Founder and CEO of Upgraded Points, Alex is a leader in the industry and has earned and redeemed millions of points and miles. He frequently discusses the award travel industry with CNBC, Fox Business...
Edited by: Nick Ellis
Nick’s passion for points began as a hobby and became a career. He worked for over 5 years at The Points Guy and has contributed to Business Insider and CNN. He has 14 credit cards and continues to le...
& Juan Ruiz
Juan has been involved in credit cards, loyalty, travel, and personal finance for more than 10 years. He has worked for several outlets including The Points Guy and Forbes and was previously Editor-in...
![29 Best Ways To Redeem British Airways Avios for Max Value [2023]](https://upgradedpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/British-Airways-Club-Europe-A380-First-Class-cabin-from-the-front.jpeg?auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=1420&height=650&fit=crop)
55 comments
Carol
March 26, 2018
Questions:
While this is an excellent post the complexities of Avios is baffeling! Could you please give more info on combining BA and Iberia accounts, such as can you still have a household account if moving Iberia Avios into a BA account? or can you transfer all the BA Avios in a household account into one person’s Iberia account? advantages or major disadvantages of doing this?
Thanks!
DaveS
May 01, 2018
Lots of good ideas here, but Air Berlin went out of business about seven months ago. You probably want to delete all references to that carrier.
Alex Miller
May 03, 2018
All those are removed!
Roger March
May 01, 2018
Fantastic site and info. However I do not see any comments flying on BA points out ov Vancouver, Canada. I have in the past used my RBC Avion card to accumulate points and then move them to BA when they have a 50% bonus. Info on flights out of YVR or SEA to asia or South Pacific using BA points would be helpful.
Roger
Isabel
May 28, 2018
Has this article been updated? I see surcharges for LAX to Tokyo cost additional $265 via JAL and LAX to Dublin with Air Lungus is around $319. Just trying to figure best way to redeem Avios points these days.
Michael McHugh
May 31, 2018
Hi Isabel
ITA Flight Matrix is showing the LAX-NRT route in JAL economy and business class one-way is $118 in taxes and fees. The LAX-DUB on Aer Lingus in economy and business one-way is $35.
Jimmy Webb
September 21, 2018
Really the best ways!!! Great post.
nate H
October 04, 2018
I would like to fly Chicago-Dublin using BA avios transferred from my Chase Saphire Preferred card. When doing this, to get an off-peak price, do I look at the Aer Lingus peak/off-peak schedule or BA schedule?
Also, as a sanity check, Chicago (ORD) to Dublin (DUB) is considered zone 5 and should be 26,000 avios (round trip) during off-peak times, correct?
Stephen Au
October 05, 2018
Hey Nate,
Keep in mind that Aer Lingus has their own off-peak/peak schedule you must refer to.
You are correct in that it will cost 26,000 Avios round-trip during off-peak times in Zone 5.
Jay Black
October 14, 2018
How do you redeem the avios points for flights on partner airlines? Do I use the British Airways portal? I’m trying to book a flight on AA that shows up on the AA portal, but not on the BA portal. Any ideas?
Stephen Au
October 15, 2018
Hey Jay,
if it doesn’t show up in the BA portal, you will need to call BA at 1 800 452 1201 from 7:30am-8:00pm EST
Zetty
October 15, 2018
“U.S. domestic nonstop flights under 1,150 miles on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines cost only 7,500 Avios”
Used to be the case, but now BA website lists this for partner airlines:
“0–1,500 30,000 + taxes, fees and carrier charges”
https://www.britishairways.com/travel/multi-carrier-avios-costs-zone/execclub/_gf/en_gb?
If that’s the case, it enormous jump and how can it be justified for the customers? If I have spent my avios before this I’d get 4 times more value, that’s outrageous!
Stephen Au
October 18, 2018
Hey Zetty,
The award chart you’re looking at is for multi-carrier flights involving 2 or more oneworld partners.
Please use this award calculator for U.S. domestic nonstop flights on 1 partner:
https://www.britishairways.com/travel/avios-calculator/execclub/_gf/en_gb
peter
November 11, 2018
Hi there, I tried to calculate the Avios needed for an Los Angeles-Tokyo flight, but it is showing up as 75000 Avios instead of the 50000 mentioned. Can you advise? Thank you.
Stephen Au
November 13, 2018
Hey Peter,
Unfortunately, British Airways Avios seems to devalue their miles frequently. We are in the process of updating this post to reflect the new mileage prices. Until then, please follow what the British Airways Reward Calculator says.
Also, if you’re thinking of transferring points with Chase Ultimate Rewards to British Airways Avios, please consider transferring to Virgin Atlantic. You can fly on ANA from Los Angeles to Tokyo round-trip for 100,000 miles in business class or 110,000 miles in first class!
If you’re thinking of transferring points with American Express, please consider transferring to ANA or Virgin Atlantic. They have much better mileage costs than British Airways for this redemption.
Rachel
November 24, 2018
Is Qatar still flying the DOH-DXB route for 18,000 Avios? Thought that route was cut due to political tensions since last year.
Stephen Au
November 25, 2018
Hey Rachel! Thanks for reading.
You bring up a great point. We’ve updated our post accordingly.
You’ll be able to try out the Al Safwa First Class Lounge for the DOH-KWI flight to Kuwait City for only 18,000 Avios and 50 Euros. That’s another alternative if you’re interested in the first class lounge. Thanks again!
Luke Vader
December 15, 2018
Lots of great info and options for Avios holders to digest/consider for award redemptions. Great post, thanks!
Stephen Au
December 15, 2018
Hey Luke!
Thanks for reading! We appreciate your positive feedback.
LUKASZ
December 26, 2018
Hi, I see that HEL to NRT (Tokio) is now 106£ in taxes – 25000 Avios + £ 106.50
Stephen Au
December 27, 2018
Hey Lukasz,
Thanks for reading! We’ve updated the numbers to reflect that. Thanks again!
lukasz
December 26, 2018
Free London Stopovers (British Airways) – this option is not available anymore
Stephen Au
December 27, 2018
Hey Lukasz,
We’ve removed that method and updated our post accordingly. Thank you so much!
Ken
February 24, 2019
Please update this article to show that not all flights on Malaysian are 4,500 points. KUL-DPS for example is 10k Avios.
Stephen Au
February 24, 2019
Thanks for the tip! We’ve updated this article accordingly.
Sonny
May 11, 2019
What an AMAZING post!! Thank you very much pal!
One bad news is that you might have to update the post since BAEC will change the charts of WO award tickets since 30th May 2019.
Hope you can do it. But it will take a lot of time for sure.
thanks again for this great valued post
Stephen Au
May 21, 2019
Hey Sonny,
Thanks for the great feedback! Sadly, British Airways will be undergoing another devaluation, and we’ll do our best to keep our posts updated when the devaluation hits.
Miles
September 29, 2019
I thought taxes and surcharges increased to ~$200 one-way for flights from the U.S. to Japan?
Andrew Kunesh
October 01, 2019
Hey Miles, it looks like one-way economy JAL tickets from LAX to NRT/HND now have roughly $117 in taxes and fees when booked through British Airways. We’ve updated the post to reflect this—thanks!
MILES
October 06, 2019
Noticed that the taxes are cheaper if it is an AA flight Tokyo-LAX versus a JAL flight. Also, booking with AA miles allows the option to fly to commuter airports. For some reason, British Airways website does not recognize some smaller commuter airports.
RYAN
February 17, 2020
The new Chase British Airways Visa Signature card has the potentially game-changing possibility to use Avios to pay for those pesky BA taxes and fuel surcharges:
“Use Avios to save
Use your Avios to pay for your taxes, fees, and carrier-imposed charges for your reward tickets by calling the number on the back of your card. $5 USD minimum must be charged to your British Airways Visa Signature Card*.”
The fine print reads: “British Airways Visa Signature cardmembers can pay for the taxes, fees and carrier charges for flights using Avios. Cardmembers must make their reward booking via the British Airways Executive Club Contact Centre using the dedicated phone number found in the credit card welcome materials and on the back of the credit card. Avios can be used to reduce the cash price of taxes, fees and carrier charges on the reward booking down to a minimum of $5 USD. This $5 USD payment (or any other amount paid) must be paid by using the British Airways Visa Signature card issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Offer not available on ba.comOpens Overlay or via any other booking channel. Reward flights and cabin upgrades are subject to availability. Cash price of taxes, fees and carrier charges are approximately $682-$1,250 per adult in economy (World Traveller) or $1,250 in business (Club World) based on travel between Seattle and London. Avios prices for taxes, fees and carrier charges will be quoted by the British Airways Executive Club Contact Centre representative at time of redemption booking.”
The big question is: HOW WILL AVIOS CONVERT TO $$ WHEN PAYING TAXES AND FEES? WHAT WILL THE TOTAL AVIOS COST FOR A ROUND TRIP TO LONDON FROM US??
PLEASE UPDATE.
Stephen Au
February 18, 2020
Ryan,
The total round-trip cost will depend on your route. You can search for availability here:
https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/executive-club/spending-avios/reward-flights
Avios doesn’t convert to money. Avios is a separate currency that covers the flight except the taxes and fees. The surcharge credit is designed to offset the taxes and fees portion. It will not have any effect on the Avios you pay.
Heading for the door
March 15, 2020
Good summary, at any other time. Question now is how to get avios points out of BA before they go bust? Flying not an option.
J
February 17, 2021
Short hauls on AA or AS were changed from 7,500 to 9,000 avios a few years ago, correct? Your headline says 9,000 avios but the actual paragraph says 7,500 avios which is confusing.
Jarrod West
February 18, 2021
Hi J,
That is correct! Thank you for pointing out the typo. I’ve updated the post to show the accurate figure.
Rami K.
April 10, 2021
I have looked at Malaysian Airlines flights to spend my Avios. There you are able to find a great bargain but always only one seat available on business. Do you any idea why is that? Is there only one business seat reserved for BA customers on Malaysian Airlines flights?
Jarrod West
April 14, 2021
Hi Rami,
Yes, it could be the case that Malaysian Airlines only releases one award seat per flight when booking through BA.
D-Mac
June 04, 2021
Sorry, I’m a bit of a newbie with this stuff. To use the Avios points on an American Airlines flight, do you transfer points to American Airlines first, and then use them? Or do you book within the BA system?
Jarrod West
June 06, 2021
Hi D-Mac,
You will book the flight with your Avios directly through British Airways. The key is, you must be able to find MileSAAver American space in order to be able to book the American flight with Avios. So I like to start off searching on the AA website to find SAAVer space for the flight that I’m looking for, and once I do, I search for that exact flight on the British Airways website to make the booking with Avios.
Let me know if you need any other help with this!
Jennifer
June 22, 2023
How on earth does one do this? I have tried and tried and can’t seem to find ANY MileSAAver flights on American. Would love any advice!!
G Kinslow
July 21, 2021
I have more than 200K American Airlines Aadvantage Miles and can easily book a one-way Flagship Business 787 reward flight from SAT to ICN or return for as little as 65K Aadvantage Miles on the aa.com site, depending on the date.
But I also have more than 500K Chase Ultimate Rewards Points that I can transfer to Avios, so I accessed my Avios account to review AA flight availabilities using the same routing, with the idea of transferring some UR points to Avios to book the AA reward flights. I selected an entire month of possibilities from 15 September to 15 October, a period during which reward flights are available every day on the aa.com site, and came up with ZERO Avios availabilities for ANY American Airlines Flagship Business seats.
I finally found a AA Flagship Business availability with Avios on 19 February 2022 for 123,250 Avios plus $188.70 taxes and fees, but the identical flight on aa.com costs only 60,000 Aadvantage miles plus $5.60!
So, exactly where is the Avios value for me when trying to book a AA business class reward flight to Korea? I see no value at all. I acknowledge I haven’t a clue what is the Avios:Aadvantage Miles exchange rate, but unless I’m missing something, I would be a fool to book this flight with Avios.
Jarrod West
July 21, 2021
Hi G,
Where the big value lies with regards to using Avios to fly within American is booking short-haul awards, not international business awards. For instance, nonstop flights under 1,150 miles on American Airlines cost only 9,000 Avios plus $5.60, whereas if you booked with American you would pay 12,500 miles.
But yes, in your example you would be much better off using your AA miles for your trip. Safe travels!
G Kinslow
July 22, 2021
At our age, my wife and I are fortunate enough to fly Business or First rather than Economy, and frankly, given the trials associated with domestic Economy travel, we wouldn’t fly at all if that was the only option. Between us, we have more than 1M AA and Delta miles and 700K UR Points. That doesn’t mean we want to spend them unwisely, however, and we’ll always seek opportunities to maximize the value of our points.
That said, It appears that, for us, Avios is simply a poor means of exploiting AA award mile travel, even within the continental US. For example: we frequently fly between San Antonio and Seattle or San Antonio and Baltimore.
A one-way domestic AA reward miles 29 August First Class morning flight SAT-SEA on aa.com costs 25,000 Aadvantage miles plus $5.60, but the same flight with Avios will cost 33,000 Avios plus $5.60. However, booking this flight in Economy costs 18,500 Aadvantage miles plus $5.60 vs 18,000 Avios points plus $5.60.
A one-way domestic AA reward miles 28 August First Class flight SAT-BWI on aa.com costs 25,000 Aadvantage miles plus $5.60, but the identical booking with Avios will set us back 37,000 Avios plus $5.60. Avios offered no Economy seats at all, but changing the itinerary to SAT-DCA on 31 August yielded a cost of 7500 Aadvantage miles plus $5.60 vs 16,500 Avios plus $5.60!
It appears that, with rare exceptions, Avios isn’t the first choice for us regardless of the destination or class of service when booking on American Airlines.
Short of American Airlines becoming a Chase Ultimate Rewards partner, we need to find a different way of booking Aadvantage reward flights with UR points, because Avios doesn’t do it for us.
G Kinslow
July 22, 2021
I’m just going to state it. Avios is a ripoff for AA award flights, even using your criteria. Let’s use a real-world example rather than relying on mileage charts.
SAT (my current home) – HSV (my home town) is 770 non-stop air miles. Even calculating the air miles for connecting flights between SAT-DFW and DFW-HSV, the total is only 851 miles.
A single AA reward ticket, AA2342 SAT-DFW connecting to AA3076 DFW-HSV on 28 August using Aadvantage miles costs 6500 Aadvantage miles plus $5.60 for Economy or 16,500 Aadvantage miles plus $5.60 for First Class.
The same flight on the same day using Avios is 15,000 Avios Points plus $5.60 for Economy and 30,000 Avios points plus $5.60 for First Class, in both cases an exorbitant increase over the Aadvantage miles cost for a flight of only 851 total air miles between SAT and HSV.
So, let’s break the trip down into two separate non-stop flights, one for SAT-DFW and the second for DFW-HSV, necessitating that I pick up my baggage at DFW Arrivals and then taking them to DFW Departures for check in and loading onto the second leg, and by the way, requiring a second trip through TSA security screening. After all of that, here is what we get:
SAT-DFW AA2342 0610-0722 requires 6000 Aadvantage miles plus $5.60 for Economy or 16,000 Advantage miles plus $5.60 for First Class. Avios requires 7500 miles plus $5.60 for Economy and First Class is unavailable.
DFW-HSV AA3076 0857-1056 (very tight connection!) requires 14,000 Advantage miles plus $5.60 for Economy or 24,000 miles plus $5.60 for First Class. Avios Economy is unavailable and First Class requires 15,000 Avios points.
Now, if I lived in Dallas, I would be golden with a Avios First Class ticket to Huntsville for 15,000 Avios points compared 24,000 Advantage miles. But I don’t live in Dallas. And if I wanted to fly Economy, I’m out of luck because there are no Avios Economy seats available on my chosen flight.
It’s wholly unrealistic to compare trips by daisychaining individual non-stop flights from Point A to final destination Point B to justify using Avios Points, because very few people are going to want to endure that gauntlet, and even then, real world, Avios is still more costly (22,500 Avios points for a mixed class trip) than the single AA SAT-HSV award ticket at 6500 Aadvantage miles for Economy or 16,500 miles for First Class and no baggage retrieval and TSA hassle.
I think you may want to revisit your criteria, because, as I see it, using real world examples, unless one wants to spend hours searching for those very few flights that Avios may make worth the effort and bending my schedule to accommodate Avios availability, they are far more costly than Aadvantage miles for AA reward flights, regardless of domestic or international, regardless of distance, regardless of class of service, and transferring my Chase UR points to Avios for AA flights is simply wasteful.
Keenan Henry
October 09, 2021
Hello,
Quick question, My girlfriend booked a flight to London on British Airways. Is it possible for me to transfer points from Amex to BA and I personally upgrade our seats from World Traveler Plus to business class?
Thanks
Stephen Au
October 11, 2021
If you booked directly with British Airways, it should be possible. Click here for more info:
https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/executive-club/spending-avios/upgrading-with-avios
DaninMCI
March 28, 2022
There are some areas of the middle east that are short-haul but generate high surcharges like AMM-TLV on RJ. I believe there are some odd routes where BA has lower surcharges than Iberia or other partners where it’s usually the other way around.
Thompson
November 06, 2022
With my 126 000 Avios, I try to book Montréal to Paris. The offer was 65 000 Avios and cash higher than the cost without Avios with another company. Now I understand why. But I do not understand why BA did not tell me to try AA Montréal/JFK/Paris. Am I a patron of Avios or not? Cheap way to do business!
RNP
January 21, 2023
I try to look for one-way flight from MIA to LIM on August 10, 2023, but nothing was shown. In fact, none of the dates are shown for availability. Weird.
John Smith
June 16, 2023
I think #10 is out of date. Aer Lingus does appear to have fuel surcharges now. I just looked at 2 RT tickets from IAD to DUB in September and was shown 52,000 AVIOS + about $530 in taxes and fees.
Jarrod West
June 16, 2023
Hi John,
Was this booking through the British Airways website or Aer Lingus?
Jennifer
June 22, 2023
When I search for a flight from New York to Dublin using avios on ba.com, it only shows me non-direct flights with the first leg New York to London on British Airways, and then the second leg on Aer Lingus. I am trying to find a direct flight on Aer Lingus, to avoid the BA fees, but none show up. Is it possible to find direct Aer Lingus flights on the BA website? Thanks.
Jarrod West
June 23, 2023
Hi Jennifer,
Have you tried searching on the Aer Lingus website?
sami
September 04, 2023
You do not list the points needed for flights
Keri Stooksbury
September 04, 2023
Hi Sami – The Avios (points/miles) needed for each recommendation are listed in the numbered headers (for example: U.S. Short-haul Nonstop Flights for 9,000 Avios). Thanks for reading!
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