Published: 21 September 2026

This page is part of our British Airways Club Hub which pulls together all our articles on BA & Avios

British Airways Household Account: How to Pool Avios

A British Airways Club Household Account enables up to seven people to pool their miles for the purposes of booking reward flights. In addition, being part of a household account is the only way that under 18s can earn Avios on their flights.

As a result, being part of a Household Account enables members of the group to book flights that they otherwise would not individually have enough points for and also means that collectors can also get additional value from the Avios collected by other family members who are under 18 or are infrequent travellers.

However, there are a few restrictions to be aware of, especially if you regularly use your Avios to book flights for many different people. Our guide explains how British Airways Club Household Accounts work, the key benefits and the things to be aware of.

How British Airways Club Household Accounts work

Each household member needs their own British Airways Club account.
One adult creates the Household Account and becomes Head of the Household.
The Head of the Household can invite up to 6 other members.
Each member continues to collect Avios and Tier Points individually.
Avios are pooled across the household for the purposes of booking reward flights.
When Avios are spent, they are taken proportionally from each household member.

It is important to note that while the Head of Household administers the account, any member can redeem the pooled Avios balance for reward flights.

Example

The Trotter family have 250,000 Avios in their Household Account, split across 4 people – each with a different individual balance.

Rodney books a reward flight which costs 100,000 Avios. These Avios are deducted pro-rata from each family member – so Del, who has the most Avios, contributes the highest amount whilst Raquel, who has the lowest balance, has the fewest amount of Avios deducted from her account. Being a member of the household has enabled Rodney to book a reward flight using more Avios than he had in his own individual account.

Member	Individual Avios Balance	% Share of Household Account	100k Avios Redemption	New Avios Balance
Del	100,000	40%	-40,000	60,000
Raquel	25,000	10%	-10,000	15,000
Rodney	50,000	20%	-20,000	30,000
Cassandra	75,000	30%	-30,000	45,000
Total	250,000	100%	-100,000	150,000

How to set up a British Airways Club Household Account

Visit ba.com and log into your account
Select Your profile
In the Household Account section, select Manage household account
Add the other people you want to include in your household group. If they are an existing member of the BA Club, you will need to provide their membership number. If they are not already a member of the BA Club, you will need their email address and they can join as part of the sign-up process
Members will receive an invitation via email which needs to be accepted to enable them to join the household

Restrictions with a British Airways Club Household Account

Ordinarily, if you are an Avios collector, you can use your points to book a reward flight on behalf of anyone you like. However, once you are a member of a household account, you are slightly more restricted in who you can use your Avios to book flights for.

You can only book reward flights for other people if they that person is either part of your Household Account or on your Family & Friends list.

This includes both people travelling on their own and those who are travelling with another member of the Household Account.

The exception to this is if you use a BA American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher – this allows a household member to book a flight with a friend who is not part of the same household. I did a reward flight booking earlier in 2026 without any issues.

Family & Friends List

The Head of Household can include 5 additional individuals in the account’s Family & Friends list. Once on the list, household account members can use the pooled household account Avios balance to book flights for people on the Family & Friends list.

The Family & Friends list is only for booking Avios reward flights using the household account. Avios belonging to the other people on the Family & Friends list remain separate at all times. Note that the Family & Friends list is not to be confused with the list of travel companions that you may have setup in your BA Club account.

Once a member has joined a Family & Friends list, they remain a member for a minimum of 6 months

How to set up a British Airways Club Family and Friends list

Visit ba.com and log into your account
Select Your profile
In the Household Account section, select Manage family and friends
Add the family & friends you would like to include. If they are an existing member of the BA Club, you will need to provide their membership number. If they are not already a member of the BA Club, you will need their email address and they can join as part of the sign-up process – although this is not compulsory
Invitees will receive an invitation via email which needs to be accepted to enable them to join the list

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a British Airways Household Account cost anything?

There is no cost to join, and there is no charge for pooling the Avios

What are the Avios Expiry rules?

There is no change to the normal BA Avios expiry policy. To prevent their own Avios from expiring, each member needs to have activity on their individual Avios account at least once every 36 months.

Can I leave a household account?

Yes but when you join a household account, it is for a minimum of 6 month term and you can only be a member of one household account at a time.

How do I manage my child’s BA Club Account?

BA recommends that parents/guardians become third-party nominees for any under 18s joining a household account, to enable them to manage the membership on behalf of the child.

What happens if a Household Account is closed?

In the event that the Household account is closed, all adults retain their individual Club membership and their own Avios. However, members aged under 18 cannot remain individual BA Club members and any earned Avios and Tier Points will be lost.

Is there another way to share Avios?

Yes, you can transfer up to 60,000 Avios to another member for a fixed fee of £50, with a maximum transfer amount of 200,000 Avios allowed to be transferred per year. If you are a Gold member of the BA Club, there is no fee charged to do this.

My Experience

We have had a British Airways Household Account for over 10 years. It has enabled my wife, myself and the kids to build up our Avios by pooling the miles earned on cash bookings. One year when we took my young nephew away to Florida with us, we also made sure he was added to the household and the Avios he earned as part of his trip went back into our household pot. We have also used the account to effectively combine the Avios we have both earned from our credit cards.

As a result we have been able to use Avios for all of us to go on family holidays together and on a couple of occasions we have used the points to book one-way long-haul flights for my step-daughter, a great alternative to paying the extremely high cash prices BA were asking.

The only slightly annoying thing I have found is that if you are the head of the household, you can see your personal Avios balance and how many Avios are in the overall Household account, but you cannot see the Avios that each of the individual family members is holding. This makes it hard to understand the Avios contribution of each member when booking a reward flight.

Our Take

For families who collect Avios, a British Airways Club Household Account is well worth setting up.

The biggest advantage is not having one larger Avios balance. Everyone continues to own and earn their Avios individually, but the Household Account allows those separate balances to be used together when booking reward flights.

That can make a significant difference. A family with four people holding 25,000 Avios each effectively has 100,000 Avios available towards a redemption, rather than a few individual balances that may each be too small to be particularly useful.

It is especially valuable where some family members travel infrequently. Instead of the Avios earned by children or an occasional traveller sitting largely unused, they can contribute towards the family’s next redemption.

There are two things we’d consider before setting one up.

Firstly, you need to trust the other adults in your Household Account. Any adult household member can make a redemption using the pooled balance, with Avios deducted proportionally from everyone’s individual accounts.

Secondly, a Household Account makes your Avios less flexible when booking flights for people outside your household. You’re generally restricted to the other household members plus the five people on your Family & Friends list. If you regularly use your Avios to book flights for a wider circle of people, this restriction could become frustrating.

For us, neither has outweighed the benefits. We’ve had a Household Account for more than ten years and it has allowed Avios earned by different members of our family to contribute towards family holidays and other reward flights that would have been harder to book using our individual balances.

For a family where several people earn Avios, we’d see a Household Account as one of the first things to set up. It’s free, makes smaller Avios balances considerably more useful and, importantly, allows children to collect Avios too.

British Airways Household Account: How to Pool Avios