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Those of you with long memories may remember the short lived “Avios Flight Finder” app.  This was an official app from Avios Group which was meant to be a quick way of checking reward seats on British Airways flights.  The problem was that it used cached data, and the results it showed were not accurate.  It was eventually withdrawn.

Smartphones were less common at that point (2014) so Head for Points reader Tim created “BA Redemption Finder”.  This sat at www.baredemptionfinder.com and was a desktop site.  It used the same data feed that Avios was using for its app, so it suffered from the same issues over accuracy.  However, it was lightning fast.

EDIT, March 2022: If you found this article via Google, hello!  Since we published it, ‘BA Redemption Finder’ has become ‘Reward Flight Finder’ – the links below still work.  We now recommend that you look at SeatSpy – see this HfP article – which is more comprehensive and usually more accurate in its BA data.

Avios wing 11

When “Avios Flight Finder” was withdrawn, Tim’s site died as well.

Now it’s back, using the BA app data feed.  “BA Redemption Finder” is, easily, the quickest way of checking Avios availability for British Airways flights.

The best bit is the site is free.  It is a website not an app, but is optimised for both mobile and desktop.

It is simplicity itself.  Type in where you want to fly from, where you want to fly to, how many seats and what cabin and you will see – instantly – full availability for the next 355 days.  On mobile it looks like this:

BA Redemption Finder

Here are some results for two Club World seats from Heathrow to Tokyo – on the actual site, you get the full year on one scrolling screen.  The left column is outbound, the right is return:

BA Redemption Finder 1

and

BA Redemption Finder 2

It gets even better.  You can set up email alerts.   Set a date range, route, class and number of passengers and you will be notified when seats become available.

There are a few issues with the site, but none are major:

It cannot handle connections, only direct point to point searches

It does not show oneworld partner airlines – so it is best used to check availability when you want to use an Amex 2-4-1 voucher.  If you are not using a 2-4-1 voucher you should use ba.com instead as it will show you Qatar, Finnair, Royal Jordanian, American etc as well.

There is still a slight delay on the data feed, but very modest – Tim said no more than an hour

It does not show the extra economy Avios seats made available to BA Gold members

These are mainly trivial points, however, in the context of what is an amazingly fast and usable site.  It will take a while for me to be certain how accurate it is, but on the few checks I’ve done so far it has been fine.

You can take a look at BA Redemption Finder here.

The site is totally free to use.  Tim is happy to accept voluntarily monthly donations, and in return your availability queries will be checked hourly instead of daily – increasing the chances that you can grab any seats which open up.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (153)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mark Priest says:
    19 Aug19 August 06:14

    Just had a little play, what a fantastic and simple site.

    • Bertie says:
      19 Aug19 August 07:57

      SADLY UTTERLY USELESS
      put in Lon-lax and shows 16 22 and 24. How exciting as I have been looking for late sept for months. So excited shout to my partner to come over, our trip is finally on and whiz to BA.COM and nothing available. These haven’t just gone as I have been looking, so the site seems useless or worse, as raises expectations. I could understand a wrong date or two but all? I would so love a site where the dates you see available are the dates you get on BA.Com
      Head for Points you are normally a v useful, even wonderful, site but what are you doing publicising this, is it your usual small kickback, normallynyou at least take that for things that work, like credit cards. I would dearly love a BA redemption finder that worked, but this v sadly ain’t it.
      Anyone else?

      • Bertie says:
        19 Aug19 August 08:05

        Meant Octnot Sept, ie site is showing 16 22 24 Oct but nothing on BA for all Oct club and hasn’t been for ages so I am flying to SFO and driving down. Wonder why it doesn’t work as BA isn’t showing availability on AA either for any of those dates. Any thoughts?

        • @mkcol says:
          19 Aug19 August 11:31

          “Any thoughts?” you ask – yes many.

          I think you need a dose of ManUp & Get OverYourself.

        • the_real_a says:
          19 Aug19 August 12:23

          Are you sure you are not looking in the right hand column for “return” dates?

      • DV says:
        19 Aug19 August 08:09

        No, it’s just you.

      • Rob says:
        19 Aug19 August 10:59

        If you can think of a way that I can pay Anika’s salary by publicising a free tool that a reader has developed in his spare time, then let me know because sadly I have failed so far 🙂

      • Tim Rogers says:
        19 Aug19 August 15:45

        Sorry to hear you’re having trouble with the tool Bertie. I’ll look into it if you drop me an email at help@baredemptionfinder.com – that way I can get back to you with my results.

  • The Original Nick. says:
    19 Aug19 August 06:18

    Very Handy.

    • Tim Rogers says:
      19 Aug19 August 15:46

      Thanks Nick – hope you enjoy the tool, and do get in touch if you have any comments, questions or suggestions.

  • Paul says:
    19 Aug19 August 06:26

    Great tool. Works really well.

    • Tim Rogers says:
      19 Aug19 August 15:46

      Glad you like it Paul! Hearing how much people enjoy the tool makes all the hard work on it in my spare time worth it.

  • Nigel Huggins says:
    19 Aug19 August 06:31

    I like the reward seat finder, however if you search for a club class availability on a flight does it mean that uf it shows availability, you can either upgade withvavios from wt+ or does it just mean that the seat is available for full aviis redemption?

  • Erico1875 says:
    19 Aug19 August 06:35

    Brilliant.

  • mark2 says:
    19 Aug19 August 06:46

    Marvellous; that saves so much time and frustration.
    It is essential that we all pay the £3 per month; it is also useful for all those accounts opened to get the £100 which need direct debits.
    Worryingly it confirms at a glance what I was finding the hard way: availability in First to Vancouver ceases in May 18 although there are a surprising number of seats available before then

    • Tim Rogers says:
      19 Aug19 August 15:49

      Thanks so much for your kind words Mark – even if unfortunately the tool tends to expose poor availability! But nevertheless, it gives you the best chance possible of getting the few seats that are available.

      £3 a month from a bunch of people does make a huge contribution towards the upkeep of the tool, so it’s hugely appreciated and helps to guarantee its continued operation.

  • Rob says:
    19 Aug19 August 06:53

    Great site! Out of interest how does it work behind the scenes in terms of getting access to the data feed and why don’t BA provide something like this themselves?

    • Ralphy says:
      19 Aug19 August 07:55

      Rob they do. Using the BA app on Android, the BA Reward Flight Finder tool is excellent and will show all available Reward Flights for the coming year for all classes of service and number of people and then show return availability so I see no benefit in using this Redemption Finder site, it’s fast but too basic in its current form. I imagine Redemption Finder is hooking in to the same data that the BA Android app is hooking in to but really, the BA Android app is excellent and I’ve been using it for a while now.

      • Briandt says:
        19 Aug19 August 09:10

        I see what you mean…..it seems that the BA app actually gives more information as well, so i am now confused with this ‘other option’ ?

      • The_Real_A says:
        19 Aug19 August 12:04

        Its serves a purpose because i know many people prefer to do these things via a browser rather than a 4″ mobile screen. The BA tool requires you to be logged in, is very slow and you are faced with a timeout and re-login after a few minutes. So for quick planning purposes Tom`s tool would be my go to tool provided the accuracy is good.

        • Lady London says:
          19 Aug19 August 18:00

          I’ve also noticed when using BA’s website in recent months, because I have a lot of flights to book, after about the 3rd search the BA site has been insisting I complete captcha after captcha over and over again before I am allowed to proceed.

          I reluctantly started giving Ryanair and Easyjet a try again just less than a year ago and thank goodness those sites are happy to be searched and booked.

          I’d have booked a few more BA flights if I didn’t get such antics from their website especially if I’m logging in from one country in the morning and a different country in the evening. Apparently BA’s website has no idea how people do this and thinks it’s suspicious activity.

          • Polly says:
            19 Aug19 August 21:01

            I have had the very same annoyance with BA. Those capcha drive me absolutely mad. Even e Ryan air site is very slow tho. Somthismtool is really fast. Thanks Tim, will use it lots esp for F seats…

        • Ralphy says:
          20 Aug20 August 08:10

          Not true, my BA app on Android is permanently logged in. Both outbound and inbound flights show up on the same page on a timeline. I have a lot of criticisms of BA but their app for finding reward flights on BA metal is excellent.

          • Alan says:
            20 Aug20 August 13:08

            I find although I’m logged in to the app if I do a reward search I then have to login *again* to the BA website that appears within the app. Very poorly designed/frustrating.

      • Tim Rogers says:
        19 Aug19 August 15:50

        The data in my tool is the same as you’ll see in the BA app – but it’s much faster (95% of searches take less than half a second, compared to many seconds in the BA app), more versatile since you can use it on a PC, and crucially, I’ll send you alerts whenever availability changes.

        If you have any ideas on how I can make it better or more useful for you, just drop me an email at help@baredemptionfinder.com.

  • AndyR says:
    19 Aug19 August 07:00

    Hooray! This site was so useful, glad it’s back! Thanks Tim!

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