Aug 13, 2014, 4:37 pm
Last edit by: beltway
With US joining OneWorld in early 2014, British Airways' mileage currency (Avios) offer a potentially advantageous option for redeeming for award tickets, especially on shorter flights.
What are the relevant characteristics/rules for redeeming Avios?
What are the mileage bands in the Avios award chart?
The full chart for redemptions until April 28, 2015 can be found here. Starting April 28, 2015, a new chart will apply.
One enterprising blogger has created interactive maps showing potential destinations reachable on US in each of the mileage bands from DCA, PHL, CLT, and PHX.
What's an example of Avios being better than booking an award on US using Dividend Miles?
Credit: Much of this wiki is based on post #1 by SanDiego1K.
What are the relevant characteristics/rules for redeeming Avios?
- Avios is charged per individual flight segment. The cost for a single connecting itinerary AAA-BBB-CCC is the same as the cost of two separate tickets for travel AAA-BBB & BBB-CCC.
- Avios uses a distance-based chart. (See below.)
- First-class travel costs 3x as many Avios as coach. Unfortunately, this generally makes domestic F redemption unattractive with Avios. In general, US front-cabin seats are treated as first-class for purposes of Avios redemption.
- Effective April 28, 2015, first-class awards will cost 4x the coach award price.
- Business class travel costs 2x Avios. Some North American airlines consider the front cabin to be business for Mexico and Central America routes.
- Effective April 28, 2015, business-class awards for segments >2000 miles long will cost 3x the coach award price.
- You can redeem one-way awards with Avios.
- Avios is region-agnostic. (That is, a given distance costs the same regardless of whether it traverses one or more world regions.) Thus, Avios can provide great value when flying to Hawaii for those who fly coach and can do so in one segment.
- There is no ticketing fee for online booking. If you call instead of booking online, there is a $25 ticketing fee. (Some people have success in getting this fee waived when an itinerary cannot be booked online, making a phone call unavoidable.)
- There is no close-in ticketing fee.
- BA charges $55 to cancel or change a ticket. However, if you cancel online, your cost is capped at the amount of taxes/TSA fees paid; for domestic itineraries on US, this will normally be much less than $55. (This workaround does not apply to changing a ticket online, which will incur the full $55 fee.) You must cancel one day in advance to get the Avios redeposited.
- 1-650 mile flight: 4,500 Avios
- 651-1151 mile flight: 7,500 Avios
- 1152-2000 mile flight: 10,000 Avios
- 2001-3000 mile flight: 12,500 Avios
The full chart for redemptions until April 28, 2015 can be found here. Starting April 28, 2015, a new chart will apply.
One enterprising blogger has created interactive maps showing potential destinations reachable on US in each of the mileage bands from DCA, PHL, CLT, and PHX.
Consider the cost to fly from San Diego to Phoenix, a route under 400 miles. US charges 25K miles R/T, plus $38 (includes $25 ticketing fee), plus a $75 close-in fee for any booking within 14 days of departure. BA will charge 9,000 Avios R/T plus the TSA security fee.
If you live in a gateway city and can fly to Hawaii nonstop, investigate whether booking with Avios is more attractive. Example:
PHX-HNL is 2917 miles. A R/T with Avios is 25K miles (12,500 each way). A R/T with US is 40K miles.
What's the process for redeeming Avios?If you live in a gateway city and can fly to Hawaii nonstop, investigate whether booking with Avios is more attractive. Example:
PHX-HNL is 2917 miles. A R/T with Avios is 25K miles (12,500 each way). A R/T with US is 40K miles.
Go to the Avios award search page; log in; and enter your desired itinerary.
Great! That sounds easy! What's the catch?Unfortunately, there are several practical restrictions on redeeming Avios for domestic travel on US, especially when attempting to book online.
OK, I managed to make an award booking despite all these pitfalls. How do I get my US FF# into the reservation in order to enjoy my US elite benefits?- Most importantly, US "low/saver" awards must be available. (You can confirm award availability at the lowest level by searching on the US site directly or by using a third-party service such as Expert Flyer.)
- The BA search tool cannot generate partner itineraries that include more than one connection. (You can still book each segment as an individual ticket, although doing so will create problems if you wish to check luggage all the way through and/or if you miss a connection owing to flight delays.)
- Even where US has low-level award availability, the Avios search tool will often fail to display it. This is especially true on routes with numerous flights in a single day (such as the DCA-LGA, LGA-BOS & DCA-BOS shuttles), but occurs regularly on numerous routes. There is no workaround except calling BA reservations.
- Recommendation: Always search for one-way awards. The BA search tool is known to display no availability in either direction on round-trip searches when awards are in fact available in one direction but not the other.
- The BA search engine will accept metropolitan area pseudo-codes (WAS, LON, PAR, NYC, etc.) as well as individual airport codes. For better results, try both (e.g., DCA, BWI & IAD as well as WAS).
The American Airlines Twitter team (@AmericanAir) can modify a reservation to enter your US or AA FF#.
Several FTers also report success using the Finnair website ("Choose manage booking and put in your BA confirmation code"). However, this method allows the FF# on a given itinerary to be changed only once; it will not allow subsequent changes.
I want to change my seat but the BA site never gave me a US record locator. What's the solution?Several FTers also report success using the Finnair website ("Choose manage booking and put in your BA confirmation code"). However, this method allows the FF# on a given itinerary to be changed only once; it will not allow subsequent changes.
Look up your reservation on the US site using the BA record locator.
How can I accumulate Avios?- Fly British Airways.
- Credit OneWorld flights to British Airways.
- Open a Chase British Airways credit card, ideally with a generous sign up bonus.
- Move Chase Ultimate Reward points (CSP, Ink Plus, Ink Bold) to your BA account.
- Move AMEX Membership Rewards points to your BA account, preferably during the 2-3 times a year when a bonus is offered.
- Move SPG points to your BA account. 20K SPG points yields 25K BA Avios, and bonuses have been offered once a year.
- Form a household account (see BA forum for discussion) so that miles can be pooled.
US Airways Award Bookings Using BA Avios, as low as 4,500 Avios one way
Oct 4, 2014, 7:43 pm
#226
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: NJ
Programs: World of Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Premier Platinum
Posts: 462
US ticket booked using BA points, checked baggage costs?
I am going to book a domestic US flight using BA points. If I pay the tax and fees with US airways credit card or AA Executive Citi card, will I get a free checked baggage?
Oct 4, 2014, 8:54 pm
#227
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: NYC
Programs: AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTT, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 14,635
US ticket booked using BA points, checked baggage costs?
Free baggage benefit from credit card should be linked to your frequent flyer account. How you pay for the ticket should have no bearing.
Oct 5, 2014, 2:59 am
#228
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: YQM
Posts: 341
Simply change the FF # on your reservation to US or AA, and you'll get your usual benefits. You can do that by pulling your reservation on Finnair or Qatar Airways website, using the BA PNR.
Oct 5, 2014, 9:47 pm
#229
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 17,404
So for the first time ever (and I've booked a couple dozen US seats on Avios), I found US award inventory on aa.com, but BA.com doesn't show the seats. I guess I'll call BA tomorrow and see if they can book it. Has anyone else ever encountered this?
Oct 5, 2014, 11:53 pm
#230
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: DFW
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Posts: 31,474
Yes on AA and AB, try to get the phone fee waived.
Oct 6, 2014, 7:30 am
#232
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 17,404
Sure enough, it's just a BA website glitch. I was booking award travel to Montreal, and the system shows absolutely no inventory to "YUL." At first, the agent also thought there were no seats, but then he searched "by city" and found it.
No problem getting the telephone fee waived.
I guess this confirms my belief it's better to search AA.com for AA and US seats than search BA.com.
No problem getting the telephone fee waived.
I guess this confirms my belief it's better to search AA.com for AA and US seats than search BA.com.
Oct 6, 2014, 9:57 pm
#233
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 411
Delete
Last edited by mrahul; Oct 6, 2014 at 10:08 pm
Oct 7, 2014, 11:16 am
#234
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http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ch-ba-com.html
Oct 9, 2014, 7:21 am
#235
Join Date: Dec 2004
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I am experiencing the same today, flight is available in T class on AA.com but not available on BA.com.
Oct 9, 2014, 2:03 pm
#237
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: UK
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Slightly off topic but if I wanted to use Avios on US airways flights how, when looking on the U.S. airways reward availability, can I ensure that there is Avios availability for a particular route ? Is there an amount of miles that US airways rewards flight shows that means there is Avios availability because there appear to be varying numbers of miles required for the same class of cabin
Oct 9, 2014, 2:09 pm
#238
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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
The easiest way to determine this is to search for US award flights at aa.com; any US flights that show up on an aa.com award search should be bookable with Avios. 
Originally Posted by charlieduke
Slightly off topic but if I wanted to use Avios on US airways flights how, when looking on the U.S. airways reward availability, can I ensure that there is Avios availability for a particular route ? Is there an amount of miles that US airways rewards flight shows that means there is Avios availability because there appear to be varying numbers of miles required for the same class of cabin
Oct 9, 2014, 3:55 pm
#239
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: San Diego, Ca
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Slightly off topic but if I wanted to use Avios on US airways flights how, when looking on the U.S. airways reward availability, can I ensure that there is Avios availability for a particular route ? Is there an amount of miles that US airways rewards flight shows that means there is Avios availability because there appear to be varying numbers of miles required for the same class of cabin
Oct 9, 2014, 3:58 pm
#240
Join Date: Aug 2013
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Because it doesn't show