British Airways 100,000 AVIOS

50,000 Avios for spending $1,000 seems like a no-brainer to me. Direct flights on AA are typically 9,000 Avios roundtrip. So, you can get five RT flights from this, valued at well over $1,000. Two weeks ago, my girlfriend and I flew to Chicago for one night from Raleigh to have dinner, and booked the trip the day before departure. 18,000 total Avios + $10 in fees. This weekend we may fly to Miami for the heck of it. Maybe RDU is unique, but AA has direct flights to Dallas, Chicago, Miami, DC, and NY, all for 4,500 to 7,500 each way. I'm going to have my girlfriend apply so we can get in on this deal for more Avios!

Quote from fly : Sure, if you really have to *spend* to get to $20k. Otherwise, it's pretty easy to get to 20k these days thanks to Bluebird, Serve, and other cards.

Still, as I said before, I'd rather "manufacture" spend of $20k and earn a 100k UR points(if you know what I mean... ) than 50k Avios.

i know how to redeem my BA avios (south americal, domestic, hawaii etc) but how are you guys able to actually find a date to book?
No matter what combination of airports/destinations I choose, I can't seem to find an available outbound and/or inbound date

I think this is an ok deal if you can make the Avios system work for you and can meet the spend. But I think the 20k makes it a warm deal. Yeah, there are ways out there to meet the spend. But you can spend 20k in other ways to get more then just 100K Avios. If you cycle through the Rapid Reward cards, your total spend would be 8k and you would have 208K rr points (I've had 3 of them so far). Add in the United or AA card, and you can start looking at international fares as well.

Also, you would end up with 120K in Avios factoring in the spend.

Quote from swimitfree : It appears that Chase has opened up the British Airways Visa card with the 100,000 AVIOS promotion again. https://creditcards.chase.com/cre...IQ31197453 BRITISH AIRWAYS VISA SIGNATURE® CARD BENEFITS* Click to learn more: EARN ENOUGH BONUS AVIOS TOWARDS A ROUND-TRIP BUSINESS CLASS AWARD FLIGHT IN YOUR FIRST YEAR* You will get 50,000 bonus Avios after you make $1,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening 25,000 bonus Avios after you make $10,000 in purchases within the first year of account opening Plus an additional 25,000 bonus Avios after you make an additional $10,000 in purchases also within the first year of account opening Together that's 100,000 bonus Avios, which is enough for a round-trip business class award flight. Taxes, fees and carrier charges apply.

There are horrendous taxes and charges with cashing in Avios points for international travel on British Airways. Unless you use the points for hotels or travel within the USA on American Airlines it's not worth it. To use their partner Cathay Pacific you have to book ten months out to find a seat, unless they open up seats at the last minute. My wife and I both have 185,000 Avios points and so far have only found a hotel to use them on.

Quote from javaguru : You can use it for American Airlines flights - great deal.

Everytime I try to book something through AA using avios, nothing is available.

Quote from skimmilk68 : i know how to redeem my BA avios (south americal, domestic, hawaii etc) but how are you guys able to actually find a date to book? No matter what combination of airports/destinations I choose, I can't seem to find an available outbound and/or inbound date

This is true for me too! Are we doing something wrong?

Quote from kieranpwalsh : There are horrendous taxes and charges with cashing in Avios points for international travel on British Airways. Unless you use the points for hotels or travel within the USA on American Airlines it's not worth it. To use their partner Cathay Pacific you have to book ten months out to find a seat, unless they open up seats at the last minute. My wife and I both have 185,000 Avios points and so far have only found a hotel to use them on.

Then do a little more research. There are a bunch of blogs that provide insight on how to book using Avios, but the availability for domestic award travel is nearly identical to what you could book with Aadvantage miles (on AA metal). I always find the award I want using the AAdvantage award search and then go back to ba.com once I know the legs. You have to search each leg (and pay for each) individually. Avios are especially valuable for domestic nonstop awards, but there is no reason to have "only found a hotel to use them on."

Quote from bastafidli : Last time we got this the entire family went to Hawaii twice :-), considering!!!

Me too. THe three of us are going to Hawaii next April for about $100 in fees from this deal.
Not saying it was easy, but it can be done once you know the tricks. Worth it to me to save almost $2000.

Quote from hutbay : kinda off topic... As a newbie to airlines miles (probably will read up on later) does these miles allow you get status for like other benefits or you still have fly the required segments to get a status which will allow you to use priority checking/lounges etc?

My Avios get us priority boarding for our AA domestic flights. I have no such status for AA.

can these points be converted to Gift cards? or used for Renting a car?

Quote from girishsabari : can these points be converted to Gift cards? or used for Renting a car?

Those options are usually available...but at a horrendous redemption rate. Almost never worth going that route unless you absolutely know you will never use the miles for flights.

If I transfer my avios to american airline points for a trip to SA, will I encounter many black out dates?

Wow, you have to spend $20,000 to get 100,000 points?! I did the 100k point promotion the last time they offered it, but I didn't have to spend close to that. I think maybe $3,000 over 3 months? Can't recall.

But I got the card to get the miles to fly to Germany this past Oktoberfest. The blackout dates and taxes increased significantly from when when I got the card (maybe 2 years ago) so if you plan on getting the card to use air miles I would strongly recommend against it. I even considered using the miles for a domestic flight on AA but the blackout dates were just as bad.

I did end up using the miles for hotels. I don't think you get the best redemption rate on them, but I was still able to book all of my hotel stay for my 2 weeks in Europe last year.

Quote from royalmarquis : If I transfer my avios to american airline points for a trip to SA, will I encounter many black out dates?

From my experience, yes! If you try to book far enough in advance you may be okay. When I looked into doing this I was about 2 months out from my travel date. Couldn't find a single flight that worked.

Quote from highlanderfil : Could you please elaborate?

NO, just do some research