Frequent flyer miles are funny things, aren’t they? You collect and collect your Avios constantly for years, amassing a lovely balance. Along the way you spend them on flight upgrades and award flights which makes your travel much more pleasant.

In the past while, I have not collected as many Avios as I’d like and I’ve spent a whole lot more than I should have. It means my balance which is usually well over 100,000 miles is just over 1,000. Shocking!

Why Didn’t You Earn As Much?

Having family in Australia means I like to get back there once a year and it’s a really good Avios earner for me. This year I went twice so I should be rolling in miles. There are two reasons why not.


First, I flew Qatar Airways twice in business class and you don’t earn as many miles with partners in the British Airways Executive Club. The other reason is that Silver frequent flyers only receive a 50% bonus rather than the former 100%. Less for me, please!

What Did You Spend Your Avios On?

Flights, flights and more flights. Did I mention I like to fly? The main thing I use them for is British Airways Club Europe flights. Coming up is Stockholm and back, though luckily a friend of mine kindly used his Avios for my outbound, so I just had to do the return.


I’m also just back from an excellent few days in Berlin which was all on miles. In May, I am flying Cathay Pacific from Vancouver to New York in business class which was 37,500 Avios but will be very worth it. I haven’t had the pleasure of CX business class for ages, so I can’t wait!

Overall Thoughts

There are rumblings in the wings of changes to the British Airways Executive Club. These changes, whether better or for worse, will impact me in one way or another.

Hopefully I will still be able to earn and redeem Avios at a value that I think is reasonable. How do you feel when you run out of frequent flyer miles? Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Qatar image by Sergey Korovkin 84 via Wikimedia Commons.
Cathay Pacific image via Cathay Pacific.