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What is the best value Avios flight per mile?

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What is the best value Avios redemption per mile flown?  Or, put another way, what’s the furthest you can fly for the fewest Avios?

As we have just updated our ‘Avios price list’ (the only place online you’ll find the Avios redemption chart – it’s not on ba.com now) I thought it was worth having another look at where you get the best value.

We have put together a list of the flying distance of each long and mid haul British Airways route and compared it with the Avios required for a Club World off-peak redemption.

What is the best value Avios flight per mile?

Distances are measured using the ‘great circle route’ ie. the most direct path between origination and destination.

If you ever need to work out the distance between two cities, we recommend Great Circle Mapper at gcmap.com.  Use airport codes in the search box, eg LHR-CPT for London Heathrow to Cape Town, and click ‘Distance’.

Hopefully this gives you a better idea of the value of different routes, although you should remember that ‘value’ is subjective.  If you don’t want to fly to Kuwait, for example, it doesn’t matter how ‘cheap’ a redemption would be.

As we always say, the ‘best’ Avios redemption is one that takes you to somewhere you really want to go.

What is the best value Avios redemption based on distance?

The winner based on ‘Avios needed per mile flown’ is Sydney. Just 13 Avios will get you one mile nearer Sydney in a Club World flat bed on that route.

(Interestingly, the winner used to be Cape Town but BA’s changes to Avios pricing in December have pushed it down to second place.)

What is the best value Avios flight per mile?

Take a look and see what you think. The table shows you the Avios per mile you need to redeem to get a Club World redemption.

We have used the ‘highest Avios, lowest cash’ pricing option offered for each route. For mid haul and long haul routes, this tends to be the best overall value. It is not the best option on short haul but those routes are not included below.

You could, arguably, adjust the table to reflect the different surcharges between routes. At the end of the day, however, this is only meant to be a bit of fun.

Don’t forget our earlier HfP article which shows every British Airways route and the Avios required to fly it.

Here is the ‘best Avios redemption per mile flown’ chart, based on BA’s route map at the start of 2023.

DestinationClub World Avios
off-peak (one-way)		Miles flown
(one-way)		Avios needed
per mile
Sydney145,000 + £37510,66513.60
Cape Town90,000 + £2256,01014.98
Santiago110,000 + £3007,24915.17
Buenos Aires110,000 + £3006,91515.91
Johannesburg90,000 + £2255,63515.97
Tokyo100,000 + £2756,22016.08
Mexico City90,000 + £2255,53016.27
Singapore110,000 + £3006,75516.28
San Diego90,000 + £2255,47016.45
Los Angeles90,000 + £2255,45516.50
Mauritius100,000 + £2756,05516.52
San Jose (C’Rica)90,000 + £2255,42516.59
Hong Kong100,000 + £2755,96516.76
San Francisco90,000 + £2255,36016.79
San Jose (CA)90,000 + £2255,36016.79
Sao Paulo100,000 + £2755,89016.98
Male90,000 + £2255,29517.00
Phoenix90,000 + £2255,25517.13
Las Vegas90,000 + £2255,23017.21
Rio De Janeiro100,000 + £2755,74517.41
Shanghai100,000 + £2755,72017.48
Chennai90,000 + £2255,11517.60
Grand Cayman90,000 + £2255,08517.70
Seoul100,000 + £2755,65017.70
Beijing90,000 + £2255,06517.77
Bengaluru90,000 + £2255,00417.99
Cancun90,000 + £2254,96518.13
Portland (Oregon)90,000 + £2254,91418.32
Austin90,000 + £2254,91018.33
Houston90,000 + £2254,82018.67
Turks and Caicos90,000 + £2254,82018.67
Hyderabad90,000 + £2254,79518.77
Seattle90,000 + £2254,78518.81
Dallas90,000 + £2254,74518.97
Vancouver90,000 + £2254,70519.13
Kingston90,000 + £2254,68019.23
Aruba90,000 + £2254,67919.23
Denver90,000 + £2254,67019.27
New Orleans90,000 + £2254,61719.49
Georgetown90,000 + £2254,50819.96
Tobago90,000 + £2254,49520.02
Mumbai90,000 + £2254,46520.16
Cincinnati80,000 + £1753,96320.19
Port of Spain90,000 + £2254,45520.20
Chicago80,000 + £1753,95520.23
Miami90,000 +£2254,43520.29
Tampa90,000 + £2254,42520.34
Grenada90,000 + £2254,36020.64
Orlando90,000 + £2254,35520.67
Nassau90,000 + £2254,33020.79
Punta Cana90,000 + £2254,29020.98
Nairobi90,000 + £2254,25021.18
St Lucia90,000 + £2254,22021.33
Islamabad80,000 + £1753,75021.33
Atlanta90,000 + £2254,20021.43
Barbados90,000 + £2254,19521.45
Delhi90,000 + £2254,19121.47
Pittsburgh80,000 + £1753,71521.53
Nashville90,000 + £2254,17621.55
St Kitts90,000 + £2254,14021.74
Washington DC80,000 + £1753,67521.77
Baltimore80,000 + £1753,62522.07
Antigua90,000 + £2254,07522.09
Charleston90,000 + £2254,07522.09
Philadelphia80,000 + £1753,54522.57
Toronto80,000 + £1753,54522.57
New York80,000 + £1753,45023.19
Bermuda80,000 + £1753,44023.26
Dubai80,000 + £1753,40523.49
Abuja70,000 + £902,96023.65
Kuwait70,000 + £902,90024.14
Boston80,000 + £1753,26024.54
Doha80,000 + £1753,24024.69
Montreal80,000 + £1753,24024.69
Accra80,000 + £1753,17025.24
Bahrain80,000 + £1753,15025.40
Lagos80,000 + £1753,11525.68
Riyadh80,000 + £1753,06526.10
Amman70,000 + £902,29030.57
Tel Aviv70,000 + £902,21531.60
Cairo70,000 + £902,19531.89
How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

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

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (55)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Alex says:
    16 Feb16 February 09:21

    Would be interesting to add Iberia to the mix. I bet you get much better value there?

    • Scott says:
      16 Feb16 February 10:29

      It’s interesting to see a couple of south American destinations at #3 & #4, because for the same Avios and a little more cash, you’d get a *return* on Iberia (with the usual caveat of having to get to MAD)

  • AJA says:
    16 Feb16 February 09:30

    Not sure you should include Cairo in the list as I thought it was reclassified as a short-haul Club Europe service that is operated by Airbus A321s or A320s.

    • Jonathan says:
      16 Feb16 February 10:57

      Agree with you on this point here, also Amman route uses pathetically inequipped air craft given the length of the flight, no seat recline or IFE

      I got a fairy good return flying in Economy on the CAI route, I got well over the target of 1pence per Avios, I had to use the option that high a cash element and a low Avios element though as it was best value for money

      I flew Economy due to BA’s joke of a Business Class seat on that route, which just isn’t value for money or Avios, and during the flight I was sat on the aisle, and someone else sat on the window, so the middle seat was free, just like CE !

      • F says:
        16 Feb16 February 11:41

        I’m based in Amman and can assure you that RJ same route Y is preferable to BA J

        • Jonathan says:
          16 Feb16 February 14:55

          I don’t doubt it for a second !

          I went to Jordan immediately after I was done in Egypt and had an awful flight with BA, mainly due to them turning into a budget airline and not a flag carrier and great airline they once were.
          Someone said here in the comments that another fellow passenger questioned the crew, and didn’t actually believe she had been seated in Business Class that she’d paid for, expecting a lie flat seat and IFE on their flight from Amman

          • F says:
            16 Feb16 February 16:50

            They used to do a quite novel ‘throne’ seat and then did it away with their ‘enhancements’. My mother flew to amman with it the other day in ‘j’ and they didn’t have her meal choice by row 6.

    • Rhys says:
      16 Feb16 February 11:08

      This list was based on which routes were pricing as long haul routes (ie. more than 50p taxes and fees)

      • AJA says:
        16 Feb16 February 13:15

        But that’s even more of a reason to exclude it as very poor value indeed. Even though it does not price as a short-haul route, you only get short-haul cabin and service.

  • david says:
    16 Feb16 February 10:13

    Virgin points are better value – at least to TLV, Africa and Northeast US – but only if 1) earning them costs approx. the same as Avios, 2) there is similar availability in CW and UC and 3) cash-rich pax can live with paying up to £200 more in “taxes”

    • Jonathan says:
      16 Feb16 February 10:48

      The TLV route is bit too short if you’re flying in Upper to enjoy the experience

    • Rizz says:
      16 Feb16 February 11:16

      For the East Coast, based on a 1p per mile valuation, VS actually offers significantly worse value than BA (all-in, UC/J).

  • Scott says:
    16 Feb16 February 10:25

    Has anyone worked out yet what the logic is for the new ‘standard’ surcharge amount? It looks to be related to the Avios amount, e.g. 90k pairs with £225, 100k with £275 but I don’t know if this always holds.

    • Rhys says:
      16 Feb16 February 11:12

      I believe both the Avios and taxes and fees are based on the distance, which BA splits into zones.

  • Iranicus says:
    16 Feb16 February 11:16

    There are some great European fares to South America. I can see KLM or Lufthansa to Colombia for around £1,300 in business.

    Whilst using a 2-4-1 and going via Madrid is still great value, it’s worth keeping an eye on the cash tickets too. Just incase you can find a more efficient use of avios, perhaps using them for a trip to asia where tickets are crazily priced at the moment.

    • zapato1060 says:
      16 Feb16 February 14:13

      Wish Iberia would do Asia so I could use the 241.

    • Jonathan says:
      16 Feb16 February 15:46

      It might be easier to go via Miami to get some destinations in Colombia

      • cin2 says:
        18 Feb18 February 16:36

        It’s never easier to change in the US. I refuse to do it now for any flight to South America even if I want to go to destinations other than BOG in Colombia.

  • ADS says:
    16 Feb16 February 14:35

    Really useful analysis. I’ve graphed it for you!

    https://independenttravel.blogspot.com/2023/02/avios-required-per-mile-flown-graph.html

  • Louis says:
    16 Feb16 February 21:51

    The title should be for BA flights. Much better value with partners, for example, return LHR-SYD can be had for 180,000 in QSuite

    • Alex says:
      17 Feb17 February 09:24

      Not to mention better availability and a better product. You’d nearly be crazy to fly BA on that route – even with a 241.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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