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The British Airways Avios program is a bit of a conundrum. The best values occur when not redeeming for BA flights:
-You can fly on American within the western hemisphere without fuel surcharges.
-You can fly on Alaska without fuel surcharges, though you have to call to book.
-You can fly on Aer Lingus without fuel surcharges, though you have to call to book.
-You can fly on LAN without fuel surcharges, though you often have to call to book.
-You can fly on Air Berlin without fuel surcharges.
-You can fly on Qantas within Australia without fuel surcharges.
Fuel surcharges on Asian partners like Cathay Pacific are fairly reasonable as well, especially for their awesome JFK-Vancouver flight.
There are incredible values to be had, 4,500 Avios from Miami to the Caribbean or from NYC to dozens of short-haul locations, 12,500 Avios from Boston to Dublin on Aer Lingus or from the west coast to Hawaii on Alaska or American. Etc.
But if you fly on BA the fuel surcharges are pretty outrageous. Compounding the issue is the UK APD tax that is applied for flights departing from London if you are originating there or stopped over there for at least 24 hours.
Generally speaking when flying overseas you are far better off using miles from a US based program where you generally don’t pay fuel surcharges for any flights . A notable exception is using American miles to fly on BA when fuel surcharges are collected. Another example of an exception would be using ANA miles to fly on United or USAirways at very low mileage rates without paying fuel surcharges.
At any rate BA is offering 50% off the Avios required for coach flights to or from London and Boston, Denver, Shanghai, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Dubai or Washington. It’s only valid if you fly on British Airways.
It’s not a great deal due to the fuel surcharges, but it’s not as terrible as normal.
-Book by 01/08 at 7am EST.
-Travel by 05/31.
-From JFK to London one-way on 02/04 it’s 10,000 Avios+$253.50 instead of 20,000 Avios.
-Discounts also would apply on a route that includes one of the flights above so JFK-Tel Aviv via London would be 22,500 Avios+$331.70 instead of 32,500 Avios.
For the return a flight from Tel Aviv to JFK on 02/11 would 22,500 Avios+$304.26.
A flight from London to JFK on 02/11 would be 10,000 Avios+$386.83.
Of course you can always fly Air Berlin without this “promotion” and save the fuel surcharges. For example a flight on 01/12 from JFK-Tel Aviv via Dusseldorf on Air Berlin is 30,000 Avios plus just $23.12. On 01/13 Air Berlin has a flight via Berlin for the same rate as well.
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37 Comments On "50% Off Select British Airways Coach Award Flights"
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So how do you book a ticket to toronto then? Or is it not available?
do you have to pay for the +253.90 with BA card? or can you use one of the cash back cards where they cover any travel related expense — like crap one .. ashamed to say but i have some of those points to burn 🙁
@daniel:
Huh?
@junior:
You can use any card.
Avios points are great for lots of flights without fuel surcharges. They’re just not great for surcharged flights though this promo makes it a bit less painful.
@junior: I believe you can use the Cap1 / Barclays cards which is a good idea if you have those “points” to use up.
NO BIG DEAL
Is it ever possible to fly TLV-NYC via Germany on Air Berlin without an overnight stopover in Germany?
“For example a flight on 01/12 from JFK-Tel Aviv via Dusseldorf on Air Berlin is 30,000 Avios plus just $23.12. On 01/13 Air Berlin has a flight via Berlin for the same rate as well. ”
Dan on the 12th there isnt any direct flight from TLV-DUS- on BA website.. and when you check AA they say its not avail. Will calling into BA change that? Am i looking at something wrong? Cant seem to get it to that price from any day this week till next week later on in the week..
Avios is the most complicated rewards system.
Might be worth it but you need so much time to book and fuel surcharge is so horrendous, not sure why people use it. I have some legacy 150k points and have been unable to use them in 2 years!
So is a flight from NY to Miami also 50% less points? Or does both the departure and arrival have to be from / to a city on the list?
So round trip New York to Israel would be 45000 avios + 635 dollars ? Isn’t it cheaper to pay 700-800 dollars with turkish airlines ?
How much from israel to china? Pesach time(beginning of april
Ok, I get it now… Must fly through London. SO my Miami trip aint happening
@James: Dan clearly wrote it’s only on BA flights (via london) so no domestic US flights!
Any flights to miami or ft Lauderdale from JFK for any weekend now through april?
do i have to call to redeem abios on AA?
Thanks for this Dan. I’m looking to go to London in the next month so appreciate you reporting on this option.
People might also want to consider flying to Dublin via Aer Lingus with Avios and catch a connecting flight to London (at your own additional expense but I’ve found some from $77). Another option is flying to Madrid via the Iberia 50% off promo (you need to transfer your Avios to their program) which is 10,000 miles one way and much lower taxes and fee. Then continue on to London via a connecting flight at your own additional expense. Your own additional expense for additional flights might be less than the BA fees.
how do i book?
how would I be able to see how many points would be needed to fly not using AA or BA specifically. Do I go to air berlin’s website?
Thanks
does this apply to short haul and domestic flights? 50% off 4,500 avios etc?
Dan in the post it says it must be a British flight. So I think Daniel was asking how can Toronto be included if they fly American eagle
how much would be a round trip jfk-london 2x 10k + $253? or less?
@Chris: If I want to end up in Dub, it sounds like Aer Lingus option on BA is very solid. Does that apply from NYC area too, or just from BOS?
@josh:
Aer Lingus flies from NYC as well (JFK). However it’s just over the 3000 miles, so BOS -> DUB is 12,500 Avios, while JFK -> DUB is 20000 Avios.
@Josh Boston to London is a touch under 3,000 miles in the air making it only 25,000 Avios coach/50,000 Avios business roundtrip with only approximately $105 in taxes. One of the best Avios redemptions in my opinion. NYC unfortunately is over 3,000 miles in the air thus bumping it to the next redemption tier and costing 40,000 Avios coach roundtrip. Aer Lingus awards must be booked over the phone. They have waived the phone booking fee for me if you explain this cant be booked via the website.
Is it possible combine this deal with the Chase companion voucher?
Hi,
I’ve been trying to redeem some Avios to go to Miami but haven’t found availability to fit the schedule. I found that LAN flies between JFK-MIA. But the BA representative doesn’t know how to book it. is there a certain way of doing this? TIA!
i just got bitten really hard, by not reading dans BA knowledge-base , i booked a round trip lga to mia, i wanted to change it, i remembered that can cancel any time and just loose the 2.50 per way, so first i went ahead and booked the new itinerary which is actually for tomorrow morning and now is less then 24 hours, then i wanted to cancel the old itinerary, i tried online they say i should call in, so i did, now they say i cant cancel less then 24 hours, so i am out 30k avios , the only option they gave me is to change it to a later date for a $65 fee per person, my question is, if i take that option, once its re-booked can i go ahead and cancel it since its more then 24 hours before the flight???
@yanky You should be able to cancel an award ticket with a 24 hour grace period. That is you can cancel your new booking you just made and stick to your original itinerary if that still works with your schedule. That way you don’t loose 30K.
@Chris: it could work, but the only change i wanted is the next flight the same day, meaning tomorrow, and a supervisor said that a policy is a policy , and i cant cancel a booking less then 24 hours of departure time regardless when i booked it
If I use Avios to book a domestic award flight on American, will American charge me a baggage fee?
Hi, I’m having trouble connecting to “spend avios” link. It keeps on giving me a “connection was reset” message. So i called in to make flights and they told me It would be difficult to use BA miles to fly in US (bet NYC and LAX) because AA limits miles from BA. Does that make sense? I’ve never had a problem before…. and on AA there seems to be plenty of availability
@Steve: I assume you can use a companion voucher with this deal. But remember you have to pay the fuel surcharges for the companion ticket.
Would like to book TLV w stop in NYC and then to Howaii or Grand canyon area, one way. looks all US segment are not available on saver. (June date). will it open? dont want to miss TLV-NYC segment, and change fees later would be 75 per ticket, not so great anymore.
UA, AA, BA
suggestions?
how do i book a flight from nyc to cle using avios for half off
5 tickets for 60k Avios! Thanks Dan! (had two vouchers for companion rewards tickets and booked 3 IAD to LHR for 20k each)
@Shiggy. The half-off is only good for BA Metal.
Really confused – just called Avios in the UK to book ticket JFK-MAN and yes the amount of avios is halved, 20,000 but fuel costs etc are £444 – almost as much as full price ticket. I asked for Aer Lingus option but was told that half price deal only on BA flights….. Any idea how to book the aer lingus one via avios?
Thanks