Buying Avios is an easy way to top up your British Airways and now, Qatar Airways points balances. The best use of those points is for cheap last-minute Business and Economy Class flights. Fly Qantas in Australia, American Airlines in the US, Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific in Asia, and Qatar Airways worldwide.
In this beginner’s guide, we highlight why you might want to buy Avios and the best use of them. Also, keep an eye out for our separate guide to the latest British Airways promotions for buying Avios.
Why would I want to buy Avios?
Avios are great for redeeming short-to-medium haul flights on oneworld partner airlines. For example, you’ll need 12,500 Avios for a one-way Business Class hop between Sydney and Brisbane (versus 18,400 Qantas Points). Purchasing Avios with a 50% bonus means that you can score this flight for ~AU$370, including taxes. Cash tickets usually retail from AU$800.
You will need an active British Airways Executive Club account to take advantage of this offer. If you haven’t already done so, you can sign up for a British Airways Executive Club account here. You must also have at least one Avios point in your Executive Club account. Otherwise, you will see this very abrupt message:
Since late March 2022, you can also transfer Avios between British Airways and Qatar Airways Privilege Club. Qatar Airways charges just 90,000 Avios one-way between Australia and Europe in Business Class. Taxes are not as extreme with no fuel surcharges, although a booking fee of US$70 per segment has been quietly reintroduced.
The above cost is compared to Qantas Frequent Flyer, where you’re looking at 139,200 to 159,000 Qantas Points for the same flights, plus at least AU$600 in fees and charges from Australia (more from Europe). And as reported by Australian Frequent Flyer, Qantas Frequent Flyer is currently getting very little availability from Qatar Airways.
Buying 90,000 Avios with a 50% bonus costs as little as £975 (AU$1,665). Add taxes, and you’re looking at about $2,000 one-way to Europe in Business Class. That’s not too bad, considering how high fares are right now. Of course, be sure to find availability on a route you want before buying the Avios!
The basics: British Airways and Iberia
Avios are the frequent flyer loyalty currency of IAG (International Consolidated Airlines Group). They’re the parent company of British Airways and Iberia and a part-owner of Qatar Airways. Points can be transferred between the three programs with ease.
There are three separate (yet intertwined) Avios programs:
The price for BA and Iberia Plus Avios differs on a few factors. British Airways Executive Club will be of the most use to Australia-based travellers, but charges for Avios in US Dollars which is the most expensive. However, if your Executive Club account has a UK address in it, you can buy Avios in British Pounds which is far cheaper.
Iberia is a niche airline but offers cheaper rates when buying Avios in Euros with a promotion.
What are the Avios sweet spots?
Here are three examples in Australia:
- A one-way ticket from either Brisbane to Sydney or Sydney to Melbourne both fall into their lowest bracket at under 600 miles. A one-way ticket will set you back 6,000 Avios in Economy or 12,500 in Business at this level. Compare this to 8,000 and 18,400 Qantas Points respectively.
- Brisbane to Melbourne is over the 600-mile mark so will fall into the next bracket: 9,000 Avios in Economy or 16,500 in Business. Once again, this is considerably less than Qantas.
- Melbourne to Perth is 11,000 Avios in Economy or 22,000 in Business and Sydney/Brisbane to Perth is 13,000 Avios in Economy or 38,750 in Business. This is about the maximum distance where purchasing points outright can represent any value for domestic flights.
Unlike most other purchased miles, Avios can provide good value for Economy flights, especially when redeeming last-minute. And unlike on their international routes, last-minute Qantas domestic awards are easy to come by.
Similar short hops can be useful around Asia on other oneworld partners such as Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific or in the US on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
Read how Matt saved up to 75% on flights by buying Avios →
How are Avios awards priced?
British Airways Executive Club has a distance-based award chart (similar to Qantas), with each segment pricing separately. But British Airways-operated flights offer peak and off-peak award pricing, meaning that the number of points you pay will depend on the date you wish to travel.
Qatar Airways flights also have preferential pricing, matching the Avios that Qatar Airways charges for its own flights. For example, it takes 70,000 Avios to fly from Australia to Doha in Business Class, or 90,000 Avios to go all the way to Europe in Qatar Airways Business Class.
As of 2022, here is the current British Airways partner award chart for most other partners:
| Miles travelled | Economy | Premium Economy | Business | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-650 miles | 6,000 | 9,000 | 12,500 | 24,000 |
| 651-1,151 miles | 9,000 | 12,500 | 16,500 | 33,000 |
| 1,152-2,000 miles | 11,000 | 16,500 | 22,000 | 44,000 |
| 2,001-3,000 miles | 13,000 | 25,250 | 38,750 | 51,500 |
| 3,001-4,000 miles | 20,750 | 41,250 | 62,000 | 82,500 |
| 4,001-5,500 miles | 25,750 | 51,500 | 77,250 | 103,000 |
| 5,501-6,500 miles | 31,000 | 62,000 | 92,750 | 123,750 |
| 6,501-7,000 miles | 36,250 | 72,250 | 108,250 | 144,250 |
| 7,001+ miles | 51,500 | 103,000 | 154,500 | 206,000 |
You’ll also need to pay taxes and surcharges on top. British Airways have a well-earned reputation for high fuel surcharges. For Qantas domestic flights, expect to pay around £24.10 per person, per flight.
Don’t have enough Avios? You can also opt to pay more cash and use fewer Avios on reward flights. Sometimes, you’ll actually be better off going down this route! See the example below: you can save 33,000 Avios in exchange for paying £280 (~AU$512) more. You’re essentially buying those Avios for 1.55 AU cents each, which is cheaper than any of the ‘buy points promotions’ we have listed above.
When to transfer Avios over to other airlines
One rare feature of the various Avios programs is the ability to transfer points between each other at a 1:1 ratio.
The main advantage here is accessing Iberia Plus’s redemption rules with your purchased British Airways Executive Club Avios. Or, purchase Iberia Plus Avios and move them over to British Airways if there is a different deal running between the two programs.
Of course, with Qatar Airways Privilege Club joining the mix, it gives you more options yet again. Travelling to Europe or the USA in Business is now much easier. You can transfer British Airways Avios to Qatar Airways and back at a 1:1 ratio.
One Iberia sweet spot is Zone 4 and 5 Business Class redemptions. This allows one-way bookings in Business Class from New York/Boston to Madrid for 34,000 Avios and Chicago/Los Angeles/Miami to Madrid for 42,500 Avios.
By comparison, these are 50,000 and 62,500 Avios on British Airways. Also, Iberia Plus doesn’t levy fuel surcharges when flying on Iberia-operated flights, increasing the savings.
Head For Points has a complete guide on how to transfer points between the two programs. One key thing to note is that your Iberia Plus account must be 90 days old and must have earned at least one Avios point to be able to purchase and transfer miles.
The easiest way to fulfil this requirement is to simply credit your next Qantas or oneworld flight, car hire or hotel stay to Iberia Plus since it’s a oneworld member airline. Iberia Plus also regularly runs discounted award redemption offers.
Making bookings using Avios
The British Airways website is one of the most complete search engines around for displaying partner award availability. It includes Qantas and the other oneworld airlines that fly to Australia. You can see exactly how many reward seats are remaining.
While most itineraries should be bookable online, you may need to call up if you’re having difficulties. You might get shorter wait times by contacting their Singapore office at +65 6622 1747.
An alternative way to get Avios: transfer from Marriott Bonvoy and/or Amex Membership Rewards
The other easy way for Australians to acquire Avios is by transferring through Marriott Bonvoy, which is a points partner of American Express Membership Rewards. If you’re short of Avios and Marriott Bonvoy has its own ‘buy points promotion’, you could consider going down that avenue instead.
In 2021, I went down this road when I wanted to secure Easter 2022 Business Class seats with Avios, but only Marriott Bonvoy was running a promotion at the time.
Until 30 September 2022, there’s also a nifty 50% transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy.
Summing up
The best use of Avios is for Business Class travel on short- to medium-haul flights in Australia, Asia and the US. With Qatar Airways thrown into the mix, it certainly opens up more options as well. Keep an eye out for future Avios sales and you may be able to secure a Business Class flight at a reasonable price.
Read all our other guides for buying points →
This content contains affiliate links from which Point Hacks may earn commissions from transactions generated from new customers, bookings and general enquiries. Find out more here.
Thanks to TK from the Point Hacks Community for writing up this guide to buying Avios! Recent updates by Brandon Loo.
This article is so valuable, thank you for taking the time to put it together.
Recently transferred 230k MR points to Bonvoy on the 50% bonus Amex to Bonvoy promotion in May. Then transferred from Bonvoy to BA (became over 91k with the automatic Bonvoy bonus of 5k for every 60k points transferred to airlines) and then linked to Qatar. Booked my first ever award flight for next year. Very stressful, lots of sleep lost worrying about what and how to go about using my points to get that flight as soon as booking opened for this time next year, but SO worth it. Thanks so much for your tips and tricks, they really helped me. It’s hard finding Aussie points info. Qsuites, here I come! I’m disappointed about the 3:1 ratio the points experience when coming out of Bonvoy, but $372.64 [in taxes, etc.] for Qatar Business class to Europe… well I never! (Decided not to risk availability via Velocity, another dilemma I had.)
Brendan
If you set up an account which BA and register your OZ home address , it defaults it defaults to charging you in USD.
If You update the home address/ country , will it definitely default to charging you in Euros?
Do they ask for confirmation of a home address or is this simply to send you pamphlets and membership card ??
I can only report on my personal experience – changing my address to one in the UK updated the billing currency instantly. There was no confirmation required.
We are sorry but to purchase Avios you must have at least one Avios point in your Executive Club account. To find out more about the many ways to collect Avios click here.
I got this message didn’t know it was a requirement.
IS there any way to get a point quickly?
Shopping through their online mall may be a quick way but I’m they do allow a lot of leeway:
You could also credit an upcoming oneworld or Qantas flight to BA if you have one.
FYI, The British Avios.com (Just the currency-branded website) is closing down and that purchase link is broken (Brexit fallout?).
(Ed: Feel free to delete this comment if it becomes irrelevant after an edit)
I thought I read that a while back. Updated!
Would be great if you could add a little note about points expiry and if there are ways to keep points alive, and how this is achieved at the end of these points buying articles.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Anyone else having trouble with buying Avios on the British Airways site?
When I click the ‘Treat Yourself’ link I’m just returned to Executive Club account home page. If somebody can get past the ‘Treat Yourself’ button, can you post a link to the next page so I can access it?
Thanks!
Same problem here. I wonder if the offer’s expired?
Same thing, I though you could buy Avios at any time though. Does anyone know how to fix this?
Hey Keith,
Trying to set up a new account, anyway around the following:
EXECUTIVE CLUB NO LONGER OPERATE IN THE SOUTH WEST PACIFIC REGION
(Australia, New Zealand, South Pacific Islands)
Thanks
I know they don’t allow Australian or New Zealand addresses on accounts but I haven’t heard of this error before. Try changing the country/language to the UK or USA and see how you go. Can you let us know?
Hey guys,
New to BA FF. i have just gone to sign up and apparently BA isn’t accepting any new applications from Australia, I get the below.
“As a result, British Airways will no longer be accepting:
Existing Executive Club Members transferring from other regions in the world into the Executive Club Programme in the South West Pacific region and
New enrolment applications for the Executive Club programme in this region
For customers who would like to enrol in a frequent flyer programme in the South West Pacific region, we firmly believe our oneworld partner, Qantas, has an outstanding frequent flyer program. Members of the Qantas Frequent Flyer programme can earn and redeem Points when travelling on British Airways flights.”
Does anyone know a way around this?
I know they don’t allow Australian or New Zealand addresses on accounts but I haven’t heard of this error before. Try changing the country/language to the UK or USA and see how you go. Can you let us know?
Hey Matt,
Used an address in London, got an account, however can’t buy Miles. It takes me in circles, from the BA Exec page to the buy miles ‘info’ page, in a loop.
Feeling really dumb right now! Trying to book SYD-MEL business on the BA website, and it keeps coming up with ‘British Airways does not have traffic rights to operate directly between these two cities.’ as an error. oBviously it’s not searching partners somehow.
Anyone have any ideas on what I’m doing wrong?? Even clicked the link in the guide to book and it makes no difference…
If you haven’t figured this out yet it seems like you could be trying to book as a paid flight, not an Avios redemption. Look for the dropdown which says ‘Book using money’ (I think) and change it to ‘Book using Avios’ once you are logged in to your account.
No my address is here in Perth, I was unaware of the No Australians rule when I joined the Exec Club. But my point is, when you did your sums, did you convert the GB Pounds to US, or A$?. The differential in the two figures don’t compute. If your US$ figure is right, then the A$ figure I get should have been in excess of A$2000 with the current conversion . Any thoughts?
I joined BAEC in 2015, putting in Austria as my country but was unable to purchase getting the message:
The Executive Club account you specified is not eligible to purchase Avios.
Anyone knows why?
I had the same problem. I contacted the executive club and they advised that you must have at least 1 point in your account before you can buy points.
Yes. I got around this by buying 1000 avios on avios.com (I had already created an account there but it had never been used till now), then transferred them to my British Airways Executive Club account. The whole process only took a few minutes – the avios were credited and transferred almost instantly.
Hi Keith – great newsletter as always. I have a BA Exec account, though have only used it thus far for researching reward flight availability. I just did a dummy purchase for the max amount, and though I was blocked from proceeding any further, the price quoted was GBP1615, which I just converted @ A$2742, which is not too far off your quote of US$2775. Can you suggest a reason for the discrepancy? I can only think that the BA web site thinks I’m from the US, but that does’nt seem logical.
Generally the BA purchase Avios pages ask you to log in before you buy, and from there they look at the address on your account – which I am guessing might US-based?
I’ve had an Avios account for over twelve months but never used it. I just went to purchase points as part of this promotion and the BA webpage popped up an error saying “The Executive Club account you specified is not eligible to purchase Avios”.
Anyone had this problem and/or know why this error would be appearing?
I tried to buy Avios points for a internal flight in Peru, but come back with this account not eligible to purchase points? I have an executive account with BA. Any ideas what is happening here?
Thanks
Brendan
if the limit for ba exec is 35,000, how can you buy 135,000? Do you have to buy into Iberia instead?
The current offer has an increased maximum – I’ve made that clearer that that can happen in the guide.
There is only one problem…as an Australian I am no longer allowed to join BA executive program. So unfortunately I can’t join and hopefully get an offer like this is the future!
Suggestion: consider borrowing an address from a friend or family member overseas.
Hi
This paragraph is extracted from above:
Avios are the frequent flyer loyalty currency of IAG (International Consolidated Airlines Group), the parent company of Qantas Oneworld partners airlines British Airways and Spanish flag carrier Iberia – and points can be transferred between the THREE programs with ease.
How can I transfer my Avios to Qantas? Thanks.
Wording could have been better – the three programs being referenced for transfers are Avios.com, Iberia Plus, and British Airways Executive Club. You can’t transfer between Qantas and any of those three programs, but you can redeem Avios in Iberia and in British Airways programs for Qantas flights.
Hi Keith
I can’t seem to book business class flights eg MEL-SYD on the Iberia Plus site. Do you know if this is deliberate?
My understanding is that the Iberia site doesn’t show Qantas flights for booking. That said, you are better of transferring your points to British Airways and booking there instead, as the pricing is likely cheaper for short flights like MEL-SYD.
Very handy guide thanks. Having learned of the benefits and best usage scenarios of Avios I am now a member of BAEC, Iberia Plus and Avios.com and intend to leverage the power of this points currency going forward.
Hey Keith, is it possible to sign up for Iberia and Avios.com without a UK address? Or do all three Avios programs require a UK address of some form?
Iberia is possible, yes. BA requires an address outside Australia/NZ (an annoying rule). They will send out a membership card to that address and that’s it.
Buying on Iberia currently a better option than avios.com
Noted via HfP – will add to the post
The annual purchase limit has been raised to 100,000 for Iberia.
Thanks, updated!
Hi Keith:
I have BA account but not Iberia. Can I buy with this promotion if I just create my Iberia account now? AA, AS (and formerly US) requires the account to be at least 14 days old, and LM requires account to be pre-existing before the promotion. Wondering if the same rule applies to Iberia?
In theory, you need to have an account with some earn/redemption activity in Iberia to be able to purchase Avios – that could be a (free) transfer from BA to Iberia, to my understanding.
However some commenters on Head for Points reckon this is not being enforced, so it’s definitely worth a try regardless.