I take plenty of Ubers. Some are the special kind: a pre-booked car at 5am to catch an early flight from Heathrow. Most are the deeply unglamorous kind, a £12 UberX across London because the tube has thrown another wobbly. Every single one of them has quietly dripped Avios into my BA Club account at 1 Avios per £1. From 15 June 2026, that stops being true for the cheap ones, and the Uber Avios changes are about to split riders neatly into winners and losers.
Uber has emailed members to say the terms are changing in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The pitch is an upgrade: higher earning rates, up to triple what you get today. The reality is more interesting, and for a lot of people it’s a quiet downgrade wearing a party hat.
What the Uber Avios Changes Mean
Right now the deal is simple. You earn 1 Avios per £1 on almost everything Uber sells in the UK: UberX, XL, Comfort, Exec, Lux, Reserve, Black Cab, trains, coaches, Eurostar, Uber Boat and even Lime bikes. One flat rate, no minimum, no thinking required. I looked at the upside of that back when the partnership ran a giveaway worth up to 100,000 Avios.
From 15 June, that flat rate is gone. Here’s the new UK structure:
- Uber Reserve (rides booked in advance): 3 Avios per £1
- Airport trips (to or from any airport): 2 Avios per £1
- Premium rides (Uber XL, Exec, Lux, Comfort, Exec XXL and Black Cab): 2 Avios per £1
- Trains & Eurostar booked in the Uber app: 2 Avios per £1
- Uber Eats orders over £25: 1 Avios per £1
Look at that list again and notice what’s missing. The bog-standard UberX. The ordinary Taxi ride. The everyday trips most people actually book.
The UberX Problem
Here’s the bit Uber’s cheery email rather glosses over. A standard UberX or Taxi ride will earn zero Avios unless you book it as Uber Reserve or you’re heading to or from an airport. The cheapest, most-used option on the whole platform drops off the earning chart entirely.
For me that’s most of my rides. The short city hops, the late-night dash home, the lazy Sunday trip to a mate’s the other side of town. None of those will pay a single Avios after 15 June. If you spend, say, £200 a month on UberX getting around town, that’s roughly 2,400 Avios a year you’re about to stop earning. Not a fortune, but it was free, automatic and required nothing more than linking two accounts.
The official line confirms the UberX cut. Less clear is what happens to Uber Boat, Lime bikes and coach fares, which aren’t named in the new rates. I’d assume they’re heading to zero too, but the full terms on 15 June will settle it.
Who Comes Out Ahead
This is not all doom. If your Uber habit skews premium, you’re laughing.
Book an Exec or a Lux and you’ll double your rate to 2 Avios per £1. Pre-book through Uber Reserve and you’ll triple it to 3 per £1, which is the best rate on the table. Airport runs also jump to 2 per £1, so the trip to catch your flight now pays better than it used to. If you were already paying for the nicer cars, this is a straight pay rise.
So the change does exactly what these things always do. It rewards people who spend more and quietly trims the people who spend least. Whether that’s fair depends entirely on which side of the UberX line you sit.
Trains & Eurostar
The genuine sleeper win here is rail. Train and Eurostar tickets booked through the Uber app double from 1 to 2 Avios per £1. Plenty of people don’t realise you can buy UK train tickets in the Uber app at all, let alone collect Avios on them.
A £120 return to Manchester now drops 240 Avios in your account for doing nothing different. If you book rail regularly and you’ve not linked your accounts, this is the easiest win in the whole shake-up. More ideas like this live in the BG1 guide to boosting your Avios earning.
Uber Eats & the Small Print
Uber Eats stays put. You still earn 1 Avios per £1 on orders over £25, exactly as before. Northern Ireland remains excluded, and tips and assorted fees never earned anything anyway.
One more thing worth flagging. This shake-up hits Aer Lingus AerClub members too, not just the BA Club crowd, since both programmes link to Uber the same way. Different ride categories apply in the Republic of Ireland, but the direction of travel is identical.
Avios, Not Tier Points
A reminder that trips a surprising number of people. Uber pays you in Avios, not tier points. None of this counts towards Silver or Gold status, no matter how many airport runs you rack up. It tops up your spending balance for flights and upgrades, and that’s it.
What I’d Do
Three things, depending on how you ride.
First, keep your accounts linked. Airport trips, premium cars and trains all still pay, and several now pay more. There’s no downside to leaving the link switched on.
Second, accept that the everyday UberX is dead money for Avios now. So stop optimising for points you can no longer earn and just book the cheapest ride. In London that’s often Bolt rather than Uber, so it’s worth pricing both apps for short hops you’d previously have taken on UberX out of loyalty habit.
Third, if you’re booking a car to the airport anyway, pre-book it with Uber Reserve. You’ll bank 3 Avios per £1 instead of 2, for the price of deciding 20 minutes earlier.
Ultimately the Uber Avios changes are a textbook loyalty move. The headline numbers go up, the marketing calls it an improvement, and most people quietly earn less on the rides they take most. If you fly premium and pre-book your cars, enjoy the pay rise. If you live in UberX like I mostly do, it’s time to start taking the train!
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