Breaking BA Avios By Adding Stopovers! Introduction.

This post acidentally became a series…

• Introduction
• Using Stopovers to Save Avios to South America
• Using Stopovers to Save Avios Across the Pacific
• Using Stopovers to Save Avios to Europe
• Using Stopovers to Save Avios to India
• Conclusion

Your next British Airways Avios flight can actually be cheaper if booked with a stopover. I know what you’re thinking, “Drew, the new Avios program is distance and segment based… there are no stopovers.” That’s what I thought too…

Although I must admit that unlimited stopovers with the old Avios is near impossible to beat. However, this is almost as good.

Let’s start with the good and then move to the awesome.

A Free Stopover.

For example: NYC to Lima is about 3600 miles. According to the Avios award chart anywhere between 3,001 miles and 4,000 miles will cost 20,000 Avios points. Follow? Because British Airways is a distance based award chart, if you travel 3,600 nautical miles it will be cost you 20,000 British Airways Avios. However if you travel 1,152 – 2000 miles it will cost you 10,000 Avios. In other words, you could stop half way in between NYC and Lima and it will cost the exact same.

That’s the good. That for most routes you can stop somewhere for no extra cost. The awesome is that you may be able to save miles by creating a stopover.

Saving Avios With A Stopover Instead Of A Direct.

However, if you are flying from Dallas to Sydney it is about 8,600 nautical miles, which as a direct flight is priced at 50,000 Avios one-way. But if broken up by Honolulu it is priced as one 20,000 Avios ticket and one 25,000 Avios ticket for a total of 45,000. In other words; you save Avios by stopping in Hawaii.

Even more savings from Los Angeles! It’s 12,500 Avios for LAX – HNL and 25,000 for HNL-SYD. A ticket that normally costs 50,000 Avios would now cost 37,500 Avios… which isn’t bad at all. Stop in Hawaii and save 12,500 Avios each way… not a bad deal. (Actually, I wouldn’t mind flying Quantas First Class from HNL to SYD).

Saving Avios When There Is No Direct.

There is a third type of award that can benefit from this rerouting. For example, if we wanted to fly from Seattle to Lima, Peru, there is no direct flight. So it may seem logical to route to the nearest hub, LAX, but it’s actually the worse idea. You would pay 7,500 for SEA – LAX and another 25,000 for LAX – LIM. But there are many option to cut down on the cost and there is going to be a layover anyways. For example Seattle to Mexico city is 12,500 and another 12,500 for the next flight to Lima. Thus stopping in Mexico City saves 7,500 each way.

The second option, Saving Avios with a stopover instead of a direct, is the hardest option to find but if there is enough interest I might make an entire post of stopovers that save Avios. Any interest? Any ideas?

(Btw, I used a greater circles mapper, the BA Avios Calculator and the One World Map to find options.)