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Opening a British Airways Club account couldn’t be simpler: go to the British Airways website and follow the instructions.
Membership of the British Airways Club earns you Avios miles.
The British Airways Club is the British Airways loyalty program.
You can earn Avios miles when you travel on board:
Since October 18, 2023, Avios miles are accumulated according to the amount of money spent on the ticket and extras. Eligible expenses include:
For tickets purchased before October 19, 2023, the accumulation of Avios miles follows the old method and depends on:
You’ll earn between 25% and 300% of the distance traveled in Avios miles, with a minimum number of miles for each fare category.
In addition, members with British Airways Club status receive a bonus based on distance travelled:
To find out how many Avios miles you will earn with your flight, go to this page provided by British Airways Club.
Avios miles can also be earned for flights on any of the 13 Oneworld airlines.
Mileage calculation varies with partner airlines, either according to flight distance or the total amount spent. Details can be found on this page. Here is an example of the accumulation on Qatar Airways :
British Airways Club partners with car rental agencies including :
This makes it easy to earn Avios miles on every rental .
British Airways Club partners with a number of hotel groups and online booking sites, including :
This makes it easy to earn Avios miles on every hotel stay .
British Airways Club is partnered with Airbnb, earning Avios miles on every rental:
British Airways Club is partnered with two institutions in Canada that offer credit cards enabling Avios miles to be earned directly or indirectly :
Each of these cards will:
It’s a great way to earn lots of Avios miles fast!
American Express offers seven Membership Rewards cards that can be transferred 1:1 to the British Airways Club program.
RBC offers a credit card directly affiliated with the program: the RBC British Airways Visa Infinite card.
In its RBC Avion Rewardsprogram, RBC Bank offers several credit cards that offer travel points transferable into Avios miles at a rate of 1:1 :
The RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card regularly offers promotions to earn between 35,000 and 55,000 RBC Avion points.
To collect Avios miles more quickly, it’s best to use one of the credit cards (see choices above) as often as possible!
The rate of mileage accumulation will often depend on the issuer and type of card:
Most hotel loyalty programs allow you to convert your points into Avios miles.
It’s a sneaky way to earn Avios miles! Especially since conversion bonuses are offered at certain times of the year.
For example, you can convert Marriott Bonvoy points into Avios miles.
By maximizing both programs, and converting during a promotional period (such as the one offering 30% extra miles), it is possible to do the following, for example:
If you have the:
But if you’d like to earn Avios miles instead of using your points for free nights, this is the solution for you!
Let’s discover all the ways in which miles can be used to :
The best use of Avios miles will be to book airline tickets. These are called award flights. But you still need to know the tips and tricks for using Avios miles correctly.
British Airways Club has a fare structure based on:
Here is the price list for flights on:
British Airways Club has a different fare structure based solely on distance (divided into 9 zones).
This fare structure applies only to travel with other Oneworld members.
British Airways Club allows you to book one-way tickets. However, if your itinerary includes several segments, it will cost you more in Avios miles.
It is therefore more interesting to find a direct flight (such as Montreal – Miami) than a connecting flight (such as Montreal – Philadelphia – Miami).
The British Airways Club program is particularly interesting for families.
There are airfares for babies (children under 2 AND travelling on an adult’s lap).
The required fee will be 10% of the cost in miles of the adult rate (+ taxes). So if a one-way ticket costs 7,500 Avios miles for an adult, it will cost 750 miles for a child under the age of 2!
The British Airways Club allows you to change or cancel an air award up to 24 hours before flight departure.
The fee will be CAD 58 (no fee if you are a Gold member). Miles and taxes will be refunded in full.
Airline awards will be posted on British Airways Club from 355 days before flight departure.
However, for some airlines, tickets will not be posted until 300 days before flight departure.
On the British Airways Club, when you book an airline award, a fee is added to the amount in miles.
This fee includes:
The carrier surcharge was introduced by some airlines such as British Airways or Qatar Airways when the price of oil reached record highs.
Since then, this surcharge has not been removed, and is a way for airlines to make money.
Also, there is an unavoidable departure tax in the UK, so we’ll be looking to avoid leaving the UK.
However, if you look carefully for your airfares, you can avoid carrier surcharges: some airlines don’t charge any surcharges at all!
To avoid carrier surcharges, you need to know which airlines do not charge them on award tickets.
The following airlines DO NOT charge surcharges:
An excellent use of Avios miles: to book short-haul reward flights. These are “local” destinations.
In North America, certain flights operated by American Airlines will cost 7,500 miles one way, or 15,000 miles round trip. Like Montreal – New York, for example.
However, this is particularly useful in countries such as Japan. Here is an example of an award ticket between Tokyo and Osaka:
There are several free and paid tools available for finding award tickets for the British Airways Club.
While Expertflyer is aimed at advanced users, Seats.aero is easier to access and offers a free version.
Avios miles can be used to rent a car.
Here’s an example of a one-week car rental in Miami.
Avios miles can also be used to book hotel nights. However, point valuation is far from optimal.
The value of a thousand Avios will depend on how you use them. However, it is generally agreed that 1 Avios mile = 1.7 ¢.
You could get much more value from short-haul airfares in Asia or flights in premium cabins (business/first class).
Avios miles do not have an expiration date based on their accumulation date.
This means that all Avios miles will remain in your account as long as you generate activity every 36 months.
Have you travelled on British Airways or a Oneworld airline without giving your membership number?
Or have you forgotten to use your British Airways Club membership number with a partner?
It is possible to make a claim for missing miles up to 6 months after the transaction. To do this, you will need to complete the claim form available on the mileage credit request page.
This is a major advantage of the British Airways Club program.
There are three components to your British Airways Club account:
Family accounts can be opened for:
And it’s a way for children under 18 to earn Avios miles on their travels!
Once the accounts have been combined, Avios miles can be collected and used together!
It is possible – but very expensive – to transfer miles from one British Airways Club member to another. We do not recommend this option (prefer the Family and Friends account option). A maximum of 27,000 Avios miles can be transferred per year.
British Airways Club has four levels of status:
To obtain one of these statuses, it is necessary to accumulate status points (which are different from Avios miles).
The only way to earn status points is by travelling with British Airways or its Oneworld Alliance partners.
The amount of status points earned will depend on the type and fare class of the ticket.
Here’s an example of a one-way ticket between Montreal and London, as a Blue member.
At the lowest economy fare (Q, O, G), you’ll earn 813 Avios miles and 20 Status points.
Unlike other frequent flyer programs, which are based on the calendar year, the British Airways Club takes into account the date of joining the program. The amount of status points earned in the 12 months from that date determines your status for the remaining period and the following year.
At this level, there are no particular advantages other than the ability to collect and use Avios miles and Status points.
Obtaining British Airways Club status is equivalent to Oneworld status.
Many credit cards in Canada allow you to earn Avios miles directly or indirectly. See our best cards on this page.
The British Airways Club is one of the world’s leading frequent flyer programs. In Canada, as you saw above, it’s very easy to collect Avios miles thanks to credit card partners such as American Express, HSBC and RBC.
This program will appeal to:
However, don’t count on crossing oceans: surcharges will often be too high, or flights without surcharges very rare (like Aer Lingus). Or the distance will mean that the number of Avios miles required will be inordinate!
There are many great uses (sweetspots) in this program. To further your knowledge of the program, here are several articles we recommend:
Savings this way:
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