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A consortium made up of Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Group and a private equity firm recently agreed to buy – or a more appropriate term would be rescue – Flybe. Joe wrote about the transaction here.

For the past four years or so, Flybe has participated in the Avios scheme. The partnership survived the closure of Avios.com (the shopping portal) as Flybe set up its own co-branded loyalty scheme, similar to Vueling and Aer Lingus, although you need to be resident in the UK to join.

With the sale to a Virgin Atlantic-led consortium, it became immediately obvious that Flybe wouldn’t remain a partner of Avios.com for long. And the formal announcement has finally arrived…

Flybe will no longer be an Avios partner from the 30th April 2019 which means you will no longer be able to collect or spend your Avios with Flybe from that date.

You will be able to earn Avios for paid Flybe flights up until 30 April, 2019. You can also redeem Avios up until that date, although you can book for future flights beyond the end of April. After the end of the Flybe – Avios partnership, customers will be able to cancel existing bookings for the standard cancellation fee, but will be unable to make any other types of changes to reward bookings.

What Comes Next?

Flybe have yet to confirm details of their future loyalty programme, but inevitably the airline will join Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – if not on 1 May, then shortly thereafter. We have previously written about efforts made by Virgin to expand their mileage scheme into a stronger competitor to Avios.

When the announcement comes, we’ll be sure to update you. But for now, keep in mind the 30 April deadline if you tend to earn or burn Avios on Flybe flights.