The British Airways Executive Club, the loyalty program of British Airways, uses Avios as its reward currency that can be redeemed for award flights. 

Avios are used and accepted by multiple airlines, meaning the opportunities for redemption are wide-ranging, regardless of your country of departure or arrival.

Understanding how to use Avios to their maximum value is a case of understanding British Airways’ distance-based reward system and how it can benefit—as well as be of detriment to—you.

We've got good news for you to begin your Friday with today! American Express Membership Rewards now transfer to British Airways and Iberia Avios at an improved rate of 250:250.

Previously, the transfer rate was 250 Memberships to 200 Avios (1:0.8). Personally I'm quite excited about the change in ratio. I love distance-based Avios for booking short hops that otherwise wouldn't make sense to redeem miles for, but also for sweetspots like Iberia Business Class between Brazil and Spain that I flew at the end of May for just 42,500 points.

Bad news, good news:

The bad news is that the year-round 12,500 Avios award from Boston to Dublin or Shannon, Ireland on Aer Lingus is dead.

The good news is that those awards from Boston as well as awards from New York, Newark, Hartford, Toronto, Washington-Dulles, and Chicago to Ireland are now only 13,000 Avios for more than two-thirds of the year.

Prior to this weekend, American Airlines classified the premium cabin on all domestic flights (domestic First Class) as First Class, whether or not the plane had two cabins or three. It was distinguished with fare code F, A, or P.

250 Membership Rewards will transfer to 300 British Airways Avios from now until 11:59 p.m. CT on October 10, 2016. The normal transfer rate is 250 Membership Rewards = 200 British Airways Avios, so this transfer bonus will get you 50% more Avios.

For only 25,000 Avios and $11, you can fly roundtrip on American Airlines or Alaska Airlines planes in economy from the West Coast to Hawaii.

I've been hopping around Europe for the last few months with flight that I've booked a variety of ways:

Barcelona, Spain to Leipzig, Germany (cash, Vueling)
Prague, Czech Republic to Belgrade, Serbia (Etihad Guest miles, Air Serbia, Anatomy of an Award)
Belgrade to Tivat, Montenegro (cash, Air Serbia)
Sarajevo, Bosnia to Zagreb, Croatia (cash, Croatia Airlines)

Now I have two more flights coming up from Zagreb to Spain and back for a quick trip.

British Airways collects fuel surcharges on almost all award redemptions. People constantly complain to me that their recent "free ticket" cost $650 or $1,000 or more in "taxes."

In fact, taxes make up a small share of the cash component of most British Airways awards.

Until July 5, 2016, you can transfer 20,000 Starpoints to 33,750 British Airways Avios. The normal rate is 20,000 points to 25,000 Avios, but Avios is running a 35% bonus on transferring hotel points.

The only hotel-point transfer option with a decent rate is Starpoints.

If you don't have Starpoints, you can buy them right now for 2.45 cents each. The best number to buy would be 20,000 for $490 to maximize this promotion, since Starwood gives a bonus for every 20,000 Starpoints transferred to airlines.

Through tomorrow (May 26, 2015), British Airways is offering a 40% bonus on the purchase of Avios. The biggest bonus ever offered on the purchase of Avios was 50% in February 2015, so this is a big bonus.

The maximum Avios you can purchase in a year is normally 35,000, but is being raised to 100,000 during this promotion. With a 40% bonus, that means you can add 140,000 Avios to your account.

Groupon Spain is having a sale on Iberia Avios, offering them for 1.38 cents each.
Iberia has a portal that allows you to earn 8 Avios per euro on the purchase of Groupons.
Those extra Avios bring the effective purchase price down to 1.26 cents each.
You can freely transfer Iberia Avios to British Airways Avios if both your Iberia and British Airways accounts are 90 days old.
Both types of Avios are worth well more than 1.26 cents each.

Preparation
The only three things you need to make this deal work are a credit card that charges no