The Avios Amigos. And Redemption Sweet Spots (Malaysian Edition)
Avios is a great alternative miles program for Malaysians, offering excellent value and unlocking some lesser-known travel opportunities.
We recently ran a poll in our BolehMiles Telegram channel to see what readers wanted next, and many expressed interest in alternative miles guides, following our CIMB TWE card review.
Originally planned for later, we’re releasing this guide much earlier due to the upcoming Qatar Avios transfer bonus ending on 31 October 2024 and the approaching holiday season.
So, by popular demand, here’s the first in our Alternative Miles Guide series: Avios.
Overview
Avios is the standard mileage currency for 5 airlines: British Airways, Qatar Airways, Finnair, Aer Lingus, and Iberia. Think of it like a “European-style” airline currency that can be used across various countries in Europe.
Originally used by British Airways, Avios formed an alliance among the 5 airlines, and we like to call them the Avios Amigos (means Avios Friends in Spanish). Why? Because it sounds catchy.
Now, although Avios is popular for flight redemption in Europe, it can also be redeemed for flights with OneWorld partner airlines such as Malaysia Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, and some other non-OneWorld partner airlines.
In this post, we’ll explore how you can make the most of Avios here in Malaysia.
How do we get Avios in Malaysia?
In Malaysia, getting Avios is not as straightforward as Enrich, KrisFlyer, or Asia Miles. But it can be done.
You can get Avios through CIMB (convert CIMB BP to Avios) or HSBC (not recommended). There’s an ongoing promotion offering up to 35% bonus Avios when you transfer from CIMB. The promotion ends on October 31, 2024. Note that CIMB needs time to process your redemption, so be sure to add 3-5 business days as buffer.
Also, you can get Avios from fintech company Every – and we will have a separate post on this later.
Alternatively, you can buy miles directly from the British Airways Executive Club or Qatar Privilege Club. However, this option is often on the expensive side, but it can be useful if you have a redemption in mind.
Which Avios should we focus on?
Since our readers are mostly based in Malaysia (and Singapore), we’ll focus on the three programs that are most useful: British Airways Executive Club, Qatar Privilege Club, and Finnair Plus.
You can transfer the Avios across the 5 programs at 1:1 ratio.
From what we’ve observed, Iberia and AerClub don’t offer much for us here, unless you plan to use them for flights within Europe, especially through Spain and Ireland.
Same same, but different. And the general guideline.
While the redemption requirements across the Avios Amigos may seem similar, there are nuances that you should be aware of:
British Airways Executive Club (BAEC): The website is best used for booking non-connecting flights on OneWorld partner airlines. If you try to book connecting flights with a mix of airlines (e.g MAS and Cathay), BAEC website may not be able to handle it online and you will see an error.
We recommend using BAEC as your starting point for searches on Avios redemption, as it often shows the most partner redemption slots. Here’s the redemption chart for BAEC for your reference. The chart is zone-based, and you can determine the zone by Googling the distance between the 2 cities in miles.
| Zone (distance in miles) | Economy | Business |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 (1 to 650) | 6,000 | 12,500 |
| Zone 2 (651 to 1,151) | 9,000 | 16,500 |
| Zone 3 (1,152 to 2,000) | 11,000 | 22,000 |
| Zone 4 (2,001 to 3,000) | 13,000 | 38,750 |
| Zone 5 (3,001 to 4,000) | 20,750 | 62,000 |
| Zone 6 (4,001 to 5,500) | 25,750 | 77,250 |
| Zone 7 (5,501 to 6,500) | 31,000 | 92,750 |
| Zone 8 (6,501 to 7,000) | 36,250 | 108,250 |
| Zone 9 (7,001 and up) | 51,500 | 154,500 |
Qatar Airways Privilege Club (QAPC): The website is best used for booking long-distance flights on Qatar Airways (QR) and select partner airlines. In some cases, a redemption seat may not appear on BAEC, but it will appear on QAPC—especially for connecting flights with a mix Malaysia Airlines and Qatar Airways. You can still book non-connecting Qatar flights through BAEC if you find availability, and the miles and fees are the same. Do note that peak pricing applies for Qatar flights.
Finnair Plus (FP): As the newest addition to the Avios currency, FP is ideal for certain Finnair flights and partner airline redemptions. Note that the user interface may be glitchy at times.
How can we make best use of the Avios in Malaysia?
With the boring starters and vegetables out of the way, here comes the meat. Let’s explore how we can make the best use of Avios in Malaysia.
To Fly Malaysian Airlines
As we have mentioned in this post, sometimes the best way to fly Malaysian Airlines is not by using Enrich.
Since Malaysian Airlines is part of OneWorld, you can use Avios to redeem flights with for flights on Malaysian Airlines. Take a look at some sweet spots for one-way Business seats on Malaysian Airlines below:
| Flight |  |  |
| KUL-BKK | 20,000 | 16,500 |
| KUL-HKG | 45,000 | 22,000 |
| KUL-PVG | 47,500 | 38,750 |
| KUL-DOH | 168,600 | 50,000 |
A word of caution: While it may ‘seem cheaper’ to redeem using Avios, bear in mind Avios is not as easy to come by as Enrich (and Enrich devalues faster than Avios). The cost of acquiring Avios is often times higher than Enrich.
Therefore, we recommend working out the redemption value by comparing the revenue ticket cost vs your miles CPM (Enrich vs Avios) for your flight date, then decide accordingly.
For Doha, since there is a clear outsized advantage by using Avios, it is often better to redeem using Avios.
For a trip to Middle East and Beyond on Qatar Qsuite
Qatar Airways is world famous for its QSuite, Qatar calls itself the First in Business, KOLs call it the best business class in the industry. And they do get many YouTube views (not that we are jealous, here at BolehMiles we are not doing it for the views..tyvm)
For those of us in Malaysia, including our friends in Penang, you can redeem a QSuite seat for just 50,000 Avios. And redemption availability is quite good, at least for now.
Given the good product quality, we find this quite an attractive rate, so we recommend trying it as soon as you can, as it’s unlikely to stay at this level for long.
| Flight | Airline | |
| KUL-DOH | | 50,000 |
| PEN-DOH | | 50,000 |
The famous Qsuite Quad-Seats. Source: Qatar Airways
You can “double-confirm” that your Qsuite from the summary menu, shown below. Note that however, sometimes there may be last minute equipment swap and you may end up inside an older plane of Qatar, so just be mentally prepared for it.
From Doha, you can travel to other destinations through Qatar Airways network, such as the Europe and US. Connecting flights to Europe cost 75,000 Avios. For connecting flights to US, although on paper you can get it for 95,000 Avios, we find that seat availability is hard to come by.
Caution: Qatar Redemption fee is High
Note that the redemption fees are high on Qatar, and that’s one downside that you should be aware off when redeeming Qatar flights using Avios.
Fly FinnAir to Northern Europe and Beyond
Dream vacation in Northern Europe? How about Helsinki on FinnAir Business?
| Flight | |  |
| BKK-HEL | 62,500 | 63,000 |
| BKK-HEL-ARN | 62,500 | 89,000 |
For this one, positioning is required – you have to fly to Bangkok or Singapore on a separate ticket, before flying to Helsinki. We recommend Bangkok instead of Singapore for positioning, as it seems to have better availability and you don’t have to backtrack.
So, fly to Bangkok a day earlier on Malaysia Airlines or AirAsia. Take that foot massage and have some Massaman curry. The next day, board your FinnAir flight to Helsinki.
You can book this through BAEC website or through Finnair Plus (FP) website .
Alternatively, you can use Asia Miles, which could be a better option since Asia Miles is easier to obtain in Malaysia.
From Helsinki, you can move further to other places like Stockholm without additional Avios through FP. You are welcome.
Fly to China and within China on JuneYao Air
This is a special one for our friends in Penang and Singapore since they both speak Hokkien!
Enjoy the convenience of flying directly from Penang/Singapore to Shanghai for ‘cheap’. Bookings must be made through Finnair Plus (FP).
Once you reach Shanghai, you can connect to other cities within China on JuneYao.
| Flight | Finnair Avios | |
| PEN-PVG |  | 13,500 (Economy) 24,000 (Business) |
| SIN-PVG | | 13,500 (Economy) 24,000 (Business) |
That’s all for now..
We hope this gave you a solid introduction to the Avios Amigos ecosystem! There’s certainly much more to explore, especially when it comes to redemption opportunities on Avios, but we’ll save that for another time.
In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to our BolehMiles Telegram channel for tips and tricks you won’t find on the website.
Stay tuned for more!