How To Change The Frequent Flyer Number On A British Airways Reservation

Off the top of my head I can think of three instances in which you may wish to change the frequent flyer number associated with a British Airways reservation:

1. One of British Airways’ partners offers a good miles promotion if you credit travel to their program (and you’ve already booked your ticket using a different loyalty program’s number)
2. You purchased a ticket with Avios but want to associate another partner’s loyalty program with your ticket to get status benefits.
3. You weren’t thinking and you added the wrong number – we’ve all done that!

Scenario 2 is the one that I encounter most.

I like to use Avios for short-haul or intra-Europe flights when fares are expensive and, to use my Avios balance, I have to associate my British Airways Executive Club (BAEC) number with my reservation. Having absolutely no status with British Airways and Executive Platinum (OneWord Emerald) status with American Airlines, I like to add my AAdvantage number to my reservation to make sure I get free seat selection at the time I book. But British Airways don’t make it easy!

How do you change your Frequent Flyer Number in a British Airways Reservation?

The first thing you should know is that there doesn’t appear to be any way of changing your frequent flyer number on BA.com once you’ve made a reservation. If anyone knows a way then let me know!

Luckily, British Airways’ OneWorld partner Finnair is a lot more obliging.

What you’ll need:

1. Your name
2. Your booking reference.

The process:

1. Head over to the Finnair Homepage
2. At the top of the page click on “Manage Booking”

3. Type in your name and booking reference in the boxes that appear and click “search”.

4. Your booking will appear and will look a bit like the screenshot below – except that it won’t have all the personal information removed! Click the “update your details” button.

5. You’ll now be presented with the opportunity to change your information – including your frequent flyer number.

Make sure you enter an email address and a telephone number if those fields aren’t already filled in otherwise the Finnair website will return an error.

6. Save your information

And that’s all you have to do.

The Finnair and British Airways booking systems are interlinked (which is how you were able to pull up your British Airways reservation on the Finnair website in the first place) so, if you now head back to the British Airways website you’ll find your information updated.