Maximizing British Airways Miles- A Complete Guide for 2024

Looking to make the most of your British Airways miles in 2024? This comprehensive guide will show you how to maximize your Avios rewards, ensuring you get the best value for your miles. Whether you’re a frequent traveler or planning your next dream vacation, we’ll cover top tips, strategies, and insider tricks to help you earn, redeem, and maximize your British Airways miles efficiently.

From flight upgrades to exclusive experiences, discover how to unlock incredible benefits with this complete guide to British Airways miles for 2024. Start maximizing your travel rewards today!

British Airways Avios is a distance-based rewards program.

Single-partner awards are priced out segment-by-segment, meaning if your trip is actually made up of two flights with one connection, you pay for each flight individually according to the charts below. All single-partner awards price out according to the single-partner award chart, other than Aer Lingus and Iberia, which each have their own unique charts. Multiple-partner awards follow the multiple-partner award chart and are priced out based on cumulative distance, which can lead to lower pricing in some instances.

Award Charts:

Changes: $55 or forfeit all taxes and fees paid, whichever is less. Cancellations: $55 or forfeit all taxes and fees paid, whichever is less.

Close-In Booking Fees: None.

Stopovers and Open-Jaws: N/A for single-partner awards. Since you’re paying for each segment individually, you can create all of the stopovers and open-jaws that you wish. For multiple-partner awards, eight stopovers and one open-jaw are allowed.

Fuel Surcharges: On all airlines except Alaska and LATAM. Domestic flights entirely within the United States or from the U.S. to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America are also free of fuel surcharges. And while Aer Lingus and many of the Asian airlines have fuel surcharges, they are typically low, so these partners can be okay too.

Sweet Spots: United States (West coast) to Hawaii in Economy; short flights (under 650 miles) abroad, particularly domestic flights within Asia, Australia/New Zealand, and Europe.

Single-Partner Award Chart (all partners other than Aer Lingus and Iberia)

Travel Distance	Economy	Business	First
1 to 650 miles (NA)	7,500	15,000	30,000
1 to 650 miles (ex. NA)	6,000	12,500	24,000
651 to 1,150 miles	9,000	16,500	33,000
1,151 to 2,000 miles	11,000	22,000	44,000
2,001 to 3,000 miles	13,000	38,750	51,500
3,001 to 4,000 miles	20,750	62,000	82,500
4,001 to 5,500 miles	25,750	77,250	103,000
5,501 to 6,500 miles	31,000	92,750	123,750
6,501 to 7,000 miles	36,250	108,250	144,250
7,001+ miles	51,500	154,500	206,000

Aer Lingus Award Chart (Peak)

Travel Distance	Economy	Business	First
1 to 650 miles	4,500	9,000	18,000
651 to 1,150 miles	7,500	15,000	30,000
1,151 to 2,000 miles	10,000	20,000	40,000
2,001 to 3,000 miles	12,500	37,500	50,000
3,001 to 4,000 miles	20,000	60,000	80,000
4,001 to 5,500 miles	25,000	75,000	100,000
5,501 to 6,500 miles	30,000	90,000	120,000
6,501 to 7,000 miles	35,000	105,000	140,000
7,001+ miles	50,000	150,000	200,000

Iberia Award Chart (Peak)

Travel Distance	Economy	Business	First
1 to 650 miles	5,000	10,000	–
651 to 1,150 miles	8,250	16,500	–
1,151 to 2,000 miles	11,000	22,000	–
2,001 to 3,000 miles	12,500	25,000	–
3,001 to 4,000 miles	20,000	40,000	–
4,001 to 5,500 miles	25,000	50,000	–
5,501 to 6,500 miles	30,000	60,000	–
6,501 to 7,000 miles	35,000	70,000	–
7,001+ miles	50,000	100,000	–

Note: Awards utilizing two or more partner airlines use the chart below. If you do want to fly multiple partners, keep in mind that you also have the option of breaking up your trip into multiple single-partner one-way bookings, depending on which is cheaper.

Multiple-Partner Award Chart

Travel Distance	Economy	Business	First
1 to 1,500 miles	30,000	60,000	90,000
1,501 to 4,000 miles	35,000	70,000	105,000
4,001 to 9,000 miles	60,000	120,000	180,000
9,001 to 10,000 miles	70,000	140,000	210,000
10,001 to 14,000 miles	90,000	180,000	270,000
14,001 to 20,000 miles	100,000	200,000	300,000
20,001 to 25,000 miles	120,000	240,000	360,000
25,001 to 35,000 miles	140,000	280,000	420,000
35,001 to 50,000 miles	160,000	320,000	480,000

British Airways shows award availability for all Oneworld partners. However, it does not show Mixed Cabin awards. This can be problematic if you are searching for business or first class awards, so unless you are searching for flights in economy, you should always search British Airways one segment at a time.

Use Airline Route Mapper (tutorial) to look up possible routes.

1. Go to British Airways. Create an account if you do not have one already.
2. Fill out the form and submit. Search one segment at a time for business or first class awards.
3. Review your results. Note that there should be a business/first mixed cabin award available on the date I chose, but it is not displayed below because I wanted to show what happens if you do not search one segment at a time. Remember, one segment at a time for premium cabin awards! In any case, select your flights and complete your booking if you find something acceptable. You may have to call in for a mixed cabin award or if you want to verify award space before transferring points from American Express or Chase.

Advanced Tips & Tricks

American Airlines Award Space

British Airways’ award search engine does not display American Airlines’ award inventory with consistency. It therefore makes sense to look on American’s website first if you intend to book an award on one of their flights using British Airways Avios. Assuming you find availability, you then will want to search for the same flight on British Airways’ site. It may be necessary to repeat your search multiple times (this can be done by clicking back-and-forth between different dates on the seven-day calendar of results from your initial search) to find the award space you found on American.

Nonstop Flights to Hawaii from the West Coast

This is one of the few sweet spots on the British Airways award chart. Nonstop flights to Hawaii from the West Coast will generally fall under 3,000 miles, making the price of a round trip 26,000 Avios. You will need to use American to look for nonstop award availability on Alaska or American Airlines (ignore any results on Hawaiian Airlines because you cannot book those with Avios).

Using Stops to Save Miles

The number of Avios needed for a trip increases as the mileage flown goes up, but you’ll spot some oddities in the chart if you look for them. In particular, 13,000 Avios for flights under 3,000 miles is cheap compared to much of the rest of the chart. In many cases, you can save Avios if you can break off flight segments that are fewer than 3,000 miles. For example, a one-way nonstop flight from SFO-SYD (7,417 miles) would cost 51,500 Avios, but a flight with one stop, SFO-HNL (2,398 miles) + HNL-SYD (5,066 miles), would cost 38,750 Avios. You could also stay in Honolulu and turn the stop into a stopover if you wish.

Multiple-Partner Awards

The rules for multiple-partner awards are not well-publicized. Pricing might not be based on the highest class of service flown but rather the class of service flown for the majority of the trip (i.e., a trip that is 60% economy and 40% business might price as economy).

Iberia Airlines Awards

British Airways Avios can be transferred to Iberia Airlines Avios to book awards using the Iberia Airlines Avios award charts. For some flights (short range, multiple partner), fewer miles are required to book through Iberia. Iberia Airlines typically imposes lower fuel charges than British Airways does as well.

Reward Flight Saver

Some results will display the below icon to indicate a Reward Flight Saver award. While they will cost the same number of Avios as a regular award, the taxes and fees will be at a lower flat rate and may result in a lower overall cost compared to other options.