wandering aramean avios

A Beginners Guide to Using British Airways Avios

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Using British Airways Avios can seem challenging and even overwhelming to travel hacking beginners who are most familiar with U.S.-based airlines.

You might be wondering, “What can I use Avios points for if I’m not flying to London?”

But, in fact, the best ways to use British Airways Avios comes not necessarily on transatlantic flights, but for short-haul flights in many places around the globe.

In this beginner guide all about the British Airways frequent flyer program, you’ll learn:

• the program basics,
• the best way to earn Avios,
• how to search for BA reward flights, and
• how to use Avios points for the best value.

British Airways Frequent Flyer Program Basics

British Airways is part of the Oneworld Alliance. Their partners include American Airlines, Iberia, Finnair, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Japan Airline, and several others.

British Airways also partners with Aer Lingus. In fact, both Iberia and Aer Lingus use the Avios currency.

Knowing which  airline alliances  and partners an airline is connected to allows you to get more from your miles. In this case, you can use BA Avios to fly on any of their Oneworld partners, as well as their non-alliance partners.

So while you can’t transfer British Airways miles to American Airlines, you can use British Airways Avios to redeem for flights that are operated by American Airlines.

What’s more, using Avios to book award flights operated by American Airlines can sometimes be better than had you booked the flight with AA miles.

Instead of using geographic zones as part of the calculations to determine award pricing like with United or American,  British Airways calculates the number of Avios needed for an award flight by distance.  

This means the number of miles flown dictates how many Avios an award flight will cost.

There currently isn’t a published British Airways Avios award chart, but they do have peak and off-peak redemptions for British Airways award flights.

Their off-peak redemptions can deliver great value on your BA Avios, especially given you can find off-peak pricing for nearly 8 months of the year  on flights operated by British Airways.

British Airways Peak and Off-Peak Award Chart

For award flights operated by a British Airways partner, like American Airlines or Qantas, there’s no off-peak pricing.

This award chart below shows the number of Avios you’ll need to book flights with your British Airways Avios that are flown by a partner airline. You’ll note that there is a specific Zone 1 with its own pricing for flights within the U.S.

British Airways Miles Chart for Partner Awards

The British Airways award calendar opens up just about a year ahead of time.

In general, it’s best to book flights using Avios points as far out as you know your travel plans. Although you won’t be charged a last-minute booking fee,  British Airways reward flight availability is better the farther out you search .

Keep in mind, however, that all British Airways Avios partners don’t necessarily release their award space as far in advance as British Airways.

So, if you’re searching for partner flight availability on some of the calendar’s farthest dates, there could be a gap in which partners are showing award space and which are not.

For example, let’s say British Airways opens up its award calendar through September of the following year. But, a partner airline only has its award calendar open through August of the following year.

That month gap won’t accurately reflect the award space eventually available to all partners.

One of the major criticisms of British Airways is its tremendous surcharges on some of its flights. As a rule of thumb, you want to avoid these fees as much as possible.

Clearly, it doesn’t make sense to redeem an award for X number of Avios and also have to pay $600+ in fees, for example.

What is the best way to earn Avios with British Airways?

If you’re just  getting started with travel hacking , you might not realize how to get Avios. In fact, there are quite a  few  ways to earn British Airways Avios!

While there’s  no  British Airways American Express card available in the United States, Chase offers a  British Airways Visa Signature® Card .

Current Welcome Bonus: Earn 75,000 Avios after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months from opening opening your card.

Favorite Card Features:

• 3x for purchases on British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and LEVEL 
• 2x on hotel bookings made directly with the hotel 
• 1x on all other purchases
• No foreign transaction fees
• Save 10% on British Airways airfare for flights originating in the U.S when you book with the website provided when you receive your card
• Member FDIC

Annual Fee: $95

If you’ve previously had the British Airways credit card but closed it at some point, you’re eligible to earn the welcome offer again after 24 months have passed since earning the previous one.

Luckily, British Airways also participates as a transfer partner in  transferable points  programs. Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to British Airways at a 1:1 transfer ratio. 

Travel rewards credit cards like the:

earn Ultimate Rewards points which can be transferred to British Airways. They’re also great cards to start with if you’re new to miles and points.

American Express Membership Rewards points also transfer to British Airways at a 1:1 ratio. So, travel rewards cards that earn these points are also highly valued.

Marriott Bonvoy points transfer at a 3:1 ratio. When transferring points earned with your  Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card , transfer in 60k-point increments to receive a 5k Avios bonus with select airlines including British Airways, for a total of 25k Avios.

American Express occasionally runs transfer bonuses with British Airways, which allows you an even better return on transferring MR points to BA Avios.

In fact, at times these transfer bonuses have been as high as 40% when transferring Amex Membership Rewards points to Avios.

British Airways also has a  shopping portal  where you can earn Avios for the items you’re planning to buy anyways. You can book BA flights with Avios earned from shopping.

Lastly, the  worst travel hacking mistake  is to let your points expire.

British Airways Avios expire after 36 months with no activity to your account. To reset the expiration date, earn or spend a couple of Avios.

Even transferring the smallest amount of flexible points from Chase or American Express will help you reset the expiration date on your Avios.

How do you search for British Airways award flights?

British Airways has a decent search tool when it comes to searching for partner award flights.

In fact, the general rule of thumb is to  use the BA or Qantas websites to search when you’re looking for Oneworld Alliance award flights.

You’ll need to log in with your British Airways membership number to search. If you don’t already have a British Airways number, it’s free to join.

Be sure to  keep yourself organized  by recording your member number and password for future searches.

From the British Airways homepage, hover over the “ Book ” option. Select “ Book a flight with Avios ” from the dropdown menu.

Because British Airways has a distance-based award pricing system, you’ll want to search for and  book nonstop British Airways and partner award flights.

While BA doesn’t limit the number of stops you can take, each segment will price out individually. The result is usually an overpriced award flight.

So, after you enter your search details, British Airways will ask you if you want to break up your search into segments. Always click no.

Another award search basic tip is to  look in one-way segments .

Let’s say you’re looking for a round-trip flight between New York and Montreal. Search the departing and returning flights separately. You might see additional availability that wouldn’t have come up in a round trip search, as well as reduce the chance your award flight search will result in an error.

British Airways does a pretty good job of displaying partner availability. However, if you’re hoping to use British Airways Avios for an Aer Lingus flight, search on United’s website for award availability.

Lastly, you can also use a  British Airways Avios calculator  to determine how many Avios you’ll need for the route you want to fly.

The  Wandering Aramean tool  Avios tool will calculate the number of Avios you’ll need for an award flight. I use the Wandering Aramean tool and it’s a great way to experiment with how to use Avios for your potential travel plans.

How to Use Avios for British Airways Award Flights

So, before going into some specific redemptions, let’s just quickly review the basics of  airline alliances .

Even though we’re searching for award flights on British Airways and using British Airways currency, Avios, the actual flight booked might be flown by one of their partners if it’s a route that British Airlines doesn’t fly.

So while you can’t transfer your British Airways points to a non-Avios partner airline, using Avios for flights operated by their partners can be a fantastic value!

ProTip: Did you know that British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus (and recently Qatar Airways!) all use the Avios currency? As such, these are the only 3 airlines where it’s possible to transfer Avios among them. For example, Iberia Avios can transfer to my British Airways account, assuming I follow all the transfer rules. If you’re earning Avios with all of the Avios-earning airline credit cards, you can combine these Avios balances into a single account with whichever Avios airline you choose.

To maximize the value of your Avios, you also want to avoid those high BA surcharges we talked about earlier. The more premium class you want to fly, the higher the fees typically get.

“So then, what can I spend BA Avios points on?”

British Airways doesn’t charge surcharges on flights operated by American Airlines and Alaska Airlines flights within the  United States , to  Central America ,  South America ,  Mexico ,  Canada , or the  Caribbean .

Depending on your departure city,  it could be cheaper to use Avios than to book with American Airlines using AA miles.

• Going by the British Airways Avios award chart, flights to these regions will typically fall within the range of  7.5k-30k Avios one-way versus 12.5k-30k+ one-way with American Airlines.
• In particular,  southern U.S. cities like Miami and Dallas will have much cheaper award flights  to the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America.
• Use the British Airways Avios calculator above to figure out the cost. Great Circle Mapper is another great tool for determining the distance between 2 airports.

For example, you can fly from  LAX to Vancouver for only 7.5k one-way , 15k round trip. Compare this with American Airlines, where you’d need at least 12.5k each way.

Similarly, I did the east coast version of this by flying from NYC to Montreal to  ski at Mont Tremblant  for just 15k Avios round trip!

Just as a comparison, here’s United’s round-trip pricing for NYC to Montreal:

A few other short-haul 15k Avios roundtrip examples are:

Washington D.C. -Montreal, Toronto, or Miami

Chicago  – Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Atlanta, or Orlando

San Francisco  – Portland, Los Angeles, or Salt Lake City

Miami  – Turks and Caicos, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, or the Bahamas

Los Angeles  – San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Tucson, or Los Cabos

Short intra-continent and intra-country flights will be where British Airways Avios shine.

Using Avios to book flights intra-Europe costs just 4,750 one-way, off-peak with a flat fee of about $30.

This is perfect if you’ve used other miles to get to Europe or scored a cheap flight. Use BA, then, to position yourself in your intended destination.

For example, you found a cheap $300 one-way flight to Paris on a budget airline. But, you want to go to  Prague . You might pay for the flight and then use 4,750 Avios to fly to Prague.

Intra-Japan flights are also great redemptions, as these short flights can be pricey! Compare just a few thousand Avios one-way between Tokyo and Osaka with the cash price of $200+ at peak times.

Similarly, using Avios on Qantas between Australian cities is an equally great value! Remember, Qantas is in the Oneworld Alliance and can be booked with BA Avios. You can fly from Sydney to Melbourne or the Gold Coast for just 6k Avios!

Short-haul value can also be found in Africa. Consider Johannesburg to Capetown for just 8,250 Avios one-way during peak dates and 7,250 off-peak!

But, short-haul flights aren’t the only valuable rewards…

Because BA is distance-based, there may be some situations where it would seem counter-intuitive to consider using Avios. (The world is actually a lot smaller than we think!)

Consider these 3 examples.

• You can fly from 5 Eastern U.S. airports, NYC-JFK, Newark, Boston, Hartford, and Chicago to Ireland for just  13k Avios one-way off-peak . (Peak is 20k one-way.)
• Using Avios miles from western cities like Portland, Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, you can book a round-trip economy flight to Hawaii  for only 26k Avios round trip.
• Similarly, you can fly Los Angeles to Tokyo, Japan for just 25,750k Avios one-way. Plus, you can fly with partner Japan Airlines known for their high level of quality, service, and comfort.

Their distance-based award chart can return a great value when maximized effectively and play a strategic role in achieving your travel goals. 

What questions do you have about how to use British Airways Avios?

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The wonders of shopping portals, 96 thoughts on “a beginners guide to using british airways avios”.

I’ve been very slow to the party with travel hacking but pleased to see I did know a couple of these tips at least (more there for me to implement though!). So much to know and I don’t want to particularly study all the details, I just want the benefits and to travel more!! (I know, you have to put in the effort ..!)

Ha! Yes, Amanda, you do have to put some time into learning. But once you do, the sky’s the limit, literally. 😉

We don’t use points for our travel because we don’t really know how so this is very helpful!! We will bookmark in case we ever fly with a British Airways!

Remember, Victoria, it’s not only BA but also their partners that you can benefit from as well. Thanks so much for reading.

Great tips here on flying with Avios. I hadn’t heard of it before.

Thanks for reading, Aleney. There are so many travel rewards out there so definitely keep learning to take advantage of them.

As an Australian, the last time I flew British Airways I was about 7!! But I’m a more regular Qantas user on the other hand, so the One World benefits might be worth looking into. Thanx for the tips!

For sure, Marion. If you can earn BA Avios, then you can redeem them on Qantas. 🙂

I’ve said it before but will say it again. I always love reading your posts! Always learn something new. Too bad I am limited with millage/cc companies in the Philippines that provide points.

Lol, Anna! I’m glad to hear it. Must have something to do with the teacher part of me! 😉 Hopefully someday you’ll be able to put some of these tips to use for travel rewards.

Interesting. Good to know how airlines help travel and benefit more from travels. I have not seen any such deal in Emirates yet or may be I am not aware yet.

Thanks, Indrani. Emirates isn’t a part of an airline alliance, but they do have several partners like TAP Portugal, Korean Air, Virgin America, and more. These partnerships are great for reciprocal earning and rewards benefits.

Thanks for this guide – being from Australia I’m apart of the Qantas FF program, which is part of the One Wolrd Alliance, so it’s nice to be able to use my points for Britiah Airways flights. Totally agree that knowing which airline alliances and partners an airline is connected to allows you to get more from your miles – I can highly recommend one world, love the airlines in the alliance.

Sounds like quite a lot of different ways to earn Avios points – more so that Qantas allows us in Aus! Will pass the info on to my British friends looking for a way to get into travel hacking – thanks for the great insight into the program, and tips.

Thanks for reading, Meg. Yes, so many ways to earn Avios for Brits and Americans. Hope you can put them to good use on those short-haul Australia flights!

Wow what a comprehensive post making your case. I have AA points but I’ve never cashed them in as I never seem to have enough to redeem. I never knew their redemption was higher than others on the same alliance. Something to investigate further

Thanks, Adelina. That’s why transferable points are so valuable. You have more flexibility. Keep earning those AA miles, too. They’ll be valuable in the future. 🙂

Good to learn about the BA Avios system. I dont have a chance to fly with an OneWorld Alliance member because of where I am based right now but might be helpful for my next move!

Great, Eve! Hope the guide is helpful in the future.

BA with their AMEX and Avios program is a waste of time. 400,000 Avios points and never once in more than 10 years have I ever been able upgrade with them. Call centre and customer services simply do nothing. Hello Virgin and let’s hope it’s a more pleasant journey

Sorry to hear of your bad experience with BA, Gary. Thanks for reading!

The details which you have explained here are so useful. I never really dwelt into these programs with so much depth and which is possibly why I never made the most of them. I definitely need to look at them differently after reading these tips. I just might find that they are more beneficial than what I make them out to be. Thanks for sharing this.

Thanks for reading, Ami. I hope you’re able to put the info to good use.

I’ve been trying all day to find a flight on BA for an American Airlines flight from PDX to HNL. I can’t seem to locate the right “button” to obtain info on American Airlines flights. I’ve used my Avios numerous times to book flights from PDX to London, but trying to utilize their sister airlines is baffling me.

Hi Deborah,

Thanks for reading. I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time. One thing I’ve heard is there have been some glitches with the AA availability showing on BA recently. There is no right button. You just have to search normally, making sure the system knows you want to book with Avios. Hawaii routes are also tough depending on how close to the date you’re trying to book. I would try searching in one-way segments instead of round trip and see if that makes any difference.

Good luck! Jackie

Hi. Do you know if you can upgrade yourself on Aer Lingus if you use Avios to book the round-trip ticket? Will you be able to pay the extra$$ after booking for business class? Thanks in advance Susan

Hi Susan, Thanks for reading. It may be possible but several factors come into play like availability. There are reports of travelers calling in periodically before their flight to see if an upgrade was possible and paying the difference in Avios. Aer Lingus also allows you to check if you’re eligible and, if so, request an upgrade from their upgrade yourself webpage. If you’re eligible, you’d be able for an upgrade. Good luck!

I have used BA points with a lot of satisfaction. I have found the best way for me, is to research the route and air line options that could work for me. I then phone BA and have them do the searching for rewards availability. Once I have something that works in terms of route, timing and class, I book. They charge you but for me it is good value.

Glad you’re getting great value from your BA Avios, Lola! Keep in mind, if you try to book online and can’t, tell the phone agent. You might end up getting that fee waived. 🙂 Thanks so much for reading.

Interesting article. I came across it trying to figure out if I can use my Avios points to fly from Lima to Cuzco. When I do it through BAs site, I get the message below:

“Plan Your Journey Error We are unable to find seats for your journey. The most common reasons for this are: You may have requested a route that we do not operate at that time of year. We may not fly to the destination you have chosen. What you can do: Search again using different dates.”

Am I doing something wrong? Can’t seem to figure it out.

Very interesting reading – thankyou! I am based in AMS but want to fly to JNB. Using avios, however, whilst I can get the outbound, the return date is not available.

I dont see the option to search for partner airlines, it shows and states only will display BA flights.

I will certainly try and go the one way version with avios, but am I missing something. ie: Iberia JNB-MAD-AMS or Qatar JNB-DOH-AMS – can’t imagine all reward flights are taken.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated

I am almost 83 years old and our household acct of Avios has 64000+ points, almost 8000 of these are going to expire in the next ten days. I hope to spend those soon on an “experience”. With the remaining 56000 avios I’d like to fly to Paris in August. My aim is to use up all these points because I don’t expect to travel to Europe again. Currently I am not at home but will be on April 2nd. Is there any hope of my getting a flt to Paris with one stop, using all or most of my avios? I will phone when home but the last time I did the person was no help at all.

Hi Barbara, thanks so much for reading. First, you can save those 8k Avios by making even a small purchase in the British Airways Shopping portal I’m not sure where you’re flying from so it’s hard to say exactly. But, in general, there are very high fees when using Avios to fly from the U.S. to Europe. One way to get around these fees is to use Avios on Aer Lingus or Iberia to fly to Europe and then from there get to Paris. So one such example might look like this. U.S. to Dublin on Aer Lingus and then a flight between Dublin and Paris also with Avios on Aer Lingus. If you’d rather not deal with all of this, I’d recommend using an award booking service like the one run by MileValue Even though there’s a fee, it’s smaller than the fees you’d pay if you booked an award with British Airways for a flight to Europe. Thank you again for reading. I hope this helps. 🙂

Thanks very much for this help. The link to the shopping portal gives me reward possibilities in pound sterling or US dollars. Can you find one in Canadian dollars? So I can spend some of those points about to expire. Cheers, Barbara

Hi Barbara, So glad the information was helpful. British Airways only has the US or the UK version of their shopping portal. You should be able to use the US version of the portal as long as the store ships to Canada. I see you’re thinking of spending some of your Avios before they expire. You can also shop at one of the merchants in the portal and pay with money. You’ll earn Avios for shopping and reset the expiration date on your expiring Avios. There’s no minimum. You just have to earn at least 1 Avios to save the ones set to expire.

How can I find best use of points to fly SDF-GCM in August 2018. Would like to use BA Avios Thanks

Thanks for reading, Don. So, BA charges Avios based on the distance flown. In your case, there are no direct flights from SDF to GCM. British Airways will break up your itinerary into 2 segments each way because you’d need to connect. You’d also pay separately for each segment for around a total cost of 30k Avios round trip. The BA site has been very glitchy lately so repeat your searches over and over, change dates, go back to your original dates, and if you need, even call into BA. Otherwise, if you have Ultimate Rewards points, you may want to look at the Flying Blue program (Air France/KLM). Their partner Delta flys to GCM for similar mileage pricing. Good luck!

I gave up on getting a flight to Paris with my points mentioned above. Instead I bought a one hour cruise on the Seine with my about to expire points (for four people). I used most of the large supply of Avios to buy 4 hotel nights , three in a smaller city, and one in Paris. Assuming each night is worth perhaps 200 Cdn dollars, that’s $800. Is that a good Avios use or not.? I’m flying Airtransat for a real bargain price. Not much over $800 in fact.

You made the best of it, Barb! Glad you put those points to use…much better than having them expire unused. 🙂 I hope you have a great trip to Paris. I love that city. Thanks for reporting back and for reading the blog.

Hi, I know this may sound a stupid question but how can i use my avios on a japan airlines flight – if I go on the ba site and try to book Bangkok to tokyo it routes me through Heathrow!!. But JAL flys from bangkok to tokyo but I don’t know how to actually search for a reward flight on there site.

Thanks for reading, Dave, and not stupid at all! A couple of things, BA is the place to look although it’s been super glitchy lately. I would check on the Qantas website for availability and if you see it and BA isn’t showing it, the website is acting up. If not, there may not be awards for your date. Also, on BA, when it asks you if you’d like to break up your search into segments or stops, make sure to say no. Hope that helps!

Can I use BA Avios to fly SDF to GCM?

Technically yes, but you’ll pay per segment since there are no direct flights between SDF and GCM. Instead, why not look at an Iberia Avios redemption. You pay for overall distance flown not per segment and will work out cheaper. They are in the Oneworld Alliance, so partners with American Airlines like BA. Hope that helps, Donald! 🙂

Do you know if you can book AA award flights that have a connection through BA using avios? I want to fly from Columbus to Honolulu on AA. AA has awards space via LAX both ways. However, I was wondering how the stop in LAX changes the booking process with BA.

Thanks for reading, Nate. Since BA charges based on the distance flown, each segment has a separate cost. This means BA is not the best choice when a stop/connection is involved. Instead, you might want to look at Iberia. Your BA Avios can transfer to Iberia. Although Iberia also prices awards based on distance, it’s the total distance flown versus an individual price for each segment like BA.

Hi Jackie, really interesting article, thanks! I had a quick question: it’s probably me being simple, but I’m trying to book a return flight Lima-Santiago (Chile) using avios, but on the BA website it says no flights available. (I also looked at Iberia with the same result). LATAM fly direct, and are part of Oneworld, but I’m not sure how to use the avios with them (they have something called LATAM Pass). Is it even possible and where should I look for the flights?!

Thanks in advance!

Thanks for reading, Oli. The BA website can be so frustrating sometimes. I would search on Qantas for the award availability you need. If you find what you’re looking for, call BA to book and tell them it wasn’t bookable online so they waive the phone booking fee. Qantas is a super reliable Oneworld search tool. If space doesn’t show, it’s probably not available for the dates you want. Good luck!

Would you recommend using Avios points to visit Thailand from NYC? I am looking at Cathay Pacific flights that go from JFK to Phuket via Hong Kong, for example. I have 60,000 points from the BA credit card. Alternatively, I could transfer points to Asia Miles/Cathay from AMEX or Chase. Right now, neither BA nor Cathay is letting me log into their websites. It’s very strange. They claim to have sent PW reset emails to me, but I’m not receiving them. I’m currently on hold with BA. I tried calling Cathay a few days ago, but they kept telling me their systems were not working. This all takes so much time.

Thanks for reading, Karen. I wouldn’t recommend using BA for a NYC to Phuket (connecting in HKG). Since BA has distance-based pricing, this wouldn’t be a good redemption. Also, you want direct flights with BA or else you’ll pay per segment, not overall distance flown. You can use Amex points with Asia Miles, but Chase points don’t transfer to Asia Miles. If you’re thinking of more than 1 place to visit (i.e. phuket and another SE Asia destination), have you considered using United’s excursionist perk?

Hello, I’ve had a read of your article. It is very helpful! As a student, which AMEX card would you recommend getting for the best value on miles per pound spent? (does it work like that?). I’ve had a look on the website but it seems abit confusing for me. [LINK EDITED OUT] Thanks!

Thanks for reading, Kathy. Glad the article was helpful. Unfortunately, I can’t advise about UK credit card offerings. I recommend you check out the blog Travel the Globe 4 Less. Anne is great with UK miles, points, and credit cards. She will be able to give you better UK credit card advice than I can.

Hi Jackie, I am planning on transferring Chase Ultimate Reward points to BA for Avios miles to book a domestic non-stop flight from Charlotte NC to Chicago. This would be the less expensive choose for these tickets since only 7,500 avios miles one-way, which is way less than paying cash for ticket or using my AA miles. My question is after I booked the flight on BA’S website will I be able to make seat assignments? I seen a lot of conflicting posts regarding this and want to get a straight answer before I transfer my Chase rewards, since once I do I can’t get them back. Thanks.

Thanks for reading, Jay. You should be able to select seats on AA after you make your booking on BA. As you make your booking, remove your BA FF# which tends to auto-fill in the passenger details as you go through the booking process. Once booked, your BA record locator should be usable on the AA site. Enter that and your name and from there you should be able to select seats and edit passenger info, like add your AA FF# to the booking. You’ll also see the AA record locator which is good to note for your travel info. Good luck!

I live in England and last year I got an American Express Charge Card. I gave me twenty six thousand Avios Points. I used these to fly one way from Funchal to London. We are a family of one adult and two children. We used Easy Jet a budget airline to reach Madeira from England. I cancelled this card. Now I have a British Airways Credit Card and a Virgin Credit Card which uses Mastercard. Not everywhere accepts American Express you see. If I spend three thousand pounds in 3 months I will get twenty six thousand Avios Points. To get a double voucher I would need to spend ten thousand pounds. I wish to get the points and book a flight for the 3 of us for a trip in April 2020.

Great travel goals, Maxine. Avios is a solid currency that can help you achieve your award travel goals.

I have 30k in Asia miles, 30k in emirates skywards and 40k in MR through Amex. I also have the option to get 110k avios through a cashback website. I will be bAsed in Australia for the next 3 years and will want to travel to Japan and Asia. Is converting to avios the best way forward.?

Thanks for reading! Avios will be helpful for flying within Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, as well as positioning yourself by using inter-Japan flights. But for long distances, British Airways’ distance-based awards won’t be your best currency. For that, you’re better building your MR points, especially, but Asia miles will be helpful also. MR points will give you access to a variety of airline transfer partners including Asia Miles, but also ANA and Singapore among others.

HI there. Thanks for posting these great tips. One thing I’m not finding, though, is what my options are in flying from Vancouver or Seattle to London or beyond. It seems like BA is my only choice, so I’m always stuck with the hefty taxes. Am I missing something? I tried to find flights via Iberia, but no luck. Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.

Thanks for reading, Roby. You aren’t missing anything. BA long haul flights from the U.S. to London are a bad deal because of those fees. You’ll want to look for a flight operated by AA and that will mean connecting in a city where AA flies to London from, like Chicago, LA, NYC-JFK, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Dallas, Miami, Raleigh, or Charlotte. My suggestion would be to search in one-ways, and look for the leg to London first. So search Chicago to London. Then search, Seattle/Vancouver to Chicago. When you find it, piece together online or call BA to book. Hope that helps. 🙂

Jackie I need your help! BA started a direct flight from Charleston to Heathrow. I constantly have to travel to Warsaw and other destinations in Europe. Currently have 42,000 Avios. No clue how to use them or upgrade premium to business etc. What are you recommendations? (I assume best value is the cheap avios flights from London to Warsaw).

Thanks for reading, Tyler. Absolutely the flight from London to Warsaw will be the best value. Using Avios to fly across the Atlantic is a bad value because of the fees BA charges. You could pay cash for your flight to London and then upgrade using Avios. Keep in mind, you can only upgrade one cabin and a seat has to be available. If you find a cheap BA fare, call right after booking and try to upgrade paying the difference in Avios. Good luck!

I have so many Avios points and they are “never” available for flights within the US on American. Can I transfer there points to American Advantage program or can I use the points for anything other than travel like shopping or Gift cards?

Thanks for reading, Lisa. Availability comes directly from AA so if nothing is available on AA then BA won’t have any either. Have you tried searching for your dates and routes on AA first and then searching the dates with availability on BA? This is how I booked flights just last month to Miami and then onto Costa Rica, using BA Avios for AA flights. You can’t transfer BA Avios to AA, but on the BA website there’s a spending Avios section which allows you to use Avios to pay for hotels, car rentals, and also as a partial payment along with cash to book flights with BA. Good luck! 🙂

Hi, so wondering if you can help me. I have like a 150,000 amex points and they are offering a 40% transfer upgrade to AVIOS. Thing is I live in the Midwest closest larger airport is MSP. We are thinking of going to Rome or Paris next summer. How would I make my points worthwhile.. Thanks!!!

Thanks for reading, Amy. I know that 40% Avios deal is so good but for your routing I’d recommend looking at Flying Blue, Delta, and Virgin Atlantic. All are Amex transfer partners. Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic have also had bonus transfers in the past so it’s not out of the question another will come along. Flying Blue is the loyalty program for Air France and KLM. Air France has a direct flight from MSP to Paris. Delta does also, but you can book Delta flights through Virgin Atlantic for cheaper than what Delta would charge, usually. Good luck! 🙂

I have over 200,000 avios and have tried for every year for 10 years to either book/book and upgrade with them and have never ever, not ever found availability. Always getting the “There is no availability found for the dates that you have selected. Please select different dates.”. I even use their calendar and it never shows any availability. I am hoping to figure out what I am doing wrong…

Thanks so much for reading. BA’s lack of a calendar search is frustrating for sure. It only lets you check one day at a time. You can also use Qantas and AA (at least for some partners) to see more dates at once. Then once you find availability, head back over to BA and search those exact dates. Good luck!

I have booked a flight with Cathay Pacific in business class from ICN-BKK via HKG. I used BA’s Avios to book it. I am not able to make any requests on their website to pick seats or request special diet (my wife is a vegetarian). We have other flights booked with Cathay Pacific on this trip that I used some Alaska Airlines’ miles. When I made those reservations, I got a confirmation number for Cathay as well as Alaska. This allowed me to log in to my booking on Cathay Pacific’s website and pick seats and request special diets. Do I have to call BA to be able to make this request or is this not a request that can be made? Thanks!

Thanks for reading, Jonas. Yes, you should call BA and ask for your Cathay Booking reference number. Once you have that you can pick seats and meals. 🙂

Dear Jackie Sills-Dellegrazie, I have patiently read all your wisdom and most Q & A. Like another 83 yr old person I cannot quite figure out how to get the best out of nearly 96000= + Avios I have collected. I am interested to travel return trip to India any city from Toronto Canada – generally flexible dates. should I start with US East Coast to Ireland – or USA – Alaska- Korea- Malaysia- India etc. – same way return ??- There are plenty of OFF PEAK in BA between now and jan 2020 – likely dates in Dec.-Jan -Or rather than troubling you who is already doing so much answering e-mails pay the consultant you recommended in an e-mail

Thanks for reading, Shiva. BA Avios are best used on short-haul flights. That being said, you could book a flight to London from Toronto and then from London to Dehli, for example. That would cost about 45k Avios and a few hundred US dollars in taxes/fees. Another option to consider is looking for an award from Toronto to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. This flight is searchable and bookable on the BA website with BA Avios. From there, you could fly HKG to Dehli. Off-peak pricing for this route is just 13k Avios one way. Hope that gets you started and good luck! 🙂

Hi Jackie, I used to put all my purchases on my BA Visa Signature card to collect Avios to fly my wife and I and sometimes daughters as well on business class or even First from Seattle to Europe. (I have also done the same over the years with our Alaska Airlines Visa Signature cards to use on BA for biz class travel to Europe.) However, in recent years I have found it increasingly difficult to find availability of ANY premium seats on BA using BA Avios (or Alaska miles on BA, for that matter), even starting 9-10 months in advance. The overseas portion of the trip is ALWAYS on coach. Many writers discuss the benefits of one credit card or another and one mileage plan or another, but rarely discuss the actual AVAILABILITY of premium seats, the number an airline like BA releases, when they are released and how best to capture premium seats. Of course it does no good to have massive Avios if you can’t use them for premium seats, should that be your goal. For travel to Europe this last September, starting my booking search last Fall, I sat with 900,000 Alaska miles and 600,000 Avios and could not find a single premium seat on the overseas portion and ended up traveling coach. Any tips? What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for reading, Robert. You are so right that no matter what miles and points you’re earning, they have to be able to be redeemed! Premium class availability is harder to come by because there are fewer seats and not all are released for award travel. With that being said, search one-ways instead of roundtrips. Oftentimes, no availability will show if just one of the segments has no availability. I’d also recommend using a tool like Expert Flyer . You can search for award availability but also set seat alerts. This way, you’ll get notified instantly of open seats and can book them right away. I’d also recommend searching for availability on Expert Flyer for other airport availability. For example, perhaps there are business class seats to London leaving from Las Vegas instead of Seattle. You can then work to find a positioning flight to Las Vegas which will be easier to do than wait for seats to open up from Seattle. Also, it’s important to note the high fees involved with long-haul premium seats on BA, even when Alaska miles are redeemed for BA partner award flights. Be sure the value you’re getting in the premium seats is worth the fees. Lastly, Alaska has a really generous free one-way policy on one-way award flights and 2 free stopovers on roundtrips. You could fly a free one-way as your positioning flight on Alaska airlines and then catch your BA flight to London. Hope this helps a bit! Good luck. 🙂

Thank you, Jackie, for the quick reply! I believe that Alaska opens its award seating 330 days in advance. Did you say that BA opens theirs one year in advance? And do you know if BA opens more award premium seats for holders of BA’s Avios than for Alaska mileage customers booking on BA? Does anyone discuss and compare the number of mileage award premium seats that various airlines open (and thus the relative value of various mileage award credit cards if one is using them for this purpose? I have avoided cards that allow you to use points for “dollars” on any airline, wrongly or rightly, because on BA, for example, business class seats might cost 2-3 times the mileage for coach seats, while the seats might cost 5-7 times as many dollars. Of course, if they don’t release enough seats and they are not available, it doesn’t matter anyway. Thank you, Robert

BA does open space just about a year in advance. And technically, Alaska and BA should have access to all the same space. I understand your point about the number of seats not being competitive with the number of credit cards issued. This is not only a BA quandary. The best we can do is use tools like Expert Flyer and to be creative and flexible in our routings to ensure we get max value for our miles and points.

Jackie, Just read your blog and feel better informed about using our Avios. Unfortunately, like the previous comment we continue to not be able to book with Avios because there are no “Avios” seats available. This happens whether it is 6mos out or 12months out. So frustrating!!! We just want to use them!!! Any advice?

Thanks for reading, Lisa. Sorry to hear about your frustration with using those Avios. What are you trying to book? Is it a flight operated by British Airways or a partner like American Airlines? If it’s AA for example, AA has to have to space open and showing on their website in order for it to show on BA. Not sure if this helps at all…

Thank you for responding so quickly. So this is what I have done. I look up the AA flight(s) I would like to take. I assume there are regular seats available because AA is giving me the ability to book the flight on its website. What I think is happening is they (AA) only allow a handful of seats on each flight to be purchased with rewards whether it be AA points ? or BA Avios. So when I call BA to book the AA flight…(that obviously has seats available) 99% of the time we are told there are no rewards seats available. ?

When you search on AA, are you seeing sAAver award seats? Regular, anytime award seats won’t work. Also, there have been some cases that a BA phone agent can’t see what’s showing on AA, so it’s not impossible. But make sure, you’re seeing available sAAver seats in whatever class you’re searching on AA before trying to replicate the search on BA’s website or with an agent.

Thanks for your post. We too are teachers who love to travel. We were thinking of transferring our RBC points to BA or Asia mile to book flights to Asia from Calgary. Does BA offer open jaw options? How can we find out what our surcharge would be?

Thanks for reading, Henry. BA charges by segment so it’s easy to book an open-jaw itinerary. Simply book the routes you need in one-ways to accommodate your travel plans. 🙂

I have a question: would it be better to save the BA points when you are flying long distance flights, If we want to fly from SFO to Bali or Thailand due to the taxes / fees? (fuel costs)

Thanks for reading, Amy. Typically, yes. You don’t want to fly long haul because of those fees. However, it’s always worth a look for the comparison because depending on the route and the partner who might fly it some of the variables can change.

Can I use Avios to get travel insurance?

Thanks for reading, Sakhiwe. To my knowledge, no. You can’t use your Avios to pay for travel insurance.

Awesome blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers? I’m planning to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you advise starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m totally confused .. Any ideas? Appreciate it!

Thanks for reading, Teodoro. I would buy your own domain and get cheap hosting with a company like Hostgator. Then build the site with WordPress. Good luck!! 🙂

Hi, you state that “ While there’s no British Airways American Express card”. But there is, I have one and use it all the time.

Just thought you should know.

Steve ( UK )

Thanks for reading, Steve. I should have been clearer. The British Airways Amex card is only available in the UK, not in the U.S.

GOOD DAY, I HAVE NEARLY 300,000 AMERICAN EXPRESS REWARDS PROGRAMME M.R AWARDS. I ALSO HAVE AN AMERICAN EXPRESS GOLD CORPORATE CARD ISSUED IN SOUTH AFRICA.

CAN I CONVERT THESE M.R. MILES TO MY AVIOS ACCOUNT OR MY BA EXECUTIVE CLUB ACCOUNT TO FLY BA ? MANY THANKS AND KIND REGARDS. MEL

Thanks for reading, Mel. I’m not sure about South Africa Amex Membership Rewards. In the U.S, it is possible to transfer MR points to British Airways. 🙂

Firstly thanks for the helpful tips. I noticed the line “While there’s no British Airways American Express card”, though I have had one for years. Maybe I am misunderstanding what you mean? My challenge is finding any available flights to use my points. Maybe I need to search nine months in advance? I’ve never found a way to successfully spend my points so far.

Is there an online video available to show exactly how to get great value from one’s Avios points – one of those Avios for dummies approaches, i.e. click this and then click that? This would really help a lot of people who simply quit the BA site feeling frustrated and confused and think… never again.

Thank you for reading the blog, Robin. I should edit that to say in the U.S. We have only a BA card offered by Chase Bank, not by American Express. Unfortunately, I don’t have a tutorial video to show right now but appreciate the feedback. One tip I would offer is to look at the American Airlines website. AA and BA are Oneworld Alliance partners. AA will show many of the same partner flights as BA, as well as show BA flights. If you find a flight you want on AA, go to BA and replicate the search with the same dates, etc. I hope that helps a bit! Thank you again for reading!

Hi – can you tell me if all flights appear on the BA website? I am looking to book Las Vegas to Austin next March – but I cant see that route n the BA website even though there are flights available on AA?

Thanks for reading, Lauren. BA can only show the award space AA releases to them. If you’re seeing the space on AA, it likely means it’s not considered saaver space and therefore, partners like BA can’t see it. Unfortunately, it’s up to the airline to determine what space gets released to partners and which doesn’t. You can try another Oneworld partner like Qantas just to search for the space. If Qantas can’t see the space that AA is showing, then it’s as I have explained. If though, Qantas does show the AA space, then it may be a glitch on BA’s end and potentially worth a call to see if an agent can see the space.

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Best Use of British Airways Avios

In this post I’ll talk about the best airline partners to avoid fuel surcharges, the best and cheapest routes and the best tools. My belief is that Avios can be awesome, cheap in points, cheap in cash (excluding some destinations) and you can see more places on one route by using stopovers. And yes, some routes are more expensive but just don’t use Avios for those routes! It’s simple. Use Avios when it makes sense and use other programs like AA and United when trying to hit the spots that are more expensive for Avios. Same same for all airlines. Plan ahead and be strategic.

If you still suck at using Avios after reading this… well you won’t be able to blame it on British Airways.

One last thing I’ll mention before getting started is that British Airways Avios can be had for cheap. There are a number of ways to earn. The 100,000 Avios card that comes and goes is a no brainer and it might be one of the best uses of Amex MR points. That is of course, if you know how to use them.

In case you don’t already know, Avios is just the name of their rewards program. It’s just like saying BA miles but they don’t call them that for branding reasons. But same same, it’s just a frequent flyer mile.

Choosing the right airline and the problem of fuel surcharges

This is where people get discouraged and give up on Avios so why not start there and assume most of the best uses are with airlines that have no fuel surcharges? When using British Airways Avios on BA itself or partner airlines, they will pass along the fuel surcharges. When flying on British Airways internationally, the fuel surcharges are ridiculous! A roundtrip can cost over $1,000 using miles/points/avios/whatever-they’re-called. So don’t make the mistake of flying on British Airways when you can fly to the same destination without fuel surcharges on partners.

No Fuel Surcharges:

• American Airlines domestic flights and flights within the Americas

Low Fuel Surcharges:

• Aer Lingus – I mean real low fuel surcharges, like $25 for a roundtrip to Dublin
• American Airlines to Asia

As far as avoiding fuel surcharges go, Air Berlin (Aer Lingus or Iberia) get’s you to/from Europe pretty easy. Plus AirBerlin also covers a bit of the Middle East. LAN gets you to most of South America and AA does as well, plus it hits more of Central America/Caribbean. And obviously AA is a great option for domestic flights.

At the bottom I’ll include the route maps for all these airlines to show what kind of reach you can get while avoiding fuel surcharges.

The big problem here is getting to Asia and getting across the Pacific in general to Australia. You’ll have to pay some steep fuel surcharges to fly Qantas (the Australian Airline) and routing any other way would be astronomical in points. If you want to go to Australia, in my opinion, you should use other programs. It’s not worth it.

How to make the best of “Distance Based”

One thing that makes British Airways’ program unique is that it does not price award flights by zone (like most airlines), but instead by distance. The price of flying from the US to Europe totally depends on where you’re going and how you route it.

This is why I use a route calculator like gcmap  to measure out where I’d like to go. But it’s not quite that simple. With ANA (another distance based program) you just calculate the end total of miles traveled and get your price. But with British Airways, you price by segment.

So lets say you want to fly from Miami to Moscow. The total distance for a flight that routes through Berlin is 5,991 miles… but that’s irrelevant – you have to calculate each segment. Miami to Berlin is 4,974 miles and therefore is 25,000 Avios, according to the chart above. And Berlin to Moscow is 1,017, costing another 7,500 miles. Making the total flight cost 32,500 Avios.

The best Avios tool ever created (but not perfect), since the creation of the new program

Given that there are no direct flights to Moscow from Miami, finding the right route is important. After all, routing through Berlin on Air Berlin might price differently than routing through another hub. But there is a tool that makes routing a little simpler.

Avios Redemption Calculator made by Wandering Aramean is the best Avios calculator around. The British Airways’ one is buggy, it assumes you route through London (a terrible idea (as you’ll be on BA (and pay lots of fuel surcharges))). But the reason this tool is better is because it considers which city you should route through for the cheapest award price.

Here it shows all the options at their different price points. Miami to Moscow via Berlin (TXL) is at the top. Routing through Madrid (MAD) on Iberia is only 2,500 avios more.

This is a neat program because it saves Avios, it can help you save money and show you cool stopovers. Perhaps you’d rather route through Madrid than Berlin, or vice versa.

How does it save money?

The natural tendency of the British Airways online booking site is to route you through London (LHR) every chance it gets. But as I said already, it’s expensive. The Avios Redemption Calculator will show you other hubs to route through. The key here is to know which airport code is which airline’s hub. Here is a key of low fuel surcharge airline hubs:

• Air Berlin – TXL, DUS
• Aer Lingus – DUB
• Iberia – MAD
• LAN – LIM, SCL, EZE/AEP, GYE
• AA – JFK, ORD, MIA, DFW, LAX
• Cathay – HKG

When you see these hubs, you’re on the right track. I included Cathay as it’s cheaper than routing through Tokyo on JAL in terms of fuel.

For example, this route from Chicago (ORD) to Moscow (DME) suggests a few different options for 30,000 Avios. One of them is through London (LHR), which is indeed one of the cheapest options but it’s also what we’re avoiding. Another option is through MAD, which means that it’s an Iberia route. Quickly we found an alternative route for the same price.

This tool does not check which route is available, you’ll have to do that yourself, it shows you what to search for. We’ll talk about finding availability in a second.

The problem with the calculator

The Avios Redemption Calculator is great, but one limitation is that it only shows one connection (two segments). This is a problem when finding routes from smaller airports or when the cheapest route requires three conections. If I type in Charlottesville, VA (CHO), my hometown, it will route through Chicago (ORD) because that is the  only  OneWorld route out of CHO. So routing to Moscow it’s going to say CHO – ORD – DME, not because it’s the cheapest way but because it only gives one connection. The example earlier shows that ORD – MAD – DME is the best option. Although, in the case of my searches from Charlottesville, it’s quite easy to work around as I can just search starting in ORD.

But technically you don’t need to route through a hub every step of the way. Perhaps two of the airlines share a connection you can route through. This and the one-connection limitation is why I often opt to search myself using the OneWorld Network Map  and the Great Circle Mapper  and cross reference with the award chart above.

Stopovers are free

Another reason I use the OneWorld map is to simply think about where I want to go and where I can go. Understand that BA prices by segment the same if you book it all at once or separate.  The same whether you stop for weeks or don’t stop at all. The only pricing to consider is the price of each segment.

For example, if you start in Boston and fly to Moscow, you could fly Aer Lingus which routes through Dublin (although the Avios Calculator doesn’t show this option yet). I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind a stop in Dublin.

Wait. No. Stopovers are cheaper.

Even if Boston to Moscow were a direct flight, it would be cheaper to route through London. Let me show you what I mean and let’s look at the award chart again.

For example, look how much an economy flight is when flying over 7,000 miles; it would cost 50,000 Avios. Yet, if you broke up the flight into two flights under 4,000 miles it would be priced at 20,000 each. Get it? See how the prices don’t get cheaper the further you fly but sometimes they’re more expensive?

Another example would be Las Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD). It’s a long flight that ends up pricing at 50,000 Avios each way. Yet a flight from LAX to Hawaii (HNL) is only 12,500 Avios and a flight from HNL to SYD is only 25,000 Avios. Get it? Stopping in Hawaii ends up costing 37,500 Avios and saving 12,500 Avios when not choosing a direct flight!

Actually, the sweet spot is a flight right at 3,000 miles for 12,500 Avios (which is why Hawaii works so well). You could do three of these flights (for a maximum distance of 9,000 miles) and only spend 37,500 Avios. By aiming for 3,000 miles in distance, without going over it, we get the sweet price of 12,500. You can save some serious miles and see more places!

Unfortunately, due to these giant gaps between land known as oceans, there are not any airports 3,000 miles off of the west coast other than Hawaii and none 3,000 miles after that. And other than Boston to Dublin (which is 2,993 miles), there aren’t any east coast options either. Still, there are many times you fly 3,000 miles at a time when there isn’t an ocean in the way. The concept is just important if you want to master Avios.

This is why I wrote a series on Using Stopovers to Save British Airways Avios . There are different parts to different regions of the world but the important thing is the concept. After all the series does not consider fuel surcharges but only saving Avios. (There is another series on Avoiding Fuel Surcharges when using British Airways Avios ).

The Best Use of British Airways Avios is flying 3,000 miles at a time

Of course choosing airlines without fuel surcharges is important too, but the best use is for flights that are just under 3,000 miles. If you can piece them together to see more, then you’re rocking Avios.

Here are some examples of flights that cost only 12,500 Avios:

• Boston (BOS) to Dublin (DUB)
• Miami (MIA) to Lima (LIM)
• West coast to east coast – like LAX to JFK
• Easter Island (IPC) to Tahiti (PPT)/ Santiago (SCL)/ Lima (LIM)
• Hawaii (HNL/OGG and sometimes KOA/LIH) to west coast USA (BLI, OAK, PDX, SAN, SJC, SEA) and Alaska (ANC).

There are many many more examples, especially when you consider great international redemptions, like Hong Kong to India for 12,500 Avios. Or Europe to the Middle East/Africa for 12,500. This list goes on and on.

But like I said, if you have the time to enjoy these stopovers, you can connect a lot of good routes to make an epic trip. For example:

Miami – Lima – Easter Island – Tahiti = 37,500 Avios total and 12,500 each segment.

Seattle – Boston – Dublin – Helsinki – Dubai = 47,500 Avios total as Dublin to Helsinki is only 10,00 Avios.

New York – Los Angeles – Hawaii = 25,000 Avios and 12,500 each segment.

The possibilities are endless really. But if you enjoy this kind of talk, I’d really encourage you to check out the Stopovers to Save British Airways Avios series.

The tiny expensive flights

Since British Airways is distance-based, one easy bang for buck is tiny little flights that cost a ton of money otherwise. For example:

• Miami to Cancun, Grand Cayman, Montego Bay, Turks & Caicos, etc.. for 4,500 Avios.
• New York to Bermuda for 7,500 Avios.
• Madrid to the Spanish Islands like Maderia and Tenerife for 7,500 miles.
• Johannesburg to  Mauritius  for only 10,000 Avios.
• Lima to Cusco for 4,500 Avios.

This list also goes on and on.

Finding Award Availability

The British Airways website works pretty well but seems to hide a lot of partners and just show their own availability. Sneaky. There are other tools to search for real availability and then you can call it in. You can use AA , Qantas and ExpertFlyer (a paid tool) to do basic searches (although don’t rely on the airline’s own website to search for award space on itself (i.e. searching AA.com for AA flights) as airlines generally release more seats to their own members than to their partners).

When searching for Aer Lingus flights use Qantas and ExpertFlyer as Aer Lingus is not a partner of AA.

Once you find a flight, of course you can check BritishAirways.com, log in, search and try to book the flights online. Really the site isn’t too bad except for some regions and it doesn’t include some partners like Aer Lingus and Alaska. Mostly it’s terrible for routes where it can route through London.

For searching domestic AA flights or LAN flights, it should show up but sometimes it doesn’t make connections for you and thus you have to search segment by segment. If you don’t mind playing around on the site you may be able to avoid the $25 phone booking fee.

Booking Iberia Flights

Please read the post on how to book Iberia flights using British Airways Avios . It’s not the normal process, so if you plan to route through Madrid in the future you should go ahead and read that post and open an Iberia account.

Essentially you can create an Iberia account and book flights from Iberia using Avios (as they are owned by BA) with minimal charges.

Why First Class options aren’t great

One thing about Avios is that while the economy prices can be incredible, Business Class prices are double economy prices (which isn’t  too terrible comparatively), and First Class prices are triple (which is just bad).

Another reason Avios aren’t too appealing for First Class is that the fuel surcharges are often much higher for First Class. The ticket prices way up in terms of Avios and way up in terms of cash. It’s just not worth it.

But this isn’t really that big of a deal when you consider that I’m proposing the best use of Avios is basically short hauls, even when going long distances.

Are you a pro yet?

That pretty much sums it up. But let me leave you with a few more route maps to get your creative juices flowing. Any other ideas for good uses of Avios? Including routes, airlines or whatever? And of course, any questions are welcome too.

Related Posts

British Airways Avios: Award Efficiency Rating

Explaining the 5+ British Airways Avios Award Charts

The 7 Iberia Avios Award Charts

Best Use of Singapore KrisFlyer Miles

Comments 26.

Been wanting to get a BA card but been debating if I should wait for a better offer. Think it’s likely?

Currently the best offer is the Chase BA Visa card, which gives you 50,000 bonus Avios points if you spend $2000 in the first three months. The $95 annual fee is waived the first year. Reward flights in Business and First class can be tricky to find.

This is a timely article for me, as I’ve been having no luck at all finding flights with my Avios. Pretty much any flights I search for out of PIT give me an error that BA and partners don’t fly that route on the BA site even though there are AA flights (I’m only searching domestic flights). This is even to hubs (particularly PIT-MIA and PIT-LAX). Very frustrating…

Also, when searching on AA for segments (because they sure as hell aren’t showing up on BA for me), the only thing Avios can be used for are the SAAver options, right?

Im a rookie at this so i dont suck yet…so glad to see this blog. Have not yet used partner points to book.

I’ve been looking for BA routes in south Am between any combo of uio , bog , lim, or LPB during Aug15-sept 15, 2013 Very little shows but a limited LAM flight. the avios required are ok but comes with $300 or more in surcharges? Is that common? I’ve read that BA short hauls in So Am is the way to go? AA or UA require a lot more miles for same.

Suggestions, por favor!

Another spot on article! I transferred 19K AmexMR to Avios during the 35% bonus so I have enough to go from SAN-HNL on AS. But looking at all these other options sure is temping. Great article!

Avios are great value for expensive domestic Japanese flights. Just booked a RT to a small airport in Hokkaido for 9000 miles and $3.60 in taxes. No fuel surcharges on JL for intra-Japan flights 🙂 The normal fare is 58,000 JPY ($600)! No idea who is paying these fares for a sub 2 hour flight. With a visitor air pass you could get the flight for 21,000 JPY, but still a good value for Avios.

@ Todd g – Based on the last 3 years and the offer coming around at least once a year, I’d say it’s very likely that the card will show up again. But can’t say for sure. One thing I would assume is that the spend requirement will be high. The last 50,000 Avios/Miles were tied up in $20,000 of spending. So if that’s unrealistic, then the 50,000 for $1,000 offer isn’t too bad.

@ Right – Only the saver option… and I might try using Qantas’ site for finding AA availability. Sometimes the BA site just sucks. If Qantas has it, assume that BA does. In the past I’ve gotten them to waive the phone fee explaining that it just isn’t bookable online. YYMV.

@ Jeff – Aug is still peak season and flights to South America are still limited in all alliances, at least compared to Europe and Asia. But it’s absolutely terrible with OneWorld as there is one airline with too few routes. First, I’d still recommend starting off of BA and on Qantas or something. Second, I’d then start looking at the oneworld map to see if I can piece two flights together. For example LAX with AA and LIM with LAN both have flights to Cancun or Dallas. And then Dallas might share flights to Mexico City or Bogota or something. Third, Use United miles. NO! I can’t say that after defending Avios. Third is don’t trust BA.com, trust Qantas or expertflyer and then try to confirm on BA. Hope that helps some. :-/

@ Jason – Thanks man. I will say, roundtrip to Hawaii for 19k Amex MR… can’t beat that. That’s change. And there are people out there paying for that ticket. :-p And others who don’t “bother” with Avios.

@ Nick – Great example. $600 divided by 9,000 is 6.6 cents per mile. That’s amazing value and you can count on it.

Great summary! A couple of other nice things about Avios on domestic AA flights is the lack of a close-in booking fee and relatively inexpensive redeposit fees compared to AA. So they’re great for last-minute domestic flights that would cost an arm and a leg paid, or a booking fee plus 12.5k each way on AA. I spent 9k Avios for a sudden round trip for a family funeral. Keep an emergency stash of Avios on hand (or ready to be transferred in) at all times.

Anyone who is anyone has an emergency stash of Avios on hand. :-p Seriously though, what a great use. I didn’t even think to mention the lack of close-in fee. But they constantly fit in for small tickets that I need. Even tiny flights around Europe or Asia. Yep. Thanks.

Thanks for all the awesome info!

I am currently vetting the process to see if this is worthwhile (pay for the credit card + spend money through them).

Do all flights need to be booked directly through BA? I’m asking as I obviously want to avoid them and fly through a partner. The BA site says the flight I want doesnt have any partners, while the awesome wandr.me avios calculator indicates there is a partner flight.

On BA website, I see flying from Frankfurt to London(stopover) to Rome cost only 12K Avios + 45.00 pp. Is this my best option for this route ? I cant imagine anything better, but figured I would ask. Thanks

http://www.wandr.me/Avios-Calculator.aspx shows a possible route through Vienna for 9,000 Avios. Also, I’m pretty sure the $ part will be more than $45 if you stopover in London. At least at LHR.

BA.com showed only 45.00 and I got all the way to the booking part where I enter credit card info. Would additional charges be charged later? I thought all fuel charges were charged upfront?

No, if it shows $45, you will only be charged $45. Is it out of LHR or LGW? If you want to see London, it’s not a bad price. Although, it’s slightly more expensive than FRA-VIE-FRA, 12,000 isn’t much to see both cities.

How do you think Qatar joining one world is going to change things ? I tried looking for a few space in India-Doha sector, but am getting no availability, or if it’s showing availability, it’s giving an error for ticketing.. I was thinking that would be another great way to avoid LHR and the fuel surcharge.. but not sure yet how the surcharge on Qatar looks like so far..

Useful information, but just a question – do you know if the fuel surcharges will still be low even flying from YVR (Vancouver, Canada) to JFK?

Dear Drew, I’m new to this and I’m desperate to find 3 tickets(business or economy premium on Cathay Pacific or any available airlines)using Avios to Asia in July. I’m base in LAX/SNA and would love to stopover in Hongkong/Korea/China… before arrive in Bangkok and back to LAX/SNA from BKK on July 31, 2014. Please help me to book this trip. Also, how can I buy/trade the IHG BOGO cert? Can I trade my 50K+ Delta for AA/United/US Airways somewhere?

You got a friend in me! 🙂 May

Can i redeem Avios points for any local merchant vouchers or its only redeemable for other BA / partner flights ? Looks like the latter, but wanted to confirm. If thats the case, it sucks, since other airlines provide points which can be redeemed for local merchant gift vouchers which works well for those having Avios and flying infreq!

Thanks very much for your post. Can you tell me what the best way to get from Europe either UK or Italy to Australia preferably Cairns or Sydney in Club Class would be? Either stopping off in Asia on the way? I would like to go club only in the overnight sectors, and am happy to go Economy in the day time sectors. Traveling Club to Oz is on my bucket list and while I know this is probably the hardest route to get especially in European winter / Ozzie summer I really want to do this. I have over 100,000 avios approx, 150,000 to date. Thanks

Hey , you should really be running an agency booking flights on air miles for people! I’m afraid I really can’t get the hang of them. Back in the day I used to be able to book flights for the whole family during the school holidays easily. Now I have enough to fly to the moon and back and can’t use them!

I must say I find it impossible to use my BA companion vouchers for the family. They never now seem to release flights during the school holidays.

I am uk based and trying to book flights, preferably business, to San Francisco from 13th July to 3rd August 2015. I guess from what your saying if I take a short flight to Europe I should save a lot of duty. I also want to spend 6 nights or so on Big Island from aprox 20th to 26th. Any suggestion of routes?

Many thanks

Thanks for a great guide! Super helpful.

I was hoping someone could help me out with understanding how the Avios Redemption Calculator made by Wandering Aramean works. It seems to be giving me results that are inconsistent with the BA website.

I’m trying to book a flight from Boston to Honolulu. The connection is in Dallas – Ft. Worth. According to the chart, this should cost 30,000. However, when I go through the booking process on BA.com, it is charging me 60,000 (which is the cost for a multi-partner flight), but my flight is entirely AA.

Maybe I don’t fully understand how this works – I admit it took me a while to even get to the point I’m at now. Can anyone help me understand this discrepancy?

Thanks, James

Ah I’m a dummy…30,000 per flight, 60,000 round trip…

Hi, I’m trying to go from BWI to BCN and avoid BA. The Wandering Aramean shows there’s partner airlines flying this route (through PHL) but when I try to book a Reward Flight on the BA website, nearly all the flights are BA flights. How do you book flights on partner airlines when the BA websites only shows BA flights?

Me again. I was able to find some AA flights on the BA website to get from DCA to BCN (via JFK). They’re non-BA flights but the BA website wants me to pay $598 on top of the 49,000 Avios. What gives?

As a test I tried booking a flight from my area to Hawaii and it was about the same Avios and only $11. What accounts for this $598??

When I look up Boston to Dublin, a one-way is 27,000 miles in Economy. How did you get 12,500?

How can I get from Montreal to Hawaii using Avios

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The Map that Shows You All Your Options with Avios

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Wandering Aramean writes a Boarding Area blog and also has created a suite of tools that can be used for free by anyone. One I just saw ( thanks Million Mile Secrets ) is his Avios Map.

The Avios Map works like this:

• Type in any airport in the world.
• The map shows all the airports you can fly to directly for 4.5k, 7.5k, 10k, and 12.5k Avios in economy.

You can use the map to see where you can go from your home airport for what price. You can use the map to figure out when two awards will be cheaper than one (example below.) You can probably use the map for other creative uses I haven’t uncovered.

Before continuing, make sure you understand how British Airways Avios work . They are an essential currency for any American to understand.

How the Map Works

Along the top of the  Avios Map , you type in the city or airport code and hit Go!

If you choose an American Airlines hub like Dallas/Fort Worth, you get a crowded map like this:

• Green is 4,500 Avios
• Yellow is 7,500 Avios
• Blue is 10,000 Avios
• Red is 12,500 Avios

If you hold a cursor over any icon, you will see the airport name, city, code, and price.

The DFW map is so crowded, the only useful information I’d pull from it are all my foreign options.

The map includes all Avios partners, even the ones not on ba.com like Aer Lingus and Alaska Airlines. (You call British Airways to book flights on these partners.) For instance, here is the map from Boston. You can see that Dublin and Shannon, Ireland are both just 12,500 Avios away. Plus there are some options to the Caribbean operated by US Airways.

When Two Awards Are Cheaper Than One

Avios is distance based, but many programs are region based . Sometimes you can use a region-based award plus a distance-based award for big savings over just a single region-based award. An easy example:

• North America to Israel is 45,000 American Airlines miles in economy
• North America to Europe is 20,000 or 30,000 American Airlines miles in economy depending on the season
• Europe to Israel is as little as 10,000 Avios one way

You can save up to 15,000 miles by booking the United States to Europe and Europe to Israel as two separate awards (plus you can then stopover in Europe as long as you’d like.)

I have a full post about this example , and there are other examples you can surely come up with when a region-based award plus an Avios award would be cheaper than a single region-based award.

This tool helps you find and plan those examples.

For instance, here is the map from Tel Aviv. You can see the airports in Germany with direct flights on airberlin for 10,000 Avios, plus Madrid and London to Tel Aviv for 12,500 Avios.

From this map, you’d know that an off peak American Airlines economy award to Europe for 20,000 miles plus any of these flights for 10,000 or 12,500 Avios would be cheaper than a 45,000 American Airlines miles award to Tel Aviv. Plus you could stop in a European city on the way to Israel for zero extra miles for as long as you want. By contrast, on a single American Airlines award, no connections longer than 24 hours are allowed.

Bottom Line

Check out Wandering Aramean’s super easy and awesome  Avios Map . You’ll instantly visualize all the direct flights you can take with Avios that cost 12,500 Avios or fewer in economy. Plus you can use it to hack situations where two awards are cheaper than one.

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Awesome post!

I was wondering if something like this existed because it makes it easier to considered a trip that one may not have thought of.

Thankyou for putting it together…. You guys Rock !!!!

great post it’s nice to find new tools to create itineraries. One question: I’m looking at BA flight (TYS-DCA) which is being quoted correctly at 9k roundtrip, however if I use US Airways metal instead of AA the points jump up to 30k for the same route. Any idea why?

If you mix metal, you pay a much higher price from a separate chart. Book each flight as a one way and it drops back to 9k.

The same thing for me when I check TYS-PHL. That’s a glitch I think, after merging, all the prices will be 9K.

some route can not be displayed, especially those that are not operated 7 days a week. For example. KMG-CMB on Sri Lanka airlines.

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Find Every Direct Avios Redemption From Your Home Airport

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Another Great Avios Search Tool

Update: The title should say nonstop instead of direct. As Miles 4 More points out , there are “direct” flight that include stops.

British Airways Avios are one of the best points currencies to use for short to medium distance nonstop direct flights. In addition, the program doesn’t charge close-in booking fees, making it ideal for last minute trips.

Seth at the Wandering Aramean has a number of travel related tools that I use often. One of my favorites has been the Avios Redemption Calculator which will show how many Avios you need for a specific route including any possible connections. I just noticed via Twitter that he has now released another fantastic tool.

The Avios Destination by Price  tool allows you to see all of the direct flights from your home airport that can be booked with Avios. As you can see above, my home airport of LAS is a little Avios restricted, but there are a few decent options. Of course if you live in a partner hub city like Chicago, then your options are numerous.

Simple Interface

After entering in the city name or airport code into the tool, it will display a map with all of the direct flights separated by color according to their cost. This makes it easy to see which flights fall into which redemption category. It is simple, the interface is intuitive and the tool works.

I have a folder on my bookmarks bar with a list of travel search tools and I have added this one to it. You can find Avios Destination by Price and all of the Wandering Aramean Travel Tools here .

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[…] Find Every Direct Avios Redemption From Your Home Airport […]

missing london to tel aviv

Wow. There goes any work I was planning to do this afternoon.

Fun isn’t it? 🙂

Try living in ATL like me. 🙁

But at least I can get to ORD and MIA at the lowest rate. 🙂

Yeah, I am stuck with LAX, PHX and SLC. I think you win!

Missing PHX to SJD

Thanks Peter. I will pass on the info.

THANK YOU!!!! I was just looking for this information!

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Save Money Flying in Europe With British Airways Avios Points

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One of the best deals for short flights  is British Airways Avios points .  Especially in Europe, because you can save a lot of money on expensive flights !

I’ll show you how to find and book these flights!  And how much you’ll save!

About British Airways Avios Points

Link:   British Airways

Link:   My Guide to British Airways Avios Points

Even though British Airways is not a domestic airline, you can still use their points to book flights on any of their partner airlines, here at home or anywhere in the world!

What’s unique about this program is British Airways uses a distance-based award chart .  For all flights under 650 miles , you’ll pay 4,500 British Airways Avios points for a 1-way coach award flight.

And for flights over 650 miles, but under 1,150 miles , you’ll pay 7,500 British Airways Avios points .  (I’ll show you how to easily calculate these later.)

With these distances, you can see several countries in Europe!

British Airways adds large fuel surcharges to certain international flights such as the US to Europe, but they’re much less on flights within Europe.

You can book flights on these European airlines directly on the British Airways website :

• British Airways
• Finnair (only intra-Europe flights)
• S7 Airlines

Between these 5 options, you can visit several countries in Europe!

How (and Why!) to Book an Award Flight With British Airways Avios Points

Link:   Book Flights With British Airways Avios Points

To get started, you must sign-up with British Airways Executive Club (free to join!), or log into your account.

On the website, hover over “ Executive Club ” then click “ Spending Avios .”

Scroll down to the “ Reward Flights ” section and click “ Book a reward flight .”

Add   your flight details and when you want to travel.  I checked Paris to Vienna for award flights in May 2016.

Two flights showed up on Niki (which is part of Air Berlin).  The price   is 4,500 British Airways Avios points plus $34 in taxes.

I’ll happily pay that amount!

That’s because the same flights sell for ~$201 !  I’d rather save that money and use my points instead.

Keep in mind though, you may still have to pay for checked bags, depending on the route.

Let’s look at another example.

Maybe you’d like to fly from Berlin to Helsinki ?

A 1-way coach flight in March 2016 costs ~480 Euros (~$536) !

You can book the exact same flight for 7,500 British Airways Avios points and $74 on British Airways partner Finnair , which saves you lots of cash!

You can also book a Business Class award on this flight.

But, it costs double the amount of points.  Because the flight is only ~2 hours long, most European airlines don’t fly planes with bigger seats in Business Class.

Instead, they section off the front coach rows, and block off the middle seats.

Some airlines do have a nicer seat for Business Class.  But I’d rather save my points to be more comfortable on longer flights!  That said, you may save on checked luggage costs with a Business Class ticket, so do the math for your situation.

And remember, if you want to extensively explore Europe, you can save money flying on budget airlines, too !

But if you call to book instead, you’ll be charged 15 Euros (~$17)  in award booking fees .

Check Where You Can Go

Link:   Wandering Aramean’s Avios Calculator

Wandering Aramean built a calculator to figure out  how much flights cost with British Airways Avios points .

Enter your starting airport, and you’ll see a color-coded map of all your options.

For example, from  Paris , you can use 4,500 British Airways Avios points to fly to cities including:

And for 7,500 British Airways Avios points , you can fly to Madrid .

Keep in mind British Airways charges for each flight segment .  You won’t save points by adding a connecting flight.

In fact, it will cost you more points.  So it’s better to search each flight segment 1 at a time, and then piece them together.

But the great thing about that is, you can stay as long as you want in each place!  So British Airways Avios points are fantastic for seeing more places when you visit Europe.

Earn More British Airways Avios Points

Link:   Chase British Airways Visa Signature Card

It’s possible to earn   a total of   100,000 British Airways Avios points with the  Chase British Airways .

But to get the  full bonus , you’ll have to spend:

• $3,000 on purchases in the 1st 3 months of opening your account (earn 50,000 British Airways Avios points)
• $10,000 (total) on purchases in the 1st 12 months of opening your account (earn an additional 25,000 British Airways Avios points)
• $20,000 (total) on purchases in the 1st 12 months of opening your account (earn another  25,000 British Airways Avios points)

So you’ll have to make $20,000 in purchases during the 1st year to earn all 100,000 British Airways Avios points.

Even if you signed-up for the card to earn 50,000 British Airways Avios points , that’s still enough for:

• 11 one-way coach award flights under 650 miles (or 5 round-trip flights)
• 6 one-way coach award flights over 650 miles, but under 1,150 miles (or 3 round-trip flights)

If each short-haul 1-way flight under 650 miles costs $200 out-of-pocket, that’s over $2,000 you’ll save by redeeming British Airways Avios points instead.  And of course, you can earn up to 100,000 British Airways Avios points and save double that !

Check out my review of the card  and some ideas about how to meet minimum spending requirements .

Here’s my full series about how to earn & use British Airways Avios points for Big Travel with Small Money !

Bottom Line

Remember you’ll pay  4,500 British Airways Avios points for a 1-way coach award flight  under 650 miles.   And   7,500 British Airways Avios points  for a 1-way coach award flight  over 650 miles, but under 1,150 miles.

And keep in mind there are lots of ways to get Big Travel with Small Money in Europe !

More Topics

British Airways,

Points and Miles

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