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British Airways claims to be one of the oldest airlines in the world, with its predecessors formed in 1919. Aside from operating the first ever international scheduled flight between London and Paris, the current form of British Airways was established in 1974 and is one of the founding members of the Oneworld alliance.
The British Airways Club is the airline's loyalty program. It uses Avios as its currency — along with other IAG members, Iberia and Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways, and Finnair. In terms of expiration, BA has a reasonably generous policy. Here is all you need to know about whether British Airways Avios expire — and what you can do to keep your Avios active.
Do British Airways Avios Expire?
Your British Airways Avios will expire if you don't generate qualifying activity in 36 months. Per the British Airways Club terms and conditions:
“Your Avios won't expire as long as you collect, spend, buy or share at least one Avios every 36 months. If you don't collect or use your Avios at all for three years, your Avios will expire and be removed, so remember to take action before that time's up.”
What about household accounts?
British Airways lets members combine Avios with other members of the same household. But how does that affect expiration? British Airways directly addresses this question on its website:
“Each member of a household account needs to collect, spend, share or buy at least one of their Avios every three years. If they don’t, all the Avios they’ve individually collected will expire.”
However, in practice, we've noticed that redemptions from any one account seem to reset the expiration date for all household members. That's because Avios are spent proportionally from all connected accounts — generating activity on all accounts. But we recommend checking each member's expiration dates to ensure that a redemption creates qualifying activity.
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Can expired Avios be reinstated?
Once expired, your Avios cannot be reinstated. However, several online sources suggest that if they expired recently (within 3 months), you may be able to get them reinstated by calling customer service. However, this is an unofficial policy, so don't hang your hopes on it.
How To Avoid British Airways Avios Expiration
You have plenty of options to avoid losing your Avios: Earn Avios, spend Avios, or transfer points into Avios. Doing any of these activities will extend your Avios expiration date.
But if you're in a pinch, the fastest way to extend your expiration date is to purchase British Airways Avios, transfer in Avios from another Avios-utilizing airline, or book an award flight (it doesn't have to be an expensive one).
If you've got time to plan ahead, here are even more ways you can avoid Avios expiration.
Earn British Airways Avios
British Airways Club offers a large number of ways to earn Avios, including:
- Flying with British Airways or one of its partner airlines.
- Stay with one of BA’s extensive list of hotel partners. From Accor, IHG, and Marriott to Airbnb and Avios Hotels, you can earn Avios on a vast array of hotel bookings.
- Rent a car with Avis or Budget.
- Shop with one of British Airways' shopping partners — including The Bicester Village Shopping Collection and Heathrow Rewards. It is worth noting that most of these partners are in Europe.
- Purchase Avios with a minimum of 1,000 and a maximum of 200,000 per year.
- Transfer Avios, sending up to 27,000 Avios to one member per year, up to a maximum of 162,000 Avios.
- Earn Avios for everyday spending when you pay with your British Airways Visa Signature® Card (Rates & Fees).
- Earn 75,000 Avios after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.
- Earn 3 Avios per $1 spent on purchases with British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and LEVEL.
- Earn 2 Avios per $1 spent on hotel accommodations when purchased directly with the hotel.
- 10% off British Airways flights starting in the US when you book through the website provided in your welcome materials.
- Every calendar year you make $30,000 in purchases on your British Airways Visa card, you'll earn a Travel Together Ticket good for two years.
- Pay no foreign transaction fees when you travel abroad.
- Simply tap to pay with your contactless British Airways Visa Signature Card. Just look for the contactless symbol at checkout. It's fast, easy and secure!
- Member FDIC
- 3X Avios per $1 spent on purchases with British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and LEVEL
- 2X Avios per $1 spent on hotel accommodations
- 1X Avios for every $1 spent on all other purchases
Redeem British Airways Avios
- Book award flights with British Airways or partner airlines.
- Book hotel stays.
- Rent a car with Budget or Avis.
- Redeem your Avios for a wide range of experiences across the world.
Transfer British Airways Avios
If you need to top up your BA account, you can always transfer some flexible points to the airline. You can transfer points from many of the major flexible point currencies to the British Airways Club:
As far as transfers go, flexible points are not your only option to boost your BA Avios balance. Avios are unique in that multiple airlines share the currency, and you can transfer them between the various airline programs. You can transfer Avios between all of the following programs.
- Aer Lingus Aer Club
- British Airways Club
- Finnair Plus
- Iberia Plus
- Loganair
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Vueling
You can check out our comprehensive how-to guide on transferring Avios between British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways, Aer Lingus, Vueling, Loganair, and Finnair.
Track Your Avios Expiration Through AwardWallet
The fact that British Airways Avios expire after 36 months is a double-edged sword. It is long enough to allow you to accumulate healthy Avios balances. However, it is also long enough for you to get complacent, and your expiration deadline creeps up on you and causes you to lose your Avios.
The easiest way to prevent this is to use AwardWallet to keep track of your Avios balance. This way, you will receive a timely reminder if your Avios are about to expire.
You can add your British Airways Club account to AwardWallet. If your Avios are about to expire, we'll give you a heads-up. We'll even show you when your Avios are set to expire.
Related: How To Track Your Rewards Using AwardWallet
Our Take
British Airways Avios has one of the more generous expiration policies compared to other global airlines. 12- and 24-month expiration policies are typical, so the fact that British Airways Avios expire after 36 months is quite generous. It gives you time to take action to keep your Avios balance alive. Couple this longevity with some excellent redemption sweet spots, and Avios are an attractive option.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: British Airways Visa Signature® Card (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Our family pools Avios. Does each person have to independently prevent their Avios from expiring?
Great question and one that I’m updating this post to address. BA addresses this directly on its website:
“How long are my Avios valid for if I’m part of a household account?
Each member of a household account needs to collect, spend, share or buy at least one of their Avios every three years. If they don’t, all the Avios they’ve individually collected will expire.”
When Water joined Avios, I transferred my near to expiration British Airways Avios to Qatar, earned a bonus at the time, and so far they have remained active in my Qatar account (although I will prolly have to transfer them back again soon since I am getting close to Qatar’s expiration now unless I get a redemption opportunity soon).
I’m sorry I don’t understand this e mail message regarding my Ba Avios expiring??
We use BA a lot and have much more Avios than what you are showing
Can you advise please??
Jean: It seems you need to manually update your British Airways account on AwardWallet. To start, head to your AwardWallet account list (https://awardwallet.com/account/list/). Find the “British Airways (Executive Club)” line and click the update button on the right. Perhaps we need a new password or some sort of captcha authorization.
If you need further help, our AwardWallet Support team is available to troubleshoot more specific issues: https://awardwallet.com/contact
My BA point is expiring in 4days. I converted some Nectar Point to Avios to avoid the expiration but the expiration date has not changed. Could someboday advise how I can extend the expiry date please. I have lot of Avios points and do not want to lose them. Thank you…
In the UK transfer from Nectar points (Nectar.com) is a new way to earn Avios and so prevent expiration and reset the 36 month “clock”.
My BA Executive Club points are due to expire in June. I have two questions
1. Can I keep them from expiring if I transfer some Chase Ultimate Rewards points to my BA Executive Club account?
2. Do I have to have a BA credit card to shop on British Airways Avios eStore?
I value your expertise! Thanks,
Brooke
1. Yes, a transfer from Chase will reset the expiration.
2. You don’t need a BA credit card; just log in to your BA account and use their link to shop. You can pay using any card and you’ll still get credit as long as you click through the eShop link to the merchant site.
The BA shopping portal in the US links to Groupon, which has some $1 items. There are several caveats about what purchases qualify for Avios, but this can be a very cheap way to extend the lifetime of one’s points.
The BA Avios eStore is great for collecting a few points to make sure the account is kept active. I used to use ebay on there a lot, but I’m not sure that it is still there. There are plenty of other great stores on there though, so it is easy to keep avios from expiring.
Thanks for the heads up with this: British Airways is not pausing expiration of Avios due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Understandably since they already have a generous expiry policy.
Articles like this are a great reminder to stay on top of expiration dates… even though I have 18 months left til expiration I’ll be looking to their shopping portal to reset it back to 36 months. And yes the fuel charges can be steep the miles are worth keeping alive.
The 36 months rule is quite good to keep live the Avios account with BA.
And of course we have AwardWallet to keep an eye on this 😉
BA Avios are a great mileage currency to use for one segment flights, esp. domestic on AA so you can avoid the exorbitant fuel surcharges which sometimes are almost as much as just paying cash for a ticket….makes me wonder how BA stays competitive at all with such outrageous surcharges….if they didn’t have AA domestic flights with Avios I wouldn’t bother with Avios at all.
If you live jn the Uak, they’re basically the main game and don’t have to worry too much about competition.
Wouldn’t Virgin Red / Virgin Atlantic be a solid alternative for UK residents?
This is great and very helpful. I have some BA miles and just wondering the ways to avoid the expiration.
Much more generous than AAdvantage’s 18 month validity
I am buying anyway books from Kobo Rakuten so I am buying them through BA British e-store to prevent Avios from wxpiring and to earn a little Avios
Always worth highlighting that moving your Avios to/from Iberia Plus does NOT reset the clock.
They should pause or retroactively pause the 36 month clock. Absurd!
it is certainly a benevolent expiration date. and the possibility of renewing the validity of the points is fair, as it requires the client to have a minimum of activity in 3 years, which is very reasonable.
I understand ur perspective, but I’d strongly suggest that having no expiration at all, which several airlines have chosen to do, is the standard for a benevolent policy. 3 years is simply better than one. But, is there really a difference between 1 and 3 when compared to none?
I have used almost all my Avios miles for short domestic flights within the United States on American Airlines. I would never fly British airways to London.
If only everyone’s expiration policy was as generous as BA’s!
Is refund considered an activity for the purpose of Avios expiry?
Good resource. Disappointed in Avios for not pausing/extending expiration due to COIVD like other airlines. Good suggestions to give me the activity I need to trigger another 36 months. (As noted above by another poster, transferring to Iberia account does not trigger another 36 months — a family member learned that one the hard way).
Avios miles are amazing for people living on the West coast because you can use them on Alaska Airlines flights (no fuel surcharge, plus the points are based on distance and not dollar’s spent). I definitely use my Avios more often that every 36 months.
I just transfer 200 Amex Membership Reward points into 250 Avios, and it’s pretty much instantaneous.
It is the other way around, 250 for 200, but same concept.
How do you transfer points from American Express to British Airways? I have lots of American Express Hilton Honors points :-). Would that work? And can you give me the phone number to call?
In case of car rental with Avis it is possible to collect 500 Avios in 1 day
A hotel booking through Pointshound or Rocketmiles also works.
First of all they give you three years which is a long period of time and on top of it it is very easy to earn avios in multiple ways that I simply cant imagine anyone loosing all their avios with BA
A good way to prevent miles from expiring is to donate a small amount (like 500 Miles) to a good cause such as Make a Wish and your points will stay active.
One of the better frequent flyer expiry policies out there! I just hope that they keep it this way!
Thanks so much for all the useful information! Without AW, I’d be losing points or forgetting points all the time. You keep me organized and always have ideas for earning more and more points! You ROCK!!!
Yeah, no real excuse for letting Avios expire. The shopping portal makes it easy to earn a couple of Avios whenever necessary.
Can I register for e-rewards to earn BA Points and keep my account alive or just by invitation only?
I’m not sure how the e-rewards program in the UK works; sorry!
I sometimes use BA as my frequent flyer program when renting a car from Avis.
Are the transfers between AVIOS and BA helps to keep account alive?
While transferring from American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards will extend the expiration date, transferring from Avios to British Airways Executive Club, or vice verse, will not extend the expiration date.
Transfers form Iberia, similarly, do not extend the expiry date either.
The only way I earn Avios now is via my UK credit card. I keep them in an avios.com account and transfer to BA when I need to use them.
In the UK you can also transfer the min amount of Clubcard Vouchers over to avios to keep your account from expI ring.
36 months is a long time!
The simplest way to prevent expiry is to convert 2000 CarlsonClub points IMHO
If you just want to earn a few Avios to keep the account active, the BA shopping portal is really useful, and includes US sites such as ebay.
Thanks rob! Perfect.
That’s a good idea to extend your Avios.