Spending British Airways rewards

I did the 100,000 miles promo, and would like to cash in. I have some questions:

1. Am I right that the miles are called Avios? You spend them by signing into BA's website, then click on Spend Avios / book flights?

2. Every flight I try to book has nothing when doing the above. It seems nearly impossible for the handful of routes I picked.

3. Is it best to do through the website or call?

4. Any other advice?

Thanks

1. Yes

2. My experience as well. Its hard to find a flight that matches what you want exactly.

3. You can do everything through the website.

4. FYI, you can use the points for hotels as well. I just booked 3 nights at a 5* hotel and still have enough left over for 2 domestic flights.

You can use BA miles on partner airlines, such as American. Look on AA.com for milesaver availability then call BA to book.

AA flights are the way to go (Intl flights using BA have very high fees). I've used miles on AA for several trips all over US , to Hawaii, etc. I have always found good availability outside of the Christmas season (which is more AA's fault, not BA's)

If you don't mind me asking what is your home airport?

nic3456 said:   AA flights are the way to go (Intl flights using BA have very high fees). I've used miles on AA for several trips all over US , to Hawaii, etc. I have always found good availability outside of the Christmas season (which is more AA's fault, not BA's)

If you don't mind me asking what is your home airport?

Boston is the home airport

wilked said:   DSJ said:   Recently booked 2 Y seats ORD-PHX 7 days out on ba.com. 20000 Avios ea RT. $5 fee. Seat selection on AA.com. Boarding passes printed @ 24hrs out with PRIORITY ACCESS. Normally $9 ea when purchased from AA.

Redeeming points/miles off-peak...priceless.

Hmm, maybe I am just hitting the wrong airports. I was trying to book to Columbus OH, which does not appear to be easily done with AA

They don't fly that route (CMH-BOS), unfortunately. You'd have to connect through JFK or Chicago.

Just FYI: British Airways does not have 24-hour customer support. Learned this the hard way when we were stranded in Kona and American wouldn't help us (because we booked through BA), but BA support was closed.

GreenQueen said:   When do the miles expire? Did the conversion to Avios buy you any extra time?

The only coast to coast flights I could find were Monday departures

2 years from last activity

manuvns said:   GreenQueen said:   When do the miles expire? Did the conversion to Avios buy you any extra time?

The only coast to coast flights I could find were Monday departures

2 years from last activity

Its 3 years (36 months)

Last two(I think) - If I wanted to go to SFO, then, my best bet is to book BOS-ORD, and then ORD-SFO separately (and vice versa coming back)?

And...I don't want to pay another annual fee on this card. If I cancel in June, will I retain my miles for the remainder of the term before they expire (ie, will I retain them with the card canceled)?

wilked said:   Last two(I think) - If I wanted to go to SFO, then, my best bet is to book BOS-ORD, and then ORD-SFO separately (and vice versa coming back)?

And...I don't want to pay another annual fee on this card. If I cancel in June, will I retain my miles for the remainder of the term before they expire (ie, will I retain them with the card canceled)?

I personally would book the BOS-ORD-SFO together and then separately book the SFO-ORD-BOS. I haven't ever split it up going one direction (not sure if you would have hassles with your baggage, like if they sent it to the baggage claim outside security in ORD

The miles will be totally separate from the card. You might lose any pending points (from spend on your credit card, not 100% sure), but anything currently sitting in your BA account will remain. Also anytime you redeem or earn more miles your 36 months for expiration will reset.

Go to thepointsguy.com he has a ton of information on how to book British Airways and partner airlines using avios.

I did the same promo and before the rules changed in November got a very nice deal to South America 3 RT flights for like $400 and 70K miles.

Now the best option is to book flights around the US. You can get 4 roundtrip flights for 25K a pop I believe. BOS-SFO or anywhere else in the states.

BGALLTHAT said:   Few tips. Do not call to book, you will have to pay $25. Can be done online, use AA.com to check availability. All saver economy flights are whats available on BA. DO NOT book flights going from USA to europe or vise versa. You will pay $500+ in taxes. rip off. Use your miles on inter USA flights. Some short-haul flights are CHEAP. Specifically ones with no connections. CLE-NYC CLE-ORD 9k roundtrip. CLE-MIA 15k roundtrip. Check AA route map for non-stops. OR use miles for inter EUROPE, or flights to Asia.

I have been looking for a way to book online without calling... was trying LAX-ORD for March 18 on BA site and got
"There is no availability on Sunday 18 March 2012. Your options are to:
•Use the links below to search earlier or later
•Purchase a ticket for money"

on AA site I see the flights available for 25k points.

What am I doing wrong? Which site should I place the booking to use the BA miles?
TIA

Polash said:   BGALLTHAT said:   
on AA site I see the flights available for 25k points.



Search ba.com for 2 one-ways.

Polash said:   BGALLTHAT said:   Few tips. Do not call to book, you will have to pay $25. Can be done online, use AA.com to check availability. All saver economy flights are whats available on BA. DO NOT book flights going from USA to europe or vise versa. You will pay $500+ in taxes. rip off. Use your miles on inter USA flights. Some short-haul flights are CHEAP. Specifically ones with no connections. CLE-NYC CLE-ORD 9k roundtrip. CLE-MIA 15k roundtrip. Check AA route map for non-stops. OR use miles for inter EUROPE, or flights to Asia.

I have been looking for a way to book online without calling... was trying LAX-ORD for March 18 on BA site and got
"There is no availability on Sunday 18 March 2012. Your options are to:
•Use the links below to search earlier or later
•Purchase a ticket for money"

on AA site I see the flights available for 25k points.

What am I doing wrong? Which site should I place the booking to use the BA miles?
TIA

Make sure those AA 25K flights are the roundtrip price not each way. You will only be able to book using BA Avios if AA has them available for 12.5K/each way (domestic US)

BA has lots of first class avail esp to london

nic3456 said:   Here are some options I see -
I always book the outbound and return flight separately that way if you have to change one you don't have to worry about messing with the other segment (BA allows date and time changes for free, at least when using AA). Also if you cancel the flight you are only out your $5, they don't charge any other fees for domestic)

There is some availabilty on the BOS-CMH route on AA.com so not sure why it isn't showing on BA....
I find this also when booking a flight on another partner airline. BA told me that the partner airline does not make all their seats available to BA when you use BA's (or another airline's) web site. I guess the airlines want to make more seats available for people using their own points.

BGALLTHAT said:   nic3456 said:   Here are some options I see -
I always book the outbound and return flight separately that way if you have to change one you don't have to worry about messing with the other segment (BA allows date and time changes for free, at least when using AA). Also if you cancel the flight you are only out your $5, they don't charge any other fees for domestic)



What? Date and time changes for free? Cancelling you are only out $5?
I had to pay $40 to change a time. It seems that changing date/time is $40. Cancelling is $40, but you get your miles back. Please correct me if I am wrong. I am referring to using miles on BA and flying AA which I did.

I know there used to be no change fee (but last time I changed was before the Avios change, so that could have changed)

However on the canceling there's no fee assuming you didn't pay a lot of taxes, etc. So for example if you paid $5 in Taxes and cancel you just lose the $5, they don't come looking for more. If you cancel a flight that had say $100 in taxes/fees then they would take the $40 out of that so you would get back $60 (but I haven't had to do that yet). When you had to pay the $40 how much in taxes did you pay? and did you call in to cancel?

nic3456 said:   BGALLTHAT said:   nic3456 said:   Here are some options I see -
I always book the outbound and return flight separately that way if you have to change one you don't have to worry about messing with the other segment (BA allows date and time changes for free, at least when using AA). Also if you cancel the flight you are only out your $5, they don't charge any other fees for domestic)



What? Date and time changes for free? Cancelling you are only out $5?
I had to pay $40 to change a time. It seems that changing date/time is $40. Cancelling is $40, but you get your miles back. Please correct me if I am wrong. I am referring to using miles on BA and flying AA which I did.

I know there used to be no change fee (but last time I changed was before the Avios change, so that could have changed)

However on the canceling there's no fee assuming you didn't pay a lot of taxes, etc. So for example if you paid $5 in Taxes and cancel you just lose the $5, they don't come looking for more. If you cancel a flight that had say $100 in taxes/fees then they would take the $40 out of that so you would get back $60 (but I haven't had to do that yet). When you had to pay the $40 how much in taxes did you pay? and did you call in to cancel?

I booked a flight flying on AA cost $5 in taxes. Different flight came available with better time so I called to change time and paid $40. You are telling me that all i had to do was cancel, pay $5, and rebook? Can anyone else confirm this or show me in writing? I was under assumption that to cancel its $40 to get miles redeposited either way

I just did a mock cancellation and confirmed you only lose your taxes/fees for those under $40.

It didn't copy very well, but here's the verbiage from the website:

Flights eligible for refund
Mr Nic3456 + 1 Adult
Booking reference: XXXXXX
Flight From To Depart Arrive Class
AA2065 Dallas Ft Worth (TX) (Dallas) Denver International (CO) Friday XX XXX 2012 08:40 Friday
XX XXX 2012
09:40 World Traveller Plus
Refund breakdown
Cash
Refunded fare per person Refunded taxes per person Total refund per person Total
2 Adults $ 0.00 $ 2.50 $ 2.50 $ 5.00
Less cancellation fee of $ 2.50 per person $ -5.00
TOTAL CASH REFUND DUE $ 0.00
COST OF CANCELLATION $ 0.00

Avios
Total Avios to be refunded 9000
About your refund
•Where the standard cancellation fee is greater than the amount due for a refund, it will be reduced to reflect this amount. You will not be charged any extra amount for this cancellation.
•Avios and any applicable evouchers will be refunded to your account.

So it definitly makes sense to cancel if you can't change for free, but you would need enough miles to float the 2 trips while changing and there would have to be availability.

mnuffin said:   Is there any way to search for OneWorld partner flights when there are BA flights available? The only time I see "use partners" during my search is when there are no flights available through BA. I'd like to do an international trip out of BOS to either Hong Kong, Tokyo, or Paris, but it keeps connecting me through LHR via BA.

I'm pretty sure using BA miles partner flights are only allowed when there are no BA flights available.