Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Should you add a different frequent flyer number to your Avios flights?

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There was an interesting post on US site The Points Guy last weekend about whether – when flying on a reward ticket – you should put in the frequent flyer number of a different airline.

The rationale for this is that airline industry IT is often not the best.  Whilst it is very rare to be awarded back miles for a reward flight on the airline you used to book your ticket, they will occasionally credit to other airlines.  This is especially likely to happen if your travel is disrupted and your ticket is reissued.

Would I recommend this?

To be honest, if you have British Airways status, I would NOT recommend it.  You should keep your BA number in the booking.  This will ensure that you get priority treatment if your travel is disrupted and passengers need to be rebooked.

(If you had swapped your BA Gold number for an American Airlines ‘no status’ number, BA would put you at the back of the queue for rebooking.)

Of course, if you are redeeming Avios, have NO BA status but DO have status with another oneworld airline, then it makes sense to put that number in the booking for the same reason.

Does this strategy ever work?

Yes, it does.  There was a time now gone, and I can’t remember the exact details, when some BA redemptions would credit to American Airlines (or was it the other way round?).

In the good old days of BMI, you could also credit Star Alliance reward flights to Diamond Club, although I never did.  They would not post automatically, but if you sent in the boarding pass then they would be credited.

I did once get BMI miles on a Thai Airways business class ticket I won in a competition.  It was booked into a reward ticket class, but there was a problem with the ticket at Heathrow and the ticket agent reissued it.  The reissued version qualified for miles and was solely responsible for my wife and I retaining BMI Silver status that year!

All in all, though, I wouldn’t see this as a serious opportunity to earn yourself additional miles.


How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express card

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Comments (24)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Charlie says:

    I did something similar with Airmiles, the pre-avios scheme. I booked 4 BA long haul flights with them using a buy 1 get 1 half price voucher or something. Then went to the BA site to choose seats, I added my BA Executive Club to the booking and got the miles as normal after I flew!

  • Mikeact says:

    Fraudulent ?

    • erico1875 says:

      I dont see how its fraudulent.
      Exploiting a loophole, yes.

      • squills says:

        AFAIC this is not even borderline fraudulent or remotely dodgy. Remember the scenario here is reward flights & back points. The airline is responsible for the integrity of its own systems and the onus should not be on passengers to patrol those systems on the airline’s behalf.

        So whilst, for example, if silly girl on the till gives me £5 too much change, I’d always declare the mistake to her (1: knowingly taking it would be close to theft & 2: she’d get into trouble for her till being down), taking £10 worth of ‘mistaken’ back points just feels like a stroke of good luck & helps the airline improve its systems over time as they realise the imperfections 😉

  • Hingeless says:

    A few years ago I booked a qantas reward flight usin ba.com in J and got the miles and status points.

    No idea if this a regular mistake

  • thesaver79 says:

    I am BA Bronze and CX Gold. If I sue my CX FF number. I have an award flight booked with a companion voucher in April and I’m already worried about overbooking in First.

    If I wanted to give myself priority over other passengers in case of overbooking, would it better to use my CX Gold number? Or woul passengers with BA status, even if from a lower tier, be likely to get a preferential treatment over other passengers with oneworld status?

    • Mark says:

      If will be in exactly the same position once my CX Gold comes through and fully intend to leave my CX Gold status on my next reward booking.

      Oneworld sapphire should always trump ruby regardless of the issuing arline.

      • James67 says:

        For overbooking, priority is more complex than just a matter of status. The booking class will be important as will the numbers of pax travelling together and the ease of reaccommodating them elsewhe. In my student days I used to love volunteering to be reaccommodate on nort American airlines. It happened frequently and hundreds of dollars and an upgrade were usually both obtainable.

  • franknotes says:

    I flew a couple of weeks ago on an Avios flight booked via ba.com from Miami to Key West (AA). Flight was cancelled, was put on the next one a couple of hours later and ending up getting Avios and TPs. Sweet! I definitely will try this on my upcoming Reward Saver flight to Amsterdam (CX Gold).

  • Jon says:

    Doesn’t work (for me at least) on BA redemptions with CX Gold. What used to work was BA redemptions, return, with mixed classes (F out, J return etc). Changing the return flight used online used to 1) upgrade/downgrade the return flight to the class of the outbound flight 2) give TPs and miles on the return segment. This was around 5-7 years ago and has since been fixed.

  • squills says:

    OT Raffles I think you could usefully run a snippet on http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/two-together-railcard-launches-monday-nationwide-27-1838676 – would be great info for ‘couples’ who are frequent travellers on Heathrow Express etc.

  • onlysuites says:

    A friend of mine got *A miles on a Lifemiles redemption recently.

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.