British Airways Visa 100,000 Bonus Miles-Maximizing Benefits with Partners

British Airways Visa Credit Card 100,000 Bonus Miles-Maximizing Benefits with Partners

 

Link: British Airways Visa with 100,000 Bonus Avios [Expired] Please see Best Travel Credit Cards for the current best offers.

The 2012 British Airways Visa with 100,000 Bonus Miles (er, Avios Points) is back, as we wrote in British Airways Visa 100,000 Bonus Avios-Worth It? Since we’ve been getting follow-up questions from readers on British Airways, the Visa Credit Card and 100,000 Bonus and the best way to maximize the offer, we figured we’d write a series to answer the most frequently asked questions. We’ll cover British Airways Oneworld (and non-Oneworld) Partners in this post, the Companion Ticket, Fees and Fuel Surcharges, Household Accounts, Cash and Points Awards and more.

We’ll kick off with Maximizing Benefits with British Airways Partners, since many of the best redemptions even after last year’s award chart changes are with British Airways partners.

British Airways is a member of the Oneworld Alliance. Here are the oneworld airlines:

airberlin

American Airlines

British Airways

Cathay Pacific

Finnair

Iberia

Japan Airlines

LAN

Qantas

Royal Jordanian

S7

Note that former oneworld members Malev Hungarian Airlines and Mexicana have suspended operations.

For U.S.-based flyers, the oneworld partner airline you’re most likely to fly domestically is American Airlines; to South America, LAN or AA; to Europe, Iberia; to Asia, Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines; and to Australia or New Zealand, Qantas.

British Airways also partners with non-oneworld airlines Aer Lingus (good for European awards) and Alaska Airlines (good for domestic awards, including Hawaii).

 

General Partner and Award Booking Tips

  • As always, when using British Airways Avios points, you need to calculate the miles required using the British Airways calculator (or see our distance chart below) and book on the British Airways site or by calling British Airways. Booking by phone costs $25.
British Airways Visa Credit Card 100,000 Bonus Miles-Maximizing Benefits with Partners

 

  • If booking a single award that would use two or more oneworld partners, refer to this table for Avios costs for multi-carrier reward flights. As you can see, it's quite a bit more expensive; even the shortest distance, using multiple oneworld airlines on a single award, will cost you 30,000 Avios in economy (double that for business and triple that for first class).
  • Note that when searching for award flights, the British Airways Executive Club site will automatically apply these higher oneworld Avios amounts to multi-partner itineraries. That's why it's best to search segment by segment, so you can hopefully piece together your award using just one partner and get the award chart above, rather than the multi-partner one below.
 

British Airways Visa 100,000 Bonus Miles-Maximizing Benefits

  • It will usually cost fewer Avios if you book each segment at the single partner rate
  • If the multi-partner oneworld award is more expensive, before you book separate single partner tickets, be aware that the more expensive multi-partner Oneworld award would protect you in the event of a misconnection due to a cancellation or delay, while single partner tickets won’t
  • Decide whether to build in lots of extra time or even a stop at each connection point, or pay more Avios for a multi-partner award
  • Awards on Alaska Airlines and Aer Lingus cannot be booked on the British Airways site; you will need to search using Award Nexus or Expert Flyer. Searching on Alaska Airlines won’t be accurate as they release more award seats to their own members than to partners such as British Airways
  • Beware of codeshare flights; as a general rule, partner awards booked with British Airways Avios must be on British Airways partners, they cannot be on codeshares of those partners
  • Double check baggage allowance with operating carrier(s), as British Airways has been known to provide inaccurate partner baggage allowance information

 

American Airlines

Route Map

Award Search: use aa.com and search for MileSAAver awards

Hubs and key destinations (not exhaustive):

New York (JFK): Barcelona, Boston, Buenos Aires, Cancun, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Miami, Milan, Orlando, Paris, Punta Cana, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Saint Thomas, San Diego, San Juan, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, Tokyo

Miami (MIA): Aruba, Atlanta, Baltimore, Barcelona, Boston, Buenos Aires, Cancun, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Guayaquil, Houston, Las Vegas, Lima, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Montreal, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Paris, Phoenix, Rio de Janeiro, Saint Thomas, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, Toronto, Washington DC (DCA): Cancun, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco

Chicago (ORD): Beijing, Boston, Cancun, Dallas, Dublin, Honolulu, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, New Orleans, Orlando, Paris, Phoenix, Rome, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Tampa, Tokyo, Washington, DC

Dallas (DFW): Atlanta, Boston, Buenos Aires, Cancun, Chicago, Frankfurt, Honolulu, Kahului, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Miami, Montreal, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Paris, Phoenix, Rio de Janeiro, San Diego, San Francisco, San Juan, Seattle, Tampa, Tokyo, Vancouver, Washington DC

Los Angeles: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Honolulu, Kahului, Kona, Las Vegas, Lihue, London, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, San Francisco, San Juan, Shanghai, Tokyo, Toronto, Washington DC

 

LAN (LAN Chile, LAN Peru, LAN Argentina)

Route Map

Award Search: British Airways site

Main Hubs: Lima, Santiago

US Gateways: Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco

Key Routes:

Miami: Buenos Aires, Guayaquil, Quito, Santiago

New York: Guayaquil, Lima

Lima: Cusco (Machu Picchu), Guayaquil, Los Angeles, New York, Santiago, Sao Paulo

Buenos Aires: Mendoza, Cordoba, Iguazu

Santiago: Buenos Aires, Easter Island, La Serena, La Paz, Lima, Miami, Montevideo

Easter Island: Papeete (Tahiti), Santiago

 

Cathay Pacific

Route Map

Award Search: British Airways site

Main hub: Hong Kong

US: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco

Canada: Toronto, Vancouver

Asia: Bangkok, Beijing, Denpasar, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Osaka, Penang, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo

Australia/New Zealand: Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney,

Europe: Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Milan, Moscow, Paris, Rome

India: Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai

Middle East: Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh

 

Iberia

Route Map

Award Search: British Airways site

Main hub: Madrid

Key Routes:

Madrid: Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Chicago, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Miami, Moscow, New York, Paris, Rome, Tel Aviv

 

Qantas

Route Map

Award Search: British Airways site

Main hub: Sydney

Key Routes:

Sydney: Auckland, Bangkok, Christchurch, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Honolulu, London, Los Angeles, New York, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo

Melbourne: Auckland, Bangkok, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Singapore

 

Alaska Airlines

Route Map

Main hubs: Anchorage, Portland, Seattle

Award Search: American Airlines site, then call British Airways to book (can’t search Alaska availability on British Airways site)

Key Routes:

Portland: Anchorage, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Kahului, Seattle

Seattle: Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Lihue, Los Angeles, Kahului, Kona, Miami, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Vancouver, Washington, DC

San Francisco: Honolulu, Lihue, Kahului, Kona, Seattle

 

Aer Lingus

Route Map

Main hubs: Dublin, Shannon

Award Search: Award Nexus or Expert Flyer (can’t search Aer Lingus availability on British Airways site)

Key Routes:

Dublin: Athens, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, New York, Paris, Rome, Stockholm

 

Apply for Best Travel Credit Cards.

If you enjoyed this, please follow TravelSort on Twitter or  like us on Facebook to be alerted to new posts. 

Become a Member to find your perfect luxury or boutique hotel at up to 50% off: TravelSort Hotels

0 0 vote
Article Rating
Share This:
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments