British Airways recently changed their award structure and created Avios. Today, I was able to make good use of my newly minted Avios points with a low cost award redemption.
At first I was skeptical that the change wouldn’t align with my use for the program. Afterall I did redeem British Airways miles for AA first class to Buenos Aires at a favorable rate with little fees.
How To Book
- Check British Airways Avios calculator to determine the number of avios required
- Log in to your British Airways account and redeem your Avios points
My Redemption
I posted that my waitlist spot cleared at the last minute for a seat on the OWMD flight. Since it was so late, the pricing on flights to get me there was rather high, around $350 for a one way coach ticket.
I searched for and found a great deal on an AA flight in coach using Avios points. For the one way flight I redeemed 7,500 Avios points and a couple of bucks in fees. What a deal!
Have you found any other good uses for Avios points?
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The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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Awesome post! I am thinking of doing the same soon.
What a smart idea. Nice!
Unfortunately their engine is broken for AS, so not only can’t you calculate how much a ticket will cost but you get to pay a $25 ticketing fee PER ticket. This really destroys a lot of value of using Avios for short haul redemptions on AS. Glad to hear it works on AA but doesn’t do us much good here in SEA except for longer haul flights we would never use Avios for.
Was able to use Avios last week for last-minute tix for myself and a colleague in ORD. Only 9k miles for me from CHO and 15k for him from BOS. 24k for 2 round trip last minute flights isgreat!
By the time I tired to book a seat for a JFK-BOS flight on AA, the one way fare was $150! 4,500 and $2.50 later I was a happy camper.
YYZ-ORD for 4.5K Avios one-way. Even better is these Avios were earned on my RBC Avion Visa and transferred during their regular 1.5x promos – so C$3K in spending to redeem a one-way flght!
I just booked my first Avios redemption an hour ago too. One Way LAX-SJC flight for Friday. Total cost is 2.50 for a 195 ai ticket. ~4.3cpm value. Not too shabby.
Wow, great responses! Avios seems to be a good deal in quite a few short hop scenarios.
Contrary to many (most?) published reports, It’s not all doom and gloom with Avios. They also cut the cost of redemptions from the northeast to London by 20%. 🙂
It took me a while searching through BA’s terrible system, but I found a few one way flights I needed for 7k and 12k…the kicker is, that when it went through on my account, It only took half of the miles….I’m not going to argue though!
ALL OW, I AM BASED OUT OF ORD,
ORD-SJU 12.5K
ORD-MEX 10K
ORD-YUL 7.5K
ORD-PVR 10K
ORD-SJD 10K
ORD-CUN 10K