MileValue is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.
This is the seventeenth post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go. Previously Using AA.com to Search for Awards.
Knowing how to use ba.com is crucial for making award bookings with British Airways Avios and American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
Why? ba.com displays award space for more oneworld partner airlines than does aa.com. That means you often need to search ba.com even if you are redeeming American Airlines miles. For instance, ba.com is a great place to search space on Cathay Pacific before calling American Airlines to book with American Airlines miles.
How do you search BA.com?
Award Searches on ba.com
First, you need to sign up for the British Airways Executive Club to be able search. The link is on the top right of BA.com. Next, you must log in.
Along the left side of the screen after logging in, click on Spending Avios. Several choices will emerge beneath where you clicked. Choose Book Flights with Avios.
On this screen, type in the details of your potential award trip. Since the changes made to ba.com a few weeks ago, the Class dropdown doesn’t matter because award space in all cabins is shown together.
If you’ve selected a route British Airways flies, a screen will pop up asking if you want a stopover in London. Leave No Stopover selected, and click Continue.
I always select Continue without selecting a Stopover because I never am searching for longhaul British Airways flights on ba.com. If you’ve queried a route not served by British Airways, you’ll be brought directly to results.
The results are displayed by airline. British Airways is at the top. Next are direct flights on any airlines. Finally, connecting itineraries are shown.
If your day comes back with no results, you can click on the nearby dates one at a time on the results screen or move one week at a time.
To get more info on a flight, click the linked flight number, and a new window will open with pertinent info including the aircraft and flight duration.
To see the price of an award including taxes and fees, select one and click the red Continue button.
The price will be displayed, usually with several options where you can pay fewer Avios in exchange for more cash. Grayed out options mean your account doesn’t have enough Avios for that option. The account used to take the screen shot below has fewer than 105,000 Avios.
For more information and analysis on Cash & Avios options available on Avios award bookings, see this Cash & Avios Analysis.
If you want a price breakdown of the dollar amount, click the small “i” highlighted in red below.
If you click on the little “i” icon, you will see how the cash component of the award breaks down. This is how the $311 in addition to the Avios needed to get from LAX to Budapest breaks down: $258 in fuel surcharges plus $53 in taxes.
If you want to book the award you found with Avios, enter your credit card info, and you are all set. If you want to book the itinerary with American Airlines miles–both itineraries above are way better deals with American Airlines miles–note the flight dates, numbers, cabins, and taxes.
American Airlines will charge all the same taxes, but not the fuel surcharges. Call American Airlines at 800-882-8880 and feed the agents the flights you found.
BA.com shows space on airberlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, and S7, which is all of oneworld. BA.com doesn’t show its non-oneworld partners like Aer Lingus and Alaska Airlines.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.
Great article Scott, BA is getting more and more user friendly. There is a spelling mistake in the title – onewolrd.
You might also want to fix the spelling mistake in these posts too: https://milevalu.wpengine.com/category/onewolrd/
I currently have a one-way CX First Class award on hold: BOM-HKG-LAX with a 4 hour layover in HKG. AA is pricing this award at 112,500 miles while I think it should be priced at 90,000. All the reps I spoke to said 90,000 is only for flights through Europe (e.g. BOM-LHR-LAX). Is this true? I thought AA didn’t charge by segment. Any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Hitesh
They are right –> https://milevalu.wpengine.com/the-five-cardinal-rules-of-american-airlines-awards/
[…] Piece together the award by searching according to my guides for Using aa.com and Using ba.com. […]
[…] The best news of all is that Qatar award space is now bookable using the British Airways search tool. For more information on searching the British Airways website, make sure to check out Scott’s post Free First Class Next Month: Searching BA.com to Find oneworld Award Availability. […]
[…] I took a look at award space on the Doha to Singapore route which will be operated by a Dreamliner (on one of the two daily flights) in April 2014. I found solid award availability by searching ba.com. […]
[…] on how to use BA.com to search for oneworld partner award space. Make sure to check out his post, Free First Class Next Month: Searching BA.com to Find oneworld Award Availability. We’ve also detailed British Airways recent and noticeable improvements to their site […]
[…] is a oneworld partner, but its award space is NOT searchable on aa.com. Search for the space on ba.com. Any award space that shows up there is bookable with British Airways miles, American Airlines […]
I followed your steps exactly and I never got the popup allowing me to select “no stop overs”. Thoughts?
The site has changed slightly. Check this newer post: https://milevalu.wpengine.com/british-airways-improved-online-award-search-tool/
[…] Free First Class Next Month: Searching BA.com to Find oneworld Award Availability […]
[…] To search award space on Malaysia Airlines, head to ba.com. (How to search on ba.com.) […]
[…] Awards space on Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Japan Airlines, and SriLankan Airlines is searchable on ba.com. Here’s how to search ba.com. […]
[…] All partners except Aer Lingus and Alaska Airlines are bookable on ba.com. Here’s how to search ba.com. […]
[…] on ba.com. Here’s how. Note the date, flight number, and cabin of the award space you find. You can double check the A380 […]
[…] You can search LAN award space on ba.com. Since you basically have to search one day at a time, make sure a flight is operating before you bother searching that day for award space. Here is how to search ba.com. […]
[…] Award space on LAN and TAM is searchable on ba.com. Here’s how to search ba.com. […]
[…] Award space on Qatar and Iberia is searchable on ba.com. Here’s how to search ba.com. […]
[…] Here’s how to search ba.com. […]
[…] Award space on Iberia is searchable on ba.com. Here’s how to search ba.com. […]
[…] award space is searchable on aa.com, but Japan Airlines space is not. Both airlines’ space shows up on ba.com, so I searched there for award space in October 2015 and April 2016, the parts of the off peak […]
[…] Class. Many days have 8+ economy award seats and 4 Business Class seats. To find the award space, search ba.com. Then to book, call American Airlines at 800-882-8880. Make sure the agent waives the phone fee, […]
[…] and Japan Airlines both have incredible award space in the last few days before departure. You can search both airlines’ award space on ba.com. Any award space you see there can be booked with American Airlines […]
[…] award space does not appear on aa.com. You need to search it on ba.com. Here’s how. When you do, you will be ecstatic to see two Business Class and seven economy seats on most […]
[…] Pacific award space is not searchable on alsakaair.com. Search the award space on ba.com; here’s how. Alaska Airlines reps will have access to all the space you find […]
[…] price. You can search award space for British Airways and Finnair on aa.com, Iberia and Qatar on ba.com, and Etihad on […]
I am new to award booking. Do I need to have miles transferred into my account before calling American Airlines to book an award flight, or will they hold the reservation until I transfer miles into my account? Thanks.
They will hold before you transfer.
[…] I took a look at award space on the Doha to Singapore route which will be operated by a Dreamliner (on one of the two daily flights) in April 2014. I found solid award availability by searching ba.com. […]
[…] on how to use BA.com to search for oneworld partner award space. Make sure to check out his post, Free First Class Next Month: Searching BA.com to Find oneworld Award Availability. We’ve also detailed British Airways recent and noticeable improvements to their site […]
[…] Pacific award space is NOT searchable on aa.com. Search for it on ba.com like this. Any space you find will be bookable with American Airlines miles by calling 800-882-8880. You […]
[…] aa.com means that award space on LAN Airlines flights will NOT appear. Search for LAN space on ba.com and book it by calling American Airlines at […]
[…] Here’s how to search on ba.com. […]
[…] Search on ba.com. For the moment–very likely to change very soon–there is excellent award space for the next 11 months on the Japan Airlines flights to and from the United States in First Class. […]
[…] award space is not searchable on aa.com. Search it on ba.com. Any space you see there should be bookable with American Airlines […]
[…] for award space on ba.com. (Here’s how.) All the Qatar award space you find there, American Airlines miles can […]
[…] Search on ba.com. For the moment–very likely to change very soon–there is excellent award space from October to March on the Japan Airlines flights between Sydney and Tokyo in First Class. […]
[…] can search award space for Qatar flights on ba.com. (Here’s how.) Any Qatar award space on ba.com can be booked with American Airlines miles by calling American […]
[…] Award space on all the partners except Iberia is searchable on aa.com. Here’s how to search aa.com. Award space on Iberia is searchable on ba.com. Here’s how to search ba.com. […]
[…] Search on ba.com. For the moment–very likely to change very soon–there is excellent award space from October through December 2016 on nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Santiago in both directions. […]
[…] and TAM are best searched on ba.com. You can use any award space you see […]
[…] can search economy and Business Class Iberia award space at ba.com (here’s how), and tack it onto these awards for zero extra […]
[…] do I search for award space? ba.com. Here’s how to search ba.com. Make sure you do segment-by-segment searching as British Airways’ search engine is not […]
[…] to search for award space: ba.com. Here’s how to search ba.com. This route has the worst award space in the post, so if you copied this routing, you’d build […]
[…] Search on ba.com. At the moment, I see one First Class seat on many flights from Sydney to Tokyo during the Australian summer. […]
[…] Here’s how to search ba.com. […]