British Airways and American Airlines are both members of the oneworld alliance. This means that award points from British Airways can be used to book a flight on American Airlines in the United States. While most award charts for airlines are region based, British Airways uses a distance-based system.
This presents some great opportunities for short flights if traveling to or from an American Airlines hub. (AA has helpful tool to search their non-stop route network) One important detail to note when redeeming British Airways Avios is that price is based on each leg of a trip. For example, if you have a connecting flight for your trip, the total would be the combined amount of each segment. For this reason, it will most likely not be ideal to use Avios for a flight with a connection.
British Airways doesn’t have their lowest tier of 9,000 Avios for flights under 650 miles for flights within the United States. Additionally, while British Airways award chart has off-peak and peak pricing, all partner awards price at the peak rate. For one-way flights up to 1,150 miles, British Airways charges 15,000 in first class plus $5.60 for taxes and fees. Additionally, one-way flights between 1,151 to 2,000 miles price at 20,000 Avios for first class.
To search and book award flights with British Airways, you must first be a member of their loyalty program, Executive Club (which is free). Once logged in, enter the departure and arrival cities, select “One-Way†(makes finding availability easier) and put in the desired date of travel. Don’t worry about select the class, as British Airways will display availability for all seats.
When searching for flights within the US, you will see a one-week calendar as well as the message: Sorry, there are no direct British Airways flights available on this route. Flights with partners are shown below. Under that is the available partner flight options with how many award seats are left.
Select the flight and class of service that you want or change the date of travel if you want to see alternate options. Once you pick the best flight for your trip, a journey summary will display with the amount of Avios required along with the taxes and fees. British Airways award flights in the United States will not have fuel surcharges on American Airlines and will only have $5.60 for taxes and fees. At the time of this writing, the same cash ticket price is approximately $298, giving a redemption value of almost 2 cents per Avios.
If you’re looking to redeem your British Airways Avios for American Airlines flights, we recommend using the Juicy Miles award booking service, who can help you redeem for the lowest amount of miles while searching availability on partner airlines.
About Points, Miles & Martinis
Here at Points, Miles and Martinis, we love all things travel. We focus on topics relating to travel including destinations, airline, hotel, car rental and credit card reward programs. Our goal is to help people travel better. - See more at our About Us page.
Sign up for Email || Twitter || Facebook |
Hotel Offers || Airline Offers || Bank Offers || Cash Back Offers
Throw in there the 30% bonus on chase UR points and AA single leg domestic NA F flights are a real bargain with BA avios.
BA is my second tier airline for this very reason. My parents moved to NC and the only direct flight from Austin is on AA. I didn’t like how much AA charged and then saw how much cheaper BA was. So my last work trip I bought an inexpensive first class ticket to Kenya, earned enough Avios miles to get three RT tickets for my family to go this summer, and made Silver status (second highest tier) all in one go. I saw the news about the UR transfer bonus and moved some points and got us first class on the way out (it wasn’t available on the way back). Still spent less than I would have if I’d booked with AA. BA is great for this.
I also LOVED their first class and found it incredible compared to the old Continental legacy planes I usually get on United- with mediocre seats, service, etc. And I still have my United 1K status and should earn it again this year. I’ll play both sides until I run out of trips I guess, and see who manages to update their planes first! Oh and last time I checked, BA first was cheaper than United business to some of the places I have to go. And no one can say that’s not a great deal.
Are you also going to cover redeeming Iberia Avios for AA flights? Then you’re not limited by segments, I believe.
BA first was cheaper than United business to some of the places