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Who This Guide is For
Welcome to the Beginner’s Guide to Mastering British Airways Avios (2020 Canadian Edition!)
If you’re new to travel hacking and want to get the most out of your travel rewards then this is a great place to start.
You’ll learn how you can use your American Express points to transfer them to British Airways Avios to travel more often for less money. We’ll also be covering in depth how you can use these travel rewards from travel from major Canadian airports.
What is British Airways Avios?
Avios is the points currency for the British Airways Executive Club; the loyalty program for British Airways.
You can earn and redeem Avios in Canada, and destinations worldwide for British Airways flights and their airline partners (which we’ll get to shortly).
If you’re stuck trying to find the best way to redeem your American Express points, or are unsure of how to transfer your points to British Airways, or not even sure if you can use British Airways Avios for flights are in Canada, then this guide is for you!
American Express Platinum Cardmembers can earn points on everyday purchases, with extra points being awarded to eligible restaurants in Canada (3x the points) and travel purchases (2x) when you pay with your American Express Platinum Card.
And assuming you love to travel, then you’ll want to get really familiar with American Express’s Travel Partners. In this article, we’re going to cover everything you need to know about how to transfer your points to one transfer partner, British Airways, and get you flying from a major Canadian airport to your next destination, so let’s get started.
This post will cover exactly what you need to know to start using your Avios (American Express points) in Canada, relatively quickly. This a comprehensive guide to get you up and flying relatively quickly. We want to make sure you have all the knowledge you need to learn how British Airways Avios work, before transferring your hard earned American Express points. You’re going to learn a lot here, if you’re new to travel rewards in Canada.
You’re essentially learning a new skill; how to travel hack, but the good news is, the work you put in now and the foundational knowledge you’ll learn can be repeated for booking future trips, over and over.
Soon you’ll be helping friends and family to book their trips (and hopefully earning American Express referral points along the way for your efforts to put towards your own travels). Remember to give them your referral link to earn up to 15,000 points per referral, once you sign up for your own American Express Platinum Card Canada.
What Skills You’ll Master
By the end of this guide, you’ll know exactly how to transfer and redeem your American Express points for flights on British Airways, and its airline partners, while saving money, and travelling in style. We’ll look at how you can use your British Airways Avios miles for flights leaving from major Canadian airports, as well as a couple airports in Washington, close to the US/Canada border.
We’ll also take a look at what airlines you can use your points for, exactly how many points it will take. If you’re not a Platinum Cardmember, that’s OK too! As long as you have American Express Membership Rewards in Canada and are wanting to find the best way to use them for flights by transferring them to British Airways Avios, then this guide is for you.
First we’ll take a look at how Avios miles work in Canada, and then we’ll show you step by step how to research your flights, transfer your points, and book your flights, so let’s get started!
Here’s an overview of what we’ll cover in the following posts:
- How to redeem Avios miles in Canada.
- Direct routes from Canadian airports you can use British Airways Avios on.
- How to plan your trip with Avios miles.
- How to transfer American Express points to Avios.
- What airlines you can fly with British Airways Avios.
- How to figure out the value of your travel rewards.
- How to redeem Avios for direct flights to Hawaii on Alaska Airlines.
- How to determine how many Avios miles your trip will cost, plus taxes and fees.
- How to earn Avios miles fast (and not so fast).
- How to get more out of your American Express points.
- The downfalls of redeeming Avios miles.
Become an Authority, Earn Referral Points and Travel For Less
The goal of this guide is to make it easy to follow from a beginner’s standpoint. By the end, you’ll be an expert at redeeming your Avios miles for your next trip, and before you know it, you’ll be able to help your friends and family book their own dream trips.
And for your efforts, if you’re an Amex Membership Rewards Cardmember, you’ll be able to earn referral points by referring them for their own travel rewards card, so you can use those referral points on your next trip!
Those points can then be transferred to a variety of hotel and airline loyalty programs – like this one, British Airways.
The annual fee is $699, but you can stretch those dollars way further by using points instead of paying retail prices for flights.
You can also refer up to 15 people each year, giving you 225,000 points just in referral points! That’s enough for:
- 1 first class round trip flight from Vancouver to London.
- 8 economy round trip flights from Seattle to Hawaii.
- 2 first class round trip flights from Toronto to Miami.
You get the point. Referrals are powerful.
I’ll even show you how to take advantage of promotions to turn those points into more points, so stay tuned!
The system of redeeming your points, however, is VERY convoluted – on purpose.
If the goal was to have people fall down a deep, deep rabbit hole of possibilities and dead-ends for redeeming their points, the system 100% works, and it’s ingeniously designed.
So why travel hack if it’s so much work? Because the system is so purposely broken, it’s obvious there is exceptional value waiting to be untapped.
The banks can’t just advertise and promise something, and not deliver. The ads of people laughing and drinking on the beach, and eating filet mignon from their first class seat using points IS real!
The credit card companies actually do deliver on their end of the deal by giving you the points to travel this way. But it’s up to YOU to figure out how to use them. They’re not going to give you all the answers to the test.
But we will try our best to here, on PointsWise.
We’re giving you the answers for free.
So what’s the catch?
It’s simple. We’re hoping you’ll use our links on this page and sign up for a Card, at no extra cost to you. If we can share the valuable knowledge we’ve learned and help you out, then hopefully, you’re able to help us out.
And when you become a travel hacking expert at using your Avios (American Express points) after reading this guide, then your friends and family will be coming to you for your expertise and advice on booking their trip.
And guess what? You can refer them to a card, and earn referral points from them. It’s a win, win, win situation.
Once you learn how loyalty programs and credit Card points work, you’ll have an unfair advantage against the person paying full retail for their trip.
Most people simply give up, and don’t redeem their points for anything valuable. And it’s not their fault. The banks make redeeming your points confusing on purpose! They’re not going to spell everything out, and have everything in one place for you like we’ve done here.
You have to earn it. And by earn it, I mean taking the time to learn the new skill of travel hacking.
This guide on how to use your British Airways Avios miles (American Express points) has taken 100+ hours to research, write, do graphics for, and put together in a format that makes sense. And this is only one of many loyalty programs you can transfer your points to from your American Express account!
We’ve boiled down all that time and research it took us over the years, into a comprehensive guide you can follow and go from beginner to expert on how to redeem your Avios miles in Canada – in 3 hours or less.
I’d say a 3 hour investment is a pretty solid use of your time to change the way you travel forever. Now, this guide is specific to one of American Express’s travel partners – British Airways, but the skills you’ll learn here are transferable to other loyalty programs.
In the coming months, we’re going to be publishing the same style of guides on how you can use your points for every American Express travel partner in Canada. Think of it as ongoing free education, you can teach yourself, at your own pace,
And if referring people to earn points isn’t your thing, don’t worry, you don’t have to refer a single person to travel on points. You can still earn plenty of points by being savvy with your daily purchases. It will just take longer to get where you want to be. The other fast way to earn lots of points is by taking advantage of credit card welcome bonuses, and charging as many purchases as you can to your card, and paying off the balance in full each month, so you don’t pay interest.
Ready to start your journey and go from beginner to expert on how to use Avios miles in Canada? Grab your drink of choice, settle in, find some good tunes, and start learning how to travel hack British Airways!
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