You’ve found reward flights to New York for New Year’s Eve. There’s just one problem: your partner’s Avios balance is looking a little underdressed for the occasion. You, meanwhile, have plenty. The obvious question follows: Can I transfer Avios to my partner?
Or how about this: your parents want to book next summer's family holiday using Avios built up over the years of flying, but the balance sits in one account, and the trip needs to be booked under everyone's name.
Although they might seem like different situations, the instinct is usually the same: find a way to move Avios into the account that needs them. And yes, it’s possible to transfer Avios to another person, but transferring is rarely the cheapest or easiest route.
In this article, we’ll explore how to share Avios properly: every legitimate route available, when each one makes sense, and how to avoid paying an unnecessary fee.
The short answer is yes, though the full answer depends on what you’re trying to achieve. There are four legitimate ways to get Avios where they are needed:
The next question usually follows close behind: Can I transfer Avios for free? Only Gold members can, so it’s best to work through the alternatives below before assuming a paid transfer is the answer.
The process works the same as booking a flight for yourself. You search for the flight, select your preferred option, and enter the passenger's full name exactly as it appears on their passport. No membership number, date of birth or other personal details are required at the time of booking; the traveller can add those later through Manage My Booking. Payment for taxes and charges can be made with any card, whether it belongs to the account holder, the passenger, or someone else entirely.
Advantages:
No Avios transfer fee applies, since no points ever leave the account.
It works well when the goal is simply to gift Avios for a flight
Limitations:
Since it's a gift, all you can do is smile and say thank you. The account holder controls the booking, including seat selection and any later changes. Refunds, cancellations and rebooking all go through the original account, so the passenger cannot manage the reservation independently.
Option 2: Create a Household Account
The family that saves together, travels together, and British Airways makes it possible through the Household Account. It lets families collect Avios for redemptions without having to permanently move points between accounts. This way, individual balances stay separate while remaining visible to each member, but when someone redeems Avios, the points are deducted proportionally across the group based on each member's share of the combined total.
Up to seven people can be members of a single Household Account, set up and managed through The British Airways Club. British Airways' terms still reference members sharing an address, though this is no longer strictly checked in practice, and households spread across two or more properties commonly use the feature without issue. The Head of Household creates the account, invites members and holds sole authority to add or remove people. Every other adult member can redeem Avios, but cannot change who belongs to the group.
Redemptions work on a pro-rata basis. If one partner holds 60,000 Avios and the other holds 40,000, the household shows 100,000 Avios available, and a 50,000-Avios booking would automatically deduct 30,000 from the first balance and 20,000 from the second. Earned Avios still accrue to the individual's balance. Pooling only changes how spending works.
A Household Account is also the only way for a child under 18 to hold a British Airways Club membership. Adding a child means they earn Avios on flights and contribute to the pooled balance, which standalone accounts do not allow. The Head of Household can also nominate up to five people for a Family and Friends list, which means the group can book flights for people outside the household without pooling Avios with them.
Companion Voucher redemption can draw on the combined household balance. Check the BA Companion Voucher rules before using yours.
Cons:
While it's not exactly family planning, there's a limit to how many people you can have in a family. Bookings are limited to household members and the five people on the Family and Friends list. Anyone else needs an entirely different route.
Only one change is allowed every six months, including removing a member
Every redemption deducts pro rata from all balances, which can be awkward if the person with the largest share is not the one travelling.
Closing the account preserves adult members' balances, but any Avios in a child account are lost
Option 3: Transfer Avios Directly
This is the most literal way to transfer Avios to another person: moving points permanently from one account to another. It makes sense in narrower circumstances than the options above, mainly when the recipient needs to own and control the points themselves, such as building towards their own future redemption, or when a collector wants to pass on a balance they no longer plan to use.
Can I transfer Avios for free?
Only with BA Gold status. Everyone else pays a flat £50 Avios transfer fee to move up to 60,000 Avios in one transaction, with a cap of 200,000 Avios transferred out per calendar year.
How to transfer:
Use the Avios transfer tool and follow these steps:
Log in to the account containing the Avios you want to send.
Enter the recipient’s membership number.
Enter their name exactly as it appears on their account.
Choose how many Avios you want to transfer.
Check the details and confirm the transfer.
The recipient’s name and membership number must match their account records. Even a small discrepancy could delay the transfer or stop it from going through.
This is usually the least cost-effective method unless a collector only needs to move a small balance or already holds Gold status. At the maximum single transfer of 60,000 Avios, the £50 fee works out to under 0.1p per Avios, which is a reasonable value. However, the maths turns unfavourable fast at smaller volumes: transferring 2,000 Avios for the same £50 fee costs 2.5p per Avios, a higher rate than most collectors would value their own points at, and close to what it costs to buy Avios outright from Avios.com. Honest advice matters here, so run the numbers before paying the fee.
Tip: Before transferring a small balance, compare the £50 fee with either buying the recipient the equivalent Avios directly or boosting the Avios they already hold. Under roughly 6,000 Avios, both routes can work out cheaper than a transfer.
Option 4: Combine My Avios
A lot of collectors confuse Combine My Avios with transferring Avios to another person, but the two are entirely different: moving Avios between your own accounts is not the same as using them to gift Avios to someone else. Combine My Avios moves points between a single collector's own accounts across the Avios group: British Airways Club, Iberia Club, Aer Lingus AerClub, Loganair Loyalty and Vueling Club all transfer directly between each other, while Qatar Airways Privilege Club and Finnair Plus route via British Airways as an intermediate step, with no cost or points penalty for that extra hop.
Moving Avios between a British Airways Club, an Iberia Club, and a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account that all belong to the same person is not considered a transfer to another person at all, since each account uses the same registered name. These moves are free, typically instant, and available in unlimited amounts, though a newly opened account usually needs to have been active for a short period before it can receive a transfer.
If you want to book a lower-surcharge Iberia redemption using Avios earned through a British Airways credit card, for example, you can use Combine My Avios instead of any of the transfer or gifting routes above.
Once you know which routes you want, set an RFF Alert and let Reward Flight Finder watch for seats. Your Avios can sit patiently in the right account while somebody else does the refreshing.
Kayleigh
