How to book low tax redemptions with US Airways

This series of articles covers the best ways to get maximum use for your Avios points.  Other articles look at, for example, airberlin, TAM and Iberia amongst others.  All of these airlines charge a fraction of the taxes and surcharges asked by British Airways for redemptions on their planes.

Save money by redeeming on US Airways

US Airways joined the oneworld alliance on 31 March 2014.  If you are keen to minimise the amount you pay in tax and fuel surcharges, they offer an interesting option.

These are the routes currently flown by US Airways from the UK and Ireland.  All require 80,000 Avios in Business Class.

Take a look at the taxes number (these figures all relate to Business Class return flights – remember that BA would want roughly £550 for a BA or AA flight):

Dublin to Philadelphia – £28 (says £49 then reprices, see screenshot)

London to Charlotte – £194 (say £215 then reprices)

London to Philadelphia – struggled to find but imagine as above

Manchester to Charlotte – £165 (says £186 then reprices)

Manchester to Philadelphia – £165 (says £186 then reprices)

Edinburgh to Philadelphia – £162 (says £185 then reprices)

Glasgow to Philadelphia – £161 (says £170 then reprices)

US also flies Dublin to Charlotte and Shannon to Philadelphia over the Summer.

Now, you may never have wanted to go to these places.  However, US Airways has major hubs in Philadelphia and Charlotte, and can connect you from there to pretty much anywhere else you want to go.

Philadelphia, in particular, is close to New York and the East Coast and it is an easy connection by air or rail.

It is worth noting that the taxes are especially low if you are just flying TO the UK from the USA.  Charlotte to Heathrow has tax of just £1!  Compare that to £260 for a one-way British Airways redemption from the US in Club World.  This is the same £1 price that airberlin charges for one-way business class redemptions from the US to Germany.

The easiest way to search for US Airways availability is to use the usairways.com website.  You don’t even need to log-in to search for miles seats.  Make sure you tick the ‘US flights only’ box and the ‘use miles’ and ‘direct flights’ boxes. 

If the US website shows availability at the 50,000 mile level then ba.com should be able to pull up the same seat.

Ignore any days where US wants a higher figure – these are premium awards which you cannot book with Avios.  Make sure you click through from the calendar to the summary page on usairways.com to double-check that business class seats are there – sometimes it shows availability at the 50k level when it actually involves a connection.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.