Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

BOOK NOW: The new British Airways US route is …. Cincinnati

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Last week we engaged in a bit of speculation about a new British Airways route to the United States. We knew it was coming but we didn’t know where.

Because, let’s be honest, the existing 26 routes to the United States aren’t nearly enough ….

The route has now been announced – Cincinnati, in Ohio, although the airport itself sits just over the state line in Kentucky.

(I know we put our money on Kansas City. However, I have heard rumours that there is actually a 2nd new British Airways route to the United States launching next Summer, and this could still be it. All of the reasons we gave for launching Kansas City remain valid.)

This will be the only direct flight between the UK and all of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.

When will Cincinnati launch?

The new British Airways service to Cincinnati will launch on 5th June 2023.

It will operate five days per week, with a Boeing 787 currently scheduled. This is a three class aircraft without First Class.

It will use Terminal 5 at Heathrow.

Outbound flights will leave on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday in the late afternoon, returning late evening local time.

The Tuesday flight will be dropped for Winter 2023, from November.

Avios seats are wide open

As you’d expect, since tickets only went on sale a few hours ago, Avios seats are wide open.

The full 14 seats (eight in Economy, two in Premium Economy and four in Club World) are available for every flight.

This is one way of getting US flights for next Summer for the exact dates you want, although you should check out connections first.

British Airways to launch flights to Cincinnati

What can you do in Cincinnati?

According to British Airways:

Affectionately nicknamed Cincy or the Queen City, the area is home to world-class museums, more than 50 breweries, the USA’s largest Oktoberfest, three major sports teams spanning American football, basketball and football, and the Krohn Conservatory, an Art Deco greenhouse featuring 3,500 plant species from all over the world.

It’s renowned for its Cincinnati Chili, handmade ice cream and beer, whilst acting as a gateway to Northern Kentucky and the famed Bourbon Trail, a playground for bourbon-lovers. In addition, Kentucky is also synonymous with gorgeous rolling hills and bluegrass music.

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

Comments (77)

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

  • Nick says:
    16 Nov16 November 17:35

    I’m going to be the pedant who says the route is NOT to Ohio, despite what Rob says. It’s to CVG, which is in Kentucky state.

  • chris1922 says:
    16 Nov16 November 18:03

    Looks decent for a city break

  • ChasP says:
    16 Nov16 November 18:09

    its another place close to the path of the 2024 total eclipse so thats good news

  • Magic Mike says:
    16 Nov16 November 18:18

    Hope y’all are feeling flush given the strength of the dollar! A cheap holiday it certainly isn’t…

    • NZDan says:
      16 Nov16 November 19:52

      All the comments here seem to fail to recognise that the demand might come from the other end of the route. Many many of your English Pesos for my dollars

  • Joe says:
    16 Nov16 November 18:43

    The ‘highlights’ you mention in the article… Sounds like you’d need a maximum of two days there.

    Like others have mentioned thousands of times before, surely (surely!) the demand is there for flights to SE Asia. Come on BA: Bangkok, KL, Seoul, all of these must have much more long-term appeal than another second tier US city.

    • Nick says:
      16 Nov16 November 22:04

      This has been done to death. Bangkok – people aren’t willing to pay decently enough. Seoul – not until Russian airspace reopens. KL (etc.) – QR’s influence – look at their shareholding in IAG.

      Ultimately it’s not about demand, it’s about revenue and yield. BA will use their limited but expensive assets (aircraft and slots) wherever they get the biggest bang for their buck. You’d do the same, if you were a profit-seeking enterprise.

      • AJA says:
        16 Nov16 November 22:41

        But how do BA know what the demand is for Cincinatti to London as it’s a new route?

        There must be some financial incentive for BA to try this route and unless it starts paying for itself BA will just as quickly drop it.

        While I can understand the profit incentive is what drives BA and with Qatar Airways being a significant shareholder resulting in BA codesharing with them on routes to the far east it ultimately damages BA as a brand the fewer diverse routes it operates.

        Also if codesharing works so well for BA going east why doesn’t it just codeshare with AA going west especially as they already share revenue?

        BA long haul is increasingly seen as a transatlantic USA only focused airline.

        That can’t be good long term.

        • Rob says:
          16 Nov16 November 22:47

          You’d be surprised how good the data is. You can find out how many, for eg, depart Cincinnati on a ticket to Europe, changing somewhere.

          • AJA says:
            16 Nov16 November 22:52

            @Rob Good luck to BA with this route they seem to think it’s worth it. I want it to succeed but I also think BA needs to reintroduce some more variety of countries in their route network. I can understand the issues with Far East while flying over Russia is not an option but the general impression is that BA is becoming less global in its reach and that isn’t good.

        • Peggerz says:
          17 Nov17 November 10:06

          I just mentioned two weeks ago to American clients that there was a larger percentage coming in from Ohio this year and did they know a reason? So I should maybe be expecting more after BA kick off this service…….

      • AJA says:
        16 Nov16 November 22:47

        And part of the problem with the Bangkok flights was the fact that BA tended to fly the crappiest old planes which didn’t exactly encourage people to pay higher fares on the route. And it was also a route which tended to tie up the aircraft and not allow them to be used as much as BA would like. This is the same problem with flights to Cape Town and Johannesburg where the aircraft sit on the ground for hours during the day.

        • Lady London says:
          17 Nov17 November 09:56

          I agree with you about the importance of decent planes on a long route like Bangkok @AJA. I came back on a Thai 380, my favourite aircraft for passenger comfort in Y and J, in Club on a flight to Europe. 16 hours in the air, the best of nearly everything and after 11 hours I really wanted to get off.

          So back from Bangkok in an older plane for that distance would be hell on earth.

          Of all the major Far Eastern routes it has to be commercially the least attractive one for BA to fight for right now. However many of us might want to use our 241’s for a flight to Bangkok, BA is making commercial sense here. And as @Nick says, this keeps being done to death in here.

        • Dubious says:
          17 Nov17 November 10:43

          Ah tell me about it. A few years ago I got bumped off a FinAir flight from BKK to the BA flight. That made for a very long and dull day flight in Business.

  • Lady London says:
    16 Nov16 November 18:55

    Mmm I presume some local support was forthcoming? Or a large corporate or two underwriting the route? IIRC Johnson+Johnson is there so might be useful for them?

    • sunguy says:
      16 Nov16 November 19:06

      P&G, FifthThird, FIRST group, Kroger …..

      • Ian McP says:
        16 Nov16 November 19:41

        P&G will really have wanted Lufthansa to FRA, have always pushed LH for that. But I guess this will offer another connex alternative for them to Delta over Paris, which was always really expensive given it’s been the monopoly non-stop to Europe for years.

    • James P says:
      16 Nov16 November 19:41

      J&J primarily based around New Jersey and Philadelphia. Very wedded to Newark and thus I believe have a corporate deal with United.

  • Graviation says:
    16 Nov16 November 19:12

    Who else used to watch ‘WKRP in Cincinatti’?!

  • Doug M says:
    16 Nov16 November 19:56

    Baseball, the Reds, not Basketball. Whilst there’s college basketball there is pretty much everywhere so not really a differentiator.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!