Can you earn Avios points on Vueling?

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• David says:

  26 Apr26 April 07:49

  Worth noting that while Vueling are a low cost carrier, they do something things that are unusual for a LCC: They offer official connecting flights, with through checked baggage. Unlike most LCCs which are strictly point-to-point airlines, any connection needing to be made unofficially, on your own if it goes wrong.

  As a result, I think IAG are actually sitting on almost the perfect shorthaul model (since they need their shorthaul to feed longhaul anyway). If you took 80% of Vueling model, and added 10% of Iberia Express ideas and 10% new (keeping a business onboard product). Much better to have baggage controlled by which airline code you book under, supporting choice in all sales channels, rather than BAs recent hand baggage only fares at LGW.

  —

  As we all know, right now you need an Iberia Plus account to earn and burn on Avios on Vueling. And it needs to be 90 days old and ‘active’ to be able to transfer Avios points freely into it from your BA account to spend on Vueling.

  Just found another potential free way to activate it:
  http://www.ukpoints.com/2013/04/26/way-to-activate-an-iberia-plus-account-with-50-free-avios/

• Phillip says:

  26 Apr26 April 07:52

  I think this is probably the only way that an airline like BA can seriously compete with the LCCs on short haul flights without having to differentiate within its own product but by offering a different brand as part of the wider franchise! Thus, it means BA as an airline (assuming the first possibility you mention goes ahead) can remain a full service carrier, while some of its “cheaper” operations are taken over by a no frills carrier. As such, I don’t expect Vueling to be absorbed into BA in any way, but rather operate alongside. It will certainly be interesting to see what the earn/burn situation will be, especially compared to the Reward Flight Saver.

• Morgan says:

  26 Apr26 April 08:50

  It’s worth noting that a lot of Vueling flights have an IB code-share. If you book using the code-share then not only do you get Avios on your BA account but also you get an inclusive baggage allowance.

  • David says:

    26 Apr26 April 09:15

    Have you successfully got Avios points from Vueling flights credited (*directly*) to your BAEC account when booked under the IB code? – strictly speaking you should not have done.
    “Codeshare flights booked under the code of a British Airways partner airline but operated by an airline who is not a British Airways partner are not eligible for Avios or Tier Points. ”
    And Vueling are not a BA partner.
    The officially support route is to credit them to you Iberia Plus account, then transfer them to BAEC.

• Tara says:

  26 Apr26 April 12:01

  I noticed that Vueling routes are cheaper with IB Avios than regular IB routes, I hope that doesn’t change.

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