3. Very Expensive for Long Distance Flights. British Airways Avios has a distance based award ch

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I ve been getting a lot of questions on British Airways Avios, hotels brighton perhaps hotels brighton because of the recent Chase British Airways credit card offer , so here s a series on how to use Avios miles.  Please comment hotels brighton if you have any questions and I ll try to answer your question in the comments or in future posts in the series!
British Airways Avios also has a distance based award chart which makes it a great value to use Avios for short-distance hotels brighton flights , but a bad value (compared to other US frequent flyer programs) to use them for long-distance flights.
However, you have to break your journey up into segments and add up each segment to get the total price of your award. hotels brighton You can check how many Avios points are needed for each segment by using the British Airways Avios Calculator.
But American Airlines hotels brighton (a British Airways partner hotels brighton airline since British Airways doesn t fly from 1 US city to another US city) does not fly directly from Kansas City to Detroit, but via Chicago hotels brighton or Dallas.
So you will have to break your flight down into the segments flown:  The first segment from Kansas City to Chicago which is 403 miles and the second segment from Chicago to Detroit which is 235 miles.
Since each of these segments are LESS than 649 miles, you will pay 4,500 Avios for EACH segment or 9,000 Avios miles (4,500 Avios for the 1st segment + 4,5000 Avios for the second segment) for the entire trip.
British Airways Avios is a very divisive program because folks either love the program or hate it.  For example, see the comments in this post when I first shared the news that the British Airways 100,000 mile credit card was back.
Unlike many US mileage programs like American Airlines or United, British Airways has a distance based award chart. What this means is that using Avios for certain flights is a GREAT value, but a TERRIBLE value for other flights.
I don t see Avios as a primary program to collect miles in, but I do see them as a great complement (for short distance flights) to my more valuable American Airlines, United, hotels brighton US Airways miles (which I use mainly for long distance international flights).
As I wrote earlier , Big Travel with Small Money doesn't always mean first class award redemptions to exotic new lands and five star hotels.  Big Travel with Small Money also means saving money and traveling more often than you could otherwise do.
I personally feel that British Airways Avios is a must have in a mile-and-points collection.  Because it gives you a lot more options particularly for short-distance flights, hotels brighton flights on American Airlines from the US to South America, flights in business and first class to Europe, and select redemptions on partner airlines.
But I wouldn t go out of my way to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points into Avios (I prefer using Chase Ultimate Rewards points on United hotels brighton or Hyatt).  Nor would I credit flights for which I pay for my ticket and earn miles to British Airways instead hotels brighton of American Airlines, since I find American Airlines miles more useful.
But I would consider the limited time Chase credit card offer for 50,000 Avios points after your 1st purchase, or 100,000 Avios points hotels brighton after spending hotels brighton $20,000.  Especially since the previous hotels brighton offer was for 25,000 Avios after 1st purchase, and an extra 25,000 Avios after spending $2,500 within 3 months.
I d much rather churn cards and use my limited spending capacity to earn more miles and points from the sign-on bonus on other cards.  For example, last year I spent $25,000 and earned 1 million miles and points.
Again, to be clear, the Chase British Airways credit card is NOT the best credit card deal available (that would be using the 2-browser trick to get 100,000 American Airlines miles or getting the Southwest Companion Pass ), nor is this the best Chase credit card.
This means that instead of paying $2.50 for a First Class award ticket on American Airlines hotels brighton from New York to London using American Airline miles, you ll pay $412.70 hotels brighton if you use British Airways miles for the SAME flight on American Airlines.
In short, this usually hotels brighton means that it is not a great value to redeem award flights in coach since paying the fuel surcharges is sometimes the same price as buying a regular ticket.  But it could make sense in some cases.
For example, an award flight on American Airlines in Business Class from Kansas City to Chicago, Chicago to London, London to Paris will all cost a total of 100,000 miles.  I d still pay 100,000 miles even if I flew directly from Chicago to Paris on American Airlines.
3.   Very Expensive for Long Distance Flights.   British Airways Avios has a distance based award chart, which makes it VERY expensive (both in miles as well as fuel surcharges) for long distance award flights, in particular Trans Pacific flights to Asia, flights to Africa and India from the US.
The same flight will cost only 67,500 American Airline miles + taxes.  That s a difference of 37,500 hotels brighton miles (105,000 British Airways Avios 67,500 American Airlines miles) just because you used Avios instead of American Airlines miles!
4.   Poor Telephone Customer Service.   British Airways Executive hotels brighton Club has long wait times, limited telephone hours from only 7:00 am to 8:00 pm EST, and customer service agents who aren t particularly friendly.
And you do have to pay the fuel surcharges.  For example, you d have to pay ~$400 per award ticket in Business or First Class to London from New York, in addition to 60,000 Avios miles in First Class or 40,000 in Business Class.
Yes, that s not cheap, but I d reluctantly pay $800 + 40,000 Avios miles for 2 Business Class awards to London since that is still less than the price of coach travel.  I quite liked my last British Airways First Class flight!
There is a wishy-washy exemption clause (clause 15.2) for exceptional circumstances which may get you your points back, but it is at British Airways discretion.  You don t usually win when Airlines exercise discretion!
9.  Domestic First Class costs 3 times Economy.  US Airlines hotels brighton usually have 2 cabins (First hotels brighton Coach) on domestic flights.  But the First Cabin is actually not really first class, but a slightly better version of coach.  However, you ll pay 3 times the Avios points to travel in most domestic first class cabins (instead of the usual double price on other US airlines).
1.  Great For Short Distance Flights.  By far, the best use of British Airways Avios and the main reason why you should have some in your miles and points collection is because British Airways Avios is a GREAT value for short distance flights.
Short distance flights are often very expensive on certain routes so using British Airways Avios for short distance flights in the US, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, hotels brighton and Australia could save you money.  We ll discuss in dept in Part 2 What Does a Distance hotels brighton Based Award Chart Mean,  Part 3 Taxes Fees Part 12 The Best Short Distance Awards in the series.
3.  Flights With LOW Fuel Surcharges.  Certain flights have low fuel surcharges, which we ll discuss in Part 3 Taxes Fees, which make it worthwhile hotels brighton using British Airways Avios for booking those flights.
For example,  you pay only $168.80 + 35,000 Avios to fly from Chicago to Hong Kong in coach on Cathay Pacific.  A regular 1-way flight costs ~$700+ , so this isn t a terribly bad deal since you can save a bit of cash.
4.  Flights to Europe.  As I ve written before, British Airways has terrific award availability to London.   They fly from 22 US cities (more than ANY other US airline) to London, and it usually is possible to get 4 award seats on many of their flights.
5.  The Companion Pass.    If you spend $30,000 in a calendar year on the Chase British Airways credit card, you not only earn 37,500 Avios ($30,000 in spending X 1.25 miles per $1 spent), but also get a Travel Together companion pass.
6.  Using Miles to Upgrade.   Using British Airways Avios to upgrade a paid World Traveler Plus (Premium Economy) seat could make more sense in the right circumstance.  That s because you d save cash AND you ll also earn miles and elite status points for the flight in the upgraded class of service.
If you ve earned your Avios points from a credit card sign up bonus or a transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards, you could use your points for car rentals and hotel stays to save spending cash.
8.   No late booking fee and lower cancellation fees. British Airways does not charge extra fees for booking a ticket within 3 weeks of departure like many other airlines do.  For example, American Airlines charges a $75 fee for booking an award ticket within 3 weeks of departure.
I look forward to detailed analysis in this series. One thing there is not a lot information on online is USA-Europe travel on Aer Lingus (EI) using Avios points. EI flies direct from ORD, BOS, JFK, MCO to Ireland and onward to many European countries for LOW FUEL SURCHARGES AND FEES. Please research this aspect of Avios also .. it is something that not many bloggers seem to talk about either. thanks
The companion ticket , can i get a rountrip for my spouse if i book nyc to delhi or hong kong On BA business class using avios with a stopover in lhr since it stops there anyways ? And how does the companion ticket effect me since i have a 15 month old. Thanks
Recent redemptions of LIM-CUZ, and SCL-ZCO on LAN with my Avios points have shown me just how valuable Avios can be. Intra S.American flights are very expensive, but these flights with Avios were 4,500 miles each and taxes were m