Six months ago, St Louis was a brand-new name on the British Airways route map. Now it's getting daily flights. BA has confirmed its London Heathrow to St Louis service will run every day for more than four months of summer 2027, up from four flights a week in its first season. That's more seats, more dates and more chances to spend your Avios on a direct flight to the Gateway to the West.
Here's the new schedule, what you'll fly, how many Avios you'll need and how to use Reward Flight Finder to catch the reward seats as they appear.
British Airways launched the route on 19 April 2026 with four flights a week, and it's the only UK airline flying nonstop between London and St Louis. Just five months later, on 22 September 2026, BA and St Louis Lambert International Airport announced the expansion. For summer 2027:
Dates (2027)
Flights per week
28 March to 18 April
5
19 April to 28 June
Daily
29 June to 5 September
5
6 September to 30 October
Daily
BA's summer 2027 St Louis schedule. Daily flights run in spring and autumn; the school summer holidays stay at five a week. Some schedule data shows the fifth weekly flight starting on 1 April.
BA says the change adds more than 35,400 seats, an 80% increase on summer 2026. One detail stands out: the daily flying sits in spring and autumn, not July and August. If your dates are flexible, that's where the extra reward seats will be.
The route stays seasonal, so there are no flights over the winter. Flights for summer 2026 finished at the end of October 2026.
St Louis is one of several British Airways new routes and expansions on the way. Melbourne launches in January 2027, and Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar follow from Gatwick in summer 2027, according to BA's new routes page. Our round-up of BA's winter 2026 expansion covers the rest of the British Airways new routes picture for this winter.
Flight times
These are the typical summer 2027 timings, according to Aeroroutes' summer 2027 schedule listing. Times shift by a few minutes on some days, and the new Monday and Saturday flights run earlier (14:00 out of Heathrow, 21:00 back from St Louis), so check your exact date on ba.com.
Flight
Route
Departs
Arrives
BA221
London Heathrow to St Louis
16:25
19:30 local time
BA220
St Louis to London Heathrow
21:35
11:35 the next day
It's around nine hours westbound, and an overnight flight home that lands you at Heathrow in time for lunch.
What you'll fly: the 787, and the chance of Club Suite
The route uses BA's Boeing 787 fleet, almost always the 787-8, with three cabins: Economy (World Traveller), Premium Economy (World Traveller Plus) and Business Class (Club World). There's no First on this route.
In Business Class, the prize is Club Suite. BA's launch release says Club Suite is available on selected flights on this route, with direct aisle access, a fully flat bed and a 17-inch screen, and every Club Suite seat has its own sliding door. Some of BA's 787-8s still have the older Club World seat, so the aircraft decides which you get.
How many Avios do you need for flights to St Louis?
St Louis sits just over 4,000 miles from London, which puts it in a higher Avios band than New York or Chicago. Here's what you'll pay in Avios with BA, per person, return:
Cabin
London to St Louis (off-peak / peak)
London to Chicago (off-peak / peak)
Taxes and charges, St Louis
Economy
66,000 / 77,000
55,000 / 66,000
£190
Premium Economy
104,500 / 148,500
93,500 / 132,000
£460
Business Class
198,000 / 220,000
176,000 / 198,000
£599
Prices pulled live from our Avios Calculator on 9 October 2026. Taxes and charges are payable on top of the Avios, and BA's peak dates cost more. A one-way flight costs half the return Avios.
The value is in the direct flight. Before this route, getting to St Louis on Avios meant connecting in a US hub, often on an American Airlines flight booked as a partner reward. Now you go nonstop, and it's a BA-operated flight, which matters for two reasons:
You can use a Companion Voucher. The BA Amex Companion Voucher gives a second person a reward seat for no extra Avios on British Airways flights; you still pay the taxes for both. Two people in Business Class off-peak would need 198,000 Avios plus taxes and charges for two. Our guide to using your Companion Voucher explains the rules.
BA's reward seat guarantee applies. On flights to and from Heathrow, BA commits to at least eight Economy, two Premium Economy and four Business Class reward seats, according to its reward flights page.
Why more flights means more reward seats
That guarantee is per flight, so frequency is everything. Going from four flights a week to seven during the daily periods takes BA's minimum Business Class reward seats from 16 a week in each direction to 28. Economy rises from 32 to 56. BA often releases more than the minimum too, so the real numbers can be higher.
Timing matters as well. BA releases reward seats around 355 days before departure, so the whole summer 2027 season, right up to the last flight on 30 October, is already bookable. New routes also tend to have their most generous availability early, before the wider market catches on, which is exactly what we said when the route launched in our St Louis and Guernsey launch article.
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Why St Louis is worth a look
St Louis is the city of the Gateway Arch, the 192-metre steel curve on the bank of the Mississippi, where a tram carries you to the top for views over the river and the city. Below it, the city has a proper music history (Chuck Berry was born here, and Miles Davis grew up just across the river in East St Louis and cut his teeth in the city's clubs), Forest Park, which is larger than New York's Central Park, and The Hill, the Italian quarter where you'll find toasted ravioli.
It's also Route 66 country. The road celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2026, and BA timed the route's launch to coincide with it, according to its October 2025 announcement. St Louis is a natural starting point for a Route 66 road trip west towards the Ozarks, with Chicago a drive back up the road.
And if St Louis is only the start, Heathrow connects you to it from across BA's network, and BA's joint business with American Airlines opens up onward flights across the US. Our guide to booking American Airlines with Avios covers how those connections work.
How to book British Airways St Louis flights with Avios
Join The British Airways Club. It's free, and you'll need your BA Club membership number to book a reward flight.
Check the price. Use our Avios Calculator to see what your dates will cost, peak or off-peak, in every cabin.
Find the seats. Avios flights to St Louis sell out date by date, so search London to St Louis on Reward Flight Finder to see reward availability across the whole season at a glance.
Book on ba.com with your Avios, and pay the taxes and charges in cash.
Get alerted the moment St Louis reward seats appear
Daily flights mean more reward seats, but they still won't sit there for long, especially in Business Class. Set up Availability Alerts on London to St Louis for your dates and we'll tell you as soon as seats open up in the cabin you want, including Club Suite. Our guide to the smartest way to find BA reward seats shows how members set them up, and you can start your search on Reward Flight Finder today.
Kayleigh
