Rundown of British Airways Executive Club for Canadians (updated February 10, 2016)

The British Airways loyalty program called the Executive Club has some very strong ties to Canada. What I mean by this is that as a Canadian, you have a lot of different options to earn Avios.

Personally I have an Executive Club account and I try to rack up as many Avois as possible, using the different options that will be listed in this post, for a reward redemption.

Expiry Policy

Keep in mind that Avios points need to be active once every 36 months, which should be easily maintained with any of the options listed below.

Earning Avios

First of all, note that British Airways is a member of Oneworld alliance. Therefore, if you fly with any of its airline members, you can rack up some Avios.

The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has a co-branded British Airways Visa Infinite with a 15,000 sign up bonus and a $165 annual fee. The credit card earns you earn 2 points for every $1 spent on British Airways purchases and 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases. A nice benefit of this credit card is that you can earn a complimentary Companion Award Ticket by spending more than $30,000 in any calendar year.

RBC also has a transferable reward program called Avion (or RBC Rewards) points where you can convert from Avion to Executive Club at a 1:1 ratio. You do need to convert a minimum of 10,000 Avion points. RBC usually offers a transfer bonus twice a year. We usually see a 50% bonus, but the last bonus was only 30%.American Express Membership Rewards has its own transferable rewards program, where you can transfer a minimum of 1,000 Membership Rewards points for 1,000 Avios, and in increments of 100 thereafter. There is even a current 25% transfer bonus that you will want to take advantage of if you are planning to transfer points anyway.E-rewards is actually my favourite way to keep my account active. Below are the conversion rates:

• $12 = 250 Avios points
• $20 = 500 Avios points
• $35 = 1,000 Avios points

Keep in mind that you can only convert once every 30 days, so if you need the points, plan well ahead of time.

Lastly, you can transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points at a 1:1 ratio. Keep in mind that you get an additional 5,000 bonus points every time you transfer 20,000 points (20,000 Starpoints = 25,000 Avios points). Personally, I would rather keep my Starpoints, but if you really need the extra Avios to top up your account for a specific reward redemption, you can look into this option as a last resort.

Redeeming Avios

Personally, I would never redeem my Avios on a British Airways flight, as they have pretty hefty taxes and fuel surcharges. Avios are valuable because they are redeem based on distance base travel. Some of the better airlines to redeem your Avios with are: Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Qatar Airways and Qantas Airways.

Household Accounts

Executive Club offers an amazing feature called the Household Account. The Household Account is free to create and allows everyone in the same household to pool all their Avios into one account. You can include up to 6 people into a Household Account. Note that changes to the registered Household Account address can only be made once every six months.

British Airways Destinations Departing from Canada

Every though I recommended against redeeming your Avios with British Airways, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t fly with British Airways on a paid ticket. There are some direct flights offered departing from Canada, which includes:

Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)

• British Airways: London-Heathrow

Vancouver International Airport (YVR)

• British Airways: London-Heathrow

Calgary International Airport (YYC)

• British Airways: London-Heathrow

Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)

• British Airways: London-Heathrow