Your guide to spending Avios | 2018 edition
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i Preface If you are new to the British Airways Executive Club (BAEC) you may have realised that planning an Avios redemption calls for a shift in mindset, especially to those more used to redeeming miles for flights with North American frequent flyer programmes. The purpose of this thread is to introduce you to how the BAEC works in terms of spending Avios and to share some tips will will assist you during the planning and booking stages. We'll also cover the options available to you, so you can make an informed decision on how best to maximise your Avios Points. If you are seeking guidance on the changes to the Executive Club in relation to the programme's 2011 relaunch, the Q&A discussion serves as a very useful reference point. ii Contents 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 iii Acknowledgments This guide is a collaborative effort, and could not have been produced without the kind contributions from corporate-wage-slave, DWFI, LTN Phobia, Nikko5, orbitmic, Petrus, Prospero, Skipcool3, and Stez. |
Introduction
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01 Introduction and overview So you’ve collected a mountain of Avios Points, how do you spend them? Well, being an airline, flights would be the logical thing, but you can also spend them on hotel stays or for car rentals or alternatively transfer them to another member if you wish. Availability varies considerably and it can be a challenge pairing available seats with specific routes on specific dates. Even if you book 11 months in advance, you will often find that certain days of the week are permanently blocked for reward flights. In practice though reward seats often open up closer to the date of travel. We strongly recommend redeeming for Club or First seats as this is by far the best way to get the best value for your miles. You should also ensure that you get a BA affiliated credit card as many card issuers will award you with a companion voucher after you crossed a certain sped threshold. When spending Avios for flights, there are several options and we’ll cover each of those in turn. It is worth beginning with a cautionary note. BAEC redemption tickets are calculated as a sum of the individual flights contained in your itinerary. So instead of the normal method of categorising destinations into geographical zones or bands, BAEC has adopted a tariff based on individual flight distances, where each zone is calculated relative to the real distance of each flight. Some may find it bewildering that a network carrier replaced what was an easily understood and widely accepted system of calculation with such a complicated one but BA makes the rules and the purpose of this thread is to help you understand them and maximise the value of your Avios points. 02 Redemption types Executive Club members are presented with the following redemption types:
All flight redemptions are flexible, subject to availability, are valid for 12 months from the date of ticketing, and are pulled from specific inventory:
* When X class seats have been depleted, Gold members are given access to V class inventory † UK Domestic redemptions are pulled from X and U class inventory. Note, if your domestic flight is in U class, it will still be economy class and there are no business class perks attached, such as lounge access or an additional baggage allowance (unless your ticket includes other flights in business or first) With all redemptions tickets, you will be charged all applicable taxes. fees, and surcharges in addition to the Avios points used to fund the ticket. These extras do add up to a significant sum. When estimating the cash extras, the general rule of thumb is your Avios points are used in place of the equivalent net fare, and so the airport fees, government taxes, fuel surcharges are all assessed as extras and must be paid in cash when you book your redemption. The ITA Matrix Airfare Search (Matrix - ITA Software by Google) is an excellent online tool for estimating the amount of taxes, fees, and surcharges that apply to your chosen routing. 03 Travel planning We'll begin with a few headline points covering the basics:
Once you’ve figured out where you’re travelling to, who to take along with you, and when to go, the next task is to find available seats. Flexibility is the key. If you find seats on the flights you want on your first attempt, you are very fortunate. Pat yourself on your back. Usually, this part of the planning process involves a little lateral thinking and often quite a lot of time researching. What we know is BA will offer at least four economy class redemption seats on each flight plus two in Club. These stay "alive" and available until at least 40 days before travel unless snaffled up. Other seats can be added at any point (including First) and the best time to check for fresh availability is 00:30 UK time. Having the right tools at your disposal is essential. BA.com is good at displaying flight availability but it is not great. Luckily, there are many other online tools that reach the parts BA.com cannot reach. BA.com struggles with multi sector requests. The easy way around this is to search flights individually and tick off your flights in turn. Searching for partner flights on ba.com can be patchy. Some third party tools will display partner flight availability per the respective booking codes, so you need to know what codes to look out for. The following table lists these booking codes by individual carrier. As you can see they are not all the same. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...ionclasses.png
Once you have constructed your itinerary, the next step is to contact your local service centre to place the booking. If your booking is relatively straight forward, book it online. This will save you the offline booking fee (£15/€15/US$25). Gold card holders are exempt from the booking fee. Note, currently only flights on BA and oneworld carriers may be booked online. You need to call BA to book redemptions on Aer Lingus or Alaska Airlines. 04 Ticket changes and cancellations Redemption tickets are flexible and can be changed, subject to permitted rules. Generally speaking, standard redemption bookings including those booked with companion and/or Gold Upgrade for Two (GUF2) vouchers and oneworld partner bookings can be changed as follows: Time and date: Yes Note, any adjustments to taxes, fees, and charges originally paid at the time of booking will be collected (or refunded) when a change to the booking is made.Class of travel: Yes Routing: Yes, provided the change to the destination costs the same amount of Avios. Changes are permitted up to 24 hours prior to the departure of the first flight sector on your ticket. There is a change fee (£35.00/€42.50/US$55.00) plus an additional offline fee (£15.00/€15.00/US$25.00) which applies when the change is made via your local BAEC service centre Cancellations are also permitted. So long as you cancel your ticket no later than 24 hours prior to the departure of the first flight sector on your ticket, you will receive a full refund of Avios Points as well as the taxes, fees, and surcharges paid minus a nominal redeposit fee (£35.00/€42.50/US$55.00). The additional offline fee also applies to redeposits. Do you have to pay the £35 (or whatever) and then get a refund of the cash you originally paid? For the complete fee table, see BA Executive Club Service Fees. Note, there are no change fees for Gold Guest List and Premier card holders, who can do the changes online too for free in some cases, in other cases they need to call the relevant service centre/deskThe answer is that if the cash that you originally paid is less than the applicable cancellation fee, you simply forfeit the amount paid. You do not have to pay anything extra. 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 |
Standard reward flights
Standard redemption flights are the most popular option and are good for itineraries involving BA plus one partner carrier or a single partner carrier. The tables below sets out the number of Avios Points needed for a single flight. If your itinerary involves multiple flights, you will need to add together the individual flights to reach the total price.
Current rates for redemption flights http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...iff_BA_std.png http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...iff_IB_std.png http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/..._other_std.png You will note that variable pricing applies to redemptions on British Airways, OpenSkies, and Iberia, dividing the calendar into peak and off-peak dates. For BA flights, peak rates generally apply to UK school holidays and the BAEC does appear to be reserving Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the year at the off-peak rate. There is now a separate tariff and calendar of peak/off peak dates for IB flights although BA and IB flights between LHR and MAD are charged per the BA flight table and calendar. A 12 month forward view of BA and IB peak and off peak dates is published on BA.com. See here and navigate to “Working out the cost” Redemptions on oneworld and partner airlines, including Flybe mainline (but excluding BE routes operated from London City) are priced at a single year round rates equivalent to BA's higher peak rates. Important: Certain routes such as LHR-LCA, LHR-JHB, LHR-CPT, LHR-MEX, LAX-HKG, and JFK-HKG have been adjusted at slightly lower rates than their true distance suggests. However, DUB-BOS is priced as a Zone 5 redemption which is marginally greater than the true flight distance. BA's Avios Calculator is the higher authority so we recommend you use it to check each flight.Redemption rates for travel on American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and TAM will start at 7,500 Avios rather than 4,500 Avios, effectively pricing Distance Band 1 flights as Band 2. Redemption rates for travel on American Airlines within the United States in First Class are calculated at Business Class providing the flight operates as a two class service Note also, for the time being, it is not possible to redeem Avios for AA flights in Premium Economy class 01 Point to point flights Point to point (origin and destination) routes are the easiest to calculate. Using LAX as a theoretical epicente, the figure below illustrates the flight distance zone bands between LAX and a sample of US cities. Using LAX-MIA (three class transcontinental service) as an example, Miami is our focus destination and the route is highlighted in cyan. The sector distance is 2,342 miles, so with reference to the standard redemption tariffs table above, we can determine the base cost of this American Airlines flight using Avios: Band 4 at 12,500 Avios (refer to the standard redemption table for Other Airlines above) Using the premium class multiplier, a seat in business class will cost 37,500 Avios or 50,000 Avios for first class. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...Std_LAXMIA.png Zonal map - Origin Los Angeles, Destination: Miami (AA) 02 Connecting flights As redemptions are calculated by individual sector, so each flight must be considered when connections are concerned. Let's look again at the Los Angeles to Miami itinerary but this time we'll introduce a connection at Dallas Forth Worth. Flight 1: LAX-DFW. The sector distance is 1,235 miles which places this as a Zone 3 flight, at 10,000 Avios in economy class or 20,000 Avios in first class Flight 2: DFW-MIA. The sector distance is 1,121 miles, therefore a Zone 2 flight priced at 7,500 Avios in economy, or 15,000 Avios in first class. So combining flights 1 and 2, overall the base redemption cost works out at 17,500 Avios for an economy class one way ticket (plus all applicable taxes, fees and surcharges). So by comparing the direct flight and connecting flight examples we can see value can be gained by booking direct flights. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/..._LAXDFWMIA.png Connecting flight - Los Angeles to Miami via Dallas Fort Worth (AA) The figure below provides us with a further example. This time the routing is on American Airlines from Atlanta to Caracas via Dallas Forth Worth. The first flight ATL-DFW with a distance of 731 miles puts it into Zone 2; the connecting flight DFW-CCS is longer at 2,450 miles and falls into Zone 4. The base fare is a simple calculation, adding both flights: 7,500 Avios for sector 1 plus 12,500 Avios for sector 2 which amounts to 20,000 Avios (plus taxes, fees and surcharges) http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/..._ATLDFWCCS.png Connecting flight - Atlanta to Caracas via Dallas Fort Worth (AA) 03 UK and Mainland Spain domestic feeder flights When pricing long haul redemptions, domestic connections within the UK and Mainland Spain are included in the fare. Taxes, fees, and surcharges associated with these domestic sectors are added to the overall fare however. In the case of redemptions to/from UK regional airports, the domestic sectors will be booked into Euro Traveller when World Traveller and World Traveller Plus is selected or booked into Club Europe when Club World and First is selected. Using JFK-LHR-GLA as an example, since the domestic feeder is included in the cost of the international sector to London. The peak time base price is 20,000 Avios (per Zone 5, JFK-LHR) plus taxes, fees, and surcharges. While domestic feeder flights are free, they are still subject to normal redemption availability conditions. So to include a feeder flight, there must be X class availability (and/or V class for Gold members) for that flight as well availability on the corresponding international flight. BA.com is known to be a bit prickly when it comes to displaying domestic feeder availability so if you find it is not offering domestic connections or if the connection timing is sub-optimal, calling your local BAEC service centre does often pay dividends. Some members have reported BA has bolted on domestic feeder flights on an existing London originating ticket. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/.../Std_UKdom.png Connecting flight - New York to Glasgow via London (BA peak dates) 04 Interesting anomalies in redemption pricing you can exploit If you are interested in how you might optimise your redemptions, using the distance bands to manufacture lower cost rewards, please visit the following thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ing-bands.html 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 |
Multi-partner reward flights
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. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/.../Tariff_MP.png 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. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...06/MP_Asia.png Multi-Partner itinerary - NRT to HKG to PVG to NRT
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. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...6/Std_Asia.png 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. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/.../06/MP_RTW.png When the same itinerary is reconstructing using one way standard redemptions, you can see the overall cost increases significantly, to 282,500 Avios. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...Std_RTW_02.png 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. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...Std_RTW_01.png 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 |
Reward Flight Saver
The Reward Flight Saver (RFS) was introduced in November 2011 and has since transformed the short haul redemption game. Previously, short haul redemptions were subject to the usual high taxes, fees and surcharges and the RFS replaces the variable (and invariably expensive) cash supplement with a much more affordable fixed price supplement.
Available across BA's short haul network, these redemptions are subject to availability of the usual redemption classes. The scope also extends beyond the confines of Europe to include South Africa, by virtue of BA franchise carrier, Comair's network. At present BAEC members cannot redeem Avios for Iberia Express (I2) or Vueling (YV) flights. However, Iberia Express flights with an IB code may be booked as standard redemptions. Note: on the MAD/LHR route where Iberia operates a number of flights on behalf of BA, these flights cannot be booked as Reward Flight Savers. It is also worth mentioning that if BA substitutes a wet lease aircraft then Reward Flight Savers may not be offered on it, particularly early on. For your redemption to qualify as a RFS, all flights in your itinerary must be on BA and also less than 2,000 miles in distance. If your itinerary includes a short haul Air Berlin flight as well as BA flight, this does not qualify as a RFS and so the higher, variable set of taxes/fees/surcharges will be assessed against this redemption ticket. Similarly, if your ticket includes one or more long haul flights (zone 3+), the entire ticket reverts to a standard redemption and is priced accordingly. Several fifth freedom flights operated by BA also qualify as RFS. The qualifying factor being the sector distance is less than 2,000 miles. The fifth freedom allows an airline to sell tickets for travel between foreign countries, as a part of a route connecting to the airline's own country. Bahrain to Doha is a classic example, as are a number of BA services that operate between Caribbean countries beyond London. Important New variable rates applicable to bookings made from 28 April 2015It is also worth bearing in mind one additional point of qualification. You need to have earned at least 1 Avios point in the 12 months prior to booking to be eligible for the RFS option. A 12 month forward view of peak and off peak dates is published on BA.com. See here and navigate to “Working out the cost”. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...Tariff_RFS.png * Variable airport and Government fees will be applied in lieu of the flat fee if the sum of the variable fees is lower than the flat fee The maps below provide a small sample of cities within reach of LHR and JNB and their relative distance bands from each origin. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...06/RFS_LON.png Zonal map - Origin London http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...06/RFS_JNB.png Zonal map - Origin Johannesburg 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 |
Avios & Money
The Avios & Money facility allow members to book redemption flights at a lower than published rate topped up by a cash component. These redemptions are currently available on one-way and return itineraries on BA, BA franchise operated flights, and most partner airlines. They can only be booked through BA, either via ba.com or your local BAEC call centre. Codeshare flights are excluded.
Booking A&M on line is simple, just select "Book with Avios" as your payment type as you would normally do when booking a standard redemption. You are normally presented with a number of options whereby the ratio of cash supplement increases as Avios component decreases. Once you have selected your chosen price option, you cannot change this once a booking is made. While A&M is essentially the same as a standard redemption, we've highlighted A&M in its own section due to a few unique restrictions that exist with these tickets. A&M booking are more restricted than standard redemptions. No changes to either route or carrier airline are possible after the A&M booking is made. You may however cancel an A&M booking and receive a refund of both the Avios and cash components so long as you cancel more than 24 hours before the departure of your outbound flight. If you cancel within 24 hours of departure you will forfeit both components paid. Like standard redemptions, A&M bookings are subject to availability of the usual redemption classes. Also, Avios and Tier Points cannot be earned on A&M flights. 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 |
Upgrading using Avios
Upgrading using Avios (UuA) allows BAEC members to use their Avios points to upgrade either a new or existing cash booking to the next cabin above. Until the April 2015 changes came into effect it was seen as a good use of Avios, particularly in terms of upgrading WT+ tickets into Club World.
You can only upgrade one cabin, however if your particular flight does not offer a WT+ cabin it is possible to UuA directly from World Traveller to Club World. UuA can be used on BA, IB and American Airlines, subject to availability. Note that for EuroTraveller and World Traveller bookings, O, Q and G buckets cannot be upgraded. Generally speaking all paid for WT+ and CW tickets can upgraded, subject to availability. UuA draws availability from the same pool as straight redemptions, so you may find making dummy bookings for redemptions the fastest way to find out whether you can deploy UuA. You can also pay for, and then immediately upgrade it, in the same booking; or UuA an existing booking at a later date, see below. You can also UuA one or several legs of a return or multi-city booking, which may be a necessary strategy if availability comes online at different times. Important: The genius of UuA is despite the upgrade being pulled from redemption inventory, the booking retains an underlying commercial fare. This means you earn Avios and Tier Points for your flights in accordance with the original selling fare. If you are a Gold member it gets better as you'll also earn a 100% Tier Bonus on top of the base Avios. UuAs can only be applied to tickets issued on 125 stock. In other words tickets issued by BA or BA registered travel agents with ticket numbers beginning 125. Tickets sold by Iberia and American Airlines are issued on different numbered stock and cannot be upgraded using Avios. Using London to Chicago booking one way in WT+ and upgraded with Avios to Club World. The upgrade is an up front cost of 20,000 Avios (peak date). The flight earns 3,950 base Avios, a cabin bonus of 1,975 Avios if booked in W class, and for Gold members an additional 3,950 Avios. This reduces the net cost of the upgrade to a pleasingly slender 10,125 Avios. This is a best case scenario - if your flight was booked in T or E class then it does not qualify for a cabin bonus; if an off-peak date applied then the cost to upgrade would in this example increase by 5,000 Avios and if you are a Silver or Bronze member, the tier bonus would also be lower. 01 UuA on BA only flights, booked through a BA sales channel You can upgrade from economy to premium economy on all published fares except Q, O, and G. You can upgrade any World Traveller Plus or Club World fare to the next available cabin. One-way UuAs are possible at any time as is cherry picking individual sectors for upgrade. The good thing about UuA is that you’ll earn Avios and Tier Points for the fare you purchased, i.e. the paid fare you are upgrading from. This is about the only visible ‘difference’ in treatment between an UuA (or, in terms of entitlements rather than ‘earning’ anything, a full award ticket too) versus a fully paid ticket for that class. You are entitled to all the benefits of a normal fare-paying passenger in the upgraded cabin (e.g. lounge access, relevant check-in desks, Spa treatments, etc. as applicable). Important: The cost of using this mechanism to upgrade to Club World and First on long haul increased substantially on 28 April 2015 and as the calculation is now based on variable rates, you need to check a) what is the flight distance? and b) does the flight date fall into peak or off peak? Once you’ve established these two factors, you can work out the cost to upgrade your flight. A 12 month forward view of peak and off peak dates is published on BA.com. See here and navigate to “Working out the cost”.You can only upgrade one class at a time. http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...iff_BA_UuA.png In addition to Avios, you need to pay the differential in Government taxes and carrier charges. So for example, let’s say you want to book a return from London to San Francisco, moving from World Traveller Plus to Club World. The basic fare is (say) £900 including taxes. Upgrading from World Traveller Plus to Club World. As this route distance falls into band 6, the upgrade cost will be 30,000 Avios for an off-peak date or 25,000 Avios for a peak date plus any upward adjustment in carrier charges. When it comes to changing UuA it can get complicated. If you UuA from a restricted ticket, then those restrictions still apply. If you UuA from a full fare, unrestricted ticket, the base flexibility remains BUT to retain the UuA you must find award availability on the flight you change to. After departure, you will lose the Avios (like for a standard redemption) if you make changes. UuA can be a tad problematic when it comes to actually getting credit for the fare you paid. UuAs are an oddity, as the system needs to track two fare classes, the one you paid for, and the one you booked into. The problem is, the fare class you book into, is the same as for award tickets. So the system can incorrectly log it as an award ticket, and it comes up on the statement as earning no points or miles. For example, a normal UuA from WT+ to Club, should appear on your statement as J/T (i.e. you sat in J but paid for T). Most of the time, it comes up as J/U instead. To correct this, you need to speak to someone at the service centre. This can take anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks to credit. 02 UuA on BA only flight, booked through a travel agency The ability to upgrade Travel Agent (TA) issued tickets is possible since 17 July 2012, with corporate net tickets from 24 July 2012. Unfortunately, marine fares are not eligible. There are a number of criteria, and broadly follow the same terms and conditions as Upgrade Using Avios (UUA) on a normal booking:
03 UuA on BA, AA, and IB flights UuA can also be applied to American Airlines and Iberia flights and/or tickets combining travel on either of these airlines plus BA. The rules that apply to upgrading BA flights generally apply to AA and IB flights, albeit with a few differences.
Important: Current rates for upgrading AA and IB flights. Note, the rates for economy to first upgrades on AA domestic routes (on flights operating a two class service) were reduced at the end of 2016For the time being, it is not possible to use Avios to upgrade into Premium Economy class on AA flights http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...iff_IB_UuA.png http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...iff_AA_UuA.png 04 Calculating the amount of Avios needed to UuA http://prospelicious.com/wp-content/...017/06/UUA.png Sample routing: Washington DC to Stockholm via London Using IAD-LHR-ARN as an example, we can review a couple of different scenarios to give you an idea of how UuA are calculated. Like standard redemptions, each flight is considered separately and in turn.
05 Known booking anomalies This seems to be emerging slowly at the moment, but the introduction of Dual Inventory Fares seems to be complicating UuA involving World Traveller Plus to Club World. Online we know it's not working, or rather working expensively, and from what we can make out people are best to do it via the telephone and asking the agent to submit the booking to ticketing for an accurate assessment. 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 |
Avios Part Payment
When you purchase flights via BA’s direct sales channels it is possible to shave a few quid off the fare in exchange for a nominal sum of Avios. This feature has been coined Avios Part Payment (APP). APP may be useful if you wish to cash in some of the Avios you have stashed away, and since the you’re still purchasing a commercial fare, you’ll earn Avios and Tier Points once you fly. The conversion rates for APP spend are better £ for point than it is to purchase points. Note, APP is not available at BA airport ticket desks or via travel agents.
01 Scope and detail
02 Q&A Can I upgrade a APP booking? Yes. UuA or GUF1/GUF2 vouchers can be applied to a APP booking on the proviso the booking has already been confirmed and ticketed. Can I use APP on a redemption fare to offset taxes, fees, and surcharges? No. APP is not offered with flight redemptions Will I earn Avios and Tier Points on a APP ticket? Yes. You will accrue points, including Tier and Cabin Bonuses just as you would had you not used the part payment option. Will the APP affect the fare rules and conditions of my ticket? No. If you purchase a full fare flexible ticket, the underlying rules are retained. Similarly, if you purchase a restricted discounted fare, the rules governing the underlying fare are retained. How much can I save? In most cases several part payment options are offered and the discount may vary depending on the route. For example for LHR-JFK in Club World, a £60 discount is offered at 8,000 Avios whereas the same discount may be offered at 8,500 for LHR-EDI.
Note, you’ll not be offered options where the discount exceeds the sum of the net fare and carrier charges. 03 Short on Avios? If you find yourself short on Avios, remember that you can purchase Avios from the BAEC and if you are also an IberiaPlus member you can purchase Avios from Iberia then convert these to your BAEC account. Both programmes offer bonus deals on Avios purchases from time to time but not necessarily at the same time, so having an account with both programmes can pay dividends. 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 |
Using your companion vouchers
There are a number of BA affiliate credit cards that give BAEC members an opportunity to earn a companion voucher. For more information on what card issuers offer this benefit and how to go about earning a voucher, see Credit card partners. The concept behind the voucher is simple. You the cardholder may book a redemption ticket, paid for in Avios and you take a travelling companion along with you. The usual taxes, fees, and surcharges apply to both passengers unfortunately, which are paid for by the card holder.
01 Standard conditions:
02 Additional benefits (UK BA Amex Premium Plus)
03 Additional benefits (US Chase British Airways Visa Signature)
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 |
Additional Gold benefits
01 Additional Gold benefits
02 Exclusive Gold Guest List benefits A twice per membership year redemption for up to 5 people (i.e. member and up to 4 others) booked into revenue classes (A, D, T, B) rather than award classes. Such GGL redemptions are known in some quarters as Jokers. A third Joker is awarded at 6,000 Tier Points. Note this redemption award will have its own deadline for use, which may be different from your BAEC membership year. Also GUF1 and Jokers can be redeemed together. GUF1 and UuA cannot be combined (as already stated); However, a GUF1 can be used when there are (e.g.) WT+ reduced rate redemptions to leverage into the class higher (so indirectly allowing reduced rate CW when it is not used). Must be booked by phone however. For more information, please visit the https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...r-s-guide.html thread 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 |
Hotel and car rental redemptions
01 Hotel redemptions
You can use your Avios balance to pay for hotels, by logging into your BAEC account and going to the hotel booking section of Spending Avios. There is a very comprehensive list of hotels available, including for destinations not served by the BA network. Hotels can be booked completely seperately from any travel arrangements, and you are free to travel to the hotel without making a BA or oneworld flight. Hotels can be paid for entirely by Avios, or there is usually a sliding scale of combining cash with Avios. It is unlikely that this is the most cost effective use of Avios, with two exceptions. Firstly if you are unable or unwilling to use Avios for flying then this is one way to make use of your balance. Secondly, it is generally possible to use just 1,000 Avios and pay something close to a competitive cash price for the room, thereby using a small number of Avios points to leverage a corporate hotel price, when availability through other sources may be hard to find. Hotel redemptions cannot be changed once it is booked. However, it can be cancelled and the Avios refunded. Note that it appears that this service is not available to BAEC members in certain countries. 02 Car rental redemptions Car hire bookings using Avios follow the same menu and similar logic to hotel bookings. Car and hotel bookings can be done together too. As with hotels you can choose a sliding scale of Avios versus cash, including full payment via Avios. Again it is unlikely to be the best use of Avios, but again you can use a small number of Avios to leverage a reasonable rate. As of August 2012, it is not possible to use Avios for car hire bookings in South Africa. In all circumstances the driver needs to be over 23 years old. Note that it appears that this service is not available to BAEC members in certain countries. 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 |
I seem to remember that a TA booking is released after a period of time so that upgrades etc can take place. Can someone please remind me of the time frame.
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I read through this FAQ and last years as well and haven't found my answer (or maybe I'm just missing it).
I am trying to make an Avios booking on MH. MH has revenue flights (I didn't search for award space on a 3rd party tool) but I have checked BA.com for a November 2018 itinerary and nothing is available (It doesn't show any results). I've tried various time points on different days of the week for next month, and the months following but no results. Is there a trick to booking an MH flight? This is for economy KUL-LGK. |
Originally Posted by Nurse Traveler
(Post 29282508)
I am trying to make an Avios booking on MH. MH has revenue flights (I didn't search for award space on a 3rd party tool) ... Is there a trick to booking an MH flight?
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Originally Posted by ExpatSomchai
(Post 29281020)
I seem to remember that a TA booking is released after a period of time so that upgrades etc can take place. Can someone please remind me of the time frame.
If it is avios then there is no time period I believe. You can UuA a TA booking at any time subject to reward availability and the booking not including non-BA flights. For cash upgrades I don;t think TA bookings ever see POUGs offered - possibly at OLCI? Airport upgrades should still be available though. |
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