As I posted about last month, British Midland Diamond Club miles were supposed to be transferable to British Airways Avios points as of July 3. It appears as if they’ve made the online tool available earlier, as I just completed a mileage transfer from British Midland to British Airways.

To complete a points transfer simply log into your British Airways Executive Club account, click on “Manage my account,” and then click on “Combine my Avios.”

Or if you’re lazy like me you can simply follow this link. ;)

The next page will give you the option of transferring Diamond Club miles to Avios. It’s worth noting that as of now you can only transfer miles one-way, from British Midland to British Airways.

Once you enter the account information and number of miles to transfer, you’ll be asked to confirm the details. Once you’re finished the points will appear in your British Airways account instantly.

There are two interesting things worth noting:

  • Your account details have to match exactly. When I first tried to make the transfer I got an error message saying that my account details didn’t match. I went into my British Midland account and made sure everything was formatted the same as in my British Airways account, and that solved the problem.
  • If you have a British Midland family account, you can transfer British Midland miles to someone else’s British Airways account. This is a very nice feature. If you have a British Midland family account, just log-in to the account management page, and you’ll see an option to transfer miles to someone else in your family account. This is beneficial because it means you can actually transfer British Midland miles to someone else’s British Airways account. Since I’m a Gold member with British Airways, I’m having everyone in my family account transfer their points to me, since I don’t have to pay for changes or phone ticketing fees.

Meanwhile it can make sense to keep miles in your British Midland account if you plan on booking travel on one of their partners, like Qatar Airways, Virgin Atlantic, etc. More on that here.

Posted on July 2nd, 2012 by lucky
Filed under: bmi, British Airways | 38 Comments »

  1. July 2nd, 2012 at 11:04 am

    Tom said,

    I don’t see that option yet, I’m a blue member and not a gold member like you, is that part of it? Thanks!

  2. July 2nd, 2012 at 11:05 am

    lucky said,

    @ Tom — Are you part of a BA household account? That seems to be causing a problem for some.

  3. July 2nd, 2012 at 11:14 am

    Tom said,

    @lucky, Yes, I’m part of a BA household account.

  4. July 2nd, 2012 at 11:18 am

    London Tim said,

    I’m both a blue member and have an HHA but processed this fine. Tom, are you in a Diamond Club HHA?

  5. July 2nd, 2012 at 11:45 am

    Zz said,

    Any idea how long BMI will be an earning partner with Hilton?

  6. July 2nd, 2012 at 11:47 am

    Nickfromct said,

    Thanks for the heads up!

  7. July 2nd, 2012 at 11:55 am

    London Tim said,

    @Zz, BMI have already terminated their partnership with Hilton

  8. July 2nd, 2012 at 12:00 pm

    DanR said,

    Thanks for the tip! I only signed up for the free 1000 Diamond Club miles back in March when you (correctly) predicted that they would combine them into Avios :-)

  9. July 2nd, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    mohamed b said,

    I am really confused and seeking advise as i have got quite good mileage in both programs and i know ba is more reliable and safer in long term but i am still seduced by the possibility to get those virgin and qatar ticket with bmi??anyone advise what the best option??keeping both accounts or merge???

  10. July 2nd, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    mohamed b said,

    I am really confused and seeking advise as i have got quite good mileage in both programs and i know ba is more reliable and safer in long term but i am still seduced by the possibility to get those virgin and qatar ticket with bmi??anyone advise what the best option??keeping both accounts or merge???

  11. July 2nd, 2012 at 12:46 pm

    Sharon Simon said,

    What exactly are “destination” miles from BMI? I’m assuming the 1000 miles I earned for enrollment in BMI’s program are not destination miles and thus cannot be transferred to Avios, but would appreciate hearing if anyone can confirm this. Thanks.

  12. July 2nd, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    lucky said,

    @ Tom — It seems that those in BA household accounts aren’t able to make transfers yet.

    @ mohammed b — There’s no need to transfer the points until you have a redemption in mind. So I’d keep them with British Midland for now. You can always transfer them to BA instantly if you have a use.

    @ Sharon — Destination miles are the same as redeemable miles, and should be transferable.

  13. July 2nd, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    DJ said,

    Thanks for the heads up, although, I’m a bit sad……Goodbye Diamond Club, thanks for some amazing trips!

  14. July 2nd, 2012 at 1:34 pm

    Zz said,

    @London Tim,
    since when? I still see BMI on Hilton’s list
    http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/points/earningmiles.do

  15. July 2nd, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    SH said,

    It does work but only if you don’t use the link. I have a HHA with both programmes and was getting errors when using the shortcut link above. Going the long way round worked!

  16. July 2nd, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    Aleks said,

    I have a household account (me, my wife and my son). My wife and I also have separate BMI Diamond Club accounts, which are not combined into a household account. I just successfully transferred a 1000 miles from my wife’s BMI account into *my* BA account. So individual-to-household transfers seem to work as well (as long as the individual is part of the TO household account, I’m guessing).

  17. July 2nd, 2012 at 2:33 pm

    dhammer53 said,

    This is easy as pie to do, as outlined by Ben … but…when you enter your BMI account number, remember to put in all the zero’s. I left off a few and it took me 5 minutes until I figured it out.

  18. July 2nd, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    Mariana said,

    Hi Ben, I wanted to thank you for telling us about signing up with bmi and getting 1000 miles. All four members of my family did. Now I was able to transfer all those miles (4000) into the British Airways household account with no issue whatsoever. I am not 4000 Avios points richer thanks to you!!

  19. July 2nd, 2012 at 6:32 pm

    Mariana said,

    Sorry, meant to say: I’m NOW 4000 avios points richer!

  20. July 2nd, 2012 at 6:59 pm

    Pegasus said,

    I had no problems combining miles from BMI to my BA Household account.

  21. July 2nd, 2012 at 8:01 pm

    Jim said,

    Any way I can combine/transfer points from other people in my BMI household account into my BA avios? I am having trouble getting it to work.

  22. July 2nd, 2012 at 11:46 pm

    lucky said,

    @ Jim — When you’re on your family membership management page (assuming you’re the head of household), you should see an option to transfer points right next to the names of everyone in your household.

  23. July 2nd, 2012 at 11:52 pm

    Stephan said,

    Just read on the BA forum on FT that BA will likely not let us go BA to BMI and only allow one way transfers from BMI to Avios.

  24. July 3rd, 2012 at 5:46 am

    Patrick M said,

    Went into my BA account to get to the link. It get stuck trying to load the balance transfer tool. I’ll try again later.

  25. July 3rd, 2012 at 6:17 am

    jfadds said,

    for me – not working to transfer into fmily account .
    should i quit family account if this continues?

  26. July 3rd, 2012 at 8:12 am

    Huff Daland said,

    “Combine my Avios” is not listed in my BA account options. And when I try your link, I get NO option to move my BMI miles to BA. I do NOT have a BA family account.

  27. July 3rd, 2012 at 8:14 am

    lucky said,

    @ Huff — Having the same problem with my brother’s account and not sure why.

  28. July 3rd, 2012 at 9:57 am

    Cory said,

    I got an email from bmi today saying I could transfer my miles. They even provided a link. And “Combine my Avios” is still not showing up.

  29. July 3rd, 2012 at 1:29 pm

    Ant said,

    I’m not seeing “Combine My Avios” under my account options either. I’ve even tried different browsers, still nothing.

  30. July 4th, 2012 at 2:24 am

    Hao said,

    I had a problem where the date of birth was not listed. You have to be at least 18 to transfer miles. I entered my DOB and the Combine My Avios option appeared

  31. July 4th, 2012 at 2:38 am

    lucky said,

    @ Hao — Awesome, that did the trick for my brother’s account. For those that aren’t seeing the “Combine My Avios” option, adding the date of birth in your profile should do the trick.

  32. July 4th, 2012 at 5:50 am

    Huff Daland said,

    Sure enough, my birthdate was not part of my BA profile. I added it and voila, “combine my avios” suddenly appeared and I moved the miles within seconds. Thanks for the tips y’all.

  33. July 4th, 2012 at 7:49 am

    Bob said,

    Still not working for me; “Combine My Avios” does not show up. My birth date is already in my profile.
    Even tried changing my address from Canada to USA and nothing…..

  34. July 5th, 2012 at 10:09 pm

    Andy said,

    what would they do to persons without a BA account?

  35. July 6th, 2012 at 6:04 am

    lucky said,

    @ Andy — I assume eventually they’ll make a BA account for you, though otherwise you could make one now so you can make a transfer already.

  36. July 16th, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    Mike said,

    Thanks for the tip, entered my birth date and the link appeared.

  37. August 22nd, 2012 at 2:26 pm

    Julian said,

    Adding the birthday was key. Confusingly enough this is under the Advance Passenger Information. After adding that the menu item appeared and I was able to combine the Avios.

  38. April 23rd, 2013 at 5:18 am

    Dan Plews said,

    Hi there. I don’t know if you can help me with this; I no longer have my BMI diamond club membership number and would like to try and transfer to BA. Trying to contact them at https://www.diamondclub.org/iloyal-MemberPortal/mportal/contactusFlow?execution=e6s6 I am told my membership number is wrong; at the moment I’m trying to use a random 11-digit number beginning with three zeroes. The people at BA are unable to help, not even to tell me the correct format, and I wondered if you could suggest what I should put in to get my query into their system?
    Thanks in advance
    Dan Plews

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