TIGRIS23

I've never used BA Avios to book an award flight, but was searching on the BA website today due to announcement Chase UR is having its first transfer bonus. Question: Do I need to have avios in my BA account to complete a search? My search from NRT to KUL yielded 3 business class seats for March 2020 and 4 business class seats in the same month for the return flight. But when I pressed the 'Continue' bottom, it brings me back to the Book with Avios Search Page. Any feedbacks would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

KARFA

So can you get to the flight availability screen which shows what reward flights are available? I suspect when you try and click to go to the next page which is the quote page ba.com is coming up with an error as it can't present any quote options since they would all involve some avios which you don't have.

TIGRIS23

Yes I was able to see the flight availabilities (date, airline, seat class) and even choose them, but once selected for both outbound and inbound and when I pressed continue to see how many Avios and taxes/fees are, I was thrown back to the beginning search page.

KARFA

Ah ok. In that case I suspect it is failing to get to the next page as it can't present any quote options as you don't have any avios.

What information on the flight quote page are you after? Usually there is an estimated avios and taxes/fees/charges cost shown at the bottom of the flight selection page once you choose flights.

TIGRIS23

Basically I wanted to see how many Avios, total fees and if the awards space is fathom or not, but strangely I don't even see any info on the bottom of the page under the "Journey Summary" section once I selected the Outbound and Inbound flights.

KARFA

Ok. In which case have a look at the sticky on the board about spending avios at they show how much is charged in avios depending on distance bands.

For the JAL direct non-stop NRT-KUL flight that would be about 3350 miles so that would be 60k avios. Total taxes/fees.charges would be about £50 - you can get an idea of what they will be by pricing up the same JAL flight on itamatrix and just looking at the taxes/fees/charges show in the price breakdown. A return in J would be double the avios and about £85.

Note that if you connect via HKG then as redemptions are charged on a per sector basis the amount of avios required will be more. Also this can be more expensive if you mix two oneworld carriers like CX/JL/MH and would be priced as a multi partner reward - again have a look at the sticky thread for some explanation of how that works.

TIGRIS23

Ah, ok! Thanks for the helpful info KARFA!! One last question: Does the BA website search, particularly to fly with JAL, yield fathom availabilities? Thanks again!

KARFA

TIGRIS23

KARFA, thanks again for your quick replies and willingness to help! Much appreciated!

jhneoh

If you can get CX/KA availability between NRT/HND and KUL with a transit in HKG you can reduce the Avios cost to 40,000 (albeit with an extra stop) due to the way distance bands work.