Collecting Avios via Barclays Rewards – how it works

Collecting Avios via Barclays Rewards – how it works

There are many opportunities to collect British Airways Avios while you shop, but if you fit the criteria, the Barclays Rewards scheme can give you a passive Avios income, allowing you to pile up those points towards a bargain flight without too much thought.

What are Barclays Avios Rewards?

Barclays Avios Rewards is simply the name of a branded Avios scheme. The rewards earned through using the bank’s products can be redeemed in the usual way to book flights with Avios.

To sign up for the scheme requires you to hold certain premium Barclays bank accounts. It comes with the perks of 1,500 monthly Avios, a joining bonus, an anniversary flight upgrade reward, and the ability to earn further Avios by using certain other Barclays products. It costs £12 a month and is the only way to earn Avios from a UK bank account.

The bank calculates you should collect at least 20,500 Avios by the end of your first year on the scheme - enough for a return British Airways economy flight to Nice in peak season.

You can also pick up British Airways Avios using certain Barclaycards, which don’t require Barclays Avios Rewards membership.

How can you collect Avios through Barclays?

To join Barclays Avios Rewards you must be a UK resident, have a British Airways Executive Club membership, so your Avios can be transferred, agree to paperless statements, and register with the Barclays app. You must also give up your right to Barclays Blue Rewards – you can’t collect these and British Airways Avios.

Crucially, you must also be a customer of either Barclays Premier or Barclays Wealth, which are aimed at customers with well above average income or substantial savings.

To qualify for Barclays Premier you must have a pre-tax annual income of £75,000 being paid into the account (individually, not jointly). For the Barclays Personal Wealth account, you must have at least £100,000 in savings or investments with Barclays.

Once one of these is in place you’re automatically given 1,500 Avios a month (that’s 18,000 a year). You’ll also bag a British Airways return flight cabin upgrade voucher as an anniversary present at the end of each 12 months.

And, you’ll be given a rather nice welcome bonus of 25,000 Avios if you’re new to Barclays, or 2,500 if you’re an existing customer.

How to collect even more Avios with Barclays Once you’re a member of the Barclays Avios Rewards scheme you can boost your earning potential by signing up for some of the bank’s other financial products.

If you take out a mortgage with Barclays, you’ll net a welcome bonus of 2,000 Avios and then earn 700 Avios each month.

A loan for over £5,000 can earn you a 2,000 Avios welcome bonus, then 200 Avios per month.

Barclays’ insurance policies can also be Avios earners. You’ll bag from 150 to 500 per month for the first 12 months for a life insurance policy and 75 per month for your first year with Barclays’ home insurance and/or contents insurance.

Collecting with credit cards

Another way to collect towards Avios reward flights with Barclays, which is open to a wider range of budgets, is with one of the bank’s two dedicated Avios credit cards.

These don’t require you to join the £12 a month Barclays Avios Rewards scheme.

Barclaycard Avios has no monthly fee, while Barclaycard Avios Plus has a monthly fee of £20 but entitles users to greater rewards.

Cardholders collect one British Airways Avios for every £1 spent within their credit limit on the free card, or 1.5 Avios per £1 spent on the Barclaycard Avios Plus. Each card also has a welcome bonus for those who spend a certain amount within the first three months, which is higher if you’re new to Barclays, and higher again if you opt for Barclaycard Avios Plus.

As with the premium current accounts, there’s an opportunity to pick up a cabin upgrade voucher to use on your Avios reward flights. You’ll be given this if you spend £20,000 or more over the year on your Barclaycard Avios, or £10,000 or more on your Barclaycard Avios Plus.

If you use both a Barclays Avios current account and a credit card you’ll have the potential to earn two upgrade vouchers a year (handy if you’re not travelling solo).

Plus, if you have the Barclaycard Avios Plus, the bank will pay £5 into your current account monthly, essentially discounting your fees.

As is typical with rewards-style cards, interest rates are pretty high, so you’ll need to pay off your balance monthly to see the benefit. And of course, all financial products should be judged first on whether they’re right for you before you start considering the Avios perks.

Where can you track your Avios balance?

There’s a handy Rewards section in the Barclays app where you can see how the Avios you’re earning are stacking up. You can also use the app to see your total Avios balance.

The best way to find Avios reward seats on British Airways

You can, of course, use the airline’s own BA Avios flight finder on its website to search for Avios reward flights seats in the usual way. However, BA only lets you search for availability on a single set of criteria at a time.

Use Reward Flight Finder instead and you’ll have a great deal more flexibility. You enter your search criteria once only and can set up alerts so you’ll be alerted when seats become available. You can set many alerts to different destinations and for different dates.

Our BA Avios flight finder comes with three membership tiers to help you maximise your opportunities to secure the best seats.

Free Bronze membership allows you to search for availability and to set up one alert, with RFF searching for new availability once a day.

Silver membership, for £2.99 a month, gives you extra search help, including a map tool to see the best options across BA’s route network (handy if you’re not yet sure where you want to go). You can set up a maximum of 5 alerts simultaneously for different routes and will be notified within an hour of RFF finding new availability.

As a top tier Gold member you can, for £4.99 a month, set up a maximum of 20 simultaneous alerts. You’ll be notified immediately when new reward seats are found on your desired routes.

How to book flights with Avios once you’ve found seats on RFF Once RFF has alerted you, you must book those Avios reward flights immediately, without delay, in the usual way on BA.com, confident that you’ve got the best deal.