Will there be an Avios platform announcement this week?

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We may get an announcement this week about the long-delayed restructuring of the avios.com platform.

There are a lot of moving parts, but what is rumoured is that avios.com will close as a standalone platform. You will no longer have an avios.com account – you will only be able to have accounts with one of the airline partners.

You may have noticed that the avios.com website has been looking a little abandoned recently:

Avios wing 12

the Laithwaite’s wine deal closed 10 days ago but is still being promoted even though the landing page is dead
the opposite has happened with the new Economist offer of 13,200 Avios – the Avios landing page only shows 4,400 until you click through.
the Lloyds Avios credit cards are still being promoted although they are no longer available online

avios.com will not be going away, however. Instead, the website may (or may not) become – like milesandmore.com – the place where you go to check your balance and redeem your points, with redemption stripped from the airline sites. Aer Lingus and Vueling already operate like this, so it is ‘only’ a question of changing British Airways, Iberia, Meridiana, kulula.com and LEVEL. I’m not sure how Flybe would be treated.

This is still very much speculation, however. For clarity, this is not a devaluation and no-one will lose out, although there may be an impact on avios.com partners who are exclusive to that platform.

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:

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

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

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.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

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

Sergio says:

9 Apr9 April 10:04

Rob will we loose the ability to transfer points between BAEC to Iberia Plus?
- Lady London says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 10:32
  
  This is one of my worries.
  British Airways can’t be pleased if we can repeatedly transfer our avios earned on British Airways flights, to use them on the better cheaper offering on Iberia.
  
  Remember folks this is about reducing our choice and reducing the costs to British Airways not increasing it. How many vendors does Avios have you can earn and spend with right now, that will conflict with the choices made by British Airways? I still haven’t forgiven IAG for dropping Hertz when I far prefer them to Avis. Star Alliance airlines are now getting my car hire business when Hertz and usually Star alliance gets the associated flights now too.
  
  My only interest now is in watching how they try to spin this lack of choice as a good thing…
  - Rob says:
    
    9 Apr9 April 10:39
    
    Combine My Avios will continue, and of course is necessary for Flybe members, assuming they don’t want more Flybe flights!
    - Cate ⛱️ says:
      
      9 Apr9 April 11:05
      
      Rob, is there a possibility that Iberia are thinking of leaving?
      
      I’m asking this because over the last 5-6 months there’s a definite coldness coming from Iberia’s staff – verging on rudeness from Madrid’s gate dragons. Our flight alert updates now only come in Spanish, they have offers only available to Spanish residents i.e. Fathers day reductions if your Spanish, reduced number of avios on certain flights if your Spanish etc. This weekend they moved us to middle seats when we already had confirmed window seats (paid cash biz). No one sat in those seats for the flight so there was no reason to move us.
      - Rob says:
        
        9 Apr9 April 11:23
        
        No chance.
  - JamesB says:
    
    9 Apr9 April 10:50
    
    I’m missing the point here, it is all avios, it is all IAG, if it is a single platform then thete is no need to transfer, there will be no Iberia or BA etc. All this should surprise nobody, it has been expected for two years at least. What I am hoping for is that it brings with it more comprehensive loading of rewards seats not only for IAG but across One World partners too, and is supported by powerful search functionality for multiple partner flights, open jaw, multi city, vouchers etc. Wishful thinking perhaps but let’s see. I’m not to worried about impacts on earning and non airline buring as most earning come from credit cards, tesco and flying anyway, and burning in most cases is best done on flights.
    - Rob says:
      
      9 Apr9 April 10:57
      
      It is a single platform but, from what I am reading, individual accounts will remain. This MAY also mean different partners for each scheme, unless all the airlines want to do a LOT of renegotiating. At some point it will end up like Miles & More where everyone has access to an identical platform but I doubt that will happen here on Day 1.
    - JamesB says:
      
      9 Apr9 April 11:00
      
      Scrap all that, just read the link abd I get the point 🙂
    - JamesB says:
      
      9 Apr9 April 11:45
      
      Sounds to me like they are going to change a dog’s breakfast into a dog’s dinner, typical BA. Hopefully you are right and we still end up wi th a single plaftform sonewheredown the line.
Anna says:

9 Apr9 April 10:08

The CSR said it will all be transferred across – however I am going to take screenshots as I am not convinced!
- Cate ⛱️ says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 10:34
  
  Useful tip Anna. Doesn’t hurt to have something to back up a claim should the occasion arise. Thank you.
Alex says:

9 Apr9 April 10:11

From reading the FAQ, you can spend on Flybe but not earn through BAEC unless it’s a BA codeshare which for domestic non-connecting flights are rarely codeshares. Does leave open the possibility of a another new programme from Flybe or will earnings on Flybe eventually be scrapped?
- Rob says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 10:41
  
  Flybe gets its own programme.
Anna says:

9 Apr9 April 10:15

Totally OT but as bits – HH Gold – apparently I can get extra points or free breakfast in some hotels. How do you tell them which one you want? Just thinking if you check in online and use the digital key you may never speak to the reception staff.
- Peter K says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 10:24
  
  I imagine if you don’t ask they’ll give you the points as it’s cheaper for them. I find it’s worth asking for the free drink etc as quite often they’ll give you the points as well.
  - Gavin says:
    
    9 Apr9 April 10:41
    
    don’t forget your partner / dog / child also like a free drink!
  - HighestBidder says:
    
    9 Apr9 April 11:42
    
    what free drink?
- paulm says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 10:34
  
  In the app so you can set your preferences for each hotel brand. Called my way benefits
- Lyn says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 11:32
  
  You can also set your preferences / my way benefits by logging in to your Hilton account on their web-site if you don’t have the app.
  I don’t know know if this works for existing bookings or only those booked after you have updated your preferences though.
Lady London says:

9 Apr9 April 10:23

Will this result in better availability on the BA site?
Haha.
r* says:

9 Apr9 April 10:27

How will the avios closure affect redeeming for aer lingus lower taxes flight? The avios site seems to be only pointing to moving points to BAEC so will points sitting there still be usable via BAEC call center for AL flights?
Alex says:

9 Apr9 April 10:34

Also wondering this. Have Hilton stays booked through avios.com up to December 2018, the last of which probably won’t post until Q1 19.
Rob says:

9 Apr9 April 10:41

It remains standalone, yes.