I have a British Airways Household account that links my parents, my husband, and my son all into one Household account. This makes it easy for me to book flights for any family member within my account, with Avios or cash. It also means that my son can collect Avios when flying, which can be used to spend on future flights. This is the only way children under the age of 18 can collect Avios and tier points.
A Household account is free to create and means you can pool your Avios with up to six people who live with you, letting you make full use of the collective balance.
How To Create a British Airways Household Account
In order to set up a British Airways Household account, all family members within the account must have the same Household address. If you do have the same Household address, all you need is your British Airways Executive Club number and you can add them in on this page of your British Airways Executive Club account (once you are logged in).
You then need to decide who will be the Head of the Household. This person must already be a Member of the Executive Club and will need to complete the application. As Head of the Household Account, they will receive all communications about the account and will be the only person who can add or remove Members or change the home address.
Everyone in a Household Account will continue to collect Tier Points and move through the tiers of the Club individually, but they can also spend Avios taken from the pooled Household Account. When any Avios are spent, British Airways will deduct a proportional amount from each Member’s balance in the Household Account.
Why Should I Bother setting up a Household account?
Here are my five reasons why you should set up a British Airways Household Account:
The biggest and first advantage is the ability to pool your Avios with up to six people who live with you. It means that even if you don’t have enough Avios within your account, another family member might, which will help boost your balance to a level where you can book the flight you need. Usefully, when you log in you will see both your individual member Avios balance and also the Household balance which is available for you to redeem.
The second advantage is in the redemption of Avios, so when you redeem points they are taken out of the Household account, with a proportional amount from each Member’s balance. This means you can empty the points from any accounts that aren’t used. When you earn, the points go onto your own account but can again be pooled using the Household option.
Anyone in your Household can redeem your miles, so in my case, if I want to send my dad to Sydney, he can redeem miles that are sitting in my account and fly using miles that he didn’t earn.
The third advantage is if you have children. Children can earn Avios points and tier points when they fly if they are a member of a Household Account, so everyone in the family can collect Avios each time you travel.
If children are not a member of a Household Account, under-18’s cannot have their own British Airways Executive Club account, so cannot earn Avios or tier points, but they can be invited to join a household account, and using this method, can earn the Avios and tier points that they are due from any flights they take.
There are two further reasons to take out a Household account. The first is the expiry of your British Airways Avios. If you are not a member of a household account, have miles and no activity for 36 months. You will lose your hard-earned miles. But you don’t need to make any activity whatsoever on your account as long as someone in the Household account has movement (earning or burning) of miles on their account. All household accounts will remain active and will not expire.
The fifth and last reason is a rather sad reason. If a family member passes on, they are likely to lose their miles. If this happens and they are a member of a household account, other members will still be able to use their miles.
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