The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of the offers mentioned may have expired.

Redeeming your Avios for Economy tickets comes with an average value of 0.8 cents to 1.5 cents per Avios, whereas you may get more than 2 cents per Avios for a business or a First class flight. Other redemption methods, such as hotel stays and car rentals, usually don't provide as good a value.

While you earn Avios when you fly with British Airways, oneworld Alliance partners and other partner airlines, you may also earn them by using a co-branded British Airways credit card and by spending with the program's partner merchants.

MoneyGeek’s Takeaways

graphCard icon

The average value of a British Airways Executive Club Avios stands at 0.8 cents to 1.5 cents.

airportLoungeAccess icon

When redeemed for business class flights, you may get a value of more than 2 cents per Avios.

graphCard2 icon

Your Avios tend to be worth less when used for hotel stays, car rentals or experiences.

Some of the links on this page will take you to one of our partner's sites, where you can compare and apply for a selected credit card.

How Much Are British Airways Executive Club Avios Points Worth?

The British Airways Executive Club program offers rewards in the form of Avios, which some refer to as points or miles. You may redeem these for various rewards.

The redemption method you select affects how much your British Airways Executive Club Avios are worth. For example, if you redeem them for an Economy ticket, you get a value of around 0.8 cents to 1.2 cents per Avios. On the other hand, redeeming them for a business or First class flight may offer a value of about 2 cents per Avios. Using your Avios for hotel stays, car rentals or experiences typically offers less value than you'd receive for reward flights.

Tier Points help you climb up the British Airways membership ladder. You earn them when you fly with British Airways and oneworld partners.

discount icon
HOW TO COMPUTE BRITISH AIRWAYS EXECUTIVE CLUB AVIOS VALUE

Ticket Cost / Equivalent Points = Avios Value

Calculating the value of British Airways Executive Club Avios is fairly simple. All you need to do is divide the number of Avios you need for an award by its actual cost. So, if a long-haul reward flight requires 108,250 Avios and costs $4,500, you get a value of around 4.16 cents per point (4500/108250 = $0.04157).

How British Airways Executive Club Avios Points Compare to Other Airlines

A British Airways Executive Club Avios point's value can be on par with what you may expect through miles/points of other popular frequent flyer programs, provided you're willing to do some research and are flexible with your travel plans.

British Airways vs. Other Frequent Flyer Programs
Airlines
Value per Mile

British Airways Executive Club

0.8 cents to 1.5 cents per point

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

1.2 cents to 1.8 cents per mile

Air Canada Aeroplan

1.5 cents to 1.9 cents per point

Air France/KLM Flying Blue

1.2 cents to 1.4 cents per mile

American Airlines AAdvantage

1.5 cents to 1.7 cents per mile

Delta Air Lines SkyMiles

1.4 cents to 1.5 cents per mile

Emirates Skywards

1 cent to 1.4 cents per mile

Frontier Miles

0.9 cents to 1.1 cents per mile

Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles

0.9 cents to 1 cent per mile

JetBlue TrueBlue

1.3 cents to 1.6 cents per point

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

1.1 cents to 1.3 cents per mile

Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards

1.3 cents to 1.5 cents per point

United Airlines MileagePlus

1.2 cents to 1.6 cents per mile

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

1.1 cents to 1.5 cents per point

How to Earn and Maximize Avios From British Airways

You can earn Avios each time you book an eligible flight ticket with British Airways or its oneworld airline partners. You may earn Avios for hotel stays, car rentals and purchases made with various other partner merchants. Using a co-branded British Airways credit card enables you to earn Avios faster.

Earning Avios Using British Airways Co-Branded Credit Cards

Chase provides a co-branded British Airways credit card for residents of the U.S. Using it to spend with British Airways lets you earn 3X Avios per dollar. American Express offers three co-branded British Airways credit cards for residents of the U.K.

Rewards programs run by several popular U.S. credit card issuers let you transfer your points/miles to the British Airways Executive Club Avios program. As a result, you may want to consider getting a card from these card providers to earn points/miles that you may then convert to Avios.

For example, while you can transfer the points you earn through Chase Ultimate Rewards to this program, it is also possible with Capital One Miles and American Express Membership Rewards.

British Airways Co-Branded and Other Travel Credit Cards at a Glance
Credit Card Name
Avios Earned per Dollar Spent
How to Increase Avios Earned

Up to 3X Avios per dollar

  • New cardholders earn bonus
    Avios by meeting spend-based
    requirements
  • Earn bonus Avios through the
    card's referral program

Up to 10X miles per dollar

  • Get an early-spend bonus of
    75,000 miles by spending $4,000
    on purchases in the first three
    months
  • Get 10,000 bonus miles on each
    account anniversary
  • Use the referral program to earn
    more bonus miles

Up to 5X points per dollar

  • Get a welcome bonus of 80,000
    points by spending $6,000 on
    purchases in the first six months

Chase British Airways Visa Signature Credit Card

The Chase British Airways Visa Signature Card charges a $95 annual fee. As a new cardholder, you can earn bonus Avios by meeting spend-based requirements. Earning bonus Avios is also possible through the card's referral program.

Flight purchases with British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus earn 3X Avios per dollar. If you book hotel stays directly with hotels, you get 2X Avios per dollar. All other purchases earn 1X Avios per dollar.

Using this card to book British Airways flights that originate in the U.S. comes with a 10% discount. You may receive up to $600 in statement credits for British Airways reward flights to London. Meeting a spend-based requirement enables you to get a Travel Together Ticket each year. Additional benefits include no foreign transaction fees and travel protection.

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One Venture X Rewards credit card comes with a $395 annual fee. Spending $4,000 on purchases within three months from account opening lets you earn an early-spend bonus of 75,000 miles. You get a bonus of 10,000 miles on each account anniversary. You may also earn bonus miles when someone you refer to Capital One gets a Venture X card.

Using Capital One Travel to book hotels and car rentals earns 10X miles per dollar, and you get 5X miles per dollar on flights you book through that platform. All other purchases earn 2X miles per dollar.

Cardholders may benefit by getting up to $300 in travel credits each year and a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck fee credit once every four years. You get free access to Capital One Lounges as well as the program's partner lounge network.

Additional benefits include complimentary membership to The Cultivist, complimentary subscription to PRIOR and no foreign transaction fees.

The Platinum Card From American Express

The American Express Platinum Card comes with an annual fee of $695. New cardholders can earn 80,000 Membership Rewards points by spending $6,000 on purchases in the first six months.

Using this card to book flights through Amex Travel or directly with airlines earns 5X points per dollar (on up to $500,000 in these purchases per calendar year). You also get 5X points per dollar on hotel stays booked through Amex Travel. All other purchases earn 1X points per dollar.

All cardholders receive complimentary access to the Amex Global Lounge Collection. You may also benefit through statement credits toward airline fees, hotel and digital entertainment purchases, as well as purchases made with merchants such as Walmart, Equinox, Saks Fifth Avenue and CLEAR.

Other benefits include Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status, Hilton Honors Gold status, premium car rental status, no foreign transaction fees and travel protection.

points icon
MONEYGEEK EXPERT TIP

Depending on the card you get, you might be able to get additional cards for authorized users, which enables you to earn points/miles faster. However, you will remain liable for all transactions made using any card linked to your primary card.

Sign Up for British Airways Executive Club

You may join the British Airways Executive Club program by submitting a simple online application. The information you need to provide includes your name, date of birth, email address, mailing address and phone number. Bear in mind that you need to be over 18 years of age to enroll.

The Executive Club does not charge any fees to join, nor does it charge ongoing fees. You don't earn any bonus Avios points upon enrolling. This rewards program comes with four tiers, and you can earn bonus points as you move up the membership ladder. Various other tier-specific benefits are there for the taking as well.

Buying Airline Tickets From British Airways and Affiliates

You can earn Avios when you book an eligible flight ticket with British Airways, its oneworld Alliance partners or other partner airlines.

The number of Avios and tier points you earn is a percentage of the miles your flight covers and depends on the fare class, as highlighted in the program's chart for collecting Avios. For example, you earn 25% Avios of the miles flown when you book the lowest Economy fare with British Airways. That changes to 100% with a flexible Economy fare. A flexible First class fare, on the other hand, comes with 300% Avios.

Similarly, you'll earn 25% Avios on the lowest economy ticket with Aer Lingus and 250% with a flexible business ticket.

The Avios Flight Calculator gives you an easy way to find out how many Avios you can earn with different airlines. It also considers the route you wish to fly and your membership tier. You earn more points as you move from one level to the next. For example, as a Blue member who books a British Airways lowest Economy ticket from New York (LaGuardia Airport) to London (London Heathrow), you earn 863 Avios. If you're a Gold member, you receive 4,313 Avios.

Earn Avios Through British Airways Partner Merchants

Earn British Airways Avios Through Partner Merchants
  • business icon

    Hotel and Lodging

    Staying with British Airways hotel and lodging partners allows you to earn Avios.

    • British Airways Holidays: Get 1 Avios per dollar
    • Avios Hotels: Get 15 Avios per pound sterling
    • Accor: Get 1.5 Avios for every €2 or get 2,000 Avios for 4,000 ALL Rewards points
    • Airbnb: Get 3 Avios per dollar/euro/pound sterling
    • IHG Hotels & Resorts: Get up to 2 Avios per dollar or get 2,000 Avios for 10,000 IHG One Rewards points
    • Marriott Bonvoy: Get 3,000 Avios for 9,000 Marriott Bonvoy points and get a bonus of 5,000 Avios if you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points in one go
    • World of Hyatt: Get 2,000 Avios for 5,000 World of Hyatt points, and get 5,000 bonus Avios if you convert 50,000 World of Hyatt points
    • Radisson Rewards: Get 200 Avios for 2,000 Radisson Rewards points
    • Hilton Honors: Get 1,000 Avios for 10,000 Hilton Honors points
    • MeliáRewards: Get 30 Avios for 100 MeliáRewards points
  • shoppingBag icon

    Shopping and Dining

    You can earn Avios when you spend with these shopping and dining partners.

    • Shopping Through British Airways: Up to 12 Avios per dollar
    • Heathrow Rewards: Earn points on dining, shopping, parking and more at Heathrow and convert them to Avios
    • The Bicester Collection: Get 5 Avios per £4/€4
    • High Life Shop: Get 2 Avios per £1
    • The Economist: Get up to 8,400 Avios upon subscribing
  • car icon

    Car Rentals

    Book your car rentals with these companies to earn Avios.

    • Avis: Get 5 Avios per £1
    • Budget: Get 1 Avios per £1
  • travel icon

    Vacation Packages/Cruises

    You can also earn Avios when you book vacations or cruises.

    • British Airways Holidays: Get 1 bonus Avios per dollar
    • Fly-Drive Vacations: Get 1 bonus Avios per dollar
  • airportLoungeAccess icon

    Others

    Explore other ways to earn British Airways Avios.

    • Capital One: Convert 1,000 Capital One miles to 1,000 Avios
    • Bilt Rewards: Convert 1 Bilt Point to 1 Avios
    • Avios For Thoughts: Get up to 600 Avios
    • eRewards: Get 600 Avios after completing your first survey
    • Lounge Pass: Get 5 Avios per dollar on bookings made through the Lounge Pass website
    • ParkCloud Airport Parking: Get Avios when you make bookings with ParkCloud
    • Heathrow Express Rail Transfers: Get 5 Avios per £1 on tickets

Buying Avios From British Airways

Buying Avios is possible. You may buy as few as 2,000 Avios and up to 200,000 per calendar year. How much you end up paying per Avios depends on the number of Avios you wish to purchase. For example, you need to pay $80 to buy 2,000 Avios, which means you pay 4 cents per Avios. If you, on the other hand, wish to buy 50,000 Avios, they would cost $1,400, meaning you'd pay 2.8 cents per Avios. Even if you buy the upper limit of 200,000 points, you pay over 2.75 cents apiece.

Since the average value you receive for your Avios when redeeming them is typically less than the amount you pay for them, it's important to do the math before moving forward.

British Airways offers bonus Avios through promotional offers from time to time, giving you the ability to get better value. These bonuses may go up to 50%. So, if you buy 200,000 Avios for the regular price of $5,523 during a 50% bonus offer, you receive 300,000 Avios in all. This way, each Avios costs around 1.8 cents.

Buying Avios might work well when the value you receive for a reward flight is more than how much you pay. For example, if you find a reward flight that offers a value of more than 3 cents per Avios, you may consider buying them for less than this price.

How to Redeem British Airways Executive Club Avios

If you are wondering how to redeem British Airways Executive Club Avios, the process is relatively simple. Start by logging in to your Executive Club account, where you will see different redemption options. While using your Avios for flights with British Airways, American Airlines, Iberia and oneworld Alliance partners is possible, you may also redeem them for flight upgrades, hotel stays, car rentals and experiences.

Once you log in to your Executive Club account, you may use the booking tool for members to check how many Avios you might need for reward flights based on the route, the dates and the class you wish to fly. The date is important because it affects whether you get a peak or an off-peak reward flight.

When you redeem your Avios for flight tickets, you should aim to get a value of at least 0.8 cents per Avios, although it's possible to do better.

  • hotel icon

    Hotel accommodations

    You may use your Avios to book hotel stays through the Hotels by British Airways platform. It has over 7,500 properties from different parts of the world. When redeeming Avios for hotel stays, expect to get an average value of 0.6 cents to 0.7 cents per Avios.

  • car2 icon

    Car rentals

    If you use your Avios to book car rentals with Avis or Budget, you may get a value of 0.6 cents to 0.7 cents per Avios.

  • airplane icon

    Flight upgrades

    Redeeming your Avios for upgrades may provide a relatively good value of 1.8 cents to 3.1 cents per Avios.

  • rewards icon

    Others

    Using your Avios to pay for seats and baggage costs is possible, and you may also use them to book experiences. However, don't expect to get good value with these redemption methods.

When Best to Redeem British Airways Executive Club Avios

British Airways provides peak and off-peak reward flights, with the latter providing better value. As a result, being flexible with your dates can enable you to opt for an off-peak reward. Since the program does not publish a list of peak and off-peak dates, you need to look for flights on different dates.

The Reward Flight Saver option usually offers good value and requires that you pay fees, taxes and carrier charges. For example, flying from the U.S. to the U.K. might require as few as 50,000 Avios plus $200. Flights to European destinations from London start at 18,500 Avios.

Using Avios with American Airlines and Alaska Airlines for flights of less than 1,150 miles tends to provide good value, given that you need just 9,000 Avios plus $5.60. This is also the case if you fly from the West Coast to Hawaii or take a short international flight. Booking a long-haul business class flight with a partner airline like Japan Airlines might also provide good value.

travel icon
MONEYGEEK EXPERT TIP

Using Avios is an excellent option for nonstop flights since reward flights are based on the distance flown and the number of segments. If your award flight has one or more stops, the price in Avios can be far too much compared to booking with other loyalty programs.
Lee Huffman, contributing expert for MoneyGeek

How to Get the British Airways Elite Status

You can enjoy various benefits as you move up the Executive Club membership ladder, which you do by earning a minimum number of Tier Points and flying a minimum number of eligible flights each year.

  • Blue: All members start at this level
  • Bronze: At least 300 Tier Points and two eligible flights
  • Silver: At least 600 Tier Points and four eligible flights
  • Gold: At least 1,500 Tier Points and four eligible flights

British Airways Executive Club Avios Elite benefits include bonus points, access to airport lounges and more.

1

Blue

You get access to member-only offers and the ability to save your details and preferences.

2

Bronze

Bronze-level members get 25% bonus Avios, priority check-in, priority boarding and free seat selection seven days before the travel date.

3

Silver

Silver-level members may benefit through 50% bonus Avios, free seat selection at the time of booking, access to business lounges and extra baggage allowance.

4

Gold

Benefits specific to this tier include 100% bonus Avios, First class check-in/boarding, access to First lounges, access to Concorde Room, additional reward flight availability, Gold Priority Reward, no booking/service fees for Priority Reward bookings and gold upgrade vouchers.

How We Determined the Value of British Airways Executive Club Avios

MoneyGeek experts have taken a close look at how the value of British Airways Executive Club Avios changes based on different redemption methods. They have also conducted in-depth market research to determine the worth of your points.

Other Questions You May Have About British Airways Executive Club

Compare and Review Miles and Points

Compare and Review Credit Cards

*Rates, fees or bonuses may vary or include specific stipulations. The content on this page is accurate as of the posting/last updated date; however, some of the offers mentioned may have expired. We recommend visiting the card issuer’s website for the most up-to-date information available.
Editorial Disclosure: Opinions, reviews, analyses and recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. Learn more about our editorial policies and expert editorial team.
Advertiser Disclosure: MoneyGeek has partnered with CardRatings.com and CreditCards.com for our coverage of credit card products. MoneyGeek, CardRatings and CreditCards.com may receive a commission from card issuers. To ensure thorough comparisons and reviews, MoneyGeek features products from both paid partners and unaffiliated card issuers that are not paid partners.