How to Buy & Redeem British Airways Avios

Avios is the currency of British Airways Executive Club and various other frequent flyer programs. They can be redeemed for flights on British Airways and all other Oneworld airlines, including Qantas and Qatar Airways.

Although Avios redemptions are not such great value on many long-haul routes, short-haul redemptions on Qantas flights can be great value. For example, it costs just 6,000 Avios in Economy or 12,500 Avios in Business to fly on Qantas from Sydney to Melbourne, or Adelaide to Canberra.

Qatar Airways Business Class redemptions between Australia and Europe can also be a great use of British Airways Avios.

Avios are somewhat difficult to earn in Australia. But you can buy Avios directly from British Airways. There are even discounts or bonuses available when buying during a promotion or purchasing a subscription.

How to Buy Avios

You can buy Avios on the British Airways website. There is a minimum purchase amount of 2,000 Avios, and purchases can be made in various increments as specified on the British Airways website. For example, purchases between 10,000 and 50,000 Avios must be in increments of 5,000 Avios. Purchases above 50,000 Avios must be in increments of 10,000 Avios.

There is an annual purchase limit of 200,000 Avios, excluding bonuses.

The price will depend on the number of Avios being purchased and the country that your Executive Club account is registered in. A full price list is available on the BA website.

British Airways Executive Club accounts registered with an Australian address are charged in US Dollars.

When paying in USD, the minimum amount of 2,000 Avios costs around USD65 (~AU$99), or USD32.50 per thousand Avios. But it gets cheaper as you buy more. If you purchase 10,000 Avios, for example, it works out to be USD25.50 per thousand.

You’ll be eligible to purchase Avios if you’re over 18 years old and already have at least one Avios point in your account. (If you don’t have any Avios in your account yet, an easy way to earn some Avios is to fly with any Oneworld airline or book a hotel with Agoda and credit the points to your British Airways Executive Club account.)

Special Deals on Buying British Airways Avios

British Airways typically runs promotions on buying Avios a few times per year. During the current promotion, running from 11-15 December 2023, you could earn 40% bonus Avios on purchases of any amount.

50% is the highest bonus Avios amount that British Airways would typically offer during special promotions.

During this promotion, you could buy a maximum of 200,000 Avios (excluding bonus Avios). This would cost you USD4,599 (~AU$7,000). For this price, you would receive a total of 280,000 Avios, including 80,000 bonus Avios.

Subscribe to buy Avios with a discount

British Airways also offers Avios subscriptions with Avios deposited in your account on a monthly or annual basis. This can actually work out to be quite a good deal!

By purchasing a monthly subscription, you’ll receive a regular deposit of Avios each month at a fixed price. This works out to be around a 35% discount off the usual full price. Keep in mind that a 35% discount is worth around the same as a 70% bonus, so this is actually better than the best regularly available bonus offers on purchasing Avios.

If you purchase an annual subscription, you’ll also get two months worth of Avios for free. This works out to be around a 44% discount compared to paying full price for Avios.

The most expensive plan, an Adventurer subscription, costs USD2,575 (~AU$3,950) annually and comes with 200,000 Avios/year. That’s enough for 16 one-way Qantas Business Class flights or 33 Economy flights between Sydney and Melbourne (plus taxes & carrier charges of around AU$40 per flight).

That works out to be around $285 (in AUD) per Qantas Business Class flight between Sydney and Melbourne.

Note that British Airways changed the cost of subscriptions on 1 May 2023.

Buying Avios from other airlines

British Airways Executive Club is not the only frequent flyer program to use Avios as its currency. Iberia Plus, Aer Lingus AerClub and Qatar Airways Privilege Club also use Avios, and it is possible to transfer Avios between your accounts with any of these loyalty programs on a 1:1 basis.

Qatar Airways sells Avios for between around AU$43-57 per thousand, depending on the amount purchased and the current exchange rate. This isn’t better value than buying Avios from British Airways in most cases. But there could be some interesting opportunities if Qatar Airways decides to offer discounts when buying Avios from the Privilege Club program.

Converting Amex Points into Qatar Airways Avios

If you have an Australian credit card that earns American Express Membership Rewards points, you can also transfer those points to Qatar Airways Avios. You can then use those either to book rewards using Qatar Airways Avios, or transfer those Avios into your British Airways Executive Club account.

Redeeming British Airways Avios

As British Airways is part of the Oneworld alliance, you can redeem Avios to fly on any of these Oneworld airlines:

British Airways Executive Club also partners with Aer Lingus, Vueling and Fiji Airways.

With British Airways Executive Club, short-haul flights under 2,000 miles in length are particularly good value.

Many redemptions for long-haul flights are unfortunately poor value with British Airways Executive Club. But one exception is redeeming for Qatar Airways Business Class from Australia to Europe, which costs just 90,000 Avios + taxes & charges.

Avios are best used for short-haul flights on Oneworld airlines including Qantas, Japan Airlines and, of course, British Airways. Qantas domestic and short-haul international flights can be especially good value as the cash fares are normally high, but the amount of Avios required is low. Plus, award availability on most Qantas short-haul routes is typically good – even when booking at the last minute.

Here are the award charts for short-haul redemptions on Qantas and some other Oneworld airlines:

Routes under 650 miles include:

• Sydney-Melbourne
• Sydney-Brisbane
• Melbourne-Adelaide
• Canberra-Adelaide
• Sydney-Hobart
• Brisbane-Canberra

Routes between 651 and 1,150 miles include:

• Brisbane-Melbourne
• Brisbane-Adelaide
• Brisbane-Mount Isa
• Perth-Broome
• Brisbane-Noumea

Routes between 1,151 and 2,000 miles include:

• Melbourne-Perth
• Sydney-Darwin
• All trans-Tasman routes (except Perth-Auckland)

Unfortunately, British Airways no longer publishes fixed award charts for redemptions on partner airlines, and rates can change without notice. Recently, for example, British Airways increased the cost of some redemptions on Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines.

Most British Airways Executive Club awards can be redeemed on the British Airways website. However, you might need to call British Airways to book QantasLink flights.

Award flights are charged on a per-sector basis. So, if there is a connecting flight required, the price will be based on the sum of all individual sectors.

You can discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: British Airways bonuses when buying Avios

Want to learn more about buying points for cheap premium cabin flights?

The Australian Frequent Flyer Training includes a comprehensive course on buying points for cheap premium travel. This course covers the most useful programs for Australians, including British Airways Executive Club.

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.