How to Find British Airways Avios Reward Availability

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Trying to find reward availability to redeem your points can be tricky. Of course the airline would rather sell a paid fare, so those seats are the priority. However, British Airways, along with other airlines generally offer several reward seats in each cabin class per flight.

Trying to find reward availability is where most people get frustrated and give up. And to be honest, I get it.

But have no fear. There really is hope! And we really, really want you to succeed with using your points, so let’s take a look at these key tips to help you secure reward availability with British Airways Avios, and other airlines:

1. Be Flexible With Your Dates

You’re going to have the most fun and the most success with travel hacking IF you can be flexible with your travel dates. If you have a fixed schedule and take vacations at the same time as everyone else, there’s going to be more competition for the seats you want. If possible, try to have a few potential travel dates in mind, so if one doesn’t work out, you have a back up plan. Get creative with your timing, and figure out what’s most important to you. Do you need to take that trip on a specific date, or can you wait?

2. Plan Early

Reward availability is often available up to a year in advance, so start thinking longer term. Planning for your trip a year in advance will also give you time to accumulate more points, learn more about the game of travel hacking, and there will generally be more seats available, so plan ahead! Being flexible and checking for reward availability early are your two best weapons in the points game.

3. Search Often

Even though reward availability can first open up a year in advance, seats come and go all the time, and can even reappear close to the travel date. If the seats you’re looking for aren’t available at the time of searching, it’s worth checking again!

4. Setup Seat Alerts with ExpertFlyer

To maximize your chances even more of getting reward availability, consider signing up for ExpertFlyer.com, a paid service that notifies you when reward availability becomes available for your chosen flight.

The premium version of ExpertFlyer will allow you to search unlimited times for your chosen seats for as little as $4.99/mo, and they even offer a 5-day free trial for you to experiment with their service. Here’s what you can setup alerts for:

• The award and upgrade availability for flights for different airlines between a pair of cities on a specific day.
• An optional return date for flights back to the departing airport.
• The ability to search only for non-stop or direct flights and not connecting flights.

Learn more about ExpertFlyer.

5. Search for One Way Flights

I always find it useful to search for one-way flights – even though I’m planning a return, and/or connecting trip.

Because you can piece British Airways flights together by segment, that means you can book your departure and arrival flights separately if they are at more convenient times or on different airlines than what are presented to you for roundtrip flight options.

Make sure to keep good notes and/or a spreadsheet when you search this way, as you’ll likely forget your different search queries and results! Taking notes when you find a desired flight will make it much easier to review your options and plan your trip.

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Booking your return trip in segments means that you’ll forfeit any rights you have to a refund in case of a missed connection.

Generally if you book a connecting trip and there is a delay at at fault of the airline, at least you’ll be covered since it was out of your control.

However, if you book your trip in segments, you’ll be responsible for making your flight –  even if your previous flight was delayed. This is a calculated gamble that you’ll be able to book a more favorable flight using points, however, if this is too stressful of a scenario for you, than by all means, just book a standard round trip flight.

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6. Use the American Airlines Calendar

Because American Airlines is also in the Oneworld alliance and partners with British Airways, we can take advantage of their online tools to search for award availability.

I prefer the functionality of American Airlines website to search for British Airways award availability.

You can use their search tool to and click “Redeem with miles” to search for award availability. Keep in mind, their site is only useful for checking reward availability, it won’t tell you how many Avios are required, or the taxes and fees – you’ll need the Book With Avios tool for that.

If you’re looking for Alaska Airlines award availability, remember, although they are partners with British Airways, they aren’t part of the Oneworld alliance, so you’ll have to visit their website directly to search.

7. Use the Book With Avios Online Tool

And lastly, to search for British Airways award availability and book your trip, use the “Book With Avios” tool in your Executive Club account. The known bugs on the British Airways website are well documented.

We’ve put together a detailed guide of how to book your flight using the Book with Avios online tool. You can also use this method for going through the process of booking your flight (without actually booking it) to see the taxes and fees.

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Sometimes I usually get stuck in an endless loop of the login page reloading if I try to use the “Check reward flight availability” tool. You’re not the only one it happens to you too, so be patient and try again later.
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Think of trying to book a reward ticket, much like purchasing a concert ticket on Ticketmaster. There’s a mad rush at the general onsale, and tickets may sell out right away. But the week, and the days leading up to the concert (your travel date), seats become available again. Like concerts, it’s very worth checking multiple times for reward availability, even if it’s last minute.

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