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Some British Airways First Class Avios seats to the US have appeared for July and August

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The mystery of the missing British Airways First Class Avios redemptions over the past year is one that even Sherlock Holmes himself would have struggled with.

Personally, I assumed that this was due to First Class now only being available on part of the long-haul fleet. With aircraft being moved around at short notice, BA may have avoided releasing Avios seats because it was on the hook for hefty downgrade compensation if your aircraft type changed.

Whether true or not, First Class seats have now opened up to selected US cities for July and August – if you are happy paying almost £1,000 per seat in taxes and charges.

British Airways First Suite

The image above is the new First Suite which you’ll only find on selected aircraft. Here is our overview of First Suite and here is our full guide to booking British Airways First Class seats using Avios points.

The screenshots below were taken mid-afternoon on Wednesday when this article went up. If you are reading this via email on Thursday, you are likely to see less.

The images are from SeatSpy which is our preferred tool for searching British Airways reward space. You can even set it up to email you when seats become available on specific routes.

The left hand column is outbound, the right is inbound. These are days when at least one BA flight has at least TWO First Class seats available. Solo travellers will find it even easier.

New York:

These are mainly to/from Newark so do not search for ‘JFK’ on ba.com, search for ‘NYC’.

British Airways First Class Avios seats to the US have appeared for July and August

Chicago:

There is also good availability to Washington, Seattle and San Jose.

You will not see anything for Boston, Miami, Los Angeles or San Francisco. I’m not sure what other US routes currently have First Class.

There appears to be a loosening up of Club World seats too so it is worth looking for those if you are thinking about a US trip.

Remember one thing though. Now that British Airways has brought back its pre-covid cancellation rules, you need to cancel Avios bookings 24 hours before departure if you want a refund. On some routes this may make it tricky to take the required supervised covid test before the cut off point.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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

Get 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

30,000 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 – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) and NO FX fees Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 (46)

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

  • Seagull says:

    There is even more opening up. Search for NYC now includes plenty in June outbound and more in July and August than in the screenshot above.

  • Nige says:

    Typo Rob. “The right is unbound”.
    Quick, change it before the spelling, punctuation and grammar police arrive.

    • Rob says:

      Pesky spellchecker. Fixed. Don’t think they noticed ….

  • meta says:

    Loads for Chicago too, at least half of the dates in August.

  • pigeon says:

    The £1k in charges and fees is crazy, but then again a cash economy ticket to the US this summer can easily reach £1k.

    Also worth pointing out redemptions remain excellent value when you can’t work a Saturday stay into your US trip.

    • Rob says:

      I bought 2 x Aer Lingus Dublin to NYC for £1250 (Mon-Thu, no Sat night) a few weeks ago. These are even refundable for a £250 fee.

      • pigeon says:

        Thanks! This is actually quite useful.

        But I’m not so sure about connecting in Dublin – the 50% increase in travel time for an East Coast flight cancels out the benefits of business for me.

  • Freddy says:

    I’ll look into the USA once COVID testing is dropped…not sure how long I’ll be waiting

    • Rob says:

      It’s only a supervised lateral flow so not expensive or time consuming and, frankly, not very sensitive either so even if you’re positive you may well still pass it.

      • NorthernLass says:

        It’s even less sensitive if you pick a test that you do yourself!

        • Rob says:

          True! Rhys did a video test yesterday in the office for his Virgin trip today.

          • DaveP says:

            Might it be worth HfP writing a piece providing an overview on easiest PCR testing options for USA (based around Rhys’ experience)?

  • YC says:

    Taxes are same as business which makes it a bit easier to digest (relatively). Still crazy

  • Ed_fly says:

    Been looking at nyc flights, oddly it seems like they’re all EWR departures to LHR. Have been hoping to try the JFK CCR before it shuts.

  • JonD says:

    Perhaps the Heathrow Airport passenger number cap makes it more worthwhile for BA to focus on high value first class redemptions in preference to economy.

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

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