While standard redemptions present an excellent range of route options, they are limited to travel on BA and or one partner airline. Multi-partner redemptions offer an infinite range of options, tapping into the full global network of BA and its
oneworld partner carriers combined but they usually require a greater number of Avios Points than standard redemptions. In many cases significantly more Avios points.
There are benefits to Multi-partner redemptions, such as a complex booking with a single ticket provides greater protection in the event of irregular operations. Note, the distance bands for multi-partner bookings are calculated as complete journeys. So you apply the accumulated distance to determine the number of Avios needed.
01 Using multiple one way redemptions as a cheaper alternative to multi-partner redemptions
You can save significant sums of Avios Points if you avoid stepping into Multi-partner territory but restricting each ticket to a single partner carrier. To emphasise the differences, let's compare two booking strategies for the itinerary illustrated in figure below.
Multi-Partner itinerary - NRT to HKG to PVG to NRT
- Constructed as three separate single partner redemptions, this itinerary in economy class will price out at 27,500 Avios Points plus taxes/fees/surcharges
Flight 1
NRT-HKG on CX. Sector distance 1,842 mi
Booked as a separate single partner redemption, this sector is priced as a zone 3 flight, costing 12,500 Avios plus taxes/fees/surcharges
Flight 2
HKG-PVG on CX. Sector distance 779 mi.
Booked as a separate single partner redemption, this sector is priced as a zone 2 flight, costing 7,500 Avios plus taxes/fees/surcharges
Flight 3
PVG-NRT on JL. Sector distance: 1,118 mi.
Booked as a separate single partner redemption, this sector is priced as a zone 2 flight, costing 7,500 Avios plus taxes/fees/surcharges
- Constructed as a single multi-partner redemption, the distance based tariff is applied to the accumulative distance of all flights in the itinerary. With this example, the total distance works out at 3,739 miles and as a economy class multi-partner redemption is priced at 35,000 Avios Points plus taxes/fees/surcharges.
Looking at the same routing in a different way, since Cathay Pacific operates on all three routes it is possible to book all three sectors as a single booking at the lower standard rate where one carrier is used throughout.
Standard redemption - NRT to HKG + HKG to PVG + PVG to NRT
02 Using multi-partner redemptions to their maximum value on round-the-world trips
Looking at the multi-partner redemptions again, they offer great potential for round-the-world trips. Take this sample itinerary: LHR-DEL-HKG-NRT-LAX-JFK-LHR. The accumulated distance of this trip is just shy of 20,000 miles, so using a Multi-Partner redemption it is possible to travel around the globe in business class using a combination of BA, CX, JL, and AA for 200k Avios. Pretty amazing considering LHR-SIN and back is 210k Avios on peak dates using a standard redemption.
When the same itinerary is reconstructing using one way standard redemptions, you can see the overall cost increases significantly, to 282,500 Avios.
By applying a little flexibility it is possible to reduce the overall cost by breaking the itinerary into shorter jumps - as we know the cost of redemptions escalates beyond Band 4. The following itinerary reduces the overall spend to 279,500 Avios for a ten sector LHR-MUC-DOH-DEL-HKG-NRT-HNL-LAX-JFK-MAD-LHR and that includes an enforced economy sector between HNL and LAX where first class redemption availability is exceptionally difficult to find. Still, its a little bit cheaper than the less circuitous routing above.
Introduction | Standard reward flights | Multi-Partner reward flights | Reward Flight Saver | Avios & Money | Upgrading using Avios | Avios part payment | Using your companion vouchers | Additional Gold benefits | Hotel and car rental redemptions