How to book American Airlines flights with Avios whilst ba.com is not working properly

In theory, booking American Airlines flights with British Airways Avios is very straightforward.

British Airways will show American Airlines flights on their booking system and you book them like any BA redemption.

However, ba.com once again has issues displaying American Airlines award availability. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now with no end date in sight.

The good news is that you can still book American Airlines Avios redemptions.  The bad news is that you need to do some research first and then call the BA call centre.  There are reports that the call centre can also struggle to see availability at times, but you do at least have a chance.

You will need to use the American Airlines website to find dates with available seats, which to be fair you should be doing anyway as their search system is easier to use and more advanced than the BA one.

How to find American Airlines business class availability

Here is a step-by-step to finding American Airlines reward availability via the AA website, which you can then call BA and ask them to book for you.

On the AA home page, enter your preferred flight details, select ‘Redeem Miles’ and click ‘Search’.  On a route flown by American and other carriers, you may want to go into ‘Advanced search’ and restrict the search to AA.

On the results page select select ‘Economy (or BusinessFirst or First) MilesAAver’ and ‘Full Calendar’.  You can only book MilesAAver redemptions using Avios – ignore the other options that the website offers.

There is one thing you need to know.  When you click on the coloured menu options, eg First MilesAAver, you will see results in two colours.  Only days showing the same colour as the menu bar are bookable.  Other days show one of the other available options, usually an AAnytime award which BA can’t book.

In my example, you want days showing 57,500 miles seats.  Click through and make sure that the flight offered is direct.  In this particular case, between New York and Heathrow, we recommend the 77W flights on new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft as these have by far the best seat.

Usually you would go over to ba.com at this point, plug in the same dates and the same flights will show.  But with the BA website currently not showing American Airlines flights you will need to give the BA call centre a call in order to book, with fingers crossed that they can get it to work.  Make sure to ask them to remove the phone booking fee as the flights were not available to book online.

For clarity …. you do NOT pay 57,500 miles.  That is the price if you have AA miles.  You will, in this example, pay 60,000 Avios each way which is the one-way cost of an Avios business class redemption from London to New York.  Remember that all American Airlines flights are charged at peak day Avios pricing.

Hopefully this method can help you get around the current inability to book American Airlines redemptions online.

This is also a useful method if you are looking for American Airlines redemptions domestically as the AA website will often suggest flight combinations which ba.com does not spot.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 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.

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Avios. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Avios. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

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