British Airways Avios are a very valuable points currency for Canadians, but with any loyalty program, there are always gotchas. Let’s take a look at the biggest downfalls of redeeming your Avios miles, and what to be aware of with the British Airways Executive Club frequent flier program.
1. You’ll Pay Per Flight Segment – Look For Non-Stop Flights
Probably the most crucial thing to remember when using Avios is that you’ll pay per flight segment. That means when you’re researching flights, your absolute best bet is to get a non-stop flight, rather than book one with connections.
Make sure to reference our table for Canadians, and see what direct British Airways partnered flights leave from major Canadian airports. If that’s your final destination, then awesome – that’s the best case scenario. Otherwise use those destinations as a jumping point to the next one, and calculate how many points it will take by adding up your flight segments.
However, there can be a silver lining here. Since flights are essentially priced one-by-one according to the distance-based award chart, it’s possible to have as many stopovers and open-jaw trips as you’d like. (Open jaw flights are where the departing and/or arriving airport(s) are not the same as where you originally flew from). This gives you more options to travel, and can actually be considered a strong point of using British Airways Avios under the right circumstances.
2. Taxes, Fees, and Carrier Charges are Extra
Although not a unique problem with the British Airways loyalty program, you’ll need to pay taxes and fees on top of redeeming miles for flights.
For many flights, British Airways charges relatively low taxes and fees compared to other loyalty programs like Aeroplan where you can incur large fuel surcharges depending on the airline you’re flying.
Keep in mind that not all British Airways flights are taxed equally. It depends where you’re flying. Fees can be especially high to fly British Airways across the UK.
Further Reading: British Airways Increases Fuel Surcharges – Here’s How to Avoid Them – The Points Guy
However, if you’re looking to use your Avios for Alaska Airlines operated flights to Hawaii, you’ll be happy to know that taxes and carrier charges are extremely cheap, coming in at around just $30 CAD for two round trip flights – sensational!
The bottom line is to figure out the total cost of your trip before you transfer and redeem points for any loyalty program. To do that, just use the Book With Avios tool and do a mock booking. Simply enter your “From” and “To” airports, and it will show the number of points required, plus taxes and fees. Check out our guide on how to book your flight with Avios online.
3. There Are Peak And Off-Peak Prices
If you plan to fly on a popular travel day, expect to pay more in points. That’s why it really pays to have flexible travel dates. If you’re flying one of these airlines then be sure to check their respective peak and off-peak calendars and reward chart to see how many miles you’ll pay.
- British Airways
- Iberia
- Aer Lingus
- Vueling
If you’re flying a partner airline (in the Oneworld Alliance or Alaska Airlines), you don’t need to worry about peak or off-peak pricing, just look at the partner reward chart instead.
4. Premium Economy, Business and First Class Cost Way More Points
Remember, premium cabins cost a lot more points. Everybody values points differently, and you may be in a situation where the number of points don’t matter and you just want to get there in comfort (and luxury). If that’s the case, then great!
But the rest of travellers should be aware of the 3 to 4x increase in points to fly premium economy, business class, and first class using Avios, and in some cases, not a premium product (depending on the airline), even though they are priced as such. Check out the British Airways award chart to see the price jumps for the different cabins.
5. There Might Not Be Award Availability
Like booking any flight with points, you’re at the mercy of whether that flight has reward availability.
Just because it shows up on Google Flights, and is a qualifying airline to use Avios for, doesn’t mean there will be availability to use points for that flight. All you can do is have a plan B, book as far in advance as possible, and be flexible with your dates, and even departing and arrival airports if possible.
6. The System is Designed For You To Fail
Travel hacking isn’t all kicking back drinking Moet & Chandon 35,000 feet in the sky. You’ll need to do some grunt work before you get to unwind and relish in your hard work and points ingenuity.
The British Airways Executive Club website can be very frustrating to work with. They don’t make it easy or willingly give you the information you need to book a flight using Avios without a ton of prior research, and that’s why our Beginner’s Guide to Mastering British Airways Avios is here to help. Their “Reward Flight Finder” is often broken, it’s hard to see peak and off-peak times, it doesn’t show connecting flights, and it doesn’t show all airlines you can use Avios for.
I prefer to do pretty much EVERYTHING online that I can. From shopping, to paying bills, making reservations, you name it. If I can avoid going somewhere or talking to someone, I’m doing it online.
However, I get pretty resistant to want to rely on the British Airways Executive Club booking system. I’d rather piece together the information myself and just feed the information to the phone rep.
Enter 1998 and the telephone.
Yup, your best bet is to just call British Airways Executive Club and talk to a real person. Overall I’ve had great luck with some friendly and helpful reps, and they can tell you if the flight you’re looking for is available and help you book it. It will be a lot less headache then trying to piece the puzzle together yourself using multiple websites with half the answers and broken tools.
I’ll spare you the rest of my rant on how frustrating this is. I just want you to be prepared that loyalty programs don’t make it easy to use your points on purpose, so don’t give up! Just remember, the more you have to dig, the better deal you’re probably going to get.
The first trip you book using Avios is going to take some time. Be patient. Stretch out your research and trip planning over several sittings and preserve your sanity. This should be a fun and exciting time to book your trip, so relax and enjoy the process!
