Ask Alisha: British Airways Reward Flight Basics

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Last Updated: 20 Feb 2024

Points Pointers

Searching for a British Airways reward flight deal can seem daunting, which is why we created Reward Flight Finder, to make the whole process simpler.

There are plenty of websites that cater for very frequent travellers, who revel in knowing all the ins and outs of loyalty point programmes. 

But it’s easy to forget that many people, perhaps without the time to read all the travel blogs, have some airline points but don’t really know what to do with them. 

So we asked our “Points Professor”, Alisha Collins, to answer questions from some UK based Reward Flight Finder members who are new to booking BA flights with loyalty points.

 

What is a BA Reward Flight?

Reward flights are airline tickets that are bought using airline points or miles instead of cash. You will still have to pay money for any taxes and fees that apply to your booking, but there are opportunities to save a great deal of money on air travel.

“BA” is the commonly used abbreviation for British Airways, one of the largest airlines flying from the UK. Tickets booked using their loyalty point currency, “Avios”, on a flight that has a number starting with the letters “BA” are called BA reward flights. 

 

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Reward flights booked with Avios, at BA.com, can be taken with British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, American Airlines and other members of a group of international airlines that have partnered with each other within the Oneworld alliance.

 

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What Are Avios?

Avios is the brand name for the loyalty point currency of the British Airways Executive Club.  Whilst the word “executive” sounds fancy, this is just the name for BA’s loyalty programme, anyone can join for free, you don’t have to be a high flying business person.

When you join the Executive Club, you’ll collect reward points with BA and its partners. BA calls these points Avios.

You collect Avios when you fly, take a holiday, stay in a hotel, rent a car, or shop with BA plus its wide range of partners.

When you’ve collected enough, you can book flights with Avios or use them for upgrades, hotel stays, car hire and more.

Technically speaking, Avios aren’t exclusive to BA. British Airways is owned by a company called International Airlines Group (IAG), which also owns the Avios scheme, along with some other airlines including Iberia and Aer Lingus. Other IAG owned airlines also use Avios as their loyalty currency. However, if you are based in the UK, you’ll probably collect and spend these points through BA.

 

Are Avios The Same As Air Miles?

Airlines, like supermarkets, run loyalty or reward schemes. They work by awarding their customers points for when they spend money on their services. Traditionally airlines awarded points for every mile flown with them, which is why quite a few airlines call their loyalty currency “miles”. (For some reason kilometres never caught on as a distance used for frequent flyer clubs.)

Today, points can also be earned, with most airline membership clubs, by spending on things like hotels, car hire or even supermarket shopping, if the company you buy from is a partner of the airline. Once you have earned enough points, they can then be redeemed for rewards, through the airline.

 

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Avios is the reward currency of the British Airways’ loyalty scheme and members can use Avios points for flights, discounts on travel services and a range of gifts. 

In the UK there used to be a very popular loyalty reward programme called Air Miles, that was bought by British Airways. This closed in 2011 and ultimately Avios replaced the British version of the Air Miles scheme. So, Avios is not the same as the old Air Miles reward programme, though the phrase “Air Miles” is often used by Brits, as a generic term for airline loyalty points, to this day.

A programme called Air Miles does still operate in Canada, The Netherlands and the Middle East, but it isn’t owned by British Airways or connected to Avios.

 

Where Can I Earn Avios?

There are lots of ways to earn Avios. Below are a few examples.

 

Flights 

You can earn Avios with British Airways, and its oneworld® alliance partners. These include Aer Lingus, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LATAM, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas and others. Almost all flights are eligible. The only flights you do not earn Avios on are reward flights and industry discounted fares.

 

Hotels

You can also earn Avios with BA’s hotel reservation partners. These include Accor, Airbnb, Best Western, Booking.com, Hotels.com, Hyatt Hotels, Intercontinental Hotels and Marriott hotels. 

 

Car Hire

Car hire with Avis or Budget also earns you Avios, as does renting a car through the Zipcar car club. BA sometimes works with other local car hire companies too, so check the website in the country you are making your booking from.

 

Banking and Credit Cards

One of the easiest ways to earn Avios, without much effort, is to use a British Airways American Express credit card* to pay for everything. You collect at least 1 Avios for each £1 spent on the free card; 1.5 Avios per £1 spent on the paid-for card. There are generous sign-up bonuses and the number of Avios you can earn each month is uncapped. If you spend over a certain amount on these cards you could earn a voucher that allows you to buy two tickets on BA for the Avios normally required for one. 

Opening a Barclays Premier account can also earn you points every month when you sign up for Barclays Avios Rewards*. If you have some money to invest, Nutmeg* is an Avios partner and both American Express Membership Rewards* and Capital On-Tap* offer ways to earn Avios too.

*We can’t recommend or advise on financial products and you should do your own research and get advice from regulated sources before making any decisions.

 

Shopping

British Airways has an online shopping portal with more than 1200 popular brands, including  Apple, John Lewis, Selfridges and Marks and Spencer. You can collect 1- 40 Avios per £1 spent which, together with using a payment card that awards Avios too, can really rack up your points. BA also operates the High Life Shop and Hackett, Bicester Village and Heathrow Rewards are all Avios partners. 

 

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You can also convert Nectar into Avios and vice versa. Nectar is one of the most popular shopping reward programmes in the UK. You can collect Nectar points from Sainsbury’s, Argos, eBay and Esso and many other retailers. The easiest way to manage your two accounts is to download the Nectar app on your phone. You can then connect your Nectar and BA Executive Club accounts. You’ll collect 250 Avios for every 400 Nectar points converted.

BP fuel stations and convenience stores operate a loyalty scheme called BPme Rewards. This also lets you convert the points you have earned into Avios.

 

Can You Still Exchange Tesco Clubcard Vouchers For Avios?

Regrettably not. The last date for conversion was January 18, 2021. However, Tesco now has a partnership with Virgin Atlantic, which is well worth looking at if you are a Clubcard member.

 

What is an Avios Point Worth?

This is a tricky question because the value of an Avios is dependent on how each person plans to use them and what they are worth to each individual. 

If you are redeeming them for flights, it depends on which cabin class is being booked, the destination chosen, whether a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher is being used, and what the alternative would be if Avios flights were not available. Some people just see Avios as a way of reducing the cash they have to pay for flights they were going to book anyway, others seek to get the highest possible cash equivalent value per point. The value of an Avios is therefore very personal and variable. 

However, they do have a minimum value, which can be worked out from looking at the redemptions you can make other than flights, such as car hire, subscribing to the Economist and online shopping. This implies a value of between 0.5 and 1.5p. 

Another way to consider a base value is to look at the option to “Part Pay with Avios” when you buy flights on the BA website. Sometimes BA refers to these offers as “points plus cash” bookings. It varies, by route and cabin class, but in general, you will receive the cash equivalent of between 0.55p and 1.0p when using Avios to part-pay for flights. 

 

Note that Flights bought this way aren’t reward flights, because the flight ticket component, before taxes and fees, is paid for with a mixture of cash and points. With reward flights, the ticket price is paid entirely with points.

 

Just to show how personal the value of Avios can be, here are a couple of detailed examples. 

 

Example 1

David and Yuki redeem a 2-4-1 companion voucher in Business Class

Every year David and Yuki go to Japan to see Yuki’s parents. They always fly Business Class paying around £7000. This time they decide to use Avios points for flights, using their companion voucher. Off-peak, it costs them 150,000 Avios and £1160 in taxes and fees, a massive cash saving of £5840, giving a very real value per Avios of about 3.9p. 

Had they always flown standard economy off-peak, costing about £1700, they would have saved £540. Using 150,000 Avios to save £540 seems like a smaller saving. But if they had never flown Business Class, and would never have paid for Business Class, then the real value is that this allows them to fly Business Class for less cash than they would normally pay.  

 

The example above demonstrates why the BA companion voucher is regarded as one of the best airline loyalty benefits out there.

 

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Example 2

Sandra redeems her Avios to go to New York in Economy Class 

Sandra wants to use her Avios points for flights. A return flight from London to New York in November would require a total of 26,000 Avios points and £290 in taxes. The same flight can be booked for £445 for cash. Sandra doesn’t really care that much about the value of her Avios so to her this is a valuable cash saving of £155. She decides to go ahead, even though each Avios point would therefore be worth a pretty low 0.6p per point. 

For what it is worth, I use a value of 1p per Avios when assessing whether a deal is good or not. 

The partnership between British Airways and Nectar, launched in early 2021, lets you exchange 250 Avios points for 400 Nectar points. Those Nectar points are normally worth £2 when you spend them on shopping.

So, unless there is a promotion running that changes the sums, your Avios are worth 0.8p each when used to shop at Sainsbury's, Argos or with other Nectar partners.  So as a simple rule, if spending my Avios on travel will give me a cash equivalent value that’s less than 0.8p, I use my points to save on my groceries instead of my flights!

 

How Many Avios Do I Need For A Reward Flight?

It’s not as straightforward as it should be to find out how many Avios are required for a particular route, using the BA website. BA no longer provides a simple list there. 

British Airways uses a distance-based zone system, to decide how many Avios you need to redeem for a ticket to a specific place. The price in points will also depend on two other factors: The cabin class and the date. The posher the seat, the more Avios you’ll need to spend. With regards to dates, BA charges less Avios for off-peak flights than for departures during its peak seasons- which, unsurprisingly, align with school holidays in the UK.

Avios redemptions for 2022 start at just 1,000 Avios for a points plus cash flight from London to a nearby European city. A one-way reward flight from London to Amsterdam, or any other nearby European city, flying in Economy Class, off-peak, will set you back 4750 Avios. A short-haul economy class redemption is an easily attainable target, but as I mentioned above, you might get more pounds for your points by using them to shop at Sainsbury's!

You could use this page on BA’s website , where you will need to log in and fill out the details of the flights you are thinking of taking. But it’s far easier to go to www.rewardflightfinder.com, do a search and see the Avios required, in each cabin class, for the available reward flight seats, on the routes you might want to fly, on every day over the next 12 months.

 

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Can I Buy Tickets On Any BA Flight With Points?

British Airways lets you part-pay with Avios on most flights it sells. However, it only releases a limited number of seats per flight that can be booked as reward flights. 

So, you can book a BA reward flight to any destination that British Airways and its partners fly to, but only if there is reward flight seat availability.  

Since 28 July 2021, British Airways has guaranteed that four Business Class, two Premium Economy and eight Economy seats will be released for Avios booking as soon as the flight appears in the booking system. Note that Premium Economy is only available on long haul flights. There is no guarantee for seats in First. 

More seats that can be booked as reward flights, including seats in First, will likely be released over the following 355 days, depending on demand. Reward Flight Finder lets you set up alerts so you can be among the first to know when there is new reward seat availability.

 

When Does BA Release Reward Flight Seats?

The British Airways booking system releases reward flights 355 days in advance of the departure date. So, if you want to fly on 20th June 2022, you can book the outbound from 30th June 2021. This is when the flights first go on sale, so the timeline applies to both cash and Avios tickets.

These seats should appear online when searching ‘book with Avios’ on BA.com 355 days in advance. But on very popular routes like London Heathrow (LHR) to Sydney (SYD), in Business Class, or on popular dates, you may have a better chance calling the British Airways Executive Club call centre just before midnight, 355 days out, and is all set to make your booking as soon as the clock strikes midnight (that’s midnight GMT) so the reservation agent can reserve your seats for you.

The hope is the agent will be faster than anyone trying to complete the transaction online. Unfortunately, the U.K. call centre shuts at 8pm, so you’ll need to call an overseas Executive Club line. The most popular option is to contact the U.S. call centre on +1 800 325 4504.

More tickets, including seats in First, will likely be released over the following 355 days depending on demand. So a simpler way of finding availability is to sign-up on Reward Flight Finder and get alerted when new seats are released.

 

When Does British Airways Release More Reward Flights?

Airlines hate empty seats on aircraft. So BA normally releases more reward seats whenever its algorithms indicate that a flight might not sell out. This can happen at any point before departure. Reward flight Finder customers can set alerts so they get notified whenever this happens on their chosen routes.

Flight demand depends on the dates (whether peak or off-peak); the destination (some cities are always very popular), the number of flights per week to the destination; the cabin class desired, and the pricing structure. 

So, if you’re looking to book Business Class reward flight seats, on direct flights from London, to Sydney, Cape Town, Mauritius, The Maldives or Barbados during the school holidays, you should probably try to reserve them as soon as flights are released as less reward flight seats are likely to be released to these destinations.

But if you’re flying off-peak to a destination like New York where BA has several flights per day, you should be able to book flights with Avios even if you don’t book 355 days ahead. More reward seats are likely to be released for that route. 

 

 

How Do I Find The Best Avios Flights?

“Best” is a very subjective word that will mean different things to different people. Do you want to discover the furthest flight for the least Avios? Is “best” for you the route that requires you to pay the least cash? 

For me, the best Avios reward redemption is the one that takes you to where you really want to go. Reward flights from London to Moscow offer a very attractive “points : distance” ratio but, if you don’t really want to fly to Russia, you’ll be wasting your Avios.

So I will take this question to mean “What is the best value I can get for my Avios points? 

I generally value an Avios point at around 0.8p per point, since this is the value I can get when I exchange Avios for Nectar to save on my shopping. So, when redeeming for flights, I look to get at least 1.0p per point in value. 

After doing detailed calculations on various routes, the results show that, in general, you get a lower cash equivalent value when you redeem your Avios for long-haul economy reward flights from the UK. This is because the taxes required are high, sometimes almost the same as for the lowest priced cash ticket. 

For the same reason, don’t use your Avios for ‘part pay with Avios’, if you are looking for the best value per point. Points plus cash purchases on BA generally give less than 1p per point of value, especially at higher point redemption levels. In my opinion, using points this way is almost always a poor deal. The only exception to this is when you need to fly somewhere at very short notice, perhaps for work and family reasons and the cash price is so high that you need to use some Avios to make it affordable. But outside distressed purchases, I personally avoid using my BA points this way.

The best value use of Avios in my book is using a BA 2-4-1 Companion voucher for long-haul Business tickets. The next best value use is for Reward Flight Saver tickets. 

 

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Example - Using a 2-4-1 Companion Voucher

A BA companion voucher allows you to book flights with Avios so that you get two Avios reward seats using the number of Avios you would normally have to redeem for one person’s ticket. 

Most years, I fly to Japan. In May 2021, I used my companion voucher to book 2 Club World (Business Class) seats for April 2022 . The cash price for 2 refundable tickets was £6950. Instead, it cost me 150,000 Avios (the normal tariff for one person) and £1160 in taxes and charges, a cash saving of £5790, giving a very real value per Avios of about 3.9p. 

Click on this link for Reward Flight Finder’s simple guide to earning and redeeming BA Companion vouchers

 

Example - Booking a Reward Flight Saver

A Reward Flight Saver (RFS) ticket caps the amount of taxes, fees and other charges you have to pay. Until recently this was a cap of £35 return for Euro Traveller economy flights and £50 return for Club Europe flights. They were only available for flights of fewer than 2,000 miles, mainly to European destinations.

Recently, as BA tries to recover demand after the pandemic, they have been increasing the number of locations to which they apply Reward Flight Saver deals to, so it is worth doing a bit of research, at the time you read this answer, to see where RFS deals are being offered to.

They represent one of the most valuable Avios redemptions you can get, frequently delivering more than 1p per Avios. 

You can make some good savings with RFS. Let’s take an actual example. London to Frankfurt return in June 2021. Cash price £189.73. Avios price 9500 + £35. Cash saving is £154.73, giving a reasonable value of 1.6p per Avios point. 

In another recent change, BA has introduced even lower taxes and fees, below the previous £35 and £50 caps on short-haul flights, in exchange for customers redeeming more Avios. Here is what shows on a London to Frankfurt economy search on BA’s website:

 

How many Avios do you want to use for your flight?

18500 Avios + £ 1.00

17000 Avios + £ 9.00

14500 Avios + £ 18.00

9500 Avios + £ 35.00

7400 Avios + £ 65.00

5900 Avios + £ 85.00

 

The original £35 fixed offer remains, but you are given the choice of paying more or less depending on the Avios you are prepared to use. If we assume that a minimum target value for each Avios is 1p, we can do some calculations, comparing to the original deal, to see which of these offers is best. 

Looking at the £1 offer, 9000 extra Avios are required in order to save £34. This gives a terrible 0.38p per point value. The other offers which reduce the cash element similarly give less than 0.5p per Avios.

17000 Avios + £9 gives a value of 0.35p per Avios. 

14500 Avios + £18 gives a value of 0.34p per Avios

There is no point in paying more than £35 in cash, so, in general, it is always best to select the number of Avios which allows you to pay as close to £35 in extra charges. 

 

Another trick, to reduce your overall outlay, is to book a reward flight that starts at an airport with lower taxes. For example Jersey or Inverness (the highland airport is exempt from UK Air Passenger Duty). A more practical option could be to book a cash flight for the short hop to Amsterdam, then book a reward flight on one of BA’s partners to your final destination.

The tickets will need to be separate itineraries, The Netherlands has far lower air passenger taxes than the UK and Amsterdam Schiphol is a very pleasant airport with flights to a huge range of international destinations.

 

How do I Use American Express Points To Fly BA?

American Express (Amex) has a variety of credit and charge cards on offer, some of which offer cashback, points or rewards. We have already explained how the BA branded Amex card rewards you with Avios on your spend. 

Amex also offers a card in the UK which awards Nectar points on spend.

If you link your Nectar and BA Executive Club accounts you can convert Nectar points into Avios which can then be redeemed for flights.

But I believe you are asking about the most common reward programme that Amex applies on its cards: American Express Membership Rewards.

American Express uses Membership Rewards points (MRP) as a global reward currency that can be collected by users of its own-brand charge cards and selected credit cards. In the UK, MRP are awarded on spending at the rate of 1 point per £1 spent. 

Membership Rewards Points are very flexible because you can transfer them into many travel, hotel and retail loyalty programmes. To fly BA, you would need to transfer your MRP into Avios, BA’s loyalty currency.

The exchange ratio is one for one. If you aren’t already a member, you will need to join the British Airways Executive Club before the transfer. A minimum of 1,000 MRP and a maximum of 9,999,500 apply to each transfer (in increments of 500) and the process will take up to 3 working days. You can then use your Avios points for flights on BA. 

 

What Is A BA Companion Voucher?

A BA companion voucher allows you to book flights with Avios so that you get two Avios reward seats for the number of Avios that are usually required for one person. 

The only way to earn a BA companion voucher is with a British Airways American Express credit card linked to an Executive Club account.

American Express refers to its cardholders as members. Your membership year will start on the date your card application is approved. To qualify for a companion voucher, you will need to spend a minimum amount, on your British Airways credit card, within your membership year.

 

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Is the BA Companion Voucher Worth It?

If you are in a position where your normal spending would meet the thresholds to receive a voucher and you can pay your balance of each month, then yes. If not, then my advice would be not to chase one and find ways to earn Avios within your normal spending patterns.

However, for those who qualify the BA companion voucher is one of the most valuable credit card perks on the market.

If the voucher is used to buy a premium ticket, the potential cash savings are huge depending on the cabin class, route and the usual cash price for a refundable ticket. Plus you are only using half the Avios you would normally have to redeem. Flight bookings with the 2-4-1 voucher are flexible too. You can cancel and get the voucher returned (with the original expiry date) and all your Avios and taxes will be refunded (a small change or cancellation fee per person may apply, check the BA website at the time you cancel). 

In May 2021, I used my companion voucher to book 2 Business Class seats for April 2022. The cash price for 2 refundable tickets was £6950. It cost me 150,000 Avios and £1160 in charges, when I used my voucher, a cash saving of £5790, delivering a pence per Avios value of 3.9p. 

The best value is to be had for long-haul redemptions, but even with economy reward flights you can make good savings and use fewer Avios in the process.

 

How Do I Book Flights Using Nectar points?

You can’t book flights directly using Nectar points. You need to convert Nectar into Avios, and then the Avios points can be used to book flights with British Airways, American Airlines, Iberia, Japan Airlines, and other airlines in the Oneworld alliance.  For 400 Nectar points you will normally receive 250 Avios in exchange. The details on how to do this can be found on the Nectar website.

 

Can I Book A Reward Flight In First Class?

Yes, you can, but I personally would not advise it on British Airways. It’s very nice sitting in First but I don't personally think the difference in service between the airline’s First and Club World products justify the extra Avios you will need. 

For example, from London (LHR) to New York, it costs 80000 Avios one way in peak time, 68000 Avios one way off-peak. 

The cheapest pricing for First Class is for flights of fewer than 650 miles where 15500 Avios are needed for a one-way, off-peak flight. BA only offers seats in First on selected long-haul routes. But a quick check shows that for those Avios you might be able to fly First Class on some of BA’s partners. So, for example, you might be able to fly First Class within Japan on Japan Airlines. But I’d question whether it is worth doing so on such a short flight.

Much better value is found by using your Avios for Business Class flights. For example, a one-way reward flight between London (LHR) and New York will require 50,000 Avios in Business Class (Club World) on off-peak dates and 60,000 at peak times. That’s 18,000-20,000 less than the points required for First, each way. That said if you have plenty of Avios, who am I to say you shouldn’t treat yourself once in a while!

BA doesn’t guarantee that it will release reward flight seats in First, which is a smaller but very profitable cabin for the airline. However, it frequently does release First Class reward seats which, if you are travelling for a special occasion, or want to spoil yourself, you might want to keep an eye out for.

 

Reward Flight Finder lets you search for First Class reward seats and set alerts in case new seats, that can be booked on points, are released before your planned departure date. Join for free today

 

Is A BA Reward Flight Cheaper Than Ryanair?

This is an interesting question but a difficult comparison as there are so many variables and subjective opinions to consider. That said, many people who redeem Avios for short-haul flights say that it allows them to fly on BA, to and from their preferred airport, for a price that’s competitive with low-cost carriers.

Ryanair often uses secondary airports and doesn’t fly from Heathrow, which is the best-connected UK airport. However, BA has cut back on its in-flight service, on short-haul routes, so the difference in service levels isn’t as big as it once was. Ryanair also has a strong track record for safety and punctuality, despite the preconceptions many people have.

Personally, I prefer BA to Ryanair, and most other low-cost carriers, because their constant addition of fees and bait and switch pricing annoys me. That said, on short flights I personally think easyJet offers a very competitive alternative.

The great thing about flying BA using reward flights is that you can still get a hold baggage allowance, enjoy frequent flyer benefits, travel to and from mainstream airports and have the flexibility to make changes without punitive fees. BA also serves long-haul destinations from the UK, which Ryanair doesn’t currently.

Direct cash comparisons, allowing for differences in fee structures and ignoring other qualitative factors have shown that BA is more price-competitive on many routes, versus low-cost airlines than you might think. Whether you like the cuts BA has made to its service to achieve those prices is another matter entirely!

But, here we are talking about using Avios points for flights. I did a quick comparison today for return flights to The Netherlands on the weekend.  I found an excellent price of £34 on Ryanair, for a Plus ticket (inc 1 check-in bag, 1 small bag & reserved seat) to fly one way to Eindhoven (they don’t fly to Amsterdam). Sounds like a bargain.

However, on BA, flying to Amsterdam in Business Class, depending on how many Avios you wanted to use, you could pay as little in cash as £0.50 + 15000 Avios (not recommended as the Avios value is around £150), or £25 + 8500 Avios (value £110 - recommended).  

Whilst I wouldn’t normally use Avios on a short-haul flight personally, in this instance I would choose BA. 8,500 Avios are fairly easy to earn. I could fly Business Class and get priority boarding; seating in the first 3 rows; use of priority check-in desks (no queueing); use of Fast Track security; a bigger luggage allowance (32 kg); and entry to BA’s lounges to eat as much free food and drink as I could handle!  Schiphol also has a direct rail connection with central Amsterdam and many other Dutch cities too. 

Many people like Ryanair, it has certainly made flying cheaper and opened up a raft of new cities to try- but I like my comforts!

 

Do I Have to Pay the Tax On A Reward Flight?

Strictly speaking, yes. Your reward flight costs you a number of Avios plus taxes and surcharges. The surcharges comprise Air Passenger Duty and fuel duties along with any carrier charges which might apply. Typically, for long-haul flights, these extra charges are about £550-600 per person in Business and about £280 in Economy, for a return ticket departing from the UK. For Business Class, reward tickets still make sense as the cash ticket costs a lot more than this. But, for Economy tickets, the cash ticket can sometimes cost just a bit more than the taxes!

There are ways to reduce the taxes though.

A Reward Flight Saver (RFS) deal limits the number of taxes and fees you will have to pay. BA used to limit these deals to short-haul routes and the cap was £35 for Economy Class and £50 in Business Class. They then allowed you to reduce this further by spending more Avios. This is handy if you want to save money, but is poor value in terms of the value you’ll get per Avios. BA also recently extended the number of places RFS deals are offered to. Seek them out, they are one of the most valuable Avios redemptions you can get, frequently delivering more than 1p per Avios. 

You can make some good savings with RFS. Let’s take an actual example. London to Frankfurt return in June 2021. Cash price £189.73. Avios price 9500 + £35. Cash saving is £154.73, giving a reasonable value of 1.6p per Avios point. 

There is no point in paying more than £35 in cash, so, in general, it is always best to select the number of Avios which allows you to pay as close to £35 in extra charges.

There are some other ways to reduce the amount of taxes you have to pay too. You can book a reward flight which starts at an airport with lower taxes. For example, Jersey, which counts as part of the UK within BA’s rules, but which sets a lower air passenger duty. You could also start your journey in Inverness, though whilst this Scottish highland airport is exempt from UK Air Passenger Duty, Inverness has yo-yoed in and out of British Airways timetables since the pandemic.

A more practical option could be to book a cash flight for the short hop to Amsterdam, then use Avios to book a reward flight with one of BA’s partners to your final destination. The tickets will need to be separate itineraries, The Netherlands and Spain both have lower air passenger taxes than the UK. Plenty of Oneworld airlines fly from Schiphol and BA’s sister airline Iberia serves the world from Madrid and Barcelona airports.

 

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What Is the Difference Between a BA Reward Flight and a British Airways Award Flight?

The words “reward” and “award”. in the context of the travel loyalty industry, are used interchangeably. “Award” is used more commonly in North America and “reward” is the term most frequently used by European operators.

So a reward flight is the same thing as an award flight, it’s still a great value option whichever name you use!

For the latest reward flight news and availability, join rewardflightfinder.com for free today!

Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. You should seek separate specialist advice if unsure. Opinions are based primarily on the ability to earn Avios points. Reward Flight Finder discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself.

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