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British Airways is a key member in the Oneworld alliance. You can use Avios to book British Airways flights as well as its partners. Another option is to book a paid fare and use Avios to upgrade to a higher cabin.
The way British Airways prices these upgrades — both with Avios and the cash surcharge — is inconsistent.
Here’s what to expect when using Avios to upgrade a flight — and whether it’s worth it.
Page Contents
When You Can Upgrade Your Flight With Avios
You can upgrade British Airways flights online, but there are some restrictions to note:
- There must be award availability in the cabin you want to upgrade into. If there’s no Avios availability, you can’t upgrade.
- Upgrades are limited to one cabin step. You can upgrade from premium economy to business or from business to first. However, the lowest economy fares aren't eligible. You’ll need a semi-flexible economy ticket to upgrade.
- Upgrades can be done at the time of booking online or after purchase by calling British Airways.
How To Upgrade With Avios
You may have searched and booked flights on British Airways' website for years and not noticed the ability to book these upgrades. On the screen to “Book flights with Avios,” there is a tab to choose called “Book and upgrade.” This is where you need to search. Ideally, you have used the other tab to search with Avios first to identify upgrade flight availability.
From there, it's straightforward. You enter your cities, dates, and class you want to upgrade into.
Does It Make Sense to Upgrade With Avios?
The interesting thing about booking these upgrades: The math often doesn't properly math. In theory, British Airways is supposed to charge the Avios difference between two cabins when upgrading. However, it is using prices from an outdated chart to calculate these upgrades.
Confused? It's best to show some examples.
New York (JFK) to London (LHR)
To book this flight from New York to London with Avios, you'd need to pay:
- 46,750 Avios plus $198 in premium economy
- 88,000 Avios plus $408 in business class
These rates are roughly 10% higher than before the December 2025 devaluation.
You'd assume that to upgrade from premium economy to business would cost 41,250 Avios (88,000 minus 46,750). However, that's not the case. In fact, the Avios required is only 26,400 — significantly lower than expected.
A note about fees
You may have noticed the $2,268 number next to the upgrade price? British Airways is notorious for high fees — especially on long-haul flights. But this seems really high.
Let's break down where this price comes from.
Booking this flight with cash costs $1,494 for premium economy:
That means the upgrade cost to business class is:
- 26,400 Avios mentioned above and $774 ($2,268 minus $1,494)
That’s a significant premium. Even in the example above comparing premium economy and business award tickets, the cash difference is only $210 ($408 minus $198). That means you are paying a $564 premium to upgrade.
This isn't all that exciting an option. Sure, you are using fewer Avios versus a straight cash ticket — 26,400 versus 88,000. But the cash price is much higher. You are paying $2,268 for this business-class upgrade versus $408 when booking an award ticket.
Is it worth it?
In this example, you are essentially buying 61,600 Avios for $1,860 — 3.0 cents per point valuation. Considering AwardWallfet users typically get 2.55 cents per Avios, “buying” Avios at this higher rate doesn't make sense.
Now, if you don't have access to enough Avios to book, this can be a great option to upgrade to a better cabin for a reasonable fee.
With so many transfer partners, earning enough Avios for a full award is often easier than upgrading.
London (LHR) to Athens (ATH)
Since shorter routes with narrow-body planes don't have a premium economy cabin, you can upgrade from an eligible economy fare to business class. In this case, the flight is:
- 16,750 Avios and $2 in economy
- 30,000 Avios plus $30 in business class.
The Avios upgrade price below makes more sense in this example. It costs 13,250 Avios to move into business class. That's the exact Avios difference between the two award flights above.
The fees are more in line as well. A cash flight in the economy fare required to upgrade (Economy Plus) is £170 (about $228). The fee difference on the award flights is $28 ($30 minus $2). This totals $256 in fees, which is pretty close to the $260 total cost to do an upgrade you see above.
Again, you have to decide if you would rather pay 30,000 Avios and $30 for an award ticket or 13,250 plus $260 for an upgrade. Since valuations can be subjective, that becomes a personal decision. If you weigh paying an extra $230 or 16,750 more points, that comes out to a 1.37 cents valuation, which may be a low valuation for Avios. In this case, using more cash and less Avios is the better option.
It is nice to have this options to upgrade should you want to save the Avios. Plus without the huge fee discrepancy as in the long-haul example, these shorter British Airways upgrades are easier to figure out.
Bottom Line
Upgrading British Airways flights with Avios can look appealing at first glance — especially when the Avios price is lower than the apparent difference between two award tickets. But as the examples show, the real story is in the cash component.
On some long-haul routes, British Airways’ upgrade pricing uses an outdated award chart and layers on substantial surcharges. In those cases, you may be better off booking a full award ticket outright — or paying cash and saving your Avios for a higher-value redemption. On shorter European routes, however, the math can be far more reasonable, and upgrading may provide a solid way to conserve points.
The key takeaway: Don’t assume an upgrade is automatically a deal. Always compare three scenarios: A full award ticket, a paid fare, and a paid fare plus upgrade. If the effective cost per Avios exceeds what you typically get from redemptions, it’s probably not worth it.
British Airways gives you the option to upgrade with Avios. Just make sure the numbers actually work in your favor before you click “confirm.”
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