Guess what? You can earn British Airways Avios on Emirates!

Some secrets need to be revealed and British Airways have a big one when it comes to Emirates. With very little effort, it’s perfectly possible to earn Avios on Emirates flights, as long as you’re a member of the BA Executive Club, of course!

The two airlines ostensibly have no affiliation whatsoever with one another and the Dubai based airline is not a member of any airline alliance. Both carriers are standard competitors in the industry and there are no links between the two.

Well, if you don’t count this.

Qantas and Emirates Partnership

In 2013, Emirates and Qantas formed a close partnership meaning each airline placed the others code on their flights. This would allow a person to book a ticket from say Australia to Europe and return with Qantas, with the Australian airline’s flight numbers, but with the flights actually being operated by Emirates.

Essentially, the agreement allows each airline to sell tickets on the others flights as though they were their own. Codeshare agreements are quite common in the industry however this one is much more extensive than most. It has been extended a couple of times over the years, so clearly it works for the two airlines.

The Secret Back Door to Earning with Emirates

British Airways and Qantas are both members of the oneworld alliance which allows members of any frequent flyer programme to earn miles with any of the other member airlines. Third party airlines are generally excluded from earning even when it is a codeshare flight. However, the British Airways web site says the following when it comes to earning on Qantas.

The last line of text indicates any flight carrying the Qantas QF flight code on any third party airline will earn British Airways Avios as though you are flying with Qantas. This means that if you book a flight on the Qantas web site that happens to actually be an Emirates aircraft you will earn full Avios and Tier Points as though it was actually the Australian airline you were flying.

Overall Thoughts

While this means you can earn Avios on Emirates, it also means you it will work on any airline Qantas has a codeshare agreement with. If you happen to book a flight from Amsterdam to Sydney via Singapore, your Amsterdam to Singapore will be QF4218 but actually operated by KLM. That means you’ll fly KLM and earn your Avios that way.

The caveat is that you must book through Qantas and the flight must be a Qantas codeshare flight with a QF flight number. Flights on other carriers are marked quite clearly on the Qantas website, making choosing these services quite straightforward.

Have you earned Avios on Emirates before? Did you even know this was possible? I’ve heard it works seamlessly by those who have done it. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

Like planes? See my “Does anyone remember” series.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all indexed here.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Featured image via Emirates.