Avios is closing, but British Airways' frequent flyers should be fine

Avios is closing but Avios will continue. Confused? Avios is the loyalty points scheme which acts as air miles currency in British Airways’ frequent flyer program, Executive Club. But it is also a standalone rewards program outside of British Airways too. You can collect Avios points at a whole range of venues, like shops, without being a member of British Airways or taking a single flight.

Or, at least, you did. Avios will now be exclusively the air miles points of the Executive Club from May 21, 2018 and anyone who has an Avios account but not an Executive Club account will be automatically moved into Executive Club. They say: “You’ll still be able to collect and spend Avios with many of the partners you do today, you’ll just have a new home to do it from.”

New British Airways Executive Club accounts will be set up for Avios customers if they don’t already have one (if they do they can choose to transfer their Avios across now) and British Airways Executive Club will be in touch with customers’ new account details and how to activate it. 

Members’ Avios balances will be moved across to the British Airways Executive Club by the end of July 2018. Customers can opt out before 20 May 2018 and they will then have six months in which to spend their Avios.

Members of the airline loyalty programmes Vueling Club and AerClub can continue to use the avios.com platform after the closure of the UK Avios Travel Rewards Program. These changes have no effect on earning and using air miles across the Oneworld frequent flyer airline network of which British Airways is a senior member.