Avios: What are They and How to Transfer

(Warning! This the content of post is an redemption intermediate skill. Even then, it may be overwhelming as you read through it - but it's good to be aware of; or at least have the option to come back to)

I did something really stupid. I booked this big elaborate 15th Wedding Anniversary trip for us, which consisted of booking six flights for each of us (some under one reservation, and some under separate reservations due to how/where our points were coming). I share this extra tid-bid of information to be fair to myself to say: there are a LOT of pieces to this trip's puzzle that I'm managing.

What are Avios?

Avios are the name of the points system used by certain airlines: British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus, Loganair, Finnair, and Qatar Airways. What's nice about this group of airlines is that you can earn or move points amongst them!

Which means, if one of these airlines has a bank transfer bonus, you can take advantage of the transfer bonus, earn extra points, and then move the Avios points to the airline you want to book with!

In June, I utilized a 30% transfer bonus from American Express to British Airways to fly from Maldives (MLE) to Doha (DOH), to catch our long-haul Qatar Airways flight back to North America. Surprised to hear that British Airways flies from MLE to DOH? That's because they don't!

But, thanks to OneWorld airline alliance, I was able to transfer my Amex points to British Airways to get the 30% bonus points, and book my Qatar Airways flight on British Airways website. (This is fairly intermediate, but can go a long way, once you pick up on how to utilize airline alliances to your benefit!) 

Anyways, what did I do? 

Here I am, at the beginning of October, with our trip being in October. I was typing up a clean itinerary to share with our parents and I realized that my flight from MLE to DOH isn't what I thought I booked...

Who knows where I'm going with this?...

Y'all those flight times I booked are NOT in the afternoon, but in the wee early hours of the morning! CRAP!!!!!!

I immediately searched British Airways to see if they had a daytime flight available, and they didn't! eFFFFF! 

Thankfully, I knew that typically flights available through airline alliance partners are saver flights (aka flights for less); once those saver priced flights sell out; generally/often, you can still find standard priced flights direct with the airline you want to fly.

So, I searched Qatar Airways (QA) and sure enough, found the DAY time flights we needed! I cancelled my British Airway flights and within 12 hours had the original points I used to book back in my BA account; which leads me to sharing...

How to Transfer Avios Points Among Avios Airlines

Again, in my case, I need to book my flight directly on Qatar based on award flight availability... but I had 35K flights "stuck" with British Airways. What's a girl to do?! 

Since both, BA and QA are in OneWorld alliance and utilize Avios points, I was able to move my BA points over to QA I'm sharing this because you may also want to use this technique in the future, to take advantage of a transfer bonus with one Avios-airline, but book with another.

Here's now to move your Avios points amongst Avios airlines:

1. Log into Avios.com (assuming you already have accounts set up with the two airlines you want to transfer between). In my case, I have a both a British Airways and Qatar Airways account; but I haven't linked my QA account to avios.com

(Note you will not find this ability if you look directly in your British Airways account; you have to go to Avios website)

2. Once logged in, select "Transfer Avios" under "Manager your Avios"

3. You'll be taken to this page, which gives you the options of which other Avios-using airline you want to move your points to. Select the Airline your are transferring points from.

4. Select the airline you want to transfer points to. For my situation, I selected Qatar Airways, and was taken to this page to link my QA account:

5. I went through a process to verify my information with British Airways and then was taken to Qatar Airways website to log in and linked my two accounts:

6. Enter the amount of points you want to move and submit. My points moved from British Airways to Qatar Airways instantly; I logged out of my QA account and back in, and there they were!

Reasons Why You to Move Avios

Here are a few reasons why you may want to keep this skill in the back of your mind:

• All major banks have at least one Avios-OneWorld airline they transfer to. This means, you can combine your points amongst different banks to book a flight.
• For example; if you wanted to go to the Maldives and fly on QSuites (Qatar's Business Class, which is said to be the best in the world and industry), you can transfer Amex points directly to Qatar, but Qatar isn't a transfer partner of Chase or Capital One. Similar to the example above, you could transfer Chase points to British Airways, and then move those now Avios points from British Airways to Qatar; essentially pooling your points from different banks.

• Similarly, if you have points sitting in one Avios airline account, you can move them to another Avios airline to pool your points and not have points just sitting in an airline account (remember, flexible points in banks do not expire, but once they are moved to a travel partner, like an airline, they generally expire if they're not used in 2-3 years).

• Take advantage of transfer bonuses!

Summary

Avios Airlines are an intermediate skill to have and understand, but once you know that you can book points among this grouping of airlines, it can help you get better value from your points and transfer bonuses!

As a reminder, right now through 10/31/25, Chase has a 30% transfer bonus with British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia (which is kind of funny, since they all live in the OneWorld Avios family and you could move your points amongst these airlines already). Will you take advantage?

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> Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

> Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!