of the group. On this case think about using an unbiased UK reward flight finder software the place you’ll be able to observe availability, see flight by flight data and set Alerts to get immediately notified when your superb seats change into out there. I all the time use these instruments – I set as much as 10 Alerts for various routes that I would like and wait to get Alerted. Then I let the instruments do the work for me.

Professional suggestions

You’ll have higher luck bagging reward seats should you’re versatile with dates and instances on your flights – my solely guidelines are that my flights should be at school holidays. I set my Alerts not less than 6-8 months forward. It’s additionally value noting that should you’re quick on Avios once you need to e-book, you’ll be able to prime up your fare with money – so you employ a combination of Avios and money to e-book your seats. All it’s essential to do is use “Avios + Money” choices once you’re on the BA web site.

Utilizing Avios on companion airways

Avios aren’t only for British Airways flights—you’ll be able to redeem them on all Oneworld companions, together with: Qatar Airways (who typically have decrease money surcharges), Iberia (nice for long-haul to the Americas with decrease charges), American Airways, Finnair, Japan Airways, and extra

Widespread errors to keep away from

There are just a few golden guidelines to all the time bear in mind – NEVER let your Avios expire: They’re legitimate for 36 months, however any incomes or spending resets the clock. Think about how heartbroken you’d be should you’d saved factors for all that point, just for them to fade since you hadn’t used them! 

I’d additionally steer you away from utilizing your Avios for poor-value flights. At all times examine the money worth vs. the worth of your factors. I persist with the 1p per 1 Avios rule so I can examine the money price of a fare to what I’d pay if I booked with Avios. I really like doing this as a result of it reveals me how a lot cash I’m saving in comparison with the money seat reserving – it’s an amazing motivator to maintain on amassing.

Final however not least, don’t neglect you’ll must pay money taxes and costs. This isn’t even value fascinated with once you’re reserving a brief haul flight in Europe that normally has a £1 price, however some redemptions, particularly long-haul in premium cabins, include money prices of as much as round £600 for First Class. Don’t neglect you’ll must pay this once you e-book. 

Closing ideas

Accumulating Avios isn’t only for frequent flyers or journey hackers—it’s for anybody who desires to make their cash go additional when touring. I prefer it as a result of I’m in a position to journey extra with my household simply by having a sure bank card, doing the weekly store or paying a family invoice. I even earn factors whereas I’m on my vacation to make use of on the following one. With a little bit of planning and some on a regular basis habits, you will be properly in your method to a reward seat on a British Airways flight. In case you spot me on the airplane, you should definitely say hi there!

Have questions or your personal Avios suggestions? Drop them within the feedback.

Kayleigh Hepworth

Kayleigh Hepworth is Head of Advertising at Reward Flight Finder. Reward Flight Finder is the proper software to seek for British Airways reward flights. If you want to be a visitor blogger on A Luxurious Journey Weblog with a view to increase your profile, please contact us.