Get the best value from Reward Flight Savers

Essentially, you can lower your cash spend by using more Avios. Better still, since December 2022, Reward Flight Saver fares have been extended fully beyond short-haul to all BA-operated flights and in all classes except First. 

How much might it save you? Well, BA says you can pay as little as £1 and 18,500 Avios for flights to Europe using a Reward Flight Saver fare or from £100 and 50,000 Avios for mid- to long-haul destinations.

As is often true when you book flights with Avios, there are clever ways to add even more value. Here are some suggestions from Reward Flight Finder (RFF) team on how to get the most from the Reward Flight Saver scheme.

Use your BA Companion Voucher and Reward Flight Saver together for a real deal

If you earn BA Companion Vouchers through an American Express credit card, the new Reward Flight Saver options will be especially valuable because the vouchers will let you get the same deal twice. Read the BA Companion Voucher rules before planning a voucher booking.

Companion Vouchers effectively operate as a buy-one-get-one-free on reward flights. With a regular reward flight, both parties still have to pay all the fees, taxes, and surcharges in cash. But by booking a Reward Flight Saver fare in conjunction with a Companion Voucher, the lead passenger gets to reduce the add-on fees by using extra Avios, and the ‘free’ companion passenger pays the same reduced cash amount for those extra charges. 

Using BA’s London to New York route, one of our top reward seat searches, as an example, you typically need to pay 100,000 Avios, plus 2 x £850 in fees, taxes, and surcharges for your business class booking. A total of £1,706 in cash. However, by utilising a Reward Flight Saver alongside a BA Companion Voucher you can pay 60,000 additional Avios and save £1,000 in cash. 

With a standard BA Amex card, your Companion Voucher will entitle you to get the BOGOF discount on economy Reward Flight seats. If you pay an annual fee to have the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card then your Companion Voucher can be redeemed for all classes of seats. With either credit card, you’ll only earn an annual Companion Voucher if you’ve spent a certain amount within that membership year. Check the BA Companion Voucher rules before using your voucher.

Turn short-haul into a good value Avios option  

Usually, redeeming your Avios on a short-haul flight is relatively poor value. You might want to do it because you’ve no plans to fly long-haul or you’ll never have enough points to make a good dent in a long-haul fare, but otherwise, it’s best avoided. That is unless you use a Reward Flight Saver fare. 

A good rule of thumb when using a Reward Flight Finder (RFF) is to compare the Avios cost of a flight to the regular cash cost and try to get a deal worth around 1p per Avios. 

You should discover the Saver fares for hops to Europe can work out good value because you’re reducing the annoying fees and taxes besides the core price, and those extra charges are fixed. 

Note that connecting flights are paid for separately with Reward Flight Savers, not as one through fare, so they’re unlikely to be such a good deal. 

Pair a Reward Flight Saver with a Barclaycard Upgrade Voucher

As with the Amex Companion Voucher described in the BA Companion Voucher rules, the Barclaycard Upgrade Voucher is an annual perk that can be used on reward flights. 

The name is misleading as you are NOT upgrading from one cabin class to a higher class. Instead, you are being charged the Avios amount for the cabin class below the one you are travelling in. So you can book two tickets in Club World (Business) and use the upgrade voucher to be charged the Avios amount for Premium Economy. If you book flights with Avios using Reward Flight Saver this will make it extra good value as you get the lower cabin Avios rate. 

There are two cards that give you this perk: Barclaycard Avios Mastercard and Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard, which has an annual fee. As with the Amex BA Companion Voucher, you’ll have to have spent enough on your card within a membership year to earn an Upgrade Voucher. 

You can also earn a voucher through a Barclays Premier or Wealth bank account. This doesn’t require you to hit a certain spend but you will have to earn or save a significant amount to be eligible and also pay a monthly fee to join Barclay Avios Rewards. 

The voucher can be used by one person to upgrade both legs of a return flight or by two people travelling together to each upgrade one way on the same flight. 

Note that although your core fare will be the Avios rate for a Reward Flight in the cabin below, your fees and taxes will be charged at the rate for the higher cabin. 

Also, the upgrade is subject to reward flight availability in the higher class, so it pays to set a seat alert with RFF’s Reward Flight Finder (RFF). 

Book last minute

Buying a flight last minute can mean you risk missing out on a seat, but for times when you need to travel at short notice - and there’s still availability to book flights with Avios - using a Reward Flight Saver fare is a great idea. 

This is because Reward Flight Savers are set at a fixed cost compared to regular fares (paid in cash or Avios), which rise significantly as the departure date gets closer.  

How to find Reward Flight Savers

You must have earned at least one Avios in your BA Club account over the last twelve months for your booking to be eligible for a Reward Flight Saver fare. 

Log into your BA Club account, search for Avios flights in the normal way, and look out for the Reward Flight Saver symbol (like a note of money in a blue starburst), which is shown on all fares where it is available. Find out more on the BA website.