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The points can be used at approximately 0.9 – 1.2 cents per point to book award flights with one of the following British Airways airline partners:

• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• Cathay Pacific
• Finnair
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• S7 Airlines
• SriLankan Airlines

You can book award flights using your Avios miles with British Airways and its partners; Oneworld and Aer Lingus, here.

To book award flights with other British Airways partners call 1-877-767-7970.

BAEC has three distance-based award charts. 

BAEC award charts

The first chart covers BA, Aer Lingus and Iberia and features peak and off-peak dates. This chart was last devalued in March 2021.

The second chart covers the rest of BA partners and was last devalued in August 2021. Note that Zone 1 award flights starting or ending in North America would cost you 7,500 Avios in Economy or 15,000 Avios in First Class.

All other awards fall into the following scheme (the distance bands are the same).

The charts above are not official (you can’t find them on the British Airways website). 

The third is the Multi-Carrier award chart, although it’s rarely utilized due to its complexity and egregious long-haul fuel surcharges. This is the only chart you can find on Britishairways.com, but I slightly “remodeled” it for your convenience, by adding the Business Class rates. If you’re interested in other classes of service, you can calculate it according to this simple formula:

• Premium Economy is 1.5x the Avios in Economy
• Business is 2x the Avios in Economy
• First is 3x the Avios in Economy

Simply put: use Avios on short-haul, most direct routes. Every segment carries a separate cost; for example, flying nonstop from New York to New Orleans is cheaper than flying to New Orleans via Miami. Now, there are some unexplained exceptions to this rule sometimes (when connecting flights would price cheaper than nonstop ones) but they’re rare. Also, while this guide has been created for U.S. based travelers, I can’t ignore one of the most important virtues of BAEC, which is short nonstop flights anywhere in the world. 

Sweet spots

Sweet Spots on BA and Iberia: short intra-Europe flights in Economy

British Airways charges just a small flat fee for flights within Europe, and you’ll find BA Avios may save you some money when you redeem on Iberia – versus Iberia own award fees. Also, when you use BA Avios on British Airways metal, do yourself a favor and try to avoid departing from LHR, which I personally refer to as London Highway Robbery Airport. You can save a little by flying out of London City airport, although it only serves a handful of destinations.

Here is where you can fly for only 4,750 Avios (off-peak).

From London on BA:

• Anywhere in the UK
• Denmark, France, Germany
• Milan, Italy

From Madrid on Iberia:

• Anywhere in Continental Spain and Portugal
• Most of France including Paris
• Casablanca, Morocco

Notable sweet spots on other BA partners in Economy

• American or Alaska from the West Coast to Hawaii (LAX – HNL for 13,000 Avios).
• American in the U.S. / Canada from 6,000 miles (i.e. New York to Charleston, Cincinnati, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal).
• Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong in Asia (from 6,000 Avios to Sanya, Hanoi and Taipei).
• Japan Airlines ( 6,000 Avios will cover the whole country from Tokyo plus Busan in Korea).
• Qantas in Australia and between Australia and New Zealand (from 6,000 Avios between Sydney and Melbourne / Canberra / Brisbane).
• Short UK and intra-Europe flights on British Airways, Aer Lingus and Iberia (British Airways adds the flat $30 fee for flights from UK). 
• Finnair from Helsinki (from 6,000 Avios to Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Warsaw and Moscow).
• S7 Airlines in Russia and between Russia and the rest of Europe ( 6,000 Avios from Moscow to Saint Petersburg or Kazan). 
• Comstar (BA’s subsidiary) from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls for 6,000 Avios.

Sweet BA spots in Business on Iberia

• You can fly in lie-flat Business Class on A-330 / 340 / 350 on Iberia between London and Madrid for 12,750 Avios and no fuel surcharges. However, the same route is served by narrow-body A-319 / A-320, which just an economy cabin with blocked middle seats, so pay attention to the aircraft type before booking. While this is a short, 2.5 hour trip, the added benefits are priority check-in and access to lounges. It’s surely worth it for only 6,250 extra miles.
• A-330 in lie-flat Business Class on A-330 for 31,250 Avios and $28 in taxes from Madrid to Tel Aviv. Not too cheap, so classifying it as a semi-sweet spot would be more accurate, but it’s a 5-hour flight (think New York to Vegas for a comparison).

Booking short flights on British Avios almost always costs less in cash outlay, but sometimes it costs more in Avios than in Iberia. We’ll talk more about it in the Iberia section.

Do NOT use British Airways Avios for long-haul flights

British Airways adds hundreds of dollars to their “free” award flights in so-called fuel pardon me, carrier-imposed surcharges to everything it touches: its own flights, Aer Lingus, Iberia, even trans-Atlantic American Airlines flights (which is kind of funny considering that AA doesn’t add any surcharges to its own flights, but I guess, it’s the company you keep, LOL). If you’ve ever wondered why British has all that fabulous availability, well, this is why.

There are some exceptions, though.

• A British award flight on Japan Airlines currently adds only about $95 in fuel surcharges between the U.S. and Tokyo one way. Better yet, the price is the same for Economy and Business. 
• A British award flight on Cathay Pacific adds about $84 in fuel surcharges between the U.S. and Hong Kong. The price seems the same for all kinds of service.

Flying long-haul on other airlines, such as Qatar or Finnair appears to add hundreds of dollars in junk surcharges each way and should be avoided.