Coming soon: redeem Avios points for flights on Fiji Airways

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

The oneworld airline alliance, of which British Airways is a core and founder member, has announced the launch of oneworld connect. This means new airlines on which you can earn and redeem Avios.

oneworld connect has the potential to be very interesting indeed. It allows smaller airlines around the world to partner with oneworld but without having to go through the complex process of becoming a full member. I imagine it is possible that Aer Lingus may go down this route.

Fiji Airways will be the first oneworld connect member.

Fiji Airways joins oneworld connect

Unfortunately, oneworld has made oneworld connect more complex than it really had to be.

Let me explain how it works. Each airline joining oneworld connect has to be sponsored by at least three existing oneworld members. As it happens, Fiji Airways has four sponsors:

British Airways
American Airlines
Cathay Pacific
Qantas

The reason I stress the names of the sponsors is that different benefits apply depending on whether you are a member of a sponsors frequent flyer programme or not.

Fiji Airways joins oneworld connect

This is how it works:

For holders of frequent flyer accounts with sponsoring airlines:

Through check-in of bags and passengers
Earn miles
Redeem miles
Earn tier / status points
Lounge access when flying the oneworld connect member

For holders of frequent flyer accounts with other oneworld airlines:

Access to priority check-in desks when flying the oneworld connect member for Emerald, Sapphire and Ruby members
Priority boarding for oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members

Here it is as a graphic:

What this means is that, as a British Airways Executive Club member, you will be able to earn and redeem Avios of Fiji Airways, as well as accessing their lounges if you have British Airways Gold or Silver status and are flying Fiji Airways.

However, if you are – say – a Qatar Airways or Royal Jordanian frequent flyer member – you will not get these benefits. Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian are not sponsoring Fiji Airways into oneworld connect and so their members do not get any mileage benefits. All they get is priority boarding and priority check-in.

In future, you may find other airlines joining oneworld connect with are not sponsored by British Airways, which means you won’t get much in the way of the benefits.

Fiji Airways joins oneworld connect

Where does Fiji Airways fly?

Quite a few places, surprisingly. Here is their route network.

It appears that they fly to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Singapore, Honolulu and a number of destinations in Australia and New Zealand. Tokyo is being added next month. This may make them an option if you are trying to find a round-the-house routing to Australasia.

The airline has a fleet of 18 aircraft including five long-haul Airbus A330.

When does this partnership launch?

We don’t know. “A date will be announced in due course” said the release yesterday. We’ll let you know.

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, oneworld alliance partners

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

Gabriel says:

4 Jun4 June 10:06

Something is missing: “The oneworld airline alliance, of which is a core and founder member”!
- Rob says:
  
  4 Jun4 June 10:10
  
  Nothing is missing. As we have mentioned various times, some Adblock software and browser combos are now removing hyperlinks from the text. You need to whitelist HFP.
  - Gabriel says:
    
    4 Jun4 June 12:05
    
    Sorry, it seems I missed the other mentions. 🙁
  - shd says:
    
    4 Jun4 June 12:29
    
    Would be really nice if you could put a * next to all affiliate links [and there are an awful lot of them on this site, aren’t there] … and provide a set of clean links too, just like MoneySavingExpert does it.
    
    Full disclosure and all that 🙂
    - Rob says:
      
      4 Jun4 June 12:40
      
      But no-one apart from MSE does that. And the reason is that, technically, it is unbelievably complex because links come and go and you can’t add or remove the asterisks which would be across 6,000 HFP articles.
    - Callum says:
      
      4 Jun4 June 15:41
      
      I don’t care about the asterisk (if I see a link I assume it’s an affiliate link – and so it should be), but it may be worth having a pop up like others sites do with adblock users.
      
      It should stop the daily comments about it – and I was equally confused when it first happened. I thought your editing skills had just suddenly gone downhill!
      - Rob says:
        
        4 Jun4 June 16:24
        
        I agree, I need to think about the best way to deal with it. The problem is that it is only a few browser / blocker combos that trigger it. Of our 15,000 daily site visitors it is only impacting a handful – not the 20% or so you would expect it. Oddly, neither myself nor the guy who writes the link management software we use can replicate the issue even if we use the exact same combo of browser and blocker.
sunguy says:

4 Jun4 June 11:53

As much as Im overjoyed at access to new airlines, I can see this becoming really messy – if there are say, 20 connect members, all with different sponsors makeups….
Dave Barron says:

4 Jun4 June 11:56

OT as no “bits” today – I’m very confused by some of what BA.com is showing me (not helped by AA flights not showing in terms of Detroit).

Advice is sought on route options to either Chicago, Toronto or Detroit in April 2019 for visiting wife’s family (Eater holidays). Toronto is normally the cheapest option by some margin. Travelling would be 2 adults and 2 kids (aged 3 and 5). Now my youngest is over 2 the costs are much higher so Business isn’t viable for me and there’s no premium economy availability using Avios for 4 of us so sadly economy is probably likely. Newcastle is my local airport but would consider alternatives – have even looked at Dublin but the savings aren’t massive for economy when you factor in connection and probably a hotel. The cash price economy via Newcastle is an eye watering £2555 for all of us.

I have a 241 available plus approx. 200k Avios. Via Newcastle I believe the cost should be 160k Avios plus £1043.84 excluding the 241 – so therefore 120k using it. However despite being UK Peak dates when I search without the 241 is shows a cheaper cost of 80k avios plus identical taxes for the 4 of us (a mistake? – Why does this show as cheaper minus the 241? Am I missing something? If I book would this be honoured by BA?

Also when researching Dublin then I notice the 241 isn’t valid as outside the UK! Although the outbound leg would be off-peak from Dublin – different calendars I assume?

Thanks in advance – and too much to hope there is another BA spend offer on my BAPP anytime soon to offset some of the taxes?!?
- Sam says:
  
  4 Jun4 June 12:25
  
  Is it not 80k Avios each way rather than return?
  - Dave Barron says:
    
    4 Jun4 June 12:33
    
    I thought it was 40k each return but that’s not what total cost is showing as on booking screen. Clearly says 80k for 2 adults and 2 kids plus £1000ish taxes
    - Dave Barron says:
      
      4 Jun4 June 12:33
      
      Yet more with a 241!!!
- marcw says:
  
  4 Jun4 June 13:34
  
  Are you aware that there’s currently a 50% off LH flights with Avios sale on? So should be 20K per person rtrn peak.
  - Dave Barron says:
    
    4 Jun4 June 13:53
    
    Yeah the pennies just dropped on that one! Cheers
    - Dave Barron says:
      
      4 Jun4 June 13:54
      
      Having only briefly read Rob’s article the other day I hadn’t realised that North America was part of this sale!
- Slim Jim says:
  
  4 Jun4 June 22:05
  
  Bloody yanks and their “eater holidays”…….no wonder they’re supersized!
Dave Barron says:

4 Jun4 June 13:38

I’ve just checked on Avios.com and it appears the reason for just being 80k avios is due to the 50% off Economy only Avios fares! (as discussed previously on HFP!) Clearly shows as a special offer on Avios.com but less clear on BA.com! Given the cash fare then using Avios for an economy redemption is arguably a good deal for me plus saves me using up a 241 voucher.

If you conservatively estimate the 80k Avios at 1p each (£800) and add the £1043.84 in taxes then I get cancellable tickets over Easter 2019 for equivalent of £1843.84 which compared to the current cash fare of £2555 strikes me as good value (even if I do have to suffer economy). Certainly worth considering?!?
- the real harry1 says:
  
  4 Jun4 June 16:32
  
  Avios + cash available? ie 0.7p-0.8p/ Avios to keep some in the bank.