Updated: 24 October 2026
Updated to reflect changes to Avios & Tier Point earning on BA Holidays booked from 24 November 2026 for travel from April 2027 onwards. New rates are shown alongside the existing TP earnings.
This page is part of our British Airways Club Hub which pulls together all our articles on BA & Avios
How to Earn Extra Avios and Tier Points with British Airways Holidays
Booking a trip with British Airways Holidays can offer several advantages over booking your flight, hotel or car hire separately – including additional Avios, extra Tier Points, potentially cheaper fares and the ability to secure your trip with a relatively small deposit.
In some cases, a British Airways Holiday can even cost little more than the flight on its own, making the additional benefits particularly attractive.
However, there are some important rules to understand – particularly around what actually qualifies as a BA Holiday and how the additional Avios and Tier Points are calculated.
Advantages of booking a British Airways Holiday
- Additional Tier Points
- Bonus Avios
- Extra Discounts & offers
- ATOL Protection
- Low Deposits
- Better Fares
What is a British Airways Holiday?
This might seem like a strange question but in the context of potentially earning additional Avios and Tier Points, it is important to understand BA’s definition of a British Airways Holiday. Your trip must be booked as either:
- Flight + Hotel (you can also add a car)
- Flight + Car
- (plus bookings made via the multi-centre option)
To put it simply, the booking has to be instigated as a holiday from the outset. If you simply book a flight with BA and later during the booking stage add a car/hotel (what BA calls a “shopping basket booking”), this is not classed as a British Airways Holiday and will not qualify for additional Avios or Tier points.
How Many Avios Do I Earn on a British Airways Holiday?
Bookings made up to 24 November 2026
1) Flight element Avios
Avios earning on flights booked with BA Holidays is different to standalone flights (which are based on the price of the flight – excluding taxes). As BA does not expose the underlying price of the flight element of a holiday, BA Holidays uses a combination of distance plus cabin/booking class (see here on ba.com)
Note that Bronze, Silver and Gold members of the British Airways Club also collect bonuses of 15%, 30% or 50% extra Avios on top of the base Avios awarded.
Unfortunately BA does not disclose the booking class while searching for a BA Holiday which makes it impossible to accurately calculate the number of Avios earned before committing to purchase. However, after booking, the class of each flight is usually available on the website – look in the Manage My Booking section.
Despite this, it is likely that certain types of bookings will earn a lot more Avios when booked as part of a holiday than on a standalone basis. A cheap long-haul premium ticket booked inside a BA Holiday can produce substantially more regular Avios than buying the same flight standalone, because the holiday calculation is still linked to distance rather than what you paid. Conversely, an expensive standalone ticket can earn more Avios because the points issued are revenue-based.
2) BA Holidays Bonus Avios
In addition to the Avios for the flight, BA Holidays awards 1 Avios per £ (or equivalent) spent on the overall holiday. These are paid to the lead passenger on the booking only.
Note these bonus Avios are only awarded to British Airways Club members who are registered in the UK and the flight element of the booking must originate in the UK
3) Car Hire Avios
If your holiday includes car rental, additional Avios are paid to Avis Preferred members on the vehicle hire element of the booking. Avis awards 5 Avios per £ (or equivalent local currency) and this is based on the agreed hire rate between BA and Avis, rather than the amount you have paid BA for the car hire (this can actually work out in your favour). Unfortunately, you are not told this amount until the rental is invoiced, although you can usually view the invoice after the car is returned on avis.com.
Bookings made from 24 November 2026
1) BA Holidays Avios
BA Holidays awards 6 Avios per £ (or currency equivalent) spent on the overall holiday. Avios are split equally between the total number of people on the booking but only those passengers who add a British Airways Club membership number to the booking will be credited with Avios.
If some or all of the travelling group are members of the same British Airways Household Account, any Avios earned can be pooled for future flight redemptions.
3) Car Hire Avios
If your holiday includes car rental, additional Avios are paid to Avis Preferred members on the vehicle hire element of the booking. Avis awards 5 Avios per £ (or equivalent local currency) and this is based on the agreed hire rate between BA and Avis, rather than the amount you have paid BA for the car hire (this can actually work out in your favour). Unfortunately, you are not told this amount until the rental is invoiced, although you can usually view the invoice after the car is returned on avis.com.
How Many Tier Points Do I Earn on a British Airways Holiday?
1) One Tier Point per £
One Tier Point per £ spent on the holiday is awarded on “Flight + Hotel” and “Flight + Car” bookings. The tier points are split equally between the total number of people on the booking but only those passengers who add a British Airways Club membership number will be credited with Tier Points.
Potential Tier Point strategy: Because the base Tier Points from a BA Holiday are divided equally between eligible passengers on the package, travellers particularly focused on earning status may want to compare the cost of booking one person on the Flight + Hotel package and booking another traveller’s flight separately. This will concentrate the holiday Tier Points with one traveller, although you should compare the overall cost carefully and ensure that the hotel permits the intended number of occupants.
2) Extra Tier Points
In addition each traveller will also receive extra tier points for each individual flight segment, based on the cabin flown in:
- Euro Traveller (Short Haul Economy): 75 extra tier points
- Club Europe (Short Haul Business): 175 extra tier points
- World Traveller (Long Haul Economy): 150 extra tier points
- World Traveller Plus (Long Haul Premium Economy): 275 extra tier points (175 points from 1 April 2027)
- Club World (Long Haul Business): 500 extra tier points (200 points from 1 April 2027)
- First (Long Haul First): 650 extra tier points (300 points from 1 April 2027)
Example of Avios & Tier Point Earning
Two passengers with entry level Blue status in the BA Club, going from London to Miami for 7 nights, paying a total price of £3,290 including premium economy flights, hotel and car hire, might earn:
Avios (for bookings up to 24 November 2026)
- Avios on the flights: 4,436 each (assuming the flights book into the cheapest premium economy class)
- Bonus Avios for the holiday booking: 3,290 to the lead booker (1 Avios x £3,290)
- Avios for the car hire: 665 to the hirer (5 Avios x £133 – although could be more)
- Total: 12,827 Avios between two people
Avios (for bookings from 24 November 2026)
- Avios for the holiday booking: 9,870 each (6 Avios x £3,290)
- Avios for the car hire: 665 to the hirer (5 Avios x £133 – although could be more)
- Total: 20,405 Avios between two people
Tier Points
- Tier Points for the holiday booking: 1,645 each (£3,290 / 2 people)
- Extra Tier Points: 550 each (275 each way for premium economy flights)
- Total: 2,195 Tier Points each
- Note some tier point earnings change (see above) for bookings made from 25 November 2026 that take place on or after 1 April 2027.
Additional Benefits
Besides earning extra Avios and Tier Points, there are other advantages with booking a BA Holiday when compared to buying everything separately:
Discounts & offers
By purchasing the hotel and/or car hire as part of a package with the flight, there are often additional discounts or promotional offers available. In my experience, these offers vary from zero (always seems to be a lot cheaper to book Disney World hotel myself) to excellent (we got free half-board dining once while staying at the Atlantis in Dubai which saved an absolute fortune) so always sense check the offers before booking.
ATOL Protection
Unlike booking a standalone flight, all package holidays with BA are fully ATOL protected – in the event that BA Holidays stops trading before you leave, you are entitled to a full refund; or emergency repatriation if it happens while you are abroad.
Low Deposits
One significant advantage of booking a holiday over a flight only booking is that you do not have to pay in full at the booking stage. Deposits vary depending on the price of the holiday but you can pay as little as £120 for holidays up to £999 and £150 for holidays up to £2,999.
The balance payment usually needs to be paid in full at least four weeks before departure for short-haul bookings and seven weeks in advance for long-haul holidays.
Better Fares
BA often use their holiday business as a way of discretely selling discounted fares without reducing the headline flight only price.
This does happen on routes that have a lot of business class capacity, such as New York, where BA wants to keep prices high to business travellers. During quieter periods, BA will often sell flight + hotel packages for not much more than the flight on its own.
Our advice: whenever you’re considering an expensive British Airways flight – particularly in Premium Economy, Business or First – have a look at BA’s Holiday Deal Finder or run your dates through British Airways Holidays before booking. You may find that adding a hotel or car costs surprisingly little, or that the entire package is cheaper than purchasing the components separately.
British Airways Holidays may not be the best option when:
- You want to use hotel points or redeem a free night
- You want to earn loyalty points from the hotel chain or use loyalty benefits
- A different car-hire provider is substantially cheaper
- You need the flexibility offered by separate refundable bookings
- The package price is materially higher than booking everything independently
My experience
I am most definitely not a booker of package holidays but I have done about 10 trips with British Airways Holidays over the years, sometimes in order to take advantage of better prices or additional Avios – but usually to enable me to book a flight way in advance without having to pay for it until much nearer the departure date.
A Trick I’ve Used: Add Just One Hotel Night
If you just want to secure some good value flights now and are planning to arrange your own accommodation nearer the time, one neat trick that I have used is to book an airport hotel for the night before you leave. You must book this as part of a multi-centre holiday but a flight and one night in a hotel is good enough to make sure your trip qualifies as a BA holiday, and you can delay paying the balance of your trip until much closer to the time of deaprture.
Thinking of Renting a Car?
Car hire can also be extremely good value, adding a car to the example Miami trip I have used in this article only increased the price by an additional £133 for the entire week – which I think was a great deal.
Our Take
British Airways Holidays is worth checking even if, like me, you don’t normally consider yourself a package-holiday traveller.
The combination of additional Avios, additional Tier Points, ATOL protection and the ability to secure a trip with a relatively small deposit can make booking through BA Holidays considerably more attractive than simply buying a flight.
The current Tier Point earning structure makes the comparison particularly important. A holiday booking earns Tier Points based on the package price, with additional Tier Points available for each flight segment. On an expensive long-haul holiday, that can make a meaningful contribution towards British Airways Club status.
There can also be value on the Avios side. From 25 November 2026, BA Holidays awards 6 Avios per £1 spent on the overall package which can be a decent return if all the group are BA Club members. If your package includes Avis car hire, there is another opportunity to earn Avios there too.
However, the biggest lesson from my own bookings is simply always compare the BA Holidays price with flight-only.
BA sometimes offers attractive package fares, particularly in premium cabins, and there are occasions when adding a hotel or car costs surprisingly little compared with the flight by itself. I’ve personally used a relatively inexpensive airport hotel night as part of a multi-centre booking to create a BA Holiday, allowing me to secure flights well in advance without paying the full balance until much nearer departure.
It won’t always be cheaper. Hotels can sometimes cost less booked independently, and booking accommodation as part of a package will usually mean sacrificing hotel loyalty points or benefits.
But before booking an expensive British Airways flight, I always run a second search through BA Holidays. If the price is similar, the additional Avios, Tier Points, protection and payment flexibility can make the holiday booking considerably better value.
