On a two-class aircraft you would upgrade to whatever the higher class is on that aircraft. F on a domestic, for example. Y to J costs the same as booking Y from scratch, and Y to F costs double (don't bother).

I've tried for the last six months to book cash ticket in WT+ with AVIOS upgrade to J on the BA website and nothing ever comes up. The flights are between the US, DFW,IAH,PHX and LHR,MAD,MIL, etc.

It seems that availability only opens up about a week out, but then if you want to buy a ticket, the WT+ ticket will cost about twice as much as when booking in advance.

Is there some secret or is it really this bad?

That has been how it has gone recently.

Have you considered buying your cash WT+ ticket six months out and then upgrading if/when the space becomes available?

Increased reward availability after the sale?
 

Has anyone noticed increased reward flight availability after the sale ended on 29th Jan. I haven't noticed any but then I am only tracking two specific routes and specific flights.

I need to book a flight from BOS to JFK (on AA) using my avios. The only flight I have seen is at 6:05 in the morning (flight is end of April) and I would like the 1015 am flight. Flight is currently $87 - is it worth it to book the 6:05 flight and rebook (w fees later) or hope more availability comes soon or just buy the flight w cash?

For $87 I would just pay cash.

Look at aa.com what is available. There is an issue with the ba.com booking engine that tends to only show the first flight of the day when booking AA.

If it is available on aa.com for a redemption (and you don't need to sign up to check) then ring BAEC and they should be able to see it.

(The Points Guy blog had an article on this very point over the weekend)

Sadly only the 6:05 has availability. Not sure I want to get to JFK that early as I have a connecting flight at 17:30 on SN...

Sorry if I'm asking a question that has already been answered. Can a GGL member use a Joker to book flights if the member is NOT on the booking. In other words, can I get a GGL chum to book for me? I assume not, but I thought I'd ask.

I am pretty new to using Avios points. Have been reading up on this program and have found some of it to be a bit complicated.

The other day, in planning for a possible trip using Avios points, I put in different dates and cities on BA.com - and I got a variety of fee/tax/surcharge totals (e.g., $476 SEA to LHR O/W in business; $589 LHR to SEA O/W in business - for a total of $1,065 for that R/T in business...but when I booked this same itinerary as a business R/T the total for fees/tax/surcharges was only $880). Is such a situation (two O/Ws costing a lot more in fees/taxes/surcharges than an equivalent R/T itinerary) common?

I also noticed that the fee/tax/surcharge amounts vary by season/date; is this usually the case with Avios? I found a lot of variation.

Yes, all of those things have been known to happen.

Sorry to revisit this so late, and thanks for the reply.

These AA flights are sold as "Business/first". So is that Y to J, or Y to F?

Also i suppose it's dependant on me finding a reasonable Y fare too....

2 class international is Economy and Business
2 class domestic is Economy and First
3 class is Economy, Business and First

Today i was looking for flights for LHR - EWR for me and my son for a long weekend next month .I had a spare 20000 Avios sitting in my account So did some checking out as follows

WT cash returns for 2 were 850
One way WT+ , return WT was 1250 +20000 Av
One way AA in Y via ORD ,Return CW on BA was 1250 +20000 Av

So we're leaving a day early and detouring via ORD :)

So a big Thanks for the thread OP - very enlightening.^

If I wanted to book Aer Lingus using Avios - I need to call ba - correct? Are their taxes/fees still much lower that ba/aa?

Is that a better use of avios from NYC than a US domestic or Caribbean trip?

(Sorry never spent avios before and feeling v. overwhelmed!)