Transferring & Redeeming Avios: An Overview of Airline Partnerships

Qatar Airways and British Airways aircraft tails
Qatar Airways and British Airways both use Avios as their common reward points currency, but you can do different things with Avios depending on which airline account they’re sitting in. Image: Qatar Airways.

Six frequent flyer programs use Avios as their common points currency. Four of these airlines are owned by International Airlines Group (IAG).

You can transfer Avios between your own accounts in most of these programs at a 1:1 rate, with no minimum transfer required. However, one Avios in British Airways Executive Club is not necessarily worth the same as one Avios in Finnair Plus – and so on.

The following programs all use Avios as their reward points currency:

  • British Airways Executive Club
  • Iberia Plus
  • Qatar Airways Privilege Club
  • Finnair Plus
  • Aer Lingus AerClub
  • Vueling Club

Finnair Plus joined the Avios family most recently, in March 2024.

Although they each use Avios, these six programs all have different airline partners and award charts. It can get a quite confusing, so we’ve created a couple of diagrams that might make things a bit easier!

Which airlines can you redeem Avios to fly with?

As British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways and Finnair are all part of the Oneworld alliance, you can redeem Avios within any of these four programs for reward flights on Oneworld airlines. The full selection of Oneworld airlines is shown below in top-right box.

In addition to flights with Oneworld airlines, British Airways Executive Club Avios can be redeemed for Aer Lingus flights. Iberia Plus Avios can be redeemed for Avianca and Vueling flights. Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios can be put towards flights on seven non-Oneworld airlines as shown below, including JetBlue. Finally, Finnair Plus Avios are useful to book Juneyao Airlines flights.

JetBlue Mint class on the A321neo LR
You can redeem Qatar Airway Avios for JetBlue’s “Mint” Business Class. Photo: JetBlue.

If you want to book a reward flight on British Airways, also note that British Airways Executive Club may make more seats available on BA-operated flights to members of its own frequent flyer program.

Aer Lingus and Vueling are not part of the Oneworld alliance and have their own partners. As shown in the bottom-right box, Aer Lingus AerClub and Vueling Club Avios can only be used for reward flights on Aer Lingus, Vueling, Iberia or British Airways. Bookings using both AerClub and Vueling Club Avios can be made on Avios.com, rather than the airlines’ websites.

Aer Lingus A330
You can redeem AerClub, Vueling Club or BA Executive Club Avios for Aer Lingus flights. Photo: Aer Lingus.

The airline partnerships of each of these six airlines are shown visually in this diagram:

Overview of airline partners of each of the six airlines using Avios
Overview of airline partners of each of the six airlines using Avios as of 2024.

Transferring Avios between programs

In theory, you can transfer Avios at a 1:1 rate between any of the six programs that use this as their currency. However, there are some restrictions. For example:

  • To transfer Avios to or from Iberia Plus, you must have joined at least 90 days ago and had activity in your Iberia Plus account within the last 3 years
  • You cannot transfer Iberia Plus Avios to British Airways Executive Club if you’re using a British Airways household account

You can only transfer Avios between accounts in your own name. Make sure that your personal details (including date of birth and any middle names) are identical when transferring Avios between your accounts.

You cannot transfer directly between all six programs. For example, you can only transfer Qatar Airways or Finnair Avios to/from British Airways Executive Club. But you can get around this by completing multiple transfers. This diagram summarises your 1:1 Avios transfer options:

Transfer Avios between British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, Finnair Plus, Aer Lingus AerClub and Vueling Club
You can transfer Avios between these frequent flyer programs.

There isn’t one centralised website where you can transfer Avios between any of these programs. The website to visit will depend on which programs you want to transfer between. This One Mile At A Time article has a good summary.

If in doubt, convert your Avios to British Airways Executive Club Avios and go from there! There’s no limit to the amount of 1:1 Avios transfers you can make between your own frequent flyer accounts.

Earning Avios in Australia

If you live in Australia and you’d like to accumulate Avios, one option is to buy British Airways Avios. You can even purchase a British Airways Avios subscription to get a monthly deposit of Avios in your account for up to 35% off the usual price.

Some Australian credit cards earn points that you can convert into Qatar Airways Avios. You could also transfer PayRewards points to Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

If you have American Express Membership Rewards points, you can also transfer these into your British Airways Executive Club account indirectly by first transferring your Amex points into Marriott Bonvoy. You can then transfer your Marriott Bonvoy points into British Airways Executive Club. During special promotions, you may even be able to get a 50% bonus on transfers from American Express Membership Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy.

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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Great article! I have been thinking more about my Avios since QR moved to Avios, there's a lot of flexibility there.

For the bit in the article about how to earn Avios in Australia, another useful option is Commonwealth Bank Awards which let you transfer to Qatar Airways Avios (albeit at a rather poor rate of 3.5:1).

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Worked seamlessly for me a few months ago. Went to book a QSuites seat to Europe through Privilege Club; the QR booking process went to BA, took the necessary additional Avios from there, and ticketed no problem.

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I'll be hitting Qantas Lifetime Gold soon, so considering moving to a new loyalty program once I do, as Lifetime Platinum is ridiculously unachievable and I baulk at continuing to pay the Qantas premium of maintaining Platinum every year.

Qatar's program is appealing because it allows redemption on both OneWorld and a range of non-OneWorld airlines, including - importantly for domestic travel - Virgin Australia.

But given that Avios is the currency for five airlines, it might also be an option to join British Airways (I usually travel to the UK at least once a year and typically choose BA for intra-Europe travel), and transfer Avios between BA and QR.

There's also the (very slim, but still infinitely greater than if sticking with Qantas) possibility I might do enough flying in the next decade that I could hit the BA equivalent of Qantas Lifetime Platinum, ie Lifetime OneWorld Emerald.

On the other hand, achieving the required 2 or 4 eligible flights (ie BA or Iberia operated flights) would be tricky, especially should there be years when I don't visit the UK.

Anyway, my question is: I get a lot of my points via credit card spend, so is there an Australian credit or charge card that earns Avios directly, rather than via doing the Amex-Marriot-BA two-step outlined in the article, or the 3.5:1 Commbank transfer that Revenge noted above?

The ideal scenario of course would be if Qantas adopted Avios, but naturally the chances of that are Buckley's.

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But given that Avios is the currency for five airlines, it might also be an option to join British Airways (I usually travel to the UK at least once a year and typically choose BA for intra-Europe travel), and transfer Avios between BA and QR.

Join both (for free). You only need chase status on one, but sometimes there are unique earning Avios opportunities on one but not the other. AND joining now will help if there is some pre-qualification period with such an offer.

As Matt will no doubt tell us, your Avios sit in the account of the FF program you've earned in, but are accessible from the others when needed. No need to transfer (at least between BA and QR), because, as I noted above, the QR booking system (and I imagine the BA one too) will automatically go over to the other account for you to approve that it grabs enough Avios to fulfil the fare.

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I got 15K Avios for subscribing to Economist (via Canada as cheaper). Im also TFering my Amex Rewards to Marriot Bonvoy and then to Avios. 60K Amex = 60K Mariott with 50% current bounus to end of May. 60K Mariott can be Tfed for 25K Avios. So currently 60K Amex gets you 25K Avios which is as good as it gets i think for Aussie credit cards.

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The convoluted structure and ties between the Avios airlines and partners makes this a complicated proposition for most people. But it’s arguably one of the most lucrative FFPs right now and we’ll worth taking them time to understand and pursue.

Another way to earn Avios which wasn’t touched on in the article is by simply flying with Qantas, their Oneworld partners and affiliates airlines. The key here is that it must be a QF marketed flight. So that means you could earn Avios points while flying Emirates, KLM, Jetstar, Air Calin and many other partner airlines, as long as it’s marketed by QF (QF flight number).

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Can you get QF status credits when using BA or QR Avios for a reward flight at all?

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Can you get QF status credits when using BA or QR Avios for a reward flight at all?

No, but if a QF points Club member you may be able to earn points.

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No, but if a QF points Club member you may be able to earn points.

Thanks, that makes sense

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No, but if a QF points Club member you may be able to earn points.

Don’t you mean SCs? Redeem Avios for a QF flight and add your QFF details should earn the applicable SCs if PC/PC+.

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