British Airways Adds Porter Airlines Codeshare: 17 New Canadian Destinations to Earn Avios

If you collect Avios and have ever wanted to get beyond Toronto or Montreal without piecing together separate tickets, there's a useful development to note. British Airways has announced a new codeshare agreement with Canadian carrier Porter Airlines, opening up 17 domestic Canadian destinations that you can now book on a single ba.com ticket - and crucially, earn Avios and tier points on.

It's not the most headline-grabbing announcement of the year, but for anyone planning a trip deeper into Canada, it quietly removes a real bit of friction. Here's what it actually means for us in the UK.

British Airways and Porter Airlines have signed a codeshare deal that lets BA customers book Porter-operated domestic flights under a BA flight code on ba.com. The destinations connect from the existing British Airways network when you're travelling to or from London via Toronto (YYZ) or Montreal (YUL).

The headline points:

One detail worth flagging: for now, only British Airways is selling these codeshare flights. Porter told the trade press it will introduce its own distribution in the coming months, so if you're booking from the Canadian side, that's still to come.

If you've not flown them, Porter is a Toronto-headquartered carrier with around 20 years of operation, flying to over 40 destinations across North America, Central America and the Caribbean. They've built a reputation on their "Elevated Economy" product, which is genuinely a cut above what you'd expect from a short-haul economy seat.

That means complimentary drinks served in real glassware, premium snacks, two-by-two seating (so no middle seat), and free, fast-streaming WiFi. For domestic connections after a long-haul flight from the UK, that's a pleasant way to round off the journey rather than the usual no-frills hop.

Here's the full list of Porter destinations now bookable under the BA code:

That's a genuinely broad spread - from Victoria on the Pacific coast all the way to St John's on the Atlantic. Cities like Quebec City, Halifax and Kelowna have always been a faff to reach on a through-ticket from the UK, so seeing them bookable in one transaction is welcome.

The real value here is twofold. First, the convenience of a single ticket means your baggage is checked through and, if a connection goes wrong, BA is responsible for getting you rebooked - a meaningful protection compared with self-connecting on a separate Porter ticket.

Second, you'll earn Avios and tier points on the Porter segments. If you're working towards or maintaining status with The British Airways Club, those extra domestic sectors can add up. You can check exactly how many tier points a given BA itinerary earns with our British Airways tier point calculator, and our BA Avios earning calculator will show what a cash booking earns.

The honest caveat: this is a codeshare for earning and booking convenience, not (at least for now) a new sweet spot for spending Avios. The press release talks about booking and earning, not award redemptions on Porter. So treat this as a way to reach more of Canada on a paid through-fare while collecting points, rather than a new redemption hack.

Of course, the codeshare is most useful once you've crossed the Atlantic. The good news is that BA's transatlantic gateways into Canada remain solid Avios redemptions. As a rough guide, a one-way Avios reward from London to Toronto currently starts from around 27,500 Avios plus taxes in economy off-peak, rising to 88,000 Avios in Club World off-peak (peak pricing and taxes apply on top).

If you want to see live award availability across BA and partner airlines, our Award Travel Finder tool is built exactly for this, and our how many Avios for a flight tool gives you the full BA reward chart at a glance. Once you've got a flight in mind, you can preview the cabin and check live seat availability on Flight Seatmap.

Codeshare announcements rarely set the points world alight, and this one won't either - there's no transfer bonus, no shiny new redemption rate, no status shortcut. But I actually think it's quietly one of the more practical things BA has done for Canada-bound travellers recently.

Canada is a vast country, and the gap between "I can fly to Toronto on Avios" and "I can actually get to Kelowna or Quebec City easily" has always been annoyingly wide. Having those onward sectors on a single protected ticket - while still earning Avios and tier points - genuinely makes a multi-city Canadian trip less of a logistical headache.

I'd love to see this evolve into full award redemption access on Porter down the line, which would make it far more exciting for those of us spending points rather than cash. For now, though, it's a sensible, useful addition. If you're planning a Canadian adventure beyond the usual gateways, it's worth knowing about.

Will it change your plans? Let me know below.