Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What Jamie did right – and very, very wrong – when he booked his Indonesia holiday on Avios

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Over the last couple of weeks we have run a series of flight reviews from Jamie’s recent month-long holiday in Asia.  The majority of the international flights were booked with Avios.

Before we go on, I should say that I wasn’t involved in the booking of this trip and didn’t know he was going until I got an email offering me the reviews.  You’ll see why I said that in a minute!

As a reminder, this is what he flew:

Heathrow – Kuala Lumpur, British Airways Club World – reviewed here – 105,000 Avios one-way (peak date)

Kuala Lumpur – Jakarta, Malaysia Airlines Business – reviewed here – 15,000 Avios one-way

Bali – Doha, Qatar Airways Business – reviewed here – 75,000 Avios one-way

Doha – Gatwick, Qatar Airways Business – reviewed here – 60,000 Avios one-way

In theory, this itinerary should have cost him 255,000 Avios.  In reality, Jamie only paid 200,000 Avios.

This is why.

Welcome to the Avios multi-partner redemption chart

99% of British Airways Avios collectors do not know that BA also has a second redemption chart.

I bet that most of you have never seen this chart before (click to enlarge):

OneWorld Avios redemption chart

You can see the original by clicking here to ba.com and scrolling down to click on ‘Partner Airlines’ and then ‘Avios costs for booking on two or more oneworld airlines’.

This is the reward chart that British Airways uses to price redemptions which include two or more oneworld partner airlines, excluding British Airways (although BA can be included on an itinerary).

The chart is for economy travel.  Multiply by two for business class and by three for first class.

Let’s take a look at Jamie’s itinerary

Because Jamie’s itinerary used two oneworld airlines, plus British Airways, he could use the multi-partner Avios redemption chart to price his trip.

Let’s look at the flights again:

  • Heathrow – Kuala Lumpur (6593 miles)
  • Kuala Lumpur – Jakarta (699 miles)
  • Bali – Doha (4873 miles)
  • Doha – Gatwick (3244 miles)

This is a total of 15,409 miles.  You can get exact distance figures from gcmap.com – click on ‘Distance’ and use airport codes, eg ‘LHR-KUL’.

Look at the multi-carrier Avios reward chart.  15,409 miles falls into the 100,000 Avios band (14,000 – 20,000 miles flown) for Economy.  We double that for Business Class.

This is why Jamie only paid 200,000 Avios for his trip, and not the 255,000 Avios that it would otherwise have cost if he had booked it one flight at a time.

Except:

He made a BIG mistake

Look again at the reward chart.

Jamie’s trip was 15,409 miles.  He paid 200,000 Avios, which was the cost for trips of between 14,001 and 20,000 miles.

This means he could have added an additional trip of up to 4,591 miles for FREE.

Well, not quite free because taxes and charges would have been due, but no additional Avios would have been required.  He could have added on:

a one-way in Club World from London to Miami (4425 miles)

or

a return in Club Europe to Athens (3020 miles) AND a return in Club Europe to Berlin (1180 miles)

or

a one-way in Club World to Delhi (4191 miles)

….. or many other options – for no additional Avios!

So …. well done to Jamie for remembering to ring BA and book his itinerary via the multi-carrier redemption chart, which saved him 55,000 Avios.  But a slap on the wrist for missing out on the chance to add a couple of future trips onto his itinerary for no extra Avios …..

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, oneworld alliance partners

Comments (168)

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

  • Richard says:
    11 Dec11 December 13:22

    Rob, having booked a few of these , I think for balance it should be pointed out that as the itineraries get more complicated it can be difficult both to book or make changes. The BA call centres are poorly trained on this product and in some cases , may have never heard of it , let alone understanding how it functions. And I’m using the GGL line.

    I know this shouldn’t be a disincentive but sadly it’s true and can add many hours of frustration to using this product.

    • BJ says:
      11 Dec11 December 13:57

      Never used it myself but it is tempting. Can the itinerary include overland travel between arrival and departure airports? If so, I guess those could be useful to add flexibility and ease problens any changes to plans might cause.

    • Andy Sparrow says:
      11 Dec11 December 14:34

      Good luck with anything involving BA call centres. Went to Munich last week, booked as flight and hotel combined on BA holidays. Called to see what the LHR- MUC flight would cost to upgrade to Club Europe. Both times had to hang on for ages. First time told 3750 avoid and £13, 2nd time told 4500 avoid and £50 each. After a few hours I did get told they would honour lower amount but still saying first person was wrong. Not quite on topic but worth knowing. I was 4th person served and already there was no choice of food. Told I was having sandwiches not the ploughmans, average at best.

      • Alex Sm says:
        11 Dec11 December 22:45

        Why did you call for the second time and didn’t book on the first??? Looks like they function like a search engine when you search for the same flight for too many times, it’s just going up in price and you just need to go incognito

    • Alex Sm says:
      11 Dec11 December 22:47

      How do you actually book this? Do you need to do a multi-city itinerary straight away? But it’s so difficult to hold all the moving pieces together…

  • youngtraveller says:
    11 Dec11 December 13:24

    I wanted to ask this question for a while just to see if it was a good deal or not. I found a premium economy OW from Singapore to LHR for 45500avios+165GBP is this a good deal? Alternatively would of paid for Economy with ba or singapore or qantas which would of been at least 482.60 gbp

    Thanks

    • BJ says:
      11 Dec11 December 13:50

      If your travels are flexible and you are interested in seeing other places you could fly up to BKK and do the same from there for 39k avios if you can find availability. From BKK you can fly business on Finnair to Helsinki for 60k and then on to UK in economy. One way cash flight from BKK-CMB-LHR is around £800 and earns avios and TP, stopovers in Sri Lanka are possible. As it stsnds though, yes, I think I’d personally much rather do the 45k plus cash to sit in WTP as opposed to economy all the way from SIN.

  • Joe says:
    11 Dec11 December 13:48

    I’d love to see more articles like this

  • Alex says:
    11 Dec11 December 14:35

    Great article, would also love to see more of these.

  • Clarence says:
    11 Dec11 December 15:05

    A bit o/t but does anyone know how long it takes for Groupon Spain to post points to Iberia Plus

    • Neil says:
      11 Dec11 December 15:18

      It took 5 working days in my case and I bought the points only 2 weeks ago.

    • Anna says:
      11 Dec11 December 16:01

      Let us know if you get yours, I’m still a bit dubious about whether they will post as they don’t seem to send you any sort of confirmation!

      • Neil Donoghue says:
        11 Dec11 December 16:10

        Hi Anna – I’ve already received mine. I felt the exact same but they magically appeared in my Iberia account after 5 working days.

  • LewisB says:
    11 Dec11 December 15:54

    OT – had supplementary card pushes from my BAPP and Amex Gold. I understand it’s free for my BAPP but It’s not clear for the Amex Gold. I’ve only had this one for two months, I can’t quite work out from the T&Cs if it’s free or £45? Offered 3,000points for each. Would Amex do a credit check on the supplementary holder?

    • Anna says:
      11 Dec11 December 16:00

      I’ve never been charged, I think the first supplementary is free. It’s counted as your account so no credit check.

      • LewisB says:
        11 Dec11 December 16:00

        Fantastic. Thanks for the prompt response! Where would we all be without this comment section eh?

  • GJS says:
    11 Dec11 December 16:16

    OT – but a few of you have mentioned Lloyds today:

    My Avios posted in my BA account for the first time in November, but 1,400 extra points arrived in my defunct Avios account today labelled ‘Lloyds Bank Manual Adjustment Award’. Anyone else have these?

    My monthly accruals have been correct and I don’t have any outstanding complaints with Lloyds, so this is a nice bonus. Obviously I transferred them out straight away.

  • Prins Polo says:
    11 Dec11 December 17:55

    From my experience – taxes are a mystery, booking is painful, agents are not knowledgeable. You can include one overland sector (which can be between different continents); some people have reported squeezing in two overland sectors. If you’re booking J all the way but one sector is only available in Y, you can still add it (it won’t affect the total price which will be charged at J rates), and then upgrade to J if availability appears (no surcharge in miles, but need to pay difference in taxes).

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