Talk to me about Avios

[wondabar]

I am so confused about Air Miles. Are Avios exclusive to BA? I looked at my Statement and it says I have 26,900. I also have 620 Tier Points and a Household Account Balance of 37,000. What does this all mean? It says Expiration date is 29 February. Does this mean that everything will go after then?

If I get an American Express BA Avios card, will I be able to combine the points of the two cards together? Do I only get Avios points for flights by buying full price flights through BA or can I get BA flights through somewhere like Expedia and then add the Avios points to my account?
Whilst on the subject, what is the best card for
lounge access is airports around the world?

Household is when you can link other people to your account. You can then use their points as well. So I linked my daughters for a recent holiday and we got points for all of us.

Look at the BA website. Lots explained there. I didn’t think Avios expired but companion reward flights do. There are two BA Amex cards. One has better reward flights than the other!

Google headforpoints.com great website with loads of earning and spending tips

There are BA Avios and then there is Avois. You can move points between the two programmes as often as you like. If you move your BA points to the other programme (free and easy), you can easily accumulate new points which means your existing points won't expire. Sainsbury's and Tesco points can be converted to Avois. It's a bit convoluted but you can spend all your household points together

I thought BA Avios were not available via Tesco points now. Could be wrong.

Tier points expire - if you get enough in a year you get higher status for the next year, but each year you start at zero

Avios points don’t expire. You can use them on BA flights and various other partnered airlines.

when you buy flights you can link them to your BA Executive Club account to get the points. Flights with partner airlines also get you points (not as many though).

If you pay for the flights with your BA Amex you’ll get points for the money you spend on the card, and then even more points once you’ve taken the flights.

Best card for lounge access is probably Amex Platinum but the annual fee is steep (£650).

BA avoid do expire after 2 or 3 years (would need to check which) of inactivity on account. Activity counts as any earned or spent. There is a BA shopping portal with lots of high street stores on it. When my points were due to expire last year I discovered the shopping portal and earned some points with an online Screwfix order which kept my points balance active. Since moving out of London 5 years ago I've not yet had the opportunity to spend any miles on BA flights from my local airport as the selection is very limited, hence discovering my decent balance was due to expire due to inactivity after a few years.

I guess we’ve used ours before we get anywhere near that! Tier points are different though.

Thanks for all your responses. @Wasthathailorsnow I did a small transfer from my Nectar card to keep the Avios activated.
@Nesbi we are thinking of getting the American Express Platinum for lounge access. Do you have it?