Planning ahead for your BA Avios
Lifetime transfer options and steps to take now for British Airways Avios
The British Airways Club (Executive Club)
British Airways Customer Relations (S506), PO Box 1126, Uxbridge UB8 9XS, United Kingdom
British Airways bereavement support (bookings) — no dedicated Avios estates team
British Airways's terms state that Avios are forfeited when the account holder dies. Lifetime planning is the only path to extracting value from the account before that happens.
British Airways offers a free household account that lets a member pool Avios with up to six other people — seven individuals in total — into one collective balance that household members can spend. Children can be included, and everyone in the household continues to earn tier points and move through the Club's tiers individually. When Avios are spent, a proportional amount is deducted from each member's balance in the household account. A head of the household (the primary member) must already be a Club member, receives all communications about the account, and is the only person who can add or remove members or dissolve the account; other members can ask in writing to be removed at any time. Members of a household account cannot redeem their Avios for anyone outside the household account, but once a household account exists the member can also create a family and friends list — defined in the Terms and Conditions as "the list of up to five nominated individuals which household account members can redeem Avios on behalf of." British Airways separately recommends that parents or guardians become third-party nominees for household members under 18. Outside household accounts, a member can transfer Avios to another British Airways Club member: the Avios are sent to the recipient's Club account and the published fee is GBP 50 per transfer, waived for Gold members. Avios can also be bought as a gift for someone else. A member can move Avios between their own British Airways Club, Iberia Club, AerClub, Loganair Loyalty, Vueling Club, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, and Finnair Plus accounts at equal value — but the Conditions of Use state that for 'Combine my Avios' "The accounts must be registered to the same individual under each of the Programmes," so partner transfer is a same-person mechanism, not a way to move Avios to a relative. Selling, bartering, or purchasing Avios outside the program, including through internet sales or auctions, is defined as fraud in the Terms and Conditions.
How to protect your BA Avios
8 steps for managing your BA Avios during your lifetime:
- •Book Reward Flights for family members — the passenger does not have to be you
- •Use Avios for cabin upgrades on family travel
- •Redeem for hotels, car hire, or partner rewards through the Club
Should you save your passwords for your family?
Some people store account passwords so a family member can sign in later. The practice has three practical limits:
- Two-factor authentication often blocks it. Most accounts require a second factor — a code sent to a phone, an authenticator app, a passkey, or a physical key. A saved password alone frequently does not grant access, and the recovery codes that would are easy to lose or let go stale.
- It usually conflicts with the platform's terms. Most operators prohibit account sharing and signing in as another person, including after a death. Stored credentials are not the operator's recognized access path, and using them can violate the terms of service.
- Operators provide other paths. Where an operator offers a designation tool — Apple's Legacy Contact, Google's Inactive Account Manager, a beneficiary designation — that mechanism grants access the operator recognizes. A password manager's own emergency-access or legacy feature passes credentials through a controlled process. Digital assets named in a will or trust give a fiduciary authority under each state's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA).
Frequently asked questions
No. Clause 3.13 lets a member nominate another individual over 18 to act on their behalf in relation to their membership, and a nominated individual can check Avios and tier points, track flights, change meal or seat preferences, and make redemption bookings. Separately, a member with a household account can create a family and friends list of up to five nominated individuals they can redeem Avios on behalf of. Both are lifetime conveniences. Neither is a beneficiary designation, neither survives the member's death, and neither gives the nominee a claim to the balance — membership terminates automatically on death and the unused Avios are cancelled regardless of who is named.
Because membership terminates automatically on death and the unused Avios, tier points, and lifetime tier points are cancelled, plan to use the balance while you are alive: redeem Reward Flights or upgrades, set up a free household account so up to seven people share one pooled balance, or transfer Avios to another Club member so they sit in an account that is not yours. Keep the account active so the balance does not lapse after 36 months without qualifying activity. Do not list your Avios as an asset in your will or trust — title never passes to you, and the Terms and Conditions exclude transfer by bequest, devise, or operation of law, so there is nothing for your estate to inherit. Document your membership number for your executor so they can report the death and make a written request, and do not leave your password for them to use.
Yes, and this is the mechanism that actually moves value to another person. You can transfer Avios from your account to another British Airways Club member; the Avios are sent to their Club account and the recipient gets an email confirming the transfer. British Airways publishes a GBP 50 transfer fee, waived for Gold members. You can also buy Avios as a gift for someone else, and members can pool Avios through a free household account of up to seven people, with a family and friends list of up to five further nominated individuals a household member can redeem for. Be careful not to confuse this with the partner-program route: moving Avios between British Airways Club and Iberia Club, AerClub, Loganair Loyalty, Vueling Club, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, or Finnair Plus requires that the accounts be registered to the same individual under each program, so it relocates your own balance rather than giving it away. Selling, bartering, or buying Avios outside the program is defined as fraud in the Terms and Conditions. Because the death clause cancels the balance, moving Avios while you are alive is the only reliable way for your family to get the benefit of them.
Recording that a BA Avios account exists, alongside other accounts, gives a fiduciary the information needed to reach the operator through its official process.
BA Avios does not offer beneficiary designations, so there is no program-level mechanism for directing Avios to a specific person at death.
Sources
Data sourced from British Airways primary sources (10 pages reviewed). How we research.
The British Airways Club (Executive Club)
British Airways Customer Relations (S506), PO Box 1126, Uxbridge UB8 9XS, United Kingdom
British Airways bereavement support (bookings) — no dedicated Avios estates team
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