Let’s be clear ….. avios.com is NOT closing. Your questions answered.

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A disproportionate percentage of my inbox in the last 6-8 weeks has been on the topic of the closure of the avios.com website.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the correspondence from British Airways and Avios on this subject, there is substantial confusion over what is going on. I thought it was worth taking a bit more time today to clarify certain issues.

BELIEF: The avios.com website is closing down

TRUTH: The avios.com website is not closing down, and will actually become far more important than it is at the moment

The thing that is being closed down is the Avios Travel Rewards Programme. This was set up to be the ‘Avios scheme for people who don’t fly’ and there was a hope that it would compete with Clubcard or Nectar. It has failed to do this – not helped by the fact that BA doesn’t fly from the regions – and is closing.

Your 3081xxxxxxxx account will be closed very shortly, if it has not already closed, and the balance moved to a British Airways Executive Club account.

Going forward, avios.com is where members of Vueling Club, Flybe, Aer Lingus AerClub and other Avios-earning schemes – except for British Airways and Iberia – will go to manage their accounts and book redemptions.

BELIEF: I have no way of accessing avios.com once my Avios Travel Rewards Programme account is closed

TRUTH: Not true. You can continue to log in at avios.com – and book flights and make other redemptions – using an Aer Lingus AerClub or Vueling Club account

AerClub and Vueling Club accounts use the same 3081xxxxxxxxxx numbering system as Avios Travel Rewards Programme accounts and you can log-in at avios.com using AerClub or Vueling Club details. Set up a free account at aerlingus.com or vueling.com and test it out.

BELIEF: I can’t transfer Avios to AerClub or Vueling Club (or vice versa) because they don’t appear on the ‘Combine My Avios’ dropdown menu

TRUTH: This is not the case

When you use ‘Combine My Avios’, the menu option for avios.com actually refers to ANY Avios account which starts 3081. As well as Avios Travel Rewards Programme, this includes AerClub, Vueling Club and indeed Avios South Africa.

To move Avios into AerClub, for example, simply use ‘Combine My Avios’, select avios.com as destination and give your AerClub number.

If you want to move between two schemes which use the Avios platform, ie from AerClub to Vueling Club, you will need to move them via BA or Iberia as an intermediary – you cannot move Avios directly between two different schemes on the Avios platform.

BELIEF: I can no longer earn Avios from Flybe because my Avios Travel Rewards Programme account has been closed and migrated to BA

TRUTH: This is not the case

You can give Flybe ANY Avios account which starts with 3081. If you are flying with Flybe, open an AerClub or Vueling Club account, credit the Avios to that and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them using the route above.

Flybe will launching its own Avios scheme in the near future which will work in the same way as AerClub and Vueling Club.

BELIEF: I can no longer use avios.com to move Avios between Iberia Plus and British Airways Executive Club, which is often the only functioning route, because my Avios Travel Rewards Programme account has been closed

TRUTH: This is not the case

Simply open an AerClub or Vueling Club account, which operates off avios.com as I described above, and use that as a ‘middle man’ when you use ‘Combine My Avios’

BELIEF: Avios sent to my old avios.com account will be lost now my account is closed

TRUTH: This is not the case

Once you Avios Travel Rewards Programme account is closed, any Avios sent to it will be automatically sent to your BA Executive Club account.

Hopefully this clarifies most of the questions you may still have about the closure of the Avios Travel Rewards Programme. Ask in the comments below if you have any other queries.

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, Iberia and Iberia Plus

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

Gin and Tonic Please says:

20 Aug20 August 09:58

OT: Marriott Travel Packages (sorry to those who are fed up with the level of chat on this topic).

I’ve just had an email from Marriott confirming that my (old) Category 7 certificate has been applied to my reservation at Domes Noruz Chania (new Category 7). This is what I was promised when I spoke to them last Friday, so I’m delighted that they’ve honoured that promise.
- Alex W says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 11:02
  
  Well done – did you try to attach it before or after 18th Aug? Presume you had an existing points booking?
  - Gin and Tonic Please says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 13:46
    
    It’s a little more complicated than that – you can read more detail in my posts on Fri. In short, I tried to book a Cat 9 package on Fri and attach straight away to a booking at Domes Noruz. The Marriott agent told me repeatedly that all certificates would be honoured at the same category, so persuaded me to buy a Cat 7 package and make a reservation on Fri, but then attach the certificate this week. I was unsurprisingly nervous about that, so got her to confirm it in writing on Fri. In the end, all has worked out fine – and indeed I’m 60K Marriotts points better off! 🙂
- Alan says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 22:00
  
  Good work G&TP 🙂
  
  Latest update (so far only released via OMAAT!) is that you can now make bookings using Travel Packages (no one month hiatus) and 30k compensation for those losing out (eg old cat 6) will be provided, with 45k if cancelled as before. No ability to upgrade from what they’ve said.
Felix Flyer says:

20 Aug20 August 10:00

Thanks. That’s answered my concern that I couldn’t transfer from my specific avios e-rewards account as I am away from the UK till October. Access to E-rewards doesn’t seem possible when outside UK.
- guesswho2000 says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 11:27
  
  Use a VPN, works fine.
Holly says:

20 Aug20 August 10:07

Hi – advice please – I need to book an Aer Lingus flight today. I have already moved my Avios to my BA acc. Where do I book this now? Sorry if it’s stupid question but I’m not up to speed with all the changes! TIA
- ADS says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 10:59
  
  you can phone up BAEC and book it – taxes are lower doing this way.
  you can’t book EI reward flights on BAEC website.
  
  or you could move your Avios back to Avios.com and book on the Avios.com website – but taxes are higher on Avios.com than when you phone up BAEC.
  
  you can use Avios.com to check availability – it usually matches what you get on the phone with BAEC.
  - Holly says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 21:35
    
    Thanks for the reply. I called BAEC and although the availability was exactly the same as on avios.com the taxes were indeed different – but very surprisingly more! £285 v £162 on Avios.com. I transferred my Avios back and booked on .com
    Thanks for the advice.
    - ADS says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 23:07
      
      what route were you booking ?
    - Holly says:
      
      21 Aug21 August 09:13
      
      I was booking Faro to Manchester with a connection in Dublin for 1 Adult, 1 12-15yr and 1 child – economy
    - ADS says:
      
      23 Aug23 August 10:50
      
      i wonder if BA have upped their Aer Lingus fees.
      285 gbp seems like a huge amount for what you were booking.
- Rob says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 12:38
  
  You need to ring BA to book if you Avios are in ba.com. Note that BA has worse availability but lower taxes. If the seats are only available via the Avios website (with the higher taxes) you’ll need to move them back via ‘Combine My Avios’ on either avios.com or ba.com.
  - Holly says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 21:35
    
    Thanks for the reply. I called BAEC and although the availability was exactly the same as on avios.com the taxes were indeed different – but very surprisingly more! £285 v £162 on Avios.com. I transferred my Avios back and booked on .com
    Thanks for the advice.
    - Rob says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 21:51
      
      Very odd, thanks for the feedback.
Craig says:

20 Aug20 August 10:15

OT: Is anyone else missing Amex sign up progress bars?
- Peter K says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 10:51
  
  Yes. Had a look this morning and it’s not there.
  - fivebobbill says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 10:55
    
    Me too, my BAPP 2-4-1 bar has been missing from Friday
    - guesswho2000 says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 11:17
      
      Yeah they’ve been gone for a few days, still appear in the app though.
    - fivebobbill says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 11:36
      
      Yip, still in the app, good call.
    - Craig says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 11:40
      
      Good shout on the app, working for BAPP but not for Nectar.
- RTS says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 10:58
  
  Still there.
- Mike says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 11:19
  
  Also missing progress bar (annoying as I am within 30 days of year end and I don’t want to trigger it too early) – but if I click on “view earned avios” it shows “YOUR COMPANION VOUCHER STATUS” and the count down is there
  - fivebobbill says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 11:39
    
    Another good call, just spotted that…
Richard G says:

20 Aug20 August 10:17

So are they supposed to be matching your existing avios account to a BA account somehow? If so, it doesn’t seem to have worked for my wife’s account.
- MarkZ says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 12:27
  
  As per my earlier comments: from my own experience, the key piece of information that made the match for me between Avios and BA was Date of Birth, along with Name, possibly gender, and possibly email address. When this whole saga started, I couldn’t initially transfer my wife’s Avios to her BA account, because of some “missing data”. After waiting a few days, I tried again, and discovered that the Avios IT team had introduced a pop-up window on logging in, which allowed me to enter and/or confirm the information that was required to make a transfer work – as stated, it was my wife’s Date of Birth that was missing, as it was such an old account (ex-Air Miles). Once this had been entered, the transfer went through without a hitch. So, if either you or your wife logs into your wife’s Avios account, then see if a pop-up window appears. If it does, then fill it in. Otherwise, check your wife’s Avios profile to ensure that her Date of Birth is in there, along with all the other important details. If the transfer still fails, then I have no other suggestions, I’m afraid.
  - Richard G says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 13:30
    
    Thanks.
- Rob says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 12:36
  
  They haven’t done mine yet either, but it will come ….
Laura says:

20 Aug20 August 10:18

I like the statement page on Avios, helps with chasing unpaid points (as I am currently doing), but I haven’t yet found a similar statement page of unpaid, pending and cancelled Avios on the BAEC site, have I missed something?
RTS says:

20 Aug20 August 10:34

OT – Marriott – so i have been matched to Plat Elite despite my SPG being via AMEX PLat…
- Peter K says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 10:53
  
  Several yesterday found the same thing, myself included. Someone said they asked and were told this will continue until next year… but can we really trust their call centres for info. It’s a wait and see situation I think!
  - guesswho2000 says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 11:19
    
    It would certainly tie up with what was originally reported (that us who got Marriott Gold via SPG Gold via Amex Platinum would be Platinum Aug-Dec 2018).
    - fivebobbill says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 12:09
      
      Not so, been inconsistent, my missus got status via that route and has remained Gold in Marriott
    - Lee says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 12:41
      
      Everyone I know have been upgraded to Platinum except one who never stayed at Marriott.
      - Rob says:
        
        20 Aug20 August 13:05
        
        Without wishing to state the obvious, don’t go off booking hotels for the Platinum benefits until we are 100% sure this will stick.
    - meta says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 15:13
      
      I did status match via Amex Plat and didn’t get Marriott Plat, so don’t think everyone got it…
    - Roger says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 20:58
      
      Same here both of US are Gold only via SPG gold obtained from Amex Platinum.
  - Alan says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 22:01
    
    Agreed all still a bit of a mess – I still can’t access my SPG account using either email or membership number.
- fivebobbill says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 11:58
  
  Just to update on a post I made yesterday, My Amex account info has been updated and is now showing 2 MR points = 3 Starpoints as of today, although all activity has been suspended until tomorrow (21st Aug).
Alex W says:

20 Aug20 August 11:00

They are crooks I would not trust them with a barge pole. I almost exclusively use c/b sites instead of airline portals, since once you withdraw your c/b they don’t erroneously claw it back leaving you with a negative balance…
- Leo says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 12:27
  
  Yes I wouldn’t put it passed them to nab the points I’m now earning from the Virgin Credit Card!