Looking to use British Airways Avios to fly Alaska Airlines non-stop to Hawaii? In this article you’re going to learn exactly how As well as learn how to identify how many Avios it will take to get to other destinations. The Avios miles required for your flight will depend on the flight distance, peak, or off-peak dates, and what airline you’re wanting to use your Avios for. If you’re looking for a shortcut to figure out how many Avios your flight will cost, check out the Book With Avios tool and do a speculative booking (go through the whole process of booking to the final check out page, except don’t actually book it). You’ll see how many miles your trip will cost, as well as the taxes and fees. But if you want to understand the process behind the number of Avios your trip will take so you can identify sweet spots, plan your trips more efficiently, and anticipate changes to the rewards chart, then no look further than this step by step guide.

Step 1: Determine Your Flight Details

The first step is to figure out where and how you’d like to fly.

Travel Dates

What dates do you plan to travel? Do you have fixed travel dates, or can you be flexible? Flexible is always best when it comes to reward travel!

Airline

What airline will you be flying? We’ve put together a detailed list of airlines you can fly from Canada (and Seattle, WA) using British Airways Avios. You can also do a search on Google Flights to see what airline flies to your destination.

Cabin Class

Are you flying economy, premium economy, business or first class?

Flight Distance

Since British Airways uses a distance-based award chart, we need to figure out how many miles the flight is, then look at our grid to see how many points it takes to fly that distance under the “off-peak” column (more on this later). I like to use a tool called Flight Connections to see the distance of flights, and to see what routes different airlines fly. It’s an incredibly useful freemium tool that you should keep in your travel hacking toolkit.

Step 2: Consult The Peak/Off-Peak Award Calendar

If you’re flying British Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus, then you’ll need to reference the Peak and Off-Peak Award Calendar to determine how many miles your trip will cost. If you’re flying a British Airways partner airline, you can skip ahead to Step 3, as partners use a different reward chart. Exclamation Point! British Airways classifies 138 days of the year as peak travel times, which means you’ll pay 3 to 4x more miles if you book a flight on one of these days. However, the taxes, fees and carrier charges you pay are the same for both peak and off-peak dates. Needless to say, you’ll want to check the calendar for off-peak times to book. If we were to fly the following airlines, we need to look at our Avios calendar to see if we’ll pay peak, or off-peak pricing for our selected dates.

• British Airways
• Iberia
• Aer Lingus

Iberia and Aer Lingus are both partnered with British Airways, allowing you to use Avios for flights operated by them. However, they both have their own award charts and peak/off-peak calendars, and sweet spots of their own. Most notably, if you’re looking at flying to Dublin, Ireland and departing from Seattle or Toronto, consider transferring your Avios to Aer Lingus. Check out The Mile Genie’s Guide if you’re looking for more specific info on using Avios for Iberia and Aer Lingus flights . We’ve put together a calendar for you, with off-peak dates in green (the best, cheapest days to book using Avios miles). (Peak and off-peak dates are not applicable in our example because Cathay Pacific is a partner airline, therefore the number of Avios required can be determined by referencing the Partner Award Chart.)

British Airways Peak/Off-Peak 2020 Calendar

Iberia Peak/Off-Peak 2020 Calendar

Aer Lingus Peak/Off-Peak 2020 Calendar

Step 3: Consult The Avios Reward Chart for 2020

Avios uses a distance based award chart, which means you’ll pay based on the distance of your flight. This can be a favourable system because it allows for sweet spots. Exclamation Point! Avios also charges per flight segment, which means you’ll pay for each segment separately if you have a connecting flight. This is one of Avios’ biggest downfalls and strengths. If you need to piece together a connecting itinerary, using Avios might not be your best choice. However, if you’re looking for flexibility with your travel route, being able to piece together your flight itinerary can really come in handy. On the chart, the points required represent a one-way trip for one passenger in economy. The flight distances represent the distance travelled, per flight segment and are labelled zones 1 through 9. You’ll also see it costs a different number of points for each cabin class:

• Economy
• Premium economy
• Business class
• First class

Like we talked about in the last step, if you’re flying British Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus, you can reference the peak and off-peak columns for your desired cabin class, and then check the peak or off-peak column in the reward chart to see how many miles your trip will cost: If you’re flying one of British Airways partners, you can ignore the peak and off-peak columns. All you need to look at is the “Partner” column to determine how many miles your trip will cost. Avios needed, per passenger per flight segment (not including taxes, fees, or carrier charges): [table id=26 responsive=”collapse” /] Exclamation Point! ***Zone 1 Avios awards are not available for flights to, from or within Canada or the US, so if your flight is in this distance range, it will fall under Zone 2 pricing. PointsWise Tip A “first class” flight on Alaska Airlines from Seattle to Hawaii would cost 51,500 Avios miles one way, as opposed to 13,000 points in economy. That’s almost 4x as much! And to make matters worse, Alaska Airlines doesn’t even offer a true first class experience. Sure, you might get some extra leg room and free drinks, but it’s not the first class experience you’re envisioning. There won’t be a lay-flat bed, an enclosed space, and several rounds of meal service like there would be on a longer international carrier first class flight. This is where it helps to research the airline you’ll be flying, and see what they actually offer in first class. Alaska Airlines first class is more like premium economy, and that would suck to find out the hard way that you spent 4x the points on a subpar experience. I actually really enjoy flying economy (who says that?) on Alaska Airlines to Hawaii from the west coast, because it’s an excellent deal to use Avios miles for, especially if you can score the exit row at no extra cost for some added leg room.

Step 4: Determine Availability and Taxes/Fees

The next crucial step in booking a reward flight is determining if there is availability. As a friendly reminder, you are always better to book reward flights well in advance or you may not like the available flights, if there is even any availability less. You can book up to a year in advance which should be your goal for popular flights at busy times. To find reward availability and determine the associated taxes, fees and carrier charges, we’ll need to do a mock booking (go through the process of booking a flight without actually booking it) with the Book with Avios online tool. We cover this in our post “How to Book Your Flight With Avios” later on in our Beginner’s Guide to Mastering British Airways Avios. Sweet Spot The taxes and fees can vary wildly by airline, especially on British Airways operated flights. No one wants to pay hundreds of dollars on top of using their points, which is why I love using Avios for Alaska Airlines operated flights. For 2 round trip flights to Hawaii on Alaska Airlines last year, the total taxes and fees were approximately $30 CAD. For our recent trip to Las Vegas, the taxes and fees for 2 round trip flights was $15. That’s incredible value! The only catch was we had to fly out of Seattle, which was a 2.5 hour drive. Alaska Airlines does have flights that depart from Vancouver, but you’ll have to catch a connecting flight to Seattle to get to those destinations anyway – and that connecting flight from Vancouver to Seattle will cost just about as much as your flight from Seattle to Hawaii or Las Vegas. So, not a good use of points. For me, the drive is worth it to take advantage of the complimentary food and drinks at the Seattle American Express Centurion Lounge, thanks to my American Express Platinum Card Canada.

Step 4: Review What We Know

Now is a good time to review the data you have so far to calculate the value of our points. You might find it useful to use Google Sheets for this. I rely on Google Sheets heavily for work, daily life, and especially trip planning to keep things organized and do calculations. Knowing the value you’re getting out of your travel reward points is an essential skill for travel hacking. You’ll be able to determine if you’re getting a good deal, or if you should use your points towards another airline loyalty program. Take some time to plan a few different flight routes, and compare the costs to make sure you’re getting a deal that makes sense for you. You can also determine if it makes sense for you to pay cash for your flight and save your points for a better redemption. This is where keeping good notes (ie. Google Sheets) comes in handy. We’ll cover more shortly on how to master the value of your Avios miles, including talking about how to use the cents per point/mile (CPP/CPM) formula for valuing your travel rewards.