Mr Plane Guy Plane Blog,
Flight Reviews, Airport Lounges & Travel Hacks.

If you’re collecting British Airways Avios and flying through duty free Heathrow, this is one of the easiest “stacking” tricks most travellers completely miss. British Airways quietly partnered with Club Avolta in late 2025, and most travellers still don’t realise it exists. Club Avolta (formerly Dufry / Red by Dufry) is the loyalty programme behind World Duty Free and it now partners with British Airways and Iberia to let you earn and redeem Avios when shopping airside. It

You Deserve a Reward, Not a Headache Let’s be honest. Collecting Avios is the fun part. Spending them? That’s where the stress kicks in. Trying to find British Airways reward flights on BA.com can feel like a full-time job: Searching date by date Cabin by cabin Route by route Watching seats appear… then disappear It’s slow. It’s frustrating and it’s why so many people sit on huge Avios balances they never use. That’s exactly why tools like Reward Flight Fin

January is about resetting and planning, and before we go any further, I just want to say this: over 30,000 of you read MrPlaneGuy.com last month. I’m genuinely touched and incredibly grateful it still blows my mind that so many of you choose to spend your time here.

British Airways loyalists don’t usually look across the fence, but Flying Blue is now giving British Airways Club members a very good reason to do exactly that. Air France–KLM’s loyalty programme has launched a new status match aimed at BA elites in the UK, unlocking recognition across Air France, KLM, SkyTeam, and slightly awkwardly for BA, Virgin Atlantic.

If you’re buying clothes, basics, or last-minute festive bits online anyway, this is one of the easiest Avios wins I’ve seen in a while. Right now, new customers shopping at SHEIN UK can earn up to 30 Avios per £1 spent and on top of that, Avios is running a 50% Christmas bonus across 1,000+ brands. That means your everyday online shopping can quietly turn into British Airways Avios, flight upgrades, or future reward flights.

The Smart Reality of Spending Avios after the Devaluation Avios isn’t “dead” but it has officially become a precision tool, not a blanket reward system. Smart Avios users will now: Target very specific routes Compare upgrade vs full redemption Use tools like Reward Flight Finder to avoid blind searching Spend Avios sooner, not later Because one rule always wins with airline currency: