How to book a BA Reward Flight with Avios points

How to book a BA Reward Flight with Avios points

We’ve created a quick & simple guide to putting your hard-earned Avios points to good use by redeeming them for British Airways reward flights.

This is for anyone new to the Avios points programme or for those who just want to know more about the process. It's a piece of cake!

What you’ll need: ● A British Airways Executive Club account: This serves as a "wallet" for your Avios, which are loyalty points that may be accumulated in a variety of ways. ● Our guide to the different ways you can earn Avios, including advice on boosting your balance simply by being smart about where you shop and the card you use to pay. ● An idea of when and where to fly!

Common questions regarding Reward Flights that you should be aware of: 1. Can I get a Reward Flight anywhere?

Yes. Well anywhere that BA and its partners fly to.

On any BA flight reward, flight seats are available at some point between it being released for sale and it taking off for its destination.

Every flight BA operates has a certain number of guaranteed Avios redemption seats made available from the point it goes on sale, 355 days ahead of departure. Be warned though, these seats might sell out rapidly (particularly on popular and seasonal routes), sometimes as soon as the flights are placed into the booking system! Luckily, most routes will have days, flights or cabins that the BA computer doesn’t think will sell out. Airlines hate empty seats so they’d rather fill any available spaces with people using Avios. This means additional reward flight seats are often released in the weeks before departure.

Nonetheless, if you have a certain trip in mind, it's important to plan your BA Avios redemption ahead of time and ask yourself questions like "how many Avios will I need?" especially if the location is popular. That way you can set yourself a target, to earn the points you need, in time to make your booking.

Use the Reward Flight Finder Calendar View to find reward flights 12 months ahead of time!

If you don’t know where you’d like to go but want to see what reward flights are available and where to, check out our Map View option. This option is available to Reward Flight Finder Gold and Silver members and is also helpful to find alternative destinations if there isn’t reward seat availability for your first choice route.

Don’t panic if your heart is set on a reward flight redemption, to a particular destination, but there aren’t any reward seats available yet. Reward Flight Finder lets you set up alerts and get notified when new reward seats are released. Gold and Silver members get faster alerts and can set them up for more routes simultaneously. For example, BA flies from several different UK airports to 18 Italian destinations. So, if you want a cheap holiday to northern Italy, you might want to set up alerts for several of these alternatives, to increase your chances of getting the reward flight seats you are seeking.

How do I know how many Avios points I’ll need?

You can get a quick glance at the overall required Avios points for flights on our Calendar View. Simply input your details (Executive Club Tier, Outbound Date Options, Inbound Date Options) and click search.

You’ll be taken to the overall breakdown of upcoming reward flights over 12 months.

From there if you hover your mouse over any date you’ll get a breakdown of the number of Avios points required to book each available reward flight seat, by cabin class.

Don’t forget that if you don’t see availability on your preferred route, on your selected dates, you can create an alert with Reward Flight Finder and be notified as soon as a reward seat becomes available. Gold members get alerted immediately, Silver members within an hour and Bronze members get alerted daily.

What are Reward Flight Savers?

BA reward flights are tickets on British Airways where you pay the entire airfare with Avios. The airline only lets a limited number of seats, on every flight, be booked in this way. However, you still have to pay the taxes and any surcharges. Sometimes the taxes might look expensive, compared to simply paying with cash for a ticket on a low-cost airline.

BA realised this, so on some routes it lets you pay a flat admin fee and it will cover the rest of the taxes and fees for you. The fee starts from just £1 on European routes and may only be £150 on a long haul flight to somewhere further afield, like Asia. In short, a bargain.

This is called a Reward Flight Saver.

Are Reward Flights The Same As Using Avios & Money?

For those who are short on Avios or don't want to use all of their Avios at once, British Airways provides a nifty option called "Avios & Money," which lets you use a combination of cash and Avios to pay for your flights. This is sometimes called “part pay with Avios”. These tickets aren’t rewarded flights, reward flights are tickets bought entirely with Avios points, you just pay the taxes and fees. Whilst nearly all BA bookings let you part-pay with Avios, a limited number of seats are available to book as reward flights.

It’s nice to get a discount on your ticket using Avios, part payment with points isn't normally the best way to spend your Avios. The pound-per-Avios saving, in virtually every case, is far greater when you book a reward flight. That’s why BA doesn’t make it as simple to pay the whole fare with points!

Don’t confuse Avios & Money with Reward Flight Saver tickets!

When you combine Avios and money to pay for a flight, you are essentially paying in two different currencies. You pay part of the airfare plus taxes and fees in your local currency, then you pay the balance of your airfare in Avios, at a poor cash exchange rate, to make up the difference in price.

With a Reward Flight Saver, you aren’t part-paying your airfare with Avios. Instead, you are paying your ENTIRE airfare (minus the taxes and fees) with Avios points, plus a flat fee to BA, who in return cover your taxes and fees.

Why should you care about this difference? Because Reward Flight Savers are much cheaper when you compare the overall cash+points price for both options.

Booking a BA Reward Flight: Finding reward flights on BA.com can be time-consuming as you need to keep searching for different options and you can’t set up alerts. Reward Flight Finder makes things simpler, by showing a year of availability for each search and offers alerts when new reward seats get released.

Once you have found availability with Reward Flight Finder, make your reward flight booking via the British Airways Executive Club website or on the British Airways mobile app, whilst logged in as a BA Executive Club member.

1. British Airways Executive Club website Log into your BA Executive Club account on your desktop or mobile browser and access the Book flight with Avios page (you must be logged in). Input all necessary details (outbound, inbound, dates, etc.).

● Select your Outbound & Inbound Flight classes on your desired dates. ● Review your journey summary to see the breakdown of Avios points & any cash you need to pay for fees.

● The price in Avios is shown in the journey summary section, along with any relevant taxes, fees, and levies. ● You’ll need to proceed to the following screens to input your passenger information and place the booking for your flight.

2. British Airways Mobile App If you haven’t already done so, download the British Airways mobile app and log in to your account.

Normally the BA app will stay logged in for future visits, so long as you are using the same phone or tablet, if not it will prompt you to login again, either with your password or using biometrics (such as fingerprint or face recognition).

● ● ● ●

Click the “burger menu” (three parallel lines in the corner of the screen).

Select “Reward Flights” from the expanded menu.

Select “Standard Avios Search”.

You might be asked to log in again since BA uses a different booking engine to reward flight redemptions. ● Input the route and dates you found on Reward Flight Finder.

For this demonstration, we decided to book flights from London to Tokyo.

Selecting dates 27 Sept - 11 Oct. We chose Business class for both the outbound and inbound flights.

The journey summary gave a breakdown of the cost in Avios Points and the cash we needed to pay for taxes and fees.

Part-pay with Avios If you want to part-pay with Avios, go through the normal flight booking process on the app, as if making a cash booking. Then, by clicking “more pricing options”, you will see a breakdown of the Avios + cash options for the flights you have selected.

Conclusion It’s that simple to book a BA Reward Flight!

Being organised and thorough with your Avios collecting literally pays off. You’ll be among the first to discover availability with Reward Flight Finder, allowing you to have your finger on the button as soon as the best reward flights become available.

Original Source https://rewardflightfinder.com/news-and-advice/how-to-book-a-ba-reward-flight-with-a vios-points