Uber's partnership with British Airways and what you may be missing as an Uber user

Here is a question worth sitting with: when did you last take an Uber and earn nothing from it? If you are among the majority of British Airways Club members who have not linked their Uber account to their Avios balance, the answer is probably every single time.

The partnership between Uber and British Airways, launched in late 2023, is one of the more quietly significant developments in UK loyalty in recent years. Members of the British Airways Club earn 1 Avios for every £1 spent on all Uber rides, trains, coaches, boats and two-wheels booked via the Uber app in the UK, with points landing in accounts within 24 hours of each qualifying journey. The setup takes less than two minutes, requires a single account link in the Uber app, and never needs to be touched again. Yet awareness of the partnership remains low, and take-up has been far slower than the opportunity justifies.

The case for linking is straightforward arithmetic. The average UK Uber user takes roughly two to three rides per week. At an average spend of £12 to £15 per ride, a moderately active user is passing up somewhere in the region of 1,200 to 2,300 Avios every month without realising it. The value of 1,000 Avios is roughly £10-£20, depending on how they are redeemed, which means the annual opportunity cost of not linking is, conservatively, a return economy seat to a European city.

British Airways guarantees a minimum of 14 reward seats on every long-haul flight and 12 on every short-haul flight, with members able to fly from as little as £1 and 18,500 Avios on off-peak economy returns to more than 40 destinations across Europe. The gap between doing nothing and doing something is often smaller than people assume.

The Uber partnership is the most visible strand of a much broader web of everyday earnings that most members are navigating only partially. Revolut users can transfer their RevPoints to Avios at a 1:1 rate, while HSBC Premier credit card holders can convert their rewards programme points directly into Avios. J.P. Morgan Personal Investing, the platform formerly known as Nutmeg, also offers Avios to new customers who invest a minimum of £500, with points awarded within 55 days. The thread connecting all of these is the same: financial products and services that millions of UK consumers already hold, sitting dormant as Avios earning opportunities because the accounts have never been linked.

What You Should Do This Week

The practical checklist is short. Open the Uber app, go to Account, then Settings, scroll to the Rewards section and link your British Airways Club account. New account linkers receive 250 bonus Avios on activation. Then log in to your Revolut, HSBC, Nectar, and BPme accounts and do the same. If you invest, check whether your platform has an Avios arrangement. If you use Trainline or book Eurostar through the Uber app, those journeys earn too.

None of this requires spending differently. It requires only that existing spending be credited to an account rather than disappearing into the ether. The infrastructure is already built. The partnerships are live. The only thing missing, in most cases, is the two minutes it takes to connect them.