If you are thinking of booking JetBlue to the US on Avios, here’s a way of saving

Yesterday we explained how you can now redeem Avios on JetBlue, both for transatlantic flights from the UK and Europe to New York and Boston, and for US domestic flights.

At present there are no surcharges on JetBlue transatlantic redemptions, meaning that the taxes and charges element is low.

As was flagged in the comments, the optimum Business Class solution if you don’t have a BA American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher or a Barclaycard upgrade voucher is to mix and match British Airways and JetBlue.

This has the added advantage of getting you lounge access in London on the outbound leg on British Airways, since JetBlue doesn’t offer lounge access.

This is what it costs (off-peak pricing used for BA, taking the ‘most Avios, least cash’ option) to use Avios to fly one-way from London to New York in Business Class:

• BA: 80,000 Avios + £175 one-way in Business Class between London Heathrow and New York JFK

• JetBlue: 78,000 Avios + £254 one-way in Business Class between London Heathrow and New York JFK

and coming home:

• BA: 80,000 Avios + £175 one-way in Business Class between New York JFK and London Heathrow

• JetBlue: 78,000 Avios + $10 one-way in Business Class between New York JFK and London Heathrow

The JetBlue numbers are very similar if you swap Heathrow for Gatwick and/or New York for Boston.

The cheapest overall option is therefore to fly British Airways outbound and JetBlue inbound.

The total cost is (80,000 Avios BA out + 78,000 Avios JetBlue in) 158,000 Avios plus (£175 BA out plus $10 JetBlue in) £183 in taxes and charges.

This is cheaper than doing BA both ways (160,000 Avios off-peak + £350) or JetBlue both ways (156,000 Avios + £268). Strange but true.

If you really want to save money ….

Even cheaper, of course, is doing the whole thing on JetBlue and flying from Dublin, Amsterdam or Paris. This means you avoid long haul business class UK Air Passenger Duty and the high London airport charges.

From Dublin, a one way to New York JFK in Business Class has charges of just €38.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

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.

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.