How to redeem Avios on US
US Airways flights are now available to be booked for Avios on the BAEC website and telephone service centres.
Examples:
First: Phoenix to Charlotte: 30,000 Avios and £1.50 in fees
Economy: Phoenix to Charlotte: 10,000 Avios and £1.50 in fees.
International services to Europe will attract higher fees. For example:
Manchester - Charlotte via Philadelphia: economy single, 24,500 Avios + £95.60
Manchester - Charlotte via Philadelphia: business single, 44,500 Avios + £164.60
Edinburgh - Philadelphia: business single: 40,000 Avios + £160.86 (this information came from a confirmed booking)
Philadelphia - Edinburgh: business single: 40,000 Avios + £1.50. Yes one quid and fifty pence! BA via LHR would want the same number of Avios plus £300.
These fares are relatively low, and the usual BA carrier surcharge has not been put in place (yet).
Note that it does not appear to be possible to Upgrade Using Avios on US Airways prime numbers, it is possible to do this on American Airlines, however. There are a number of restrictions on this, and it must be done via a BAEC service centre.
Seat selection and locator / booking reference / PNRs.
If you make an Avios redemption then you can select seats via BA.com - it provides a link via the usual Choose A Seat option. which transfers you directly to the relevant section of US Airways' website. Note that Emerald status is not yet giving access to preferred seats, so a telephone call may be in order. Just before you get redirected to US Airways you get a handy screen which provides both the BA and US booking references. With that US booking reference you can also go directly to the US site yourself, amend seating and see more details about your booking - including the BA ticket number, starting 125.
Last edited by Grand Union; Apr 20, 2014 at 2:40 pm