How to transfer Avios between British Airways, Qatar, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Finnair and Loganair

British Airways, Qatar, Aer Lingus, Iberia, Finnair, regional Scottish airline Loganair, and Vueling (a low-cost carrier) all share a common rewards currency: Avios. Strangely, despite sharing a currency, each program has its own loyalty program with differing fees, award prices, and rules.

Since they are partners, it’s often possible to book the same flights with multiple programs, but your cost will sometimes vary (either in the number of points required and/or taxes/fees). As a result, it’s a great idea to set up accounts in each program so that you can easily move points to the one that offers you the best award pricing for the flights you want to book.

Why you may want to transfer Avios between programs

Here are some examples of why you may want to move Avios from one program to another before booking awards:

• Aer Lingus flights often have much cheaper award fees when booked from AerLingus.com than with British Airways Avios.
• When using Avios to book short-distance Iberia flights, Aer Lingus and Vueling often have lower taxes and fees than British Airways or Iberia.
• Long-distance Iberia flights are sometimes the opposite, by a large margin. For example, when looking at a one-way Iberia business class award from Miami to Madrid, I saw that each program offered the same award price in Avios, but with drastically different fees.  British Airways and Iberia each charged $121.40 in fees, but Aer Lingus charged $829.80!

Fortunately, it’s easy to move points from one program to another so that you can book your award from the program that charges the least.

How to transfer Avios between programs

Create free accounts with each Avios program

Before you can move points around, you’ll need to open an account with each major program. Here are the links for signing up:

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

Important! Make sure to enter all of your personal information (name, email, birth date, address, phone) exactly the same way with each program.

How to Transfer Avios via Avios.com

Avios.com is now what all Avios programs use to transfer Avios back and forth between each other, a much easier system than the former one that required you to log into each, individual program.

The process is slightly different depending on if you’re transfering between BA, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus, and Loganair, or if you’re transfering between BA or Iberia and Finnair or Qatar.

We’ll show both of them below.

Log into Avios.com

Click this link to get to the Combine my Avios page (you’ll have to log in with your British Airways or Iberia credentials).

You’ll arrive at this page:

Transfering between British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus or Loganair

BA, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus and Loganair have one, central transfer tool. If you click through the button showing their logos above, you’ll arrive here:

Notice that there are some programs show a membership number (redacted from the image above) and balance. Those programs have already been linked to Avios.com. If you want to transfer to a program that hasn’t already been linked, you will be asked to

• log in to the account you wish to link
• pass two-factor authentication
• confirm the link

After doing that, your membership number and Avios balance will be shown beneath the linked account.

Once linked, select the program that you want to transfer FROM. You’ll then be asked to select the program that you want to transfer TO:

In the example above, I chose to transfer from BA, which is why it isn’t an option to transfer to. Choosing Logainair and click the “next” button takes to me to the following screen:

Choose how many Avios you’d like to move, click the “Transfer” button, and you’ll be asked to pass another two-factor authentication. Once you do, the Avios should be transfered instantly

Transfering between British Airways or Iberia and Finnair or Qatar

The process to transfer between British Airways or Iberia and Finnair or Qatar is slightly different, as those two programs have their own transfer tool. If you want to move Avios from Finnair or Qatar and Vueling, Aer Lingus or Loganair, you’ll have to move them to BA or Iberia first.

Back on the original page, you’ll notice that both Qatar and Finnair have their own buttons. Click the one that you’d like to use (in this example, I’ll show Finnair, but they’re both identical):

This will take you to the program-specific landing page. If you’ve already linked your Finnair or Qatar account, you’ll see the number and balance listed on the landing page. If not, you’ll be asked to link them in the same way that you link the other programs.

Scroll down on this page, and you’ll find the tool where you can enter the amount of Avios you’d like to move between programs:

The position shown above would transfer Finnair Avios to British Airways. In order to do the reverse, simply click the up/down arrow.

Choose how many Avios you’d like to move, click the “Transfer” button, and you’ll be asked to pass another two-factor authentication. Once you do, the Avios should be transfered instantly

Summary

It’s possible to move points between multiple programs that use Avios as their rewards currency. Points can be moved instantly between British Airways, Iberia, Qatar, Finnair, Aer Lingus, Loganair and Vueling via the Avios.com website.

For quick reference, here again is the link to get to the Combine my Avios page (you’ll have to log in with your BA or Iberia credentials).

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