How many Avios do you need for flights on BA partner airlines?

Three years ago, British Airways brought in a new pricing chart for Avios bookings on partner airlines. As we have barely mentioned it since, I thought we’d take another look.

This article is for bookings using ONE partner airline or for a British Airways flight combined with one partner airline.

If you looking to book a flight using TWO OR MORE partner airlines (eg Cathay Pacific from London to Hong Kong, connecting to Malaysia Airlines from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur) then you need to use the multi-partner chart.

I covered the multi-partner Avios redemption chart earlier this week in my article about getting to Australia and New Zealand on Avios. The multi-partner chart is used to price flights which involve two airlines other than British Airways and which can be outstanding value.

How much are Avios flights on partner airlines?

This article is not relevant for redemptions on Iberia or Aer Lingus, which are sister companies of British Airways. These use (more or less) the same redemption chart as British Airways, allow the use of British Airways American Express 2-4-1 vouchers and have peak and off-peak pricing.

For everyone except Qatar Airways:

Annoyingly, British Airways does not publish a chart of partner Avios pricing. That said, it doesn’t publish a chart for its own flights either these days! The chart below was put together via manually looking up different flights.

This chart applies only to flights booked with British Airways partners Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Fiji Airways, Finnair, Japan Airlines, LATAM, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian and SriLankan Airlines. Oman Air will be added in 2024.

Remember that:

• this is one-way pricing
• BA charges by leg, so for connecting flights you need to price each leg separately and
• ‘taxes and charges’ are due on top
• you can use a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher on Iberia and Aer Lingus, but not other partner airlines
• you cannot use a Barclays upgrade voucher on any partner airline

Here is the current British Airways partner chart:

British Airways has disabled the online reward flight price calculator. The best way of working out how much a flight will be, without doing dummy bookings on ba.com, is to look up the distance using the Great Circle Mapper tool at gcmap.com. Input the relevant airport codes, eg LHR-LAX, and click ‘Distance’.

The old 2x, 3x, 4x system no longer applies

With partner airlines, British Airways has moved away from a multiplication system for Premium Economy, Business and First Class Avios redemptions.

Up to 2019, First Class was always four times the Economy fare, and Business Class 2-3 times depending on the mileage. This is no longer the case.

Short domestic flights under 650 miles in the United States are priced differently. These remain at 7,500 Avios in Economy, 15,000 in Business and 18,000 in First. You can read more about why short domestic USA flights are priced separately here.

There is no off-peak pricing with partner airlines

As you can see from the table above, there is no off-peak pricing. Every day is a peak day with partners.

You can exploit the mileage chart to your advantage

If you have the time and inclination, you can save Avios and probably taxes and charges by starting your journey outside the UK.

Helsinki to Tokyo, for example, is 4,864 miles. This means that a one-way business class ticket on Finnair uses Zone 6 pricing of 77,250 Avios.

Using Japan Airlines from Heathrow to Tokyo is a longer flight (5,964 miles) which falls into Zone 7 and costs 92,750 Avios one way. You could make a saving by buying a cheap flight to Helsinki for cash – and that’s before you factor in any saving in taxes and charges.

(I am assuming that no British Airways availability is there, which is realistic given demand for Japan at the moment.)

Booking Avios flights on Qatar Airways:

Back in March 2022, Qatar Airways adopted Avios as its loyalty currency.

This brought many benefits to UK-based Avios collectors, including the ability to earn and spend Avios on the new airline, hotel and car hire partners listed here.

Below is the Qatar Airways Avios redemption chart for flights from the UK, excluding routes to the Americas and Europe as these make no sense due to backtracking.

A few points to note:

• you can book at these rates on EITHER ba.com or qatarairways.com, as long as you select Qatar Airways flights – the Avios pricing, availability and taxes are meant to be identical across both sites although there are glitches

• If you are in a British Airways Executive Club Household Account and need to use Avios from both accounts to make a booking, you will have to book at ba.com

• you can book at qatarairways.com from 360 days prior to departure – if you are booking the same flight at ba.com you need to wait until 355 days prior to departure

• if you book on qatarairways.com you may be offered flights at double the figures shown below. This are marked with a green square in the booking engine and represent ‘extra’ Avios availability which Qatar Airways is willing to make available for double Avios. You cannot see these extra seats on ba.com.

• you may find it easier to search for the onward leg first (eg Doha to Bangkok) and then look for the most suitable and available connection. This could be from Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester or Edinburgh, or even – to save on taxes – Amsterdam or elsewhere in Europe.

• if you do choose to book at qatarairways.com, this HfP article shows how to link your British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Privilege Club accounts

How much are Avios redemptions on Qatar Airways from the UK?

Qatar Airways currently flies to Doha from London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh. Cardiff is expected to return later in 2023. All flights below require an aircraft change in Doha.

We have not included First Class flights in this chart. First Class is only available on the A380 fleet which only operates on selected routes, and Qatar Airways does not guarantee to make any First Class reward space available.

One-way prices from UK	Economy	Business
Abidjan	37,500	75,000
Abu Dhabi	22,500	45,000
Abuja	37,500	75,000
Accra	37,500	75,000
Addis Ababa	27,500	55,000
Adelaide	45,000	90,000
Ahmedabad	27,500	55,000
Alexandria	27,500	55,000
Algiers	37,500	75,000
Amman	27,500	55,000
Amritsar	27,500	55,000
Asmara	27,500	55,000
Auckland	45,000	90,000
Baghdad	22,500	45,000
Bali (DPS)	40,000	80,000
Bangalore	32,500	65,000
Bangkok	37,500	75,000
Basra	22,500	45,000
Beijing	37,500	75,000
Beirut	27,500	55,000
Cairo	27,500	55,000
Canberra	45,000	90,000
Cape Town	37,500	75,000
Casablanca	37,500	75,000
Cebu	40,000	80,000
Chengdu	37,500	75,000
Chennai	32,500	65,000
Chiang Mai	37,500	75,000
Chongqing	37,500	75,000
Clark	40,000	80,000
Colombo	32,500	65,000
Da Nang	37,500	75,000
Dammam	22,500	45,000
Dar es Salaam	32,500	65,000
Davao	40,000	80,000
Delhi	27,500	55,000
Dhaka	32,500	65,000
Djibiouti	27,500	55,000
Doha	21,500	43,000
Dubai	22,500	45,000
Durban	37,500	75,000
Entebbe	32,500	65,000
Erbil	22,500	45,000
Faisalabad	27,500	55,000
Gaborone	37,500	75,000
Goa	27,500	55,000
Guangzhou	37,500	75,000
Hangzhou	40,000	80,000
Hanoi	37,500	75,000
Harare	37,500	75,000
Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)	37,500	75,000
Hong Kong	37,500	75,000
Hyderabad	32,500	65,000
Isfahan	22,500	45,000
Islamabad	27,500	55,000
Jakarta	40,000	80,000
Jeddah	22,500	45,000
Johannesburg	37,500	75,000
Kano	37,500	75,000
Karachi	27,500	55,000
Kathmandu	32,500	65,000
Khartoum	27,500	55,000
Kigali	32,500	65,000
Kilimanjaro	32,500	65,000
Kochi	32,500	65,000
Kolkata	32,500	65,000
Kozhikode	32,500	65,000
Krabi	37,500	75,000
Kuala Lumpur	37,500	75,000
Kuwait	22,500	45,000
Lagos	37,500	75,000
Lahore	27,500	55,000
Langkawi	37,500	75,000
Luanda	37,500	75,000
Lusaka	37,500	75,000
Madinah	22,500	45,000
Male	32,500	65,000
Manila	40,000	80,000
Maputo	37,500	75,000
Marrakesh	37,500	75,000
Mashhad	22,500	45,000
Melbourne	45,000	90,000
Mogadishu	27,500	55,000
Mombasa	32,500	65,000
Multan	27,500	55,000
Mumbai	27,500	55,000
Muscat	22,500	45,000
Nagpur	32,500	65,000
Nairobi	32,500	65,000
Najaf	22,500	45,000
Pattaya	37,500	75,000
Penang	37,500	75,000
Perth	45,000	90,000
Peshawar	27,500	55,000
Phnom Penh	37,500	75,000
Phuket	37,500	75,000
Port Harcourt	37,500	75,000
Rabat	37,500	75,000
Riyadh	22,500	45,000
Salalah	22,500	45,000
Seoul	40,000	80,000
Seychelles	32,500	65,000
Shanghai	40,000	80,000
Sharjah	22,500	45,000
Shiraz	22,500	45,000
Sialkot	27,500	55,000
Singapore	37,500	75,000
Sohar	22,500	45,000
Sulaymaniyah	22,500	45,000
Sydney	45,000	90,000
Tehran	22,500	45,000
Tokyo (HND)	40,000	80,000
Tokyo (NRT)	40,000	80,000
Trivandrum	32,500	65,000
Tunis	32,500	65,000
Windhoek	37,500	75,000
Zanzibar	32,500	65,000

Conclusion

I hope this article has given you a good overview of the costs and the process for booking Avios redemption flights on a British Airways partner airline.

Don’t forget to learn about the multi-partner Avios redemption chart from this article, which is what you need if you want to use two partner airlines on the same booking. It can also be better value than booking a redemption flight with one partner.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.