With Alaska Airlines having just joined the oneworld alliance, there’s an exciting development when it comes to redeeming British Airways Avios for travel on the Seattle-based airline.
Redeem Avios on Alaska flights online
Alaska Airlines and British Airways have had a partnership that goes back to way before Alaska joined oneworld, and this allowed reciprocal points earning and redemption opportunities.
Redeeming British Airways Avios on Alaska Airlines was a great deal, but there was a major catch — these awards weren’t bookable online. Rather you had to phone up the Executive Club call center to book these flights, which was often a pain, as I found hold times to often be significant.
It’s now possible to redeem British Airways Avios for travel on Alaska Airlines directly through ba.com. This is a fantastic development, since it makes this redemption option so easy.
It’s now possible to redeem Avios for travel on Alaska online
You can just go to British Airways’ online award search tool, and if Alaska Airlines has award availability it will automatically show up.
Why redeeming Avios on Alaska is a good deal
Thanks to British Airways’ distance based award chart, redeeming Avios for travel on Alaska Airlines is one of my favorite uses of Avios, especially thanks to the lack of fuel surcharges for these redemptions.
British Airways Executive Club award pricing on Alaska Airlines is based on the one-way distance of each segment, as follows:
- Flights of up to 1,150 miles cost 9,000 Avios in economy and 16,500 Avios in first class
- Flights of 1,151-2,000 miles cost 11,000 Avios in economy and 22,000 Avios in first class
- Flights of 2,001-3,000 miles cost 13,000 Avios in economy and 38,750 Avios in first class
While British Airways Executive Club won’t always have the lowest cost in terms of the number of points required, there are some major advantages to booking through the program:
- British Airways Executive Club is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards, making the points pretty easy to come by (Alaska Mileage Plan doesn’t partner with any transferable points currency)
- There are sometimes transfer bonuses from transferable points currencies to British Airways Executive Club, improving the value proposition even further
Redeeming Avios on Alaska can represent a great value
Bottom line
It’s now possible to redeem British Airways Avios for travel on Alaska Airlines directly through ba.com, which is a huge improvement to this redemption opportunity. Often I find the best redemption value on Alaska Airlines is through British Airways Executive Club, given how easy Avios are to come by.
The fact that these bookings can now be made online makes me much more likely to book through British Airways, since the hassle factor is gone.
Anyone else excited to see British Airways add Alaska Airlines redemptions online?
(Tip of the hat to Alex)
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