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It’s back – the only FREE and fast Avios reward finding tool you need

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  It was eventually withdrawn.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When “Avios Flight Finder” was withdrawn, Tim’s site died as well.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

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.

Comments (153)

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

  • SK says:

    OT, I have just applied for a free BA Amex card and am awaiting for the decision. If I were to upgrade to the Premium paid BA Amex card, will I get the extra bonus ie, 25,000 avios instead of 5,000 or is it too late to upgrade and get the bonus for the premium card as I have already started the application process?

    • Rob says:

      If you ring Amex they will say No, you can’t, because you have probably already been accepted (they just haven’t told you yet) and so you technically have a BA card and so technically need to cancel the free one and wait 6 months. Whether this would work out in practice I don’t know but that is what they tell people when this happens.

    • Polly says:

      If you have just done it in the last day or it might not have yet got to the processing point. We halted a downgrade for my daughter recently by calling up, and put a delay on it. We needed the BAPP insurance cover for a trip. So l would call them ASAP and see where the application is. Definitely worth a call. Shame to miss out on the higher bonus.

      • Genghis says:

        What benefits of the BAPP travel insurance were you relying on? From memory it’s v limited.

        • Polly says:

          We had booked the kids flights on BAPP, so wanted to keep,the card until their trip finished. Covers l think missed connections etc..bags. Agree,mitsnnotmgreat but was enough cover for them. Now dropped down to BACC anyway until it’s time for my referral to BAPP.

  • hotaeke says:

    OT: Do you get free breakfast through Hilton Gold on the Conrad St James in London?

    • Rob says:

      Yes, Waldorf Astoria doesn’t give free brekky but Conrad does.

      • hotaeke says:

        Thanks for taking the time to reply, Rob, To top it off, can you ask for a room upgrade when enjoying a reward night (through Hilton Visa £750 spend)?

        • Axel Heyst says:

          Yes, once you’ve made the booking and it’s on your hilton reservations account you will probably an upgrade offer that is slightly better that what is available to the general public.

          I’ve done it on a reward night booking at Park Lane

          • Cate says:

            We liked the Park Lane very much even though the exec lounge needs a bit of TLC. We were at the Conrad a few weeks ago and we’ve stayed at better travelodges….

          • Geoff says:

            Brilliant Cate! LOL

    • Talay says:

      I used 2 x vouchers for Conrad St James (his and hers) back to back with a paid night (and a £50 off £150 Amex offer or something).

      I know London, used to live near in Pimlico and asked for an upgrade. Nothing free but we got a suite (could have been a large junior) with separate living room and a bed for junior plus Exec lounge and (importantly) full breakfast on all 3 days for only 2 nights of upgrade at about £60 or so each night ?

      As breakfast for one would have run half of that and we made good use of the Exec lounge it was a steal.

      I’d pick up the phone and call them to be honest, followed by an email.

  • Rob says:

    OT – does anyone know how much 33,000 IHG Rewards points is worth. I’m trying to figure out if its worth me hitting my Accelerate target with a one night stay at a hotel which will cost be around £85.00.

    • Allan says:

      I’d say that is worth it. Just did a stay for £45 to hit my accelerate bonus.
      Depends how you spend them though.

    • Genghis says:

      0.4p min so say £132. I’d be looking at £80 mattress run to make it worth your while.

    • Peter K says:

      Is agree that it depends on how you spend them. You’ll get back 0.25-0.4p per point back. So at worst you’ll break even at £85.

      • Rob says:

        Thanks for replies. If I have the following Accelerator challenges, do they stack?
        I have stay once, get 1000 points, Book Bonus Points package, get 3600 points, spend $39 on food and beverage, get 900 points. I get my overall bonus of 25,000 for completing four of five challenges, of which I already have one with the sign up for the IHG credit card.
        So I was thinking that if i stay one night booked on Bonus Points package rate and eat in the restaurant in the evening to said value, that should count as 3 challenges ticked off from one stay and the larger bonus should be achieved. . Am I correct in the way I’m thinking?

        • Genghis says:

          Yes. But bear in mind the $39 F&B is excl. VAT and at a rubbish internal exchange rate. Perhaps expect to spend close to £40 (allowing for VAT and a 10% difference in exchange rate to current spot).

    • John says:

      I think you should work it out based on what you could redeem for. With 30000 points you could get 3 nights in a 10000 point hotel. If there is a 10K hotel you need to stay at, it doesn’t matter what the paid rates are, you have basically bought 3 nights there for £85.

      2 nights at a 15000 point hotel is also good, 1.5 nights at a 20K point hotel is starting to push it for me. If you only want to redeem for 30K+ hotels then you need to work out how much you value your time, and whether those hotels are really worth that much, and whether you think the mattress run itself has any value (e.g. If you would really have paid £25 for themattress run, then the points are actually only costing you £60)

  • boi says:

    OT:
    Has anyone successfully managed to get a payment card from Scottish power to use at the coop? I hate not being able to use amex for any bill.

  • @mkcol says:

    Just to add that if you do sign up to the elite version you can run multiple queries at once, in case you’re keeping your eye on various routes.

    • Tim Rogers says:

      You can run multiple queries with the free version too actually – but I really appreciate the financial support of taking the elite membership, and in return, you’ll get alerts up to once an hour so you’ll be ahead of the crowd!

      • @mkcol says:

        I seem to recall it was your site which helped me snag 2 x First to KUL when BA (re)launched the route.

  • Chris says:

    Does anyone know of a iberia redemptions free tool ?

    • Tim Rogers says:

      I’m not aware of anything similar for Iberia – but in due course I’ll look at adding support to this tool.

  • Bob says:

    This is good.
    Where does it get the data? I want to build something similar for travel inspiration.

  • Jonathan Martin says:

    Excellent news – I’ve signed up for £3 a month. About the price of a fancy coffee in my local Costa – yet the pleasure I’ll get from this site is far greater 🙂

    • Tim Rogers says:

      Thanks so much for your support Jonathan – it means a lot and helps to guarantee the future of the site.

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

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