British Airways Limits Partner Access to Reward Seats

It’s just become a bit harder for members of Qantas Frequent Flyer members to redeem points for British Airways flights. This change also affects members of other Oneworld airline programs.

That’s because British Airways is now only making a small subset of award seats on its own flights available to partner airlines.

Let’s have a look at what’s changed, and why…

British Airways’ minimum reward seat guarantee

Since 2021, British Airways has guaranteed that it will make a minimum number of seats available to book using Avios (the points currency of its Executive Club loyalty program) on every flight.

The minimum guarantee is for:

• At least 4 Business Class (Club World/Club Europe) reward seats per flight
• At least 2 Premium Economy (World Traveller Plus) reward seats per flight, where this cabin is offered
• At least 8 Economy (World Traveller/Euro Traveller) reward seats per flight

This means BA releases at least 12-14 seats for booking at the low “reward flight” rate on every single flight. That’s a great thing for British Airways Executive Club members.

Of course, it is still very possible that a given British Airways flight has no award availability if other people have already booked all the available seats. But if you book when the flight initially goes on sale around 355 days before departure, you should have some options.

This policy has been very popular with British Airways Executive Club members. In fact, other European airlines, including Virgin Atlantic and Finnair have since made similar promises.

Those seats are now exclusively for Executive Club members

Until recently, most reward seats that British Airways released on its own flights were generally also available to book through other Oneworld frequent flyer programs. These include the likes of Qantas Frequent Flyer, Cathay, Qatar Airways Privilege Club and American Airlines AAdvantage. However, something seems to have changed.

Now, British Airways is reserving the last 8 Economy, 2 Premium Economy and 4 Business Class reward seats on all of its flights for Executive Club members. These seats are no longer available to book through any other frequent flyer program.

British Airways is still releasing some award availability to partner airlines. But only on flights with more than the minimum number of seats available for Executive Club members.

Some examples

For example, British Airways has plenty of reward seats available in Economy, Premium Economy and Business on this Sydney-Singapore flight next year:

But none of these seats are currently available to book through Qantas Frequent Flyer (or any other Oneworld program).

In another example, on the particular date shown below, British Airways has released 14 reward seats from London to Delhi on BA357 to Executive Club members. The earlier flight, BA143, also has the minimum number of Business seats – but more than the minimum in Economy and Premium Economy:

As such, some Economy seats and one Premium Economy seat are available to book as Qantas Classic Rewards on BA143. But there’s no award availability through Qantas Frequent Flyer on BA257.

First Class availability is unaffected

In another example, British Airways has lots of award seats available on BA293 on the date shown below:

BA293 has enough award seats that Qantas Frequent Flyer members can book in their choice of cabin:

But British Airways has not given any award availability to partners on BA217 and only Economy is available on BA229.

British Airways does not reserve additional First Class reward seats for its own frequent flyers. In the above example, BA293 has 1 First Class award available to book through both British Airways Executive Club and Qantas Frequent Flyer.

Good news for some, bad for others

This new pattern could be either good or bad news, depending on your perspective.

On one hand, it’s obviously disappointing for Qantas Frequent Flyer members because there are fewer Classic Reward seats available on British Airways. The same applies to members of other Oneworld programs.

On the other hand, if you’re a British Airways Executive Club member, this change benefits you by taking away a huge amount of competition for BA reward seats. This leaves more British Airways flights available for Executive Club members to book using their Avios.

How to get British Airways Avios

Australians can access British Airways Avios, albeit in a roundabout way.

Other than crediting Oneworld flights to Executive Club, one option is to buy Avios. British Airways sells Avios with regular discounts available, as well as via subscriptions.

If you have American Express Membership Rewards points, you can also now convert those into Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios. You could then transfer your Qatar Airways Avios into your British Airways Executive Club account at a 1:1 ratio.

Diners Club Rewards and CommBank Awards points, as well as Citi Rewards points earned with a Citi Prestige card, can also be transferred to Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

British Airways is not the only airline that does this

British Airways is by no means alone in limiting the award availability given to partners.

Qantas is also one of many airlines that makes more award seats available to its own members than those of partner airlines. So, while Qantas Frequent Flyer members are worse off from British Airways restricting access to its award inventory, they also benefit from Qantas reserving extra seats for its own frequent flyers.

In fact, Qantas even offers more Classic Flight Reward availability to Gold, Platinum and Platinum One members, compared to its own members who don’t hold status.

Qatar Airways is another airline that restricts the award availability it offers to certain partner airlines, including Qantas and Cathay.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.