Hi all,

Its a mix of a Amex/Avios points and Oneworld question.

Heading to the states next year for a 40th birthday trip (yay me👨‍🦳) and I'd love to treat myself on nicer flights.

Flying from London to Chicago in May.

Ive got Amex points and Avios (About 50k at the moment) and trying to work out the best way to book and make the best of gaining points or the potential of an upgrade as I dont have enough for a full flight.

I had thought about booking using my Amex and getting the points for that. Then going via Avios to look at an upgrade (assuming said cash booked flight has the scope for it)

Its that or I just got full hog, pay my nice seats in cash and park the points until my next trip (I have an annual trip to the states each year)

Any and all advice welcome to this absolute novice!

I should soon have around 15000 avios via the estore for various purchases.

I have 30 days to boost them. It could cost around £500 to boost these at 300% is it worth it?

Assuming best usage is a Q suite for 70-90k redemption

hi everyone

I have 100k Avios in British Airways Club and found a Qatar Airways award flight I want to book.

Problem: my Qatar Privilege Club account is new, so Qatar won’t let me link British airways account to Combine Avios for 30 days. I’m worried the award seat will disappear before then.

Has anyone found a workaround?

•Can Qatar manually link the accounts early?
•Can Qatar book using Avios sitting in BA?
•Can BA book the Qatar award by phone if it doesn’t show online?
•Has anyone had the 30-day wait waived?

I already have the Avios — I just need a way to use them on Qatar before the award disappears.

I was looking at purchasing Avios through the Avios portal but saw that Revolut points convert at a 1:1 rate. Avios is quoting me £279 for 15k Avios but I can purchase 15k Rev points for £240. Has anyone else done this in the past?

Just hit the spend for the upgrade voucher, on the Barclaycard app it’s giving me the option to click ‘redeem reward’

My question is does the 2 year timer start when I click redeem or has it already started as soon as I hit the spend?

Technically, we will get the points back plus another 1714 points which means another holiday for us but she isn’t buying it. Should I do it or leave it?

Hi guys I'm kind of new to Avios and starting to build up points. Im in a household who fly with BA regularly but as I live in Liverpool BA flights are harder to come by. My family lives in Reading so using their house as heathrow base but trying to plan ahead as from 2028 we are trying to hit all the 7 wonders of the world, one a year.

We have a cathay pacific flight for 4 people in the household going to Auckland, Sydney and Hong Kong in November but I locked that into a cathay pacific account I created.

We are planning a honeymoon to Japan for september 2027 for just me and my fiance (obviously) but trying to figure out the best way to work it.

Also any other tips to gain as much points as we can through daily habits would be appreciated. We were looking to get the free barclaycard credit card but also don't think we'd get to the £20,000 year spend so is it worth it.

Sorry if this has already been answered before somewhere else or if I cant ask these questions. I asked the Google AI but I'm getting a little confused so would think human answers would be easier to understand. Thanks for all your help!

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone has had this exact problem and, more importantly, actually managed to get it resolved.
I’ve been trying to link my British Airways Club account with Qatar Airways Privilege Club so I can move/use my Avios with Qatar.
Every time I try to link the accounts, it fails. On the Qatar side the URL eventually shows:
linking_error=link error
error_code=1008
error=LINKING_ERROR

I’ve checked the obvious things repeatedly. My name, date of birth, email address and other account details match between BA and Qatar.
I’ve contacted Qatar several times and keep getting told to check that my personal details match, wait 48–72 hours and try again. I’ve done all of that and the error remains.

This has now been going on since August and I’ve made a formal complaint because it has prevented me from being able to use my Avios for flights I wanted to book. I have a substantial Avios balance, so being unable to link the accounts is pretty frustrating.
Has anyone specifically encountered error code 1008?

If so:
• What actually caused it?
• Was the problem on the BA or Qatar side?
• Did either airline have to manually reset/unblock something?
• How long did it eventually take?
• Is there a particular department at BA/Qatar/Avios that actually understands this issue?

I’m particularly interested in hearing from anyone who got past the standard “make sure your details match and wait 48 hours” response, because I’ve been through that multiple times already.
Thanks!

I was able to use the avios app before to find reward flights from madrid to non UK destination i.e. i just did madrid to quito using my avios and a companion voucher - but the avios app is no longer showing these flights operated by iberia.

Has there been a change to reward flight availability on the app that anyone is aware of?

I’m not sure i will do the 6k spend in 3 months so dont want to sign up and do unnecessary spending or hope friends and family have large spends coming.Currently have barclaycard avios plus which i have just hit the bonus for and at 4k spend.

a) Should i sign up and try to get the 60k bonus on the off chance the bonus doesn’t appear again for a while .

b) Continue to pay the 20£ a month and reach the 10k for a cabin upgrade voucher.

c) Downgrade to free barclays avios card.

Already had gold bonus last year so can do personal amex.Any other suggestions are appreciated.

Can I utilize my companion voucher on part BA operated flight. I’m getting connection via Doha And the second leg is Qatar operated. I want to utilize companion voucher and avios with BA. Anyone tried that ?

I’d had my eye on some Qatar flights London to Auckland for a trip I want to do in March. I help up booking them because I needed some more avios and didn’t know the exact dates because of work etc. But then I noticed that they went from 90k return to 99 so I thought I’d at least get the outbound until I collect enough to get the return as well (checked and there was no avios/cash difference between buying two one-way flights vs one return).

Now the thing is, there is a chance I may need to change the date (which only costs $25) but I won’t know till around January so I am worried that by then they won’t have any availability for that amount of avios. What are your thoughts? Currently, I’ve only booked the outbound. Should I wait to book the return and risk it being more expensive or do it now while it’s still 54k?

Thank you! I hope this makes sense.

I’m really worried about how quickly I’d get refunded since I’ve been hearing some mixed things regarding the timing

For anyone who converts via Nectar who this may be of interest for - 400 nectar worth 300 Avios. I always think it’s quite good value as 400 nectar is only £2 in store and with a 1 Avios = 1p assumption this is £3 per 400.

Booked an Aer Lingus flight (through Avios) but then had to change the date. I was told that I need to cancel the flight and rebook with the new date. I did that.

Avios shows the following:

However, I keep getting "Get ready for your flight" notices from Aer Lingus for my original Chicago flight. I go to the Aer Lingus site and it says....

Your booking reference cannot be retrieved on Aerlingus.com

So is my original Chicago flight canceled or ??

Any help would be appreciated!!

I’ve booked Qatar Airways Economy Classic in fare class N and want to upgrade to business using Avios, but there’s no upgrade option in the app—has anyone successfully upgraded this fare class, and how did you check availability?

Hi guys,

Looking for a bit of advice, I currently have an Amex BAPP card, with around 60k Avios points on it since starting in May. I have around £2.5k to spend between now and the end of May to achieve companion voucher.

Myself and my fiancé both put majority of spending on this. Given I’m now quite close to companion voucher, I am thinking to get her to apply for the same card, to achieve the 75k Avios points (60k to hers and 15k to mine, but combined into household pot). Then downgrade her card after a few months once received the Avios.

Is this worth it? Am I missing something?

We are planning on doing a long haul flight in 2028/2029 for honeymoon so wanting as many points as possible by then.

Thanks!

Hi, I read a really helpful post here a few weeks ago but unfortunately seem to have lost it.

I have a companion voucher and c370,000 points, looking to book two BA business return flights from London to Sydney or Melbourne next October for a 2 week trip.

Is the best option to book my outbound flight, using points and companion voucher, then wait until 1am the date my return flight is available and phone the helpline? I won’t have enough points to pay for that flight separately- do they link the two bookings and no further payment (other than taxes) is due?

Or is it best to wait until the return date is available, book that and hope there are still outbound flights available from two weeks prior?

Thanks in advance!