Hi I have a question for you. I ve been searching in the November and December time frame for flight

A friend asked me if I could do a post on using British Airways Avios for flying on American Airlines flights. It may seem counterintuitive, but there are times when you want to use one type of airline mile to fly on one of its alliance partners. In this case, British Airways and American radisson hotels florida are Oneworld partners, and you can save some miles by using BA Avios in the right instances. Here s how:
The key to using Avios is to use them at the right times. There are two factors that make this tricky. radisson hotels florida The first is that British Airways charges fuel surcharges on a lot of their flights, making award redemptions lose a lot less valuable (because you still have to pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket. The second is that Avios are distance based so the amount of Avios needed to redeem an award ticket depend on the amount of miles you are traveling. You also need to add up the distances of  every  leg you use so it s best to look for nonstop flights.
Avoiding fuel surcharges is easy:  British Airways will not charge fuel surcharges on  domestic American Airlines flights. radisson hotels florida So you want to redeem your Avios for domestic AA flights. To determine whether radisson hotels florida it is worth it to redeem Avios over AA miles (assuming you have a choice), you need to determine the distance you will travel on your trip. Peak American Airlines redemptions will run you 25,000 AA miles for a domestic roundtrip within the continental U.S., and 45,000 AA miles to go to Hawaii. So if your cost in Avios is less than those two numbers then Avios are a better deal.
As you can see, a one way trip of 2615 miles costs 12,500 Avios in economy. That means the round trip to Hawaii would cost 25,000 Avios, which is 20,000 miles cheaper than it d be if you used AA miles on the same flights! This represents great value and is a clear example of when you should use Avios. Unfortunately, radisson hotels florida first class would cost 75,000 Avios (British Airways takes the economy cost and multiples by 2 for business radisson hotels florida and by 3 for first). This does not represent a better value than AA miles, since on AA it would cost 75,000 AA miles in first, so it s a push. This is unfortunate because flying to Hawaii is domestic first, which airlines generally tend to treat the same as business class, but British radisson hotels florida Airways is still considering it first. Still, since it s a push you re not losing value by redeeming for first to Hawaii radisson hotels florida using Avios; one could argue you are still coming out ahead since Avios are generally considered radisson hotels florida less valuable than AA miles.
Once you ve decided where you want to go, it s time to search for award availability. I actually radisson hotels florida recommend you go to AA s website first even though you are ultimately going to redeem through britishairways.com. That s because AA will show you a month s worth of availability while British Airways only shows a week at a time. The nice thing is, you don t even need to log in, just input your cities radisson hotels florida and dates on AA s main page and check the redeem miles box.
You want to be looking for MileSAAver space, which just means click the box on the far left. October radisson hotels florida is actually off-peak time, so travel to Hawaii is a little cheaper using AA miles (35K roundtrip), but still more expensive than using Avios. Anyway, as you can see, there is no availability on the date I put in (Oct 8), but there is from 10/27 to 10/31 (I guess nobody goes to Hawaii for Halloween?). The return calendar, which I haven t reproduced, said there is space from 11/2 to 11/7 coming home. Once you ve chosen your dates, it s time to load up the British Airways website to book your flights.
As you can see, the final cost is 25,000 Avios and $5.00 per person round trip. Compare this to the 35,000 AA miles you d have to pay off-peak radisson hotels florida (like the dates I ve chosen), or the 45,000 AA miles you d have to pay on peak! After this page you just input your traveler information radisson hotels florida and credit card and then you re good to go! British Airways will give you a confirmation code. After you get an e-ticket it s a good idea to call American to confirm your flights and choose seats as well sometimes there are mix-ups between partners though that s rare with BA and AA.
I ve already highlighted what I think is the best redemption using Avios flying to Hawaii from the west coast on American. This basically works from any west coast city American flies to Hawaii just input your airport code into wikipedia, click Airlines and Destinations , and see which airports American flies to in Hawaii from your home airport. Remember, you are looking for  direct flights because every segment is going to add to your total distance (and Avios cost). You might be able to sneak in a hop to LAX from SFO or something like that, but make sure you use gcmap to calculate the total mileage (britishairways.com will do that for you too). Make sure you do all your calculations radisson hotels florida to make sure you are getting the best deal.
The other great redemption using Avios on AA is short hops on the east coast. If I wanted to fly from Boston to JFK, it d cost me a couple hundred dollars for a revenue ticket, or the same 25,000 AA miles it d cost me to fly all the way to LA! But if I throw BOS-JFK into gcmap.com:
Looking at the Avios distance chart, this will cost me 4500 Avios each way or 9000 Avios round trip. That s a steal! Even if I found a cheap round trip flight for $150, I d still be getting 1.67 cents per Avios. This can really help if you need a last minute flight for an emergency. And of course radisson hotels florida this doesn t only work on the East Coast, you can do West Coast hops as well, again, use gcmap.com to determine your total distance.
In case you don t have any Avios, they are actually pretty easy to earn so I ll just touch on it shortly here. You could apply for Chase s British Airways Visa that will earn you 50,000 Avios (trip for two to Hawaii from the West Coast!) Currently they are waiving radisson hotels florida the annual fee for the first year.
You can also transfer to Avios from both the Membership Rewards program (AMEX Green, Gold, or Platinum) or the Ultimate Rewards program radisson hotels florida (Chase Sapphire Preferred and Ink Cards). That means if you have high balances in either program and need to top off your Avios balance, that s always an option.
Avios can represent a great value and belong in any serious points enthusiasts portfolio. Even if you just have one redemption in mind, it is worth checking out your options with Avios because you might be able to get great value out of it. For example, I could apply for the Citi AA Visa right now and earn 40,000 AA miles which wouldn t even get one person to Hawaii and back, or I could apply for the British Airways Visa and get 50,000 Avios which could get two people to Hawaii and back on the same flights. Hope this helps and happy travels!
I think it depends radisson hotels florida on a lot of things. SPG points are generally considered more valuable than Avios, but value is also in the eye of the beholder. I definitely think AMEX Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards are more ideal transfer partners, but if I had a ton of SPG points I would definitely consider that option as well.
Hi I have a question for you. I ve been searching in the November and December time frame for flights from LAX to LIH as well as OGG. On AA web site there is a lot of availability for milesaver flights for several dates in those months but then when I log in to BA to search those same dates it doesn t bring up any availability. Has something changed with the ability to book AA flights using British Avios? Thanks.
I did a quick search. It looks like all the space on aa.com is Alaska Airlines space. Alaska is a partner of AA but not British Airways which is why you don t see the space. So I think if you find an AA flight on AA, it should still show on britishairways.com. Let me know if you have any other questions!
radisson hotels florida Disclaimer asthejoeflies and the Saverocity Network is Journalistic in Nature, please obtain Professional Representation prior to attempting anything discussed herein. Opinions expressed radisson hotels florida here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.