Which routes have the most and least Avios reward flight availability in Club World and First?

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Here is something to strike up a debate for your Monday morning. Which British Airways routes have the most and least Avios availability in Club World business class and First Class?

A couple of weeks ago a reader asked me if I’d ever analysed British Airways Avios reward availability by route. I hadn’t, but the email set me thinking and I thought I knew a man who could find out – Tim Rogers, who runs the Reward Flight Finder tool (rewardflightfinder.com).

Which routes have best and worse Avios availability

Tim pulled all of the Avios reward data on Reward Flight Finder and sent it over. I have taken the raw numbers and turned them into something easy to digest.

What you have below is very simple. It is a list of all British Airways long-haul destinations and the number of days (out of 355, the BA booking window) that you can get 2 x Club World or 2 x First Class seats for an Avios redemption FROM London.

I have run the results by volume and, separately, alphabetically. It is based on the position as of 10 days ago.

There are a few things to bear in mind when you look at these numbers:

BA guarantees 2 x Club World seats on every flight. If a route shows a very low number, it does NOT mean that seats were not released. It means that they were booked immediately, often the full 355 days in advance, and that this is a route where BA rarely releases more seats. (Remember that you can use rewardflightfinder.com to set up alerts so you are emailed when seats open up on your preferred route.)

This only looks at OUTBOUND seats from London. For low numbers, the situation is worse than it looks – if there are only 21 dates with two seats to Durban, for example, the chances of you finding two seats BACK from Durban when you want them are very low indeed.

The analysis takes no account of seasonality. There may be 140 days when you can fly to Dubai but 90 of them are in June, July and August when you probably don’t want to go.

The analysis takes no account of short notice availability. Sydney, for example, is often easy to get at short notice – last Wednesday, for example, there was Club World space for last Friday but nothing else until April!

If a route has First Class, you cannot add together the number of dates with 2 x Club World and 2 x First Class. If there are 50 days with 2 x Club World and 20 days with 2 x First Class, there are NOT 70 days you could potentially travel with a flat bed. It is more likely to be just a little over 50 days.

Some of these routes do not run every day, so you wouldn’t expect a big number in the first place.

We ran this analysis in September. Does the number of available seats change over the year?

Sydney is artificially low because it just looks at ‘through flights’ – there is marginally more space if you are willing to break your trip in Singapore

Remember that this analysis is based on two seats. Solo travellers have more choice, families less.

Here is the 1st version, ranked by Club World availability (out of 355 possible days):

City	2 x Business	2 x First
Accra	328	290
Abuja	320	244
Doha	310	47
New York	309	65
Boston	305	252
Lagos	300	185
Bahrain	283	49
Washington	278	15
Riyadh	270	23
Moscow	261	0
Jeddah	256	55
Beijing	234	99
Tel Aviv	231	87
Shanghai	229	153
Philadelphia	217	114
Chicago	211	47
Montreal	209
Toronto	208	15
Mumbai	205	12
Kuwait	203	40
Houston	201	37
Hyderabad	200
Baltimore	198
Chennai	191
Atlanta	188	34
Beirut	184
Austin	182	130
Seoul	176
Los Angeles	163	2
Mexico City	163	52
Rio De Janeiro	158
Amman	157
Cairo	157
Bengalaru	154
Delhi	153	24
Abu Dhabi	151	26
Dallas	149	58
Denver	148	95
Nashville	142	26
Dubai	140	15
Nairobi	138	103
Islamabad	133
Sao Paulo	133	112
Buenos Aires	131
Miami	125	33
Las Vegas	123	1
Pittsburgh	121
Johannesburg	118	31
Bermuda	116	85
New Orleans	106
San Jose (CA)	101
Barbados	94	40
Santiago	90	23
Kuala Lumpur	89	19
Seattle	77	17
Narita	69
San Francisco	69	0
Tokyo	69	37
Singapore	67	13
Orlando	64
Antigua	62
Vancouver	62	6
Tampa	56
Bangkok	55
San Diego	51	7
Kingston	47
Calgary	46
Hong Kong	44	4
St Lucia	43	9
Nassau	42
Grand Cayman	41
Port of Spain	33	9
Punta Cana	32
Charleston	31
Osaka	31
Turks and Caicos	27
Phoenix	23	4
St Kitts	23
Durban	21
Cancun	17
Mahe (Seychelles)	17	0
Sydney	14	3
Tobago	11
Grenada	9	0
San Jose (C’Rica)	9	3
Mauritius	7
Lima	5
Muscat	4	0
Cape Town	2	4
Male	0

This is the second version, ranked alphabetically by city:

City	2 x Business	2 x First
Abu Dhabi	151	26
Abuja	320	244
Accra	328	290
Amman	157
Antigua	62
Atlanta	188	34
Austin	182	130
Bahrain	283	49
Baltimore	198
Bangkok	55
Barbados	94	40
Beijing	234	99
Beirut	184
Bengalaru	154
Bermuda	116	85
Boston	305	252
Buenos Aires	131
Cairo	157
Calgary	46
Cancun	17
Cape Town	2	4
Charleston	31
Chennai	191
Chicago	211	47
Dallas	149	58
Delhi	153	24
Denver	148	95
Doha	310	47
Dubai	140	15
Durban	21
Grand Cayman	41
Grenada	9	0
Hong Kong	44	4
Houston	201	37
Hyderabad	200
Islamabad	133
Jeddah	256	55
Johannesburg	118	31
Kingston	47
Kuala Lumpur	89	19
Kuwait	203	40
Lagos	300	185
Las Vegas	123	1
Lima	5
Los Angeles	163	2
Mahe (Seychelles)	17	0
Male	0
Mauritius	7
Mexico City	163	52
Miami	125	33
Montreal	209
Moscow	261	0
Mumbai	205	12
Muscat	4	0
Nairobi	138	103
Narita	69
Nashville	142	26
Nassau	42
New Orleans	106
New York	309	65
Orlando	64
Osaka	31
Philadelphia	217	114
Phoenix	23	4
Pittsburgh	121
Port of Spain	33	9
Punta Cana	32
Rio De Janeiro	158
Riyadh	270	23
San Diego	51	7
San Francisco	69	0
San Jose (CA)	101
San Jose (C’Rica)	9	3
Santiago	90	23
Sao Paulo	133	112
Seattle	77	17
Seoul	176
Shanghai	229	153
Singapore	67	13
St Kitts	23
St Lucia	43	9
Sydney	14	3
Tampa	56
Tel Aviv	231	87
Tobago	11
Tokyo	69	37
Toronto	208	15
Turks and Caicos	27
Vancouver	62	6
Washington	278	15

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 Mastercard

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

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

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

Aston100 says:

30 Sep30 September 12:14

Sorry O/T:
I asked to cancel my wife’s BA PP Amex and got this message fro mthe live chat people:
“If you have earned a British Airways Companion Voucher, please be aware that Companion Voucher bookings must be made using the British Airways Card they were earned with. This is set in the Terms and Conditions on the Companion Voucher. Cancelling this Account may mean you are unable to redeem your Companion Voucher. ”
They also repeated the point that an unused companion voucher will be voided. Also that the payment of taxes etc for using a companion voucher has to be made with the very Amex card that the voucher was earnt through.

This sounds a bit different from what I’ve read on this site in recent times.
- Shoestring says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 12:22
  
  trust HfP, not BAPP CS
  - Shoestring says:
    
    30 Sep30 September 12:36
    
    you do need an Amex card (any) available to you, though
    - Pug206 says:
      
      30 Sep30 September 12:57
      
      Is this to pay the taxes with (or will any card do) pls?
      - Benylin says:
        
        30 Sep30 September 13:01
        
        You have to use any AMEX card to pay the taxes
      - Pug206 says:
        
        30 Sep30 September 13:11
        
        Thank you.
  - Aston100 says:
    
    30 Sep30 September 13:48
    
    OK but you can understand my hesitation when the words of warning and references to t&cs is coming from the customer services of the card provider.
    - Shoestring says:
      
      30 Sep30 September 13:55
      
      Absolutely
      
      Probably 100+ hfp regulars have been told the same as you and got nervous but nobody here has ever got the bad outcome
    - Craig says:
      
      30 Sep30 September 14:12
      
      I was one of those nervous people, cancelled 5 weeks ago and the voucher is still sitting there waiting to be used. Supplementary card on a different account will be used to pay the fees.
      - Aston100 says:
        
        30 Sep30 September 14:51
        
        That is reassuring, thanks.
    - Rob says:
      
      30 Sep30 September 17:19
      
      No, if you read this site regularly you’ll realise that the LAST place you should go for information is the customer services of the airline / hotel / card provider …..
- 1nfrequent says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 17:50
  
  I just did a BA Companion redemption booking using a Gold Amex. The chap on the phone didn’t care about whether it was the BA Amex (literally told me that as long as it was an Amex the system would allow it).
  
  1F
Simon says:

30 Sep30 September 12:17

O/T as no Bits — Marriott: does anyone know if you can use your free SPG (25,000 point max hotel) night certificate IN TANDEM with a Suite Night Award? I have 9 of these to use before year-end, which I’ll not achieve. Usually, at participating hotels, once a booking has been made you would notice a “Use your Suite Night Award?” query within the booking itself, but, in making a dummy booking with my free night certificate yesterday at a Renaissance hotel, no such SNA offer was noticeable within the booking… does anyone know if these stack? Certainly, SNAs are doable on redemption bookings — I used one at the St Regis Osaka in Feb — but would appreciate any reader experiences of trying to use them on a free night certificate booking. Thanks in advance.
Will says:

30 Sep30 September 12:31

Picking up on male, etihad run a 787 with F cabin out of there. Possible to link nicely to an A380 appartment to London with AA miles for no more than a return to Abu Dhabi as male is sane price on reward chart.
- Russ says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 12:48
  
  But economy class I think on legs out of AUH?
  - Will says:
    
    30 Sep30 September 17:18
    
    I’ve got a one way booked MLE to LHR and it’s first on both legs. 62.5k miles and about £45 from memory.
Tom says:

30 Sep30 September 15:34

Your numbers tally with my personal experience. I can usually find awards in CW and First to the East Coast of North America. But for the West Coast it is much harder. San Francisco in particular can be very hard to find much at all, ditto for San Jose. Interestingly when BA flew to Oakland award space was easy, although there was no F on that flight: 777-200 from Gatwick.

LA, Seattle and Vacouver are all tough to find as well.

It’s a shame because flights to the East Coast are almost too short to really enjoy F, and I normally would not pay much more for that.
- Richmond says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 16:02
  
  I never use avios for longhaul from London, but bought last minute avios tickets from LA and HKG couple of times and it was always easy.
Chelseafi says:

30 Sep30 September 17:44

I’m really surprised how little availability in first for Vegas there is. I’m going in Nov, 2 out in first & club return, I’m sure when I booked last Dec there were loads more dates 2 seats in first out???
- Matt B says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 19:44
  
  Last month I booked my flight back from Vegas for next summer, and at the time you could book almost every day across July and August in CW with a fair few in F. Almost all gone now. Wouldn’t be surprised if people who didn’t get first choice to LAX etc used those flights instead
- Mawalt says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 09:55
  
  Vegas in November is not easily available. My wife and I went there in November 2017 in J (U), and could not find any decent availability, so ended up flying to SFO. So I would say sometimes it’s the other way too!
  
  F reward availability on SFO/LAX/Vegas routes is extremely limited.
Harry T says:

30 Sep30 September 18:09

Very OT:
@Shoestring – your favourite World Remit £55 offer is available for 24 hours on your usual site.
- Shoestring says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 20:55
  
  It’s the easiest 5500 Avios to earn – provided you have a foreign bank a/c!
  
  Worldremit rates are very sharp, so no problem there. They are happy for any genuine 18YO+ to be a new customer & no problem if you all send £200 to the same foreign bank a/c & live at the same house, just use different email addresses.
  - Shoestring says:
    
    30 Sep30 September 21:10
    
    You could always have a friend abroad with a foreign bank a/c who wouldn’t mind you sending them £200 for safekeeping!
    - Marcelo C says:
      
      30 Sep30 September 21:25
      
      What offer is this? Cannot find it.
      - Shoestring says:
        
        30 Sep30 September 21:54
        
        have you googled [worldremit £55] ?
      - Boi says:
        
        30 Sep30 September 22:55
        
        Does using free transfer code stop you from getting £55?
  - Jtz says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 16:49
    
    I just wanted to add I done this last time with 3 genuine accounts, to 2 different bank accounts abroad, world remit denied 2 and had to ask for my money back that they had taken
    Tread cautiously
- BLT says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 22:56
  
  Worldremit seem to have a 1.1% spread and a £2.99 fee per transfer. So maybe fine to get the new customer bonus but not competitive vs Revolut etc
  - Boi says:
    
    30 Sep30 September 23:24
    
    Depends….we are going to Canada next month( I have an account there). So I just transferred £200. With £0.99 fee. By far that beats Revolut with £55 CB. I can do new customer with friends and family names….it’s about taking opportunities but not long term use. I now use various companies to drip feed my accounts. I have accounts in 5 countries (GBP/EUR/CAD/USD/BWP) just to facilitation my travels. I transfer when the rates are favourable.
Roy says:

30 Sep30 September 21:01

O/T IHG Rewards Premium Card:

Anyone else seeing non-IHG hotel stays earning double points and showing up on the IHG points statement as hotel spend? It’s happened to me twice now in the last two months – both with Accor properties paid for by Curve and charged to my IHG card.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 22:03
  
  Were they ex IHG hotels?
  - Roy says:
    
    30 Sep30 September 22:18
    
    I very much doubt it. The hotels were a Novotel Suites and an Ibis, and both had the modular bathrooms. And the Ibis was one half of a dual-branded Ibis/Ibis Budget.
    
    And in any case, payment was via Curve so I don’t believe they would have received the merchant account details of the hotel – only the (truncated) name and the fact that it was hotel spend.
    
    (They were outside the UK, but they showed up on the IHG statement as hotel spend, not international spend. And anyway, no other Curve spend outside the UK gets me double points).
    
    I guess I need to try charging a non-IHG hotel in the UK directly to the IHG card and see what happens with that.
    - Roy says:
      
      30 Sep30 September 22:28
      
      Actually, sorry, I don’t think the ibis did have the modular bathrooms – I was confusing it with another stay. I still think it was probably new build, given the fact that it’s a dual branded hotel.
      
      The hotels were the Novotel Suites Hamburg City and Ibis Hamburg City, if anyone happens to know the history of those hotels.
- Adam says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 10:56
  
  Yes! Was very surprised as well! Paid with curve for Sofitel in Warsaw.
MarcB says:

30 Sep30 September 21:09

Is this new news?
https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/business/credit-cards/british-airways-accelerating-card
- BJ says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 21:57
  
  Not really but waiting for Rob to post an article, presumably at an agreed time with amex.

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

City

2 x Business

2 x First

Accra

328

290

Abuja

320

244

Doha

310

47

New York

309

65

Boston

305

252

Lagos

300

185

Bahrain

283

49

Washington

278

15

Riyadh

270

23

Moscow

261

0

Jeddah

256

55

Beijing

234

99

Tel Aviv

231

87

Shanghai

229

153

Philadelphia

217

114

Chicago

211

47

Montreal

209

Toronto

208

15

Mumbai

205

12

Kuwait

203

40

Houston

201

37

Hyderabad

200

Baltimore

198

Chennai

191

Atlanta

188

34

Beirut

184

Austin

182

130

Seoul