Booking Flights with Avios Points: A Definitive Guide

Booking flights with Avios points: a bit of effort to get to grips with, but oh so worth it once you know how. You already know how to maximise collecting Avios points (and if you don’t, this guide is for you!), but how do you actually use them to book flights?

This guide will take you through the basics of booking a reward flight using your Avios Points, tips on how to get the flights you want, as well as break down using the Amex Companion Voucher and Barclaycard Upgrade Voucher.

Booking Flights With Avios Contents

REWARD FLIGHTS: WHAT ARE THEY?

The first thing to learn when it comes to spending your Avios points on a flight, is to understand that you cannot buy any available seat on a flight with your points – it has to be a Reward Flight seat. That is, a seat purposefully allocated to be redeemed with Avios points, of which there are a certain number on each flight (details below).

To find availability for Reward Flights, you need to select the ‘Book With Avios’ drop down on the Book A Flight menu on BA.com. This will search only for reward seats that you can purchase with your Avios points.

N.B. This section will also have any vouchers you have registered to your account, with the option to select them, but we will get to that later.

There Are Only A Certain Number Of Reward Seats Per Flight

It is important to note that there are only a certain number of Reward Seats per regularly scheduled flight out of LHR and LGW:

8 seats in economy
2 in premium economy
4 in business

There are 2 economy and 2 business class flights available out of LCY as these services use smaller planes.

REWARD FLIGHT BOOKING EXAMPLE

As mentioned above, to book a Reward Flight, go to ‘Book With Avios’ and enter your routing with desired dates. The below example shows you how many reward seats are available in each class on the dates I’ve selected as well as telling me whether that date is peak or off-peak. You will use more Avios for peak dates.

I select my flights, and voila:

You Can Adjust The Number Of Avios You Use

BA will give you the option to adjust the number of Avios you use under ‘more pricing options’. Initially they will give you an amount of Avios + £1 for a short haul return flight, but I always adjust to a lower amount of Avios and £35, as saving £34 is less appealing to me than saving a wedge of Avios for another flight.

As you can see above, the tiering process gets less appealing the less Avios you use, but it is an option if you are Avios poor and cash rich.

The option to adjust how many Avios you use is NOT valid when you are booking using an upgrade voucher.

BOOKING FLIGHTS WITH AVIOS TIPS

Get Organised

As noted above, there are only a certain number of reward flights on any one flight, so being organised is imperative.

This is particularly key if you are looking to use your Avios to book a long haul flight for multiple people – you need to be organised. There are some exceptions to this rule; i.e USA routings like NYC are so frequent that you will likely be able to book using Avios closer to the date of travel, but generally speaking: the more organised you are, the more effective your points become.

Each airline releases their flights at slightly varying times – between 11 months and a year in advance. BA release theirs 355 days in advance. So if you’re looking to spend your saved up points on one of the 4 reward seats available in business class on a flight to Australia, you are going to want to be ON it. As in, you probably want to stay up and book your flight at midnight, because the savings on those routings are so attractive that other people certainly will be.

Even with European flights it pays to be organised to avoid disappoint, especially if you’re after a flight to Sicily, which is a routing that doesn’t run every day (or even all year), versus Madrid, which is a business routing with lots of flights throughout the day.

Be Flexible

If you have the luxury of being flexible with your dates of travel, it is going to make things a lot easier when it comes to securing a flight with Avios points – especially if you’ve not been super organised with booking in advance as far as possible.

Avios Only Flights

Every so often, BA will put on a flight somewhere where every seat on it is available as a reward flight. These tend to be over peak times such as half terms and summer, so are a really excellent option for families looking to fly out together on the cheap, assuming they have enough Avios!

Destinations so far have included Dubai, Faro, Corfu and Mallorca.

Part Pay With Avios

You do have the option to use some of your stacked up Avios points to take money off of a cash booking (i.e. not a reward flight booking). You can see an example below, but as you can see you don’t get much bang for your buck, particularly compared to how far your Avios can take you when specifically booking a reward flight.

AMEX COMPANION VOUCHER

The Amex Companion Voucher scheme has somewhat of a cult following these days. Once you’ve earnt one, two of you can travel for the price of one reward flight, or a solo traveller can use half the Avios a reward flight would usually be.

How To Earn A Companion Voucher

Firstly, you need either a British Airways Blue Amex or a British Airways Amex Premium Plus. You can sign up here for extra welcome bonus points assuming you fit the criteria (full disclosure, I would also get some referral points, so thank you if you do use this!)

Sign up for a British Airways Amex here.

To collect a companion voucher, you need to spend £15k on your card within the membership year – i.e. if you opened your card on 1st May 2024, you would need to reach this spend threshold by 30th April 2025.

PLEASE NOTE: The spend threshold has recently changed. The £15k spend applies from 1st November 2024. If you can spend the following by 31st October, you will activate the companion voucher on the old threshold:
British Airways Amex (free card): £12k
British Airways Premium Plus Amex: £10k

The difference between the two cards is that the companion voucher earned on the Premium Plus card can be used in any cabin, and is valid for two years from the date of issue. The free card requires the same spend (as of 1st November 2024), but the voucher is only for use in economy and valid for one year.

It’s worth considering if paying the £300 fee for the Premium Plus is worth it for more flexibility and the chance to fly business class. It’s a personal preference.

Activating the Companion Voucher

The Companion Voucher activates as soon as you have hit the spend threshold, rather than at the end of the membership year. This is great if you’re under time pressure to get that voucher in time to book a particular flight!

You can find out how near you are to the spend threshold under the ‘membership’ tab in the Amex app.

Get Tactical

You may decide you want to get tactical with the activation of your voucher according to your travel plans. This is especially true if you’re a high spender, in a couple who are both working towards vouchers, or if you have an upgrade voucher to use in the same time.

For example, I was nearing the spend threshold very early in my membership year last year thanks to some hefty work expenses, so as I neared it, I stopped using that card and opened an Amex Gold, which is free in the first year and has 4 free Priority Passes per year to use. This enabled me to delay the activation of my companion voucher but still earn points on a different card.

Sign up to an Amex Gold here.

As the end of my membership year looms, I’ve reverted to using my BA Amex Premium Plus again so I can activate the companion voucher. I will now have the freedom to use this voucher for two years up to June 2026 rather than November 2025.

Just don’t forget to revert back to the correct card so all that hard work and spending towards the companion voucher isn’t wasted!

IMPORTANT: A Companion Voucher is only valid for reward flights with British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

Using a Companion Voucher with a Companion

The Companion Voucher allows you to buy a reward flight for two people for the price of one. The flight must have two reward seats available in order to use the companion voucher.

You will only pay the number of Avios needed for one person as opposed to double, but the taxes will be paid for both people.

Using a Companion Voucher as a Solo Traveller

A very welcome change to the Companion Voucher Ts&Cs a couple of years ago was the amendment for solo travellers – the voucher can now be used for one person.

As a solo traveller, you only need to use half the amount of Avios usually required for a reward flight. Taxes still apply.

Read here all the finer terms and conditions of the companion voucher.

BARCLAYCARD UPGRADE VOUCHER

If you have the Barclaycard Avios credit card and meet the necessary criteria, you will earn yourself an upgrade voucher to upgrade by one cabin, up to Business Class. It is not possible to upgrade to First Class with an upgrade voucher.

How To Earn An Upgrade Voucher

There are two Barclaycard Avios credit cards: a free one, and a ‘Plus’ card, which costs £20 per month. To get the upgrade voucher, you need to spend £20k within a membership year on the free card, or £10k on the Avios Plus.

The upgrade voucher is valid for 24 months, no matter if you earn it with the free or paid card.

If you have some big purchases coming up, it’s worth opening the Plus card, and as soon as you have reached the 10k spend and you’ve received your upgrade voucher, downgrade the card to the free version.

Using An Upgrade Voucher

Like the Amex Companion Voucher, the Barclaycard Upgrade Voucher is only valid on reward flight bookings, but unlike the companion voucher, only on British Airways flights.

To search for a reward flight to book with the use of the upgrade voucher, select the right hand side tab and select your voucher when you go to ‘Book With Avios’:

It’s important to note the ‘travel class before upgrade’ section – if I want to search for a Business Class flight, I need to select Premium Economy. What the system is going to be searching for here is availability for a Business Class reward flight, but I will pay the amount of Avios for a Premium Economy reward flight. However, the taxes I pay will be the Business Class taxes.

You cannot adjust the amount of Avios you pay on a reward flight with a voucher – you will need to pay the full amount.

WHICH AIRLINES CAN I USE AVIOS POINTS WITH?

You can use Avios points to book flights on BA.com with every airline under the oneworld alliance. The full list is here, but includes American Airlines, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways, Malaysia Airlines and Cathay Pacific.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR AVIOS GO FURTHER

Consider Flying From The Continent

The money you pay on any reward flight is for the taxes, fees and airline carrier charges. The UK has one of the highest airport taxes in the world, along with the USA, Germany, Austria, Australia and Fiji.

You can often make your money and your points go further if you opt to fly long haul from elsewhere on the continent.

For example, you can use Avios points (as well as your companion voucher) on Iberia flights. Take a look at the following example of a direct flight with BA to Argentina from the UK, versus flying direct from Madrid with Iberia.

One way ticket in Business Class with British Airways, direct between London Heathrow and Buenos Aires, off peak fare:

One way ticket in Business class with Iberia, direct between Madrid and Buenos Aires, off peak fare on the same date:

That’s a saving of over £200 on taxes, and you are using less than HALF the number of Avios – 51k versus 110k. These flights are both off peak for the same date, but Iberia has a different redemption chart than BA, so your Avios go further with them.

Sure, you need to factor in a flight between the UK and Madrid, but with those savings on both money and Avios, it’s a no brainer. Why not add a day in the Spanish capital to your trip? You can read my travel guide to Madrid here!

If you have a companion voucher to use, even better – two of you can fly for this amount, or a solo traveller can fly for half of this amount of Avios points!

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments, or you can check my Avios highlights on my Instagram page!

If you need tips on How To Collect Avios, be sure to check out my blog post here!

FOUND THIS USEFUL? PIN FOR LATER!

Updated July 2025.

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