Question for those that familiar with the use of Avios

[Anonymous]

Points for partner flights.

Im really lacking in knowledge about booking flights thru the BA site.  My goal is to fly to Syndey, Australia in first class on Qantas which is a BA partner airline.  If I find a reward flight on Qantas that says the round trip ticket is 288,000 Qantas points, does this mean I can book the flight thru BA's site for the same 288,000 points (Avios)?

[Mailak]

No - you have to log on to the British Airways executive club website. Then search for award flights (if I remember right, it should say pay with avois). Then when you search, it shows you flights, their cost in avios and if it is available (to be booked as an award).

Your points cost from other airlines such as Qantas will be different. Also, the flight might be open in Qantas but it still might not be available using BA avois. Again, Qantas might have it available for their own FFP but might not release seats to BA. It's quite a pain to find available seats.

[Anonymous]

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@Mailak wrote:

No - you have to log on to the British Airways executive club website. Then search for award flights (if I remember right, it should say pay with avois). Then when you search, it shows you flights, their cost in avios and if it is available (to be booked as an award).

Your points cost from other airlines such as Qantas will be different. Also, the flight might be open in Qantas but it still might not be available using BA avois. Again, Qantas might have it available for their own FFP but might not release seats to BA. It's quite a pain to find available seats.

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Ugh, was worried that might be the case.  Can't find much availability if any on the BA site.

[Mailak]

Pretty much as expected :-(

I imagine BA would impose crazy fuel surcharges, so usually it's not worthwhile to use avios for international flights. Best to use them for short-haul flights in the US (on American). No fuel surchages and you pay like $5 in taxes and fees :-)

Don't know if you already have avios already. If you have points to transfer to a FF program, AA or UA are better (in regards to fuel surcharges) and you can still book partner flights.

[Ghoshida]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Mailak wrote:

No - you have to log on to the British Airways executive club website. Then search for award flights (if I remember right, it should say pay with avois). Then when you search, it shows you flights, their cost in avios and if it is available (to be booked as an award).

Your points cost from other airlines such as Qantas will be different. Also, the flight might be open in Qantas but it still might not be available using BA avois. Again, Qantas might have it available for their own FFP but might not release seats to BA. It's quite a pain to find available seats.

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Ugh, was worried that might be the case.  Can't find much availability if any on the BA site.

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In my limited use of these sites to find availability, I've found BA to be more restricted than say Singapore Airlines. 

Singapore is a bit more difficult administratively; you either fax-in a form or call their KrisFlyer helpline, but they were able to offer me seats more easily on their partner (United) than BA was for theirs (American). Now it could be a case-by-case thing, so I wouldn't generalize unless I try the same thing for others. In the end it worked out well for me because I already had 30k points on KrisFlyer so I needed another 30k points. Also it seems like Oneworld asks for more points than Star Alliance, for this particular route (US to Hawaii in Business) so I guess the additional 30k UR points were well spent.

One more thing. In a one-to-one points mapping, I have found that a partner airline advertises lower points requirements than the operating airline; and for this reason the partner airline's ability to offer award travel generally is lower. In my case, I needed 17.5k / 30k KF points for economy / business on United as against 25k / 40k points on United. Needless to say KF award tickets were dried up for the return leg while United award tickets were still being advertised. 

Therefore it's likely that Qantas is advertising a higher points requirement; BA, if it's available, would have offered a cheaper value ticket, which have possibly dried up.

[CreditCuriosity]

From what ive heard and other stated is fuel surcharges are about as bad as an actual ticket on international flight via BA.  Someone correct me if I am wrong.  I know my parents were recently or about a year ago complaining of 1kish fuel surcharges on an internatinal flight by BA using miles or some crazy $ figure like that

[Anonymous]

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@Mailak wrote:

Pretty much as expected :-(

I imagine BA would impose crazy fuel surcharges, so usually it's not worthwhile to use avios for international flights. Best to use them for short-haul flights in the US (on American). No fuel surchages and you pay like $5 in taxes and fees :-)

Don't know if you already have avios already. If you have points to transfer to a FF program, AA or UA are better (in regards to fuel surcharges) and you can still book partner flights.

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Thanks for the info.  I don't have many points on Avios as of yet.  Just 50K from the BA card.  Everything else is either UR, MR or Diners Club points.  Wish there was some way to transfer them to Qantas :-/. Guess my Australian trip will go on hold.  I was so looking forward to go swimming with great whites and salt water crocs.