REMINDER: the ‘Reward Flight Finder’ feature in the BA app is still broken

We originally ran this article three months ago – and the situation had already been going on for a few months at that point.

However, most people seem to have forgotten because our forum (and my email inbox) are still seeing an influx of people posting questions along the lines of ‘Why has British Airways removed all Avios flights TO London?’.

The reason for these odd comments quickly becomes apparent.

Each reader had been trying to use the ‘Reward Flight Finder’ feature in the British Airways app. That’s unfortunate.

What is ‘Reward Flight Finder’?

Before I go on, I should say that the British Airways app feature called ‘Reward Flight Finder’ has nothing to do with the paid-for reward flight searching service of the same name.

When you search for an Avios reward flight in the BA app, you are presented with two options:

As well as the ‘standard’ Avios search, where you plug in the route and dates you want, there is ‘Reward Flight Finder’.

This is – on paper – a useful way of helping people who have a lot of flexibility to find somewhere to go.

The problem is that it hasn’t worked for some time – I don’t mean ‘some days’, I mean ‘ for pretty much all of 2023 to date’. Welcome to the world of BA IT …..

For many long haul searches, you get this response:

If you believe the BA app, there are no return Avios flights from Dubai in Business Class in August 2023. This is, of course, nonsense – although, as Dubai is currently chillier than most of Southern Europe at just 39 degrees, there could admittedly have been a bit of a rush …..

This problem does not apply to all routes. Most (all?) short haul routes work OK, and some long haul seem to be fine. There is no real logic to it.

There is a DIY fix. Reverse the search, so you are searching from Dubai to London in this case.

Because the ‘outbound’ results render OK, you will now see that there are many days with Business Class flights available from Dubai in August, should you be rethinking those plans to head to Spain or Greece:

Frankly, I wouldn’t bother with this at all. Pay a few quid per month for SeatSpy and you can get detailed cabin searches AND email notifications when seats open up for the dates you want.

However, neither the BA app or SeatSpy can identify the ‘extra’ seats that are opened up in Club World for holders of British Airways Premium Plus American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers. You are on your own here.

(You can read more about the extra Club World availability for British Airways Premium Plus American Express cardholders in this HfP article.)

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 2023)

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:

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.

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.

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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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.