Here are the 2023 British Airways peak and off-peak Avios flight dates

What are the peak and off-peak calendar dates for redeeming Avios points in 2023? 

British Airways hasn’t officially released the peak and off peak dates for reward flights for all of 2023 – except for the dates which are already bookable – but we now have some clarity on what the calendar will look like next year.

The 2022 British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus peak and off-peak calendars are here.

We received the list of dates off the record, but it matches what is currently available for booking and so appears reliable.  We have turned this into a neat little table, below, which gives a better overview of the entire year’s peak and off peak availability.

Remember that flights are not bookable, for cash or Avios, until 355 days before departure.

(I should also remind you that, as we are now in British Summer Time and British Airways releases flights at midnight GMT, that you will need to be online or on the telephone at 1am if you are UK based if you want to book 355 days ahead for the 14 ‘guaranteed’ Avios seats.)

There are three things to remember:

This calendar only applies to BA. Iberia and Aer Lingus have their own peak and off-peak dates. This is useful because you will often find that when BA is peak during UK half-term school holidays, Iberia (and occasionally Aer Lingus) are running off-peak fares.

The BA calendar applies wherever you book a BA redemption, whether it is on ba.com, iberia.com or avios.com.  Similarly, if you try to book an Iberia redemption on ba.com it will NOT follow the dates below.

All redemptions on partner airlines such as Qantas are charged on a separate chart at peak date rates, 100% of the time. The partner chart does not apply to Qatar Airways redemptions which now have their own pricing.

Peak dates are in red whilst off peak is in white.  Click to enlarge:

The British Airways peak/off-peak chart has become very ‘bitty’ in recent years. For example, the 2021 calendar made virtually all of July and August peak, with June mostly off-peak. For 2023, BA has chosen to break things up and focus more on making long weekends peak.

As you would expect, peak dates cover all the school breaks as well as the majority of bank holidays.  The only Bank Holiday on an off-peak day is Boxing Day. Even Christmas Day is peak, even though flights are generally very quiet.

We have created an online peak/off-peak calendar for 2023 (it also includes 2022) that you can subscribe to on your mobile device or calendar app. Click here to subscribe.

How many Avios will I need for my flight?

This Head for Points article lists British Airways destinations together with the Avios needed to fly there.

Here is the peak and off-peak Avios pricing chart for British Airways flights in a distance-based format:

The pricing shown is the ‘mid price’ and is the points price you will pay if using an American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher. If you are not using a 2-4-1, you will usually be show two options which require fewer Avios and more cash, and two options which require more Avios and less cash. The ‘mid price’ option is usually the best value.

If you want to learn more about how to spend your Avios most efficiently, read our beginner’s guide to redeeming Avios points here. You can read more about how the British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher works in this article.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (May 2022)

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. 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.

The Platinum Card has doubled its sign-up bonus to 60,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert to 60,000 Avios, if you apply by 1st June 2022.

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 10,000 Avios.

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.

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.

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

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)