Avios-only flights explained: What is each point of British Airways frequent-flyer currency worth?

The oldest surviving frequent-flyer scheme was introduced on 1 May 1981: American Airlines’ AAdvantage loyalty programme. Initially membership was only by invitation, and the rewards included a first-class round-trip ticket to any destination on the American network.

Today that scheme is open to any passenger, and has more than 100 million members.

Frequent-flyer programmes are now emulated around the world. The basic concept remains the same: the more you travel with a particular carrier, the more you are rewarded for your loyalty. The airline hopes that you will fill a seat which would otherwise be empty and travel on a journey that you would otherwise not make.

The dark art of maximising the benefits of frequent-flyer programmes has acquired many bells and whistles. Stay in the right hotel chain, rent a car from the right company and pay with the right credit card, and points can be accrued in their tens of thousands – then used on partner airlines and for many other purposes, from powerboat experiences to the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express.

At the same time, carriers tightly control their inventory of seats in each class on each flight to ensure that they are not missing out on cash sales. Yet British Airways is now turning this around – and experimenting with flights that you can book only with its frequent-flyer currency.

These are the key questions and answers about Avios.

I thought the British Airways name was Air Miles?

In 1988, when BA first flirted with a loyalty programme, that was the brand – and people were issued with actual paper vouchers. But Air Miles became a generic term (rather like “Hoover” and “vacuum cleaner”). In 2011 they were replaced by a new currency – Avios – at the rate of 10 points for each Air Mile.

At the time British Airways had just teamed up with Iberia of Spain to form IAG, which wanted a single global currency for all its reward programmes.

Tell me about Avios-only flights?

BA has decided to trial an original idea from Qantas of Australia. From later this year, the only passengers on board a series of special British Airways departures will pay their fares with frequent-flyer points.

The first of these will take off on 3 November 2023: the first reinstated flight from London Gatwick to the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, followed early next year with four links from London Heathrow…