IMPORTANT CAVEAT: If you set up a Household Account then you will NOT be able to redeem Avios for someone outside the HA, unlike standard account holders. This also applies to GUF2 vouchers, including those redeemed for purely paid tickets via a Travel Agent which have nothing to do with Avios and/or HHAs

Household accounts (HHAs), or family accounts as they are sometimes referred to are a way of pooling Avios for redemptions. They are also a way of allowing under 18’s to join and earn Avios.

Each member must have the same address. You previously (and in some regions may still have to) needed to fill in a form, and fax it to BA. They will then lose the form, not do anything, and you’ll probably need to call (and fax) a few times before they manage to set it up However, now the process should be greatly simplified and can all be done online from your account.

Once it is set-up, you will have two mileage balances when you log into the website, a personal one, and a household one. The household one is the mileage balance of all the members, combined.

Avios earned is the only thing that is shared; status is NOT shared i.e. if one member is Silver and the other is Blue, the Blue member travelling alone, will not have lounge access, Club check-in etc.

As you have to be 18 or over to join the EC, the HHA is a good way to let kids join. There is no age restriction when joining a family account (however infant tickets will not earn TP and Avios). You will, however, have to phone BA to get them to add EC membership numbers to bookings of under-18s, as currently, BA.com does not allow you to do this.

The maximum number of members in a HHA is seven (one primary member, and six others).

You can only make one change to a HHA (which means adding and removing members, changes to your address) every six months.



Spending Avios from a household account
There’s a specific formula that calculates how Avios are get removed from each members account.

Where a is the first member, b is the second member, c is the third and so on; and x is the number of Avios being redeemed:

Avios deducted from a = (a/(a+b+c+...)) * x
Avios deducted from b = (b/(a+b+c+...)) * x

What this means in English is:

If I have 20,000 Avios and my partner has 40,000 (for a total of 60K), they would deduct twice as many Avios from his account as mine. e.g. for a 10,000 Avios award, they'd take 6667 from his and 3333 from mine.

Members of the HHA who are under 18 cannot redeem Avios for tickets.



Keeping Avios alive!
All BA accounts are subject to a rule which says they will expire and Avios be lost if there is no ‘activity’ (earn or spend of any kind) for 3 years. This applies to HHAs too unless there is at least one status member in the HHA. Other than that, make sure you keep an eye on this and ensure all accounts have some activity occasionally – of course, the easiest way to do that is a redemption due to the formula above.

See also the relevant entry in the BA Wiki.