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Where can I fly from UK regional airports with Avios?

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In this article I want to look at where you can fly from UK regional airports (so excluding Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and London City) with Avios.

When British Airways sold its regional operations to Flybe many years ago, it became an airline with NO flights which do not begin or end in London.  This situation has been reversed slightly in recent years as a few weekend routes were added from Southampton and Edinburgh, but to all intents and purposes there is no substantive route network outside London.

Luckily, there are still some Avios options available.  Let’s take a look.

Where can you fly from UK regional airports with Avios?

How can I redeem these flights?

Unfortunately it’s not hugely straightforward:

  • all of the flights below, except for Vueling, can be booked on ba.com via the standard Avios booking portal
  • for Aer Lingus short haul flights (not the Manchester long haul services) you will find that the taxes and charges are lower if you open an Aer Lingus AerClub account, move your Avios across via ‘Combine My Avios’ and book via aerlingus.com
  • for Vueling flights, you need to open an Aer Lingus AerClub or Vueling Club account, move your Avios across via ‘Combine My Avios’ and book via vueling.com – but this is rarely worthwhile, as it is a straight ‘get money off a cash ticket by using Avios’ deal at a poor rate

Which regional flights can be booked using Avios?

Here is a full list of ALL flights from UK regional airports which can be booked using Avios and which do not touch London.  Long-haul flights are in bold print.

Some services are seasonal.

Aberdeen

  • Aer Lingus to Dublin

Belfast City

  • Aer Lingus to Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Isle of Man, Leeds Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle, Newquay and Southampton
Where can you fly from UK regional airports with Avios?

Birmingham

  • Qatar Airways to Doha
  • Aer Lingus to Dublin, Belfast City
  • Vueling to Barcelona

Bristol

  • Aer Lingus to Dublin, Cork

Cardiff

  • Aer Lingus to Belfast City
  • Vueling to Alicante, Malaga

East Midlands

  • Aer Lingus to Belfast City

Edinburgh

  • Qatar Airways to Doha
  • JetBlue to New York JFK *
  • Aer Lingus to Dublin, Belfast City
  • BA Cityflyer weekend routes to Palma, Florence, San Sebastian, Olbia (Summer only)
  • Finnair to Helsinki
  • Iberia to Madrid
  • Vueling to Barcelona

Exeter

  • Aer Lingus to Dublin, Belfast City

Glasgow

  • Aer Lingus to Dublin, Belfast City

Isle of Man

  • Aer Lingus to Dublin, Belfast City

Leeds Bradford

  • Aer Lingus to Dublin, Belfast City

Liverpool

  • Aer Lingus to Dublin

Manchester

  • Aer Lingus to Barbados, New York, Orlando
  • Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong
  • Qatar Airways to Doha
  • Royal Jordanian to Amman
  • Aer Lingus to Dublin, Belfast City
  • British Airways (SUN-AIR) to Billund, Gothenburg (via Billund)
  • Finnair to Helsinki
  • Iberia Express to Madrid
  • Royal Air Maroc to Casablanca, Marrakech
  • Vueling to Barcelona

Newcastle

  • Aer Lingus to Dublin, Belfast City

Newquay

  • Aer Lingus to Dublin, Belfast City

Southampton

  • Aer Lingus to Dublin, Belfast City
  • BA Cityflyer – Summer 2024 to Bergerac, Faro, Malaga, Palma, Winter 2024 TBC

*to redeem on JetBlue, you need to transfer your Avios to a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account and book from there. This article explains how. Flights will run from May to September 2024.

If you think we’ve missed anything, please let us know in the comments. We put this list together manually so something could easily have slipped through.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

195 British Airways Club questions answered, British Airways and Avios

Comments (53)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • G says:
    8 Apr8 April 10:02

    EI also fly to Orlando and Barbados from Manchester.

  • Michael C says:
    8 Apr8 April 10:10

    I always feel BHX is crazily underused bearing in mind the population/decent airport.

    • Rob says:
      8 Apr8 April 10:15

      EasyJet has just opened a new base there so it’s a lot busier this summer than last. Qatar Airways tells me that the Doha flight is doing VERY well.

    • Dan says:
      8 Apr8 April 13:52

      It suffers from been too close to Heathrow and Manchester for any decent long haul base

      • CamFlyer says:
        8 Apr8 April 18:37

        Ek, TK and QR seem to be making it work. Hopefully one of the US majors will as well, particularly as A321LRs come on line. The catchment is actually quite large. From East Anglia, I always check pricing; it’s 40% further in mileage than LHR but only marginally more time, and far easier than LGW.

  • cin3 says:
    8 Apr8 April 10:36

    I’d avoid Vueling at all costs…

    • Robert Brooks says:
      8 Apr8 April 16:15

      I flew on their first flight from ORY-LHR yesterday. Since I booked it, up until yesterday I’ve been trying to open a Vueling club account, but every time the site tells me I’m unable to do so, sadly missed out on a few Avios, but I doubt it’ll be many. Does anyone else have this problem, or know how to work around it?

      • Rob says:
        8 Apr8 April 17:05

        Open an Aer Lingus AerClub account. It’s the same thing (account number will start 3081) and can be used interchangeable with Vueling Club.

  • Lauren says:
    8 Apr8 April 11:23

    Anyone know how to use avios with Cathay Pacific? Can I use a companion voucher?
    Cheers

    • Rob says:
      8 Apr8 April 11:36

      Book on ba.com as usual – ALL oneworld alliance airline redemptions are booked via the exact same page of ba.com as BA flights. Search for London to HK and you’d see a mix of BA and Cathay on the same page, subject to availability. No voucher allowed.

      It may make more sense to fly Cathay out of Amsterdam etc though to save on APD and other surcharges.

    • RK228 says:
      8 Apr8 April 11:41

      Go on to BA website, search for reward flights, and book available seats as you would with BA or other partners. Companion voucher cannot be used with Cathay Pacific.

    • Marco says:
      8 Apr8 April 12:19

      I always have the same problem. Looking at MAN-HKG on Cathay and ba.com ALWAYS suggests flying via LHR even when I opt for direct flight. Can anyone see any availability for direct Cathay flights from Manchester?

      • G says:
        8 Apr8 April 13:24

        A way to check is the American airlines website, identify availability, then call up BA.

        • NicktheGreek says:
          8 Apr8 April 19:04

          AA seems to be playing up on this one. Didn’t show anything for me for April or May. BA shows many seats on 18/4, 2 seats on 26/4 and 1 seat 1/5, without looking much further.

          We managed to pick up 3 x seats MAN-HKG-HAN for 65k Asia miles pp last year (before the devaluation) so rewarde seats certainly do seem to be available, which is alternative to via LHR or DOH.

      • davefl says:
        8 Apr8 April 14:36

        They are there if you look hard enough 🙂

        29th Nov for example has 8 economy and 2 biz left at 92750 Avios + £ 318.53 for OW

        • Marco says:
          8 Apr8 April 21:50

          Sometimes I think BA is deliberately hiding some flights for certain users. I’m not joking! I scrolled months in advance and not a single option for direct MAN-HKG

          • Lady London says:
            8 Apr8 April 23:09

            Yes they do. They most definitely show different avios availability on same flight(s) according to status. 2 of us with different status set up 2 conputers alongside each other and tested this a few years back.

            We couldn’t verify if other things also mattered (such as lifetime tier points) but status definitely determined what availability was retrievef and not just the extra booking classes available to Gold.

  • lumma says:
    8 Apr8 April 11:53

    You can also book the Vueling flights on Iberia.com. however, I’ve always found that when they’re available, the taxes and fees are usually more than the cash price in vueling.com. Although you would get a checked bag and seat selection on the redemption

  • GS says:
    8 Apr8 April 12:22

    Man > Billund doesnt seem to have any availability, cash or Avios. I’ve looked for this route a few times and it always routes via LHR?

  • CJD says:
    8 Apr8 April 12:22

    The lack of BA flight options from Manchester in particular is ridiculous given the number of passengers going from there.

    • Dan says:
      8 Apr8 April 13:53

      I agree it’s pathetic. When will BA and other airlines wake up and see that not everyone lives in or around London

      • Mikeact says:
        8 Apr8 April 14:32

        You mean, getting on for 200 destinations is not enough ?

  • Fred says:
    8 Apr8 April 13:17

    Can a business amex (eg Biz Gold) be used to pay for a BA241 booking?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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