Top 5 British Airways Awards to Book Today!

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This is a quick reminder that British Airways is changing their award chart tonight at 7pm EST! They will still continue with their distance based pricing, but will not be introducing off-peak and peak awards. Before I go into the changes and the top 5 awards you’ll want to consider, this is NOT affecting coach award tickets. If you typically redeem your points for an economy class award, you are safe and no need to lock in a flight today.

While introducing an off-peak award chart sounds great, it is only for British Airways operated flights. Using your British Airways Avios points for a partner airline will always follow the “peak” price. Here is a snapshot at the new award chart:

The award chart only affects flights that fall into Zone 4-9 for business class awards, but all zones for first class awards. And as previously mentioned, economy class award flights for partner airlines are NOT changing.

Since British Airways charges some hefty fuel surcharges on award tickets, typically the best value for their points are partner airlines. Many of these partners have low taxes and fees and provide an amazing redemption with Avios. Here are my top 5 redemption opportunities for business class tickets that are significantly changing:

Boston to Dublin: This has been a great flight for many to get to Ireland or other parts of Europe. On Aer Lingus you currently are able to redeem only 25,000 points for a one-way business class ticket. However, once the change goes through, this flight will require 37,500 Avois points. You can always fly economy though for only 25,000 points roundtrip!
New York (JFK) to Vancouver: This flight on Cathay Pacific currently only requires 25,000 points one-way for a business class ticket. Starting later tonight, it will go up a 50% increase to 37,500 points.
New York (JFK) to Dusseldorf: Airberlin operates this route and currently you can redeem 40,000 points for a one-way business class ticket. This will be going up to 60,000 points which is now more than what American Airline charges. Typically, redeeming British Airways points has been less than other airlines, but this is starting to change!
Miami to Lima, Peru: You can redeem your Avios points on partner airlines American Airlines or LAN. The distance between these two cities is also in Zone 4 which will require the one-way business class flight to increase from 25,000 points to 37,500 points.
Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu: On partner airline American Airlines, you can currently redeem 25,000 points for a one-way business class flight. This exact same flight would cost 37,500 American Airline miles! Once the changes go into place, it will require the same 37,500 Avios miles for this route! Of course, you can still redeem 12,500 Avios for an economy class ticket which is significantly less than redeeming your American Airline miles.

Of course there are MANY other routes that will be going up, so I highly suggest booking that flight you’ve been eyeing. I personally will not be making any reservations prior to these changes taking effect as I typically redeem my points for economy class tickets anyways.

What flights are you booking today?

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