So you’ve got loads of Avios to use up and you want to book a flight entirely with Avios.
BUT you also want to know you’re getting a good deal? Read on to learn how.
As with any booking using Avios, including upgrades, you should always check what the booking would cost normally before you start. For this example, I have chosen a flight from London to L.A. for a 2 week trip flying in October 2025.
Total cost: £2,851
Let’s go and find the Avios flight to see what it’s going to cost.
First of all, you need to find which flights have seats, BA limits the number of Avios seats on each flight, so booking early is recommended. There are tools on the BA website to help you find seats.
To start, look for “Spending Avios” and click on Reward Availability.
www.britishairways.com/content/executive-club/avios/spending-avios/reward-availability
Now select “Explorer Availability” to go and search for your flight. The Search for flight option will take you to the usual Book with Avios page, which asks you to pick specific dates. If there are no Avios seats on the date you pick then you have to start again (you can click on a few days either side). The Explorer allows you to see up to a year’s worth of availability meaning you can plan your trip around where there are Avios seats. Just put in your route and rough dates, month or even year and it will show you everything.
I searched for the whole year to see what was available.
I found good availability in October, so I picked 2 dates there and hit Choose and continue.
On next page you get to choose your exact flight and cabin, which I did.
And when you’ve picked both flights you will get a pricing summary like this.
The “More pricing options” area will allow you to spend less Avios and put more cash in, useful if you don’t have quite enough Avios to cover trip.
After that you can book your flight as normal.
Is it a good deal?
Let’s look at a comparison to work out if it’s a good deal or not.
We roughly value Avios at 1p each and they are asking for 180,000. So that’s £1,800, plus the £475 cash fee for taxes etc, brings your price to £2,275.
This makes the trip £576 cheaper than the cash fare and bearing in mind you’re using Avios that you never really paid for anyway, it’s a great deal!
