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If you hold a travel credit card, odds are you can convert your rewards into Avios. That's because seven different airlines use the Avios currency, and there's a good chance at least one of those airlines partners with your favorite transferable points currency. Then, it's free and easy to move your Avios between programs using the Avios website.
If you're anything like me, moving Avios has been the extent of your use of the Avios portal. However, there's a new tool that might make you spend a little bit more time on the website, as it will make the process for booking an award ticket on three Avios carriers — British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus — significantly easier.
Here's what to know about the new Avios reward flight calendar.
How To Use the Avios Reward Flight Calendar
Avios is an extremely powerful point currency. When you earn Avios, you can fly virtually anywhere in the world. That said, British Airways isn't known for having the most user-friendly interface when it comes time to search for an award redemption.
Similarly, if you use a tool like Seats.aero, you might notice that British Airways and Iberia don't appear on the list of supported programs. As if in response to our frustrations, the Avios website now offers a monthly award calendar, giving you a bird's-eye view of flights operated by select programs.
To start, you'll need to log in to your preferred loyalty program. The Avios website gives you the option to log in using your British Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus account. So, if you want to search for availability through the British Airways Club, you'll need to log in to your British Airways account.
Next, navigate to the Find Reward Flights tool, enter your departure and arrival airports, the number of passengers, and the month you wish to travel.
Click “Search,” and you'll be taken to a monthly view of award flights on your desired route. You can filter by cabin and select a date to view the price in each fare class and more details about the flight.
If a date has a full circle around it, that means there's good availability. A half circle indicates partial availability, while no circle indicates no availability.
When you click “Select,” you will be redirected to the airline website (British Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus) to complete your booking.
This tool makes things much easier, but there are still a few limitations to be aware of:
- Connecting flights aren't yet available. The tool currently works for all nonstop routes, but connecting flights are supposedly coming soon.
- It doesn't offer very many filters. The only filters available are by cabin class. You can't filter by cost or departure time.
- It doesn't display taxes and fees. When looking at the cost, it simply gives you the price in Avios and mentions that taxes and fees will be charged. British Airways is known for some hefty surcharges, so you'll have to navigate to the British Airways website to determine what those may be.
- This tool only works for British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus. Other Avios earning programs are not included.
Related: British Airways Hikes Award Taxes and Fees
How To Earn Avios
Avios might be one of the most powerful currencies out there, but it's also one of the easiest to earn. Here are the credit cards that transfer to British Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus:
Keep in mind that many of these programs also transfer to Qatar Airways or Finnair, and you can freely move Avios between all seven loyalty programs that adopted Avios as a currency.
That makes virtually any credit card that earns a transferable point currency a tool for earning Avios.
$595Rates & Fees
- 12X – Earn 12 Points per $1 spent on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked on cititravel.com.
- 6X – Earn 6 Points per $1 spent on Air Travel booked on cititravel.com.
- 6X – Earn 6 Points per $1 spent at Restaurants including Restaurant Delivery Services on CitiNights℠ purchases, every Friday and Saturday from 6 PM to 6 AM ET. Earn 3 Points per $1 spent any other time.
- 1.5X – Earn 1.5 Points per $1 spent on All Other Purchases.
$95Rates & Fees
- 5X points per $1 spent with hotels
- 4X points per $1 spent with airlines
- 3X points per $1 spent on other travel and restaurants
- 1X points per $1 spent on other purchases
$95Rates & Fees
- 5X points on Lyft rides through September 2027
- 5X points on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3X points on dining at restaurants worldwide
- 3X points on gas and EV charging
- 3X points on vacation homes at top brands like Airbnb, Vrbo and more
- 3X points on eligible streaming services
- 3X points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs)
- 2X points on all other travel
- 1X point per dollar spent on all other purchases
Bottom Line
Is the new Flight Reward search tool perfect? No, it still has a long way to go. It's also not super clear why this tool was integrated into the Avios website rather than the websites of each individual program.
However, the tool, even with its imperfections, makes booking an award flight using Avios significantly easier. I can't tell you how many times I've searched for a flight on British Airways or Iberia's websites just to get an error message that there wasn't any availability on the one day I searched. Not having to go day by day to find flight availability is fantastic.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (Rates & Fees), and Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Rates & Fees)
