There are a few ways to earn British Airways Avios without flying, including linking your AmEx card to your Executive Club account. While there are a plethora of options that you can find here, today I wanted to talk about Avios Hotels, a booking portal partner with British Airways that rewards 10 Avios per stay fully paid with cash. Specifically, there’s varying information out there about how long points take to post.
I’ve been staying at quite a few hotels across the UK for work. (For anyone interested, I’m planning on reviewing the hotels I believe will be the greatest value add, as I’m not sure every hotel I stay at in the middle of nowhere will be a valuable full review.) In most cases, I figured Avios Hotels would provide fairly good mileage redemption opportunities, so I tried to primarily book through them.
I figured I’d share my experience of how long these points took to post, as well as a few other general questions about Avios Hotels.
How Long Do Avios Hotels Take To Post?
The textbook answer is that Avios Hotels points take 30-90 days to post.
That’s a huge range, so I’d like to share my experience. I booked a few different hotel stays using Avios Hotels for dates ranging from the 11th of December onwards. I noticed that none of the points from any of my Avios Hotels stays were posting, so started wondering if I should’ve credited to a different programme.
Well, the points posted today. At least they did for all the stays that I’d submitted to British Airways as “missing Avios” – this required uploading a PDF version of my booking confirmations (I just pressed print on my emails but saved them as PDFs). Specifically, I had a stay starting December 11th (64 days ago), December 18th (57 days ago), January 2nd (42 days ago), January 9th (35 days ago), and January 10th (34 days ago), and I submitted a “missing Avios” claim on January 19th (25 days ago).
I’d recommend submitting a missing Avios claim a few days after your stay, since they do seem to take a while to post – you shouldn’t have to send anything through the post, as the form is entirely online (fill in this Supporting Documents form, and don’t click through to claim missing Avios with non-airline partners, as that will ask you to print a form to send in by post).
Earn Avios when staying at the Kettering Park Hotel and Spa, Kettering
In fact, some of the points have posted two or three times, so I’m expecting British Airways to reach out to “even out” how many points I should’ve been credited. According to online forums, it seems that while customer service isn’t the best when things go wrong, typically you can quite reliably expect Avios Hotels points to post in due time.
Which Hotels Participate In Avios Hotels?
The number of hotels participating in Avios Hotels varies by country. Generally, the rule of thumb is that if your hotel isn’t within the OTA landscape (i.e. on Booking.com/Hotels.com etc.), it definitely won’t be on Avios Hotels – e.g. you’ll never find a Premier Inn on Avios Hotels.
There’s a wider takeup on Avios Hotels within the UK (given Avios’ primary affiliation to British Airways), though you’ll be able to find options in other countries as well, particularly in major cities. These include a wide range of hotels across a wide range of budgets, and also include many other chains (Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott etc. all feature in Avios Hotels).
Earn Avios when staying at Blique by Nobis in Stockholm, a Marriott Design Hotel
Can You Credit Avios Hotels To Other Hotel Programmes?
No, in most cases. All Avios Hotels bookings count as a third-party bookings, and in many cases Avios Hotels uses Expedia as a booking portal to actually book your room, especially in the UK.
I’d typically still try and attach my hotel loyalty programme account to my reservation at check-in, just so I could get whatever perks I have with hotel status. For example, when I stayed at the Hilton Northampton, I was surprised when they didn’t penalise me for booking with a third-party agency, crediting points to my account for my stay.
I was able to earn both Honors points and Avios at the Hilton Northampton
I don’t know if that was an anomaly or generally true for Hilton hotels, though that could be an incentive to book with them in the future. For a couple of other cases, I was credited an extra night’s worth of elite nights, though not the points associated with the booking.
You can also theoretically use Avios to book an Avios hotel, though it’s almost never worth it, and I’d advise against it.
Is Using Avios Hotels Worth It?
I’ve got a couple of emerging thoughts on this:
- If you generally use points to fly with Oneworld or British Airways, I’d absolutely use Avios Hotels (10 Avios per £1 is still a much better spend deal than you’d get with general spending)
- If you generally use points to stay at major hotel chains, I’d use a major hotel chain’s loyalty programme instead, as you’ll never earn elite status with Avios Hotels; I’d also consider using Hotels.com/Booking.com‘s loyalty programmes, as they also can be quite lucrative
- If you generally use points to fly but never fly with Oneworld, I’d consider using a major hotel chain’s loyalty chain if you stay at hotels a lot, though only if the points are convertible to airline points (Marriott Bonvoy is a good example of this)
£5,000 of hotel spend is enough for a one-way British Airways business class flight between 3,000-4,000 miles (Dubai, New York, Toronto, etc.)
Keep in mind that you’d earn points on top of this if using a card with points rewards, such as the AmEx Gold or Platinum card.
Conclusion
Avios Hotels offers 10 Avios per £1 spent on all participating hotels, and points are generally credited within 30-90 days, especially if you claim a “missing Avios” statement online. This represents good value for those who stay in hotels and fly Oneworld a lot, though you generally won’t be able to earn hotel points on these bookings.
Have you used Avios Hotels points before?