Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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 many Avios do you need for flights on British Airways partner airlines?

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 Avios partner reward 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.)

Qatar Airways Avios redemption chart

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.
What do Qatar Airways Avios flights cost from the UK?

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 UKEconomyBusiness
Abidjan37,50075,000
Abu Dhabi22,50045,000
Abuja37,50075,000
Accra37,50075,000
Addis Ababa27,50055,000
Adelaide45,00090,000
Ahmedabad27,50055,000
Alexandria27,50055,000
Algiers37,50075,000
Amman27,50055,000
Amritsar27,50055,000
Asmara27,50055,000
Auckland45,00090,000
Baghdad22,50045,000
Bali (DPS)40,00080,000
Bangalore32,50065,000
Bangkok37,50075,000
Basra22,50045,000
Beijing37,50075,000
Beirut27,50055,000
Cairo27,50055,000
Canberra45,00090,000
Cape Town37,50075,000
Casablanca37,50075,000
Cebu40,00080,000
Chengdu37,50075,000
Chennai32,50065,000
Chiang Mai37,50075,000
Chongqing37,50075,000
Clark40,00080,000
Colombo32,50065,000
Da Nang37,50075,000
Dammam22,50045,000
Dar es Salaam32,50065,000
Davao40,00080,000
Delhi27,50055,000
Dhaka32,50065,000
Djibiouti27,50055,000
Doha21,50043,000
Dubai22,50045,000
Durban37,50075,000
Entebbe32,50065,000
Erbil22,50045,000
Faisalabad27,50055,000
Gaborone37,50075,000
Goa27,50055,000
Guangzhou37,50075,000
Hangzhou40,00080,000
Hanoi37,50075,000
Harare37,50075,000
Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)37,50075,000
Hong Kong37,50075,000
Hyderabad32,50065,000
Isfahan22,50045,000
Islamabad27,50055,000
Jakarta40,00080,000
Jeddah22,50045,000
Johannesburg37,50075,000
Kano37,50075,000
Karachi27,50055,000
Kathmandu32,50065,000
Khartoum27,50055,000
Kigali32,50065,000
Kilimanjaro32,50065,000
Kochi32,50065,000
Kolkata32,50065,000
Kozhikode32,50065,000
Krabi37,50075,000
Kuala Lumpur37,50075,000
Kuwait22,50045,000
Lagos37,50075,000
Lahore27,50055,000
Langkawi37,50075,000
Luanda37,50075,000
Lusaka37,50075,000
Madinah22,50045,000
Male32,50065,000
Manila40,00080,000
Maputo37,50075,000
Marrakesh37,50075,000
Mashhad22,50045,000
Melbourne45,00090,000
Mogadishu27,50055,000
Mombasa32,50065,000
Multan27,50055,000
Mumbai27,50055,000
Muscat22,50045,000
Nagpur32,50065,000
Nairobi32,50065,000
Najaf22,50045,000
Pattaya37,50075,000
Penang37,50075,000
Perth45,00090,000
Peshawar27,50055,000
Phnom Penh37,50075,000
Phuket37,50075,000
Port Harcourt37,50075,000
Rabat37,50075,000
Riyadh22,50045,000
Salalah22,50045,000
Seoul40,00080,000
Seychelles32,50065,000
Shanghai40,00080,000
Sharjah22,50045,000
Shiraz22,50045,000
Sialkot27,50055,000
Singapore37,50075,000
Sohar22,50045,000
Sulaymaniyah22,50045,000
Sydney45,00090,000
Tehran22,50045,000
Tokyo (HND)40,00080,000
Tokyo (NRT)40,00080,000
Trivandrum32,50065,000
Tunis32,50065,000
Windhoek37,50075,000
Zanzibar32,50065,000

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.


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.

Comments (27)

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

  • Phil says:

    I recently tried looking into this for a redemption and it did not show on ba.com and the call centre said they could not find the route on their system. It’s american airlines BDA-MIA, return in february.
    I’m confused as I was under the impression you could book AA flights from BAEC. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

    • Rob says:

      That’s not part of the transatlantic JV so may not be available to BA Hols.

      • Phil says:

        Thanks rob, I am looking for some internal routes on ba.com for AA and nothing seems to come up for example for NYC->LAX, it was a regular avios booking I was looking for as the cash price is high for BDA-MIA

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.