Business class reward flight availability to NYC – 6 months in advance

[Tezza1978]

Quick question – looking to get a BAPP next month once I have met the £10K spend signup bonus for Plat – have just met the Barclaycard Avios Plus £3k spend target this month too so will have lots of Avios!

I want to earn the companion voucher from spend but may take up until Sep/Oct 2025 to get to £15K under a worse case scenario (more likely to be July/August)

If I want to pick up Avios reward flights in business for 2 people return to NYC for April 2026 – is there likely to be some decent availability 6 months out? Reasonably flexible on date (going to go with the Mrs for 4/5 nights in school term time for her 40th, family minding the kids), could push back to May if needed

My preferred option is Dublin to NYC to reduce APD taxes /go thru US immnigration at DUB – I live in Warrington so would get an Easyjet/Ryanair connecting flight from MAN. But am open to the other options – BA from Heathrow to JFK return is of course the main one and also the Madrid to JFK return option via Iberia!

[NorthernLass]

NYC is probably the easiest long-haul destination to find availability to, as long as (for April) you avoid Easter weekend and the school holidays around it, plus any US holidays. Some US colleges have spring break in April but I don’t think that would affect trans-Atlantic flights too much.

A quick look at SeatSpy shows lots of availability this coming April on BA, in all classes, so unless there’s something major going on in April 2026, you should be fine. Aer Lingus don’t guarantee any seats, though, and generally has much less availability, similar with Iberia. You’re not going get hugely reduced taxes from Dublin anyway (unless flying BA in F), compared with RFS pricing, in any case.

I would suggest definitely returning, if you can get seats, on BA’s morning departure from JFK. It lands in time to get a connection up to MAN the same day and you’ll feel infinitely better for it than an overnight with at best 4/5 hours’ sleep!

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

I agree with NL

NYC is one of the best destinations for avios flight availability. With multiple flights daily and lots of seats to fill.

But EI is very difficult in Business class.

You can still start in DUB and fly BA via LHR to save the APD and some of the BA surcharges. You need to account for the costs flights to and from Dub ex MAN including any baggage fees and possibly an overnight hotel in DUB and then assess if the savings are worth it.

And of course EI fly to DUB ex MAN.

Note that with the EI direct flight MAN-JFK there is no preclearance.

[NorthernLass]

I wouldn’t be messing around going to DUB on a short break. We did MAN-DUB-LHR-MEX last month, but we had 2 nights in Dublin and it was to save £600 on BA’s F surcharges, at the start of a 3 week trip.

Starting and finishing ex-U.K. (DUB or MAD) also means extra clearing of immigration and it’s a PITA just doing it in the US!

[Ihar]

There is an App (MPC) that can help you clear immigration in NYC. My wife used it to great effect recently. Sort of an in-between versus the Global Entry programme