British Airways will codeshare with Kenya Airways (Avios & Tier Points earnings on the way)

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British Airways has announced that it has entered into a reciprocal codesharing agreement with Kenya Airways which sees the airline putting its code on select Kenya Airways flights and giving Executive Club members the opportunity to earn Avios and Tier Points when they credit Kenya Airways flights that have been booked through BA.com to the British Airways Executive Club.

The Codeshare Agreement

British Airways is adding its code to Kenya Airways flights between Nairobi and 20 other African destinations. In return, Kenya Airways will put its code on BA flights to and from 26 destinations across the UK and Europe.

The Kenya Airways destinations that will now be bookable through British Airways include (but are not limited to) Douala, Zanzibar, Lusaka, Mombasa, Addis Ababa, Entebbe, and the hugely popular destinations of Mauritius and Seychelles. While Kenya Airways customers will now have access to destinations such as Glasgow, Madrid, Milan, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt when they route through London.

Note that the two airlines do not appear to be codesharing on the London – Nairobi route.

Christopher Fordyce, British Airways’ Head of Alliances, had said:

“After a difficult 20 months with global travel restrictions, it’s fantastic to see travel between the UK and Africa resuming. We are really pleased to be able to offer our customers access to even more destinations across the region thanks to our new codeshare agreement with Kenya Airways, making that bucket list trip even easier to plan.”

And Julius Thairu, Chief Commercial and Customer Officer at Kenya Airways has offered up this quote:

“We are delighted to secure this strategic codeshare agreement with British Airways to provide our travellers with a seamless journey to and from Europe and Africa. The agreement will increase choices for thousands of passengers and will allow for smooth connectivity to a significant number of new destinations – particularly throughout Africa and Europe. By harnessing our complementary strengths, this agreement will also provide benefits to aid the recovery of international travel and meet the increasing demand.”

Kenya Airways operates to 34 African destinations so BA is only sharing on 55% of the Kenya Airways network and as the press release makes specific mention of “East and Central Africa”, I think we can assume that the codeshare agreement won’t cover the longer Kenya Airways flights on which the airline operates its 787-9 Dreamliners (e.g. its routes to South Africa).

We have been told that these codeshare flights are already available to book but just before writing this post, I searched numerous routes and have yet to find evidence that the new codeshare flights have been loaded into BA’s booking systems. Hopefully, by the time most readers are seeing this news, that will have changed.

Earning Avios & Tier Points

British Airways has confirmed that members of its Executive Club loyalty program will be able to earn Avios and Tier Points on the Kenya Airways codeshare flights courtesy of this agreement and that makes Kenya Airways the first (I think!) SkyTeam member with whom BAEC members can fly and earn Avios and Tier Points.

At the time of writing, the British Airways Avios Calculator has not been updated to show Kenya Airways as a partner (although it still shows the long-dead Air Italy)…

…and the British Airways Collecting Avios & Tier Points page hasn’t been updated yet either. This means that we don’t yet know at what rate Avios will be earned or how many Tier Points will be on offer. I’ll update this post when more information comes to light.

Bottom Line

British Airways has announced an agreement with Kenya Airways which will see it codesharing on Kenya Airways routes between Nairobi and destinations in Central and Eastern Africa as well as on flights to Mauritius and Seychelles. All codeshare flights will be eligible for Avios and Tier Point accrual and flights should be bookable on BA.com imminently.

Featured image Sergey Pesterev