The British Airways Club Award Flight Booking Instructions

British Airways is the largest airline in the United Kingdom by several metrics, and the airline runs its own frequent flyer program, known as The British Airways Club program. The British Airways Club program allows members to earn and redeem Avios, a currency shared with several other major frequent flyer programs, namely, Aer Lingus AerClub, Finnair Plus, Iberia Plus and Qatar Airways Privilege Club. Avios can be freely transferred between any of these programs, making Avios a very flexible and valuable rewards currency.

Among the programs that use Avios, the British Airways Club program is perhaps the best and easiest to use. For one, British Airways is a member of Oneworld Alliance, which means that British Airways Club members can redeem Avios for flights on any airline in Oneworld Alliance (as well as for flights on several non-Oneworld airlines). Plus, the process of booking award flights through the British Airways Club program is fairly straightforward compared to many other frequent flyer programs.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at the full process of booking award flights through the British Airways Club program, including signing up for the program, earning enough points for an award flight and completing an award booking.

Joining The British Airways Club

Before you redeem Avios through the British Airways Club program, you’ll have to be an active member of the program. To sign up, go to the British Airways website and click the “Log In” button on the top-right corner of the screen.

On the login page, click the “Sign up” button that appears beneath the “Join the British Airways Club” section.

Next, you’ll be brought to the registration page, where you’ll need to provide an email address and create a password as well as provide certain other personal information such as your title, name, home address, phone number, date of birth, gender, preferred language and preferred departure city. All of this information will be secure.

Once you submit this information, you’ll be enrolled in the British Airways Club program and will receive a unique membership number which you can use to log in.

How to Earn British Airways Avios

Before you’re ready to redeem Avios for award flights, you’ll need to actually have some Avios in your account. There are many different ways to earn Avios through the British Airways Club program. However, certain methods of earning Avios are more effective than others. If you want to quickly earn Avios, the best ways to do so are to transfer from other Avios-using frequent flyer programs, transfer points from credit card rewards programs, sign up for a British Airways co-branded credit card or fly with British Airways or one of its airline partners.

In the following sections, we’re going to briefly look at each of these earning methods so that you can quickly earn enough Avios for an award flight.

Transfer Avios From Other Frequent Flyer Programs

The Avios currency is shared by several different airlines’ frequent flyer programs, many of which are under the corporate umbrella of International Airlines Group (IAG). The frequent flyer programs that currently use Avios are Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Club, Finnair Plus, Iberia Plus, Qatar Airways Privilege Club and several smaller, regional airlines under the IAG umbrella.

So, if you have a balance of Avios in any one of these frequent flyer programs, you can transfer them to any of the other programs that use Avios for free. For instance, if you have 10,000 Avios sitting in an Aer Lingus AerClub account, you can transfer those Avios to British Airways Club free-of-charge. This is a good way to consolidate Avios and boost your balance in one account so that you can afford an award flight.

In order to transfer Avios from either Aer Lingus or Iberia, log in to Avios.com using your British Airways Club credentials and go to the “Combine My Avios” page. If you want to transfer Avios from either Finnair or Qatar Airways, you can do so through the British Airways website.

Transfer From Credit Card Rewards Programs

One of the most effective ways to quickly earn British Airways Avios is to transfer points from credit card rewards programs that allow 1:1 transfers to British Airways Club. Currently, the credit card reward programs that allow 1:1 transfers to this program include American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Wells Fargo Rewards.

For example, if you had points in your Chase Ultimate Rewards account (perhaps from the welcome bonus from the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card), you could transfer them to the British Airways Club program and receive an equivalent amount of Avios within minutes.

It’s also worth noting that, if you have a Citi ThankYou Rewards credit card, you can still transfer those points to the British Airways Club program through a two-step process. Citi ThankYou Rewards allows 1:1 points transfers to Qatar Airways Privilege Club, which also uses the Avios currency. So, you could first convert your Citi points to Qatar Airways Avios and then transfer those Avios from Qatar Airways to British Airways.

Regardless of which of the major credit card rewards programs you use, you should be able to transfer your points to British Airways Club at a 1:1 ratio.

Sign Up for a British Airways Co-Branded Credit Card

Another fast way to earn a lot of British Airways Avios is to sign up for a British Airways co-branded credit card. Currently, there’s only one British Airways co-branded credit card available to U.S. consumers: the British Airways Visa Signature® Card.

This Chase-issued credit card has an annual fee of $95 and offers a sizable welcome bonus for new cardmembers. Here’s the current welcome offer from the British Airways Visa Signature® Card:

In addition to the welcome bonus, this co-branded credit card also includes everyday spending bonuses and other perks. The following table includes everything you need to know about the British Airways Visa Signature® Card:

As you can see, the British Airways Visa Signature® Card is one of the best ways to quickly earn Avios in the British Airways Club program. But, unless you frequently use this program, you’re probably better off going with a more general credit card.

Flying With British Airways and Airline Partners

Of course, another great way to earn British Airways Avios is by crediting paid flights on British Airway or one of its airline partners to the British Airways Club program. British Airways is a member of Oneworld Alliance, meaning you can earn Avios for flying with any Oneworld member airline. The current roster of Oneworld Alliance airlines is as follows:

• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Finnair
• Fiji Airways
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian
• SriLankan Airlines

In addition to the Oneworld Alliance member airlines listed above, British Airways has partnerships with several other non-Oneworld airlines that also allow you to earn Avios for crediting flights. These airlines include:

• Aer Lingus
• China Southern
• LATAM

The number of Avios you’ll earn on British Airways-operated flights depends on the amount of money you spent on airfare, carrier charges, cabin upgrades, pre-booked seats and additional baggage. Here’s how many Avios you’ll earn for your spend depending on your status in the British Airways Club program:

• Blue: 6X Avios per 1 British pound sterling
• Bronze: 7X Avios per 1 British pound sterling
• Silver: 8X Avios per 1 British pound sterling
• Gold: 9X Avios per 1 British pound sterling

The earning rate for partner-operated flights will depend on the specific partner airline that you’re flying with. If you want to see the earnings rates for a specific partner, you can visit the “Collecting Avios on flights” page, scroll down to the “Other airlines” section and click on the airline you’re interested in.

Other Ways to Earn Avios

There are many other ways to earn Avios through the British Airways Club program, including booking hotel stays, renting cars, buying merchandise, filling out surveys and more. While these methods probably won’t earn you very many Avios on their own, they can help you collect a few Avios here and there and get a little bit closer to your next award flight.

How to Book Award Flights Through The British Airways Club

Now that we’ve discussed how to enroll in the British Airways Club program and how to earn Avios, let’s get into how you can actually spend those Avios for award flights.

First off, you’ll need to visit the British Airways website and log in using your British Airways Club credentials. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be redirected to the homepage where you can click on the “Book” drop-down menu and then select the “Book a flight with Avios” option.

From there, you’ll be brought to the award flight search page, where you can enter your departure and arrival airports (by searching at least three letters, which can be the airport code or the start of the city name), your travel dates, the type of flight (round-trip or one-way), your desired cabin class and number of passengers.

Once you’ve entered all of the necessary information, you can click the “Get flights” button on the bottom-right of the page. From there, you’ll be redirected to a list of all the flight results that match your search query. The website will automatically display all flights operated by both British Airways and any partner airlines.

If you want to find the best possible rates for flights through The British Airways Club, it’s a good idea to search for off-peak dates, which will be marked with a red box that reads “OFF-PEAK.” It’s also a good idea to look out for Saver awards, which are marked with a small, blue money icon.

Once you find a flight that appeals to you, click on the cabin class that you’d like to book in order to see the required miles and any applicable taxes and fees. If these rates are agreeable, click the “Continue” button. Then, you can repeat this for your return flight if you’re booking a round-trip itinerary.

From there, you’ll be redirected to a page where you’ll be able to confirm your flight itinerary and choose whether you want to pay either entirely with Avios or with a combination of Avios and cash.

Next, you’ll be asked to enter passenger information such as name, email, phone number, date of birth and passport number (if traveling internationally). Finally, on the next page, you can enter your payment details to cover any applicable taxes and fees and then confirm the purchase of your award flight.

Once you’ve done all that, you should receive a confirmation email with your flight confirmation number (just like when purchasing a flight with cash). When it’s time to check in to your flight, you’ll simply need to provide this confirmation number.

The Bottom Line

The British Airways Club program is a high-value frequent flyer program due to the fact that it uses Avios as its currency (which can be transferred to several other frequent flyer programs for free), it has many airline partners, it’s easy to use and it has favorable award rates.

With this program, you can sign up within minutes and start earning Avios. The best ways to earn Avios are transferring Avios from other programs that use the currency, transferring points from credit card rewards programs, signing up for the British Airways co-branded credit card or flying with British Airways or one of its airline partners. There are other ways to earn Avios as well.

When it’s time to redeem Avios, the British Airways Club program makes it fairly easy by allowing you to search for both British Airways-operated and partner-operated flights at once. And, when you find the flight that you want, you can easily make your reservation by following the steps in this article.