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What is the best value Avios flight per mile?

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What is the best value Avios redemption per mile flown?  Or, put another way, what’s the furthest you can fly for the fewest Avios?

This is a sister article to our ‘Avios price list’ (the only place online where you’ll find the full Avios redemption chart – it’s not on ba.com now). It shows you where you find the best value – if, that is, your idea of ‘best value’ is travelling as far as you can from London for the fewest Avios.

We have put together a list of the flying distance of each long and mid haul British Airways route and compared it with the Avios required for a Club World off-peak redemption.

What is the best value Avios flight per mile?

Distances are measured using the ‘great circle route’ ie. the most direct path between origination and destination.

If you ever need to work out the distance between two cities, we recommend Great Circle Mapper at gcmap.com.  Use airport codes in the search box, eg LHR-CPT for London Heathrow to Cape Town, and click ‘Distance’.

Hopefully this gives you a better idea of the value of different routes, although you should remember that ‘value’ is subjective.  If you don’t want to fly to Kuwait, for example, it doesn’t matter how ‘cheap’ a redemption would be.

As we always say, the ‘best’ Avios redemption is one that takes you to somewhere you really want to go.

What is the best value Avios redemption based on distance?

The winner based on ‘Avios needed per mile flown’ is Sydney. Just 13 Avios will get you one mile nearer Sydney in a Club World flat bed on that route.

Take a look and see what you think. The table shows you the Avios per mile you need to redeem for a Club World redemption.

We have used the ‘highest Avios, lowest cash’ pricing option offered for each route. For mid haul and long haul routes, this tends to be the best overall value. It is not the best option on short haul but those routes are not included below.

What is the best value Avios flight per mile?

You could, arguably, adjust the table to reflect the different surcharges between routes. At the end of the day, however, this is only meant to be a bit of fun.

Don’t forget our earlier HfP article which shows every British Airways route and the Avios required to fly it.

Here is the ‘best Avios redemption per mile flown’ chart, based on BA’s route map at the start of 2025. Amman, Tel Aviv and Cairo are excluded as they are operated on short haul aircraft.

DestinationClub World Avios
off-peak (one-way)		Miles flown
(one-way)		Avios needed
per mile
Sydney145,000 + £387.510,66513.60
Cape Town90,000 + £237.56,01014.98
Santiago110,000 + £312.57,24915.17
Buenos Aires110,000 + £312.56,91515.91
Johannesburg90,000 + £237.55,63515.97
Tokyo100,000 + £287.56,22016.08
Mexico City90,000 + £237.55,53016.27
Singapore110,000 + £312.56,75516.28
San Diego90,000 + £237.55,47016.45
Los Angeles90,000 + £237.55,45516.50
Mauritius100,000 + £287.56,05516.52
San Jose (C’Rica)90,000 + £237.55,42516.59
Kuala Lumpur110,000 + £312.56,59316.68
Hong Kong100,000 + £287.55,96516.76
Bangkok100,000 + £287.55,95816.78
San Francisco90,000 + £237.55,36016.79
San Jose (CA)90,000 + £237.55,36016.79
Sao Paulo100,000 + £287.55,89016.98
Male90,000 + £237.55,29517.00
Phoenix90,000 + £237.55,25517.13
Las Vegas90,000 + £237.55,23017.21
Rio de Janeiro100,000 + £287.55,74517.41
Shanghai100,000 + £287.55,72017.48
Chennai90,000 + £237.55,11517.60
Grand Cayman90,000 + £237.55,08517.70
Bengaluru90,000 + £237.55,00417.99
Cancun90,000 + £237.54,96518.13
Portland (Oregon)90,000 + £237.54,91418.32
Austin90,000 + £237.54,91018.33
Houston90,000 + £237.54,82018.67
Turks and Caicos90,000 + £237.54,82018.67
Hyderabad90,000 + £237.54,79518.77
Seattle90,000 + £237.54,78518.81
Dallas90,000 + £237.54,74518.97
Vancouver90,000 + £237.54,70519.13
Kingston90,000 + £237.54,68019.23
Aruba90,000 + £237.54,67919.23
Denver90,000 + £237.54,67019.27
New Orleans90,000 + £237.54,61719.49
Tobago90,000 + £237.54,49520.02
Mumbai90,000 + £237.54,46520.16
Cincinnati80,000 + £187.53,96320.19
Port of Spain90,000 + £237.54,45520.20
Chicago80,000 + £187.53,95520.23
Miami90,000 + £237.54,43520.29
Tampa90,000 + £237.54,42520.34
Grenada90,000 + £237.54,36020.64
Orlando90,000 + £237.54,35520.67
Nassau90,000 + £237.54,33020.79
Punta Cana90,000 + £237.54,29020.98
Nairobi90,000 + £237.54,25021.18
St Lucia90,000 + £237.54,22021.33
Islamabad80,000 + £187.53,75021.33
Atlanta90,000 + £237.54,20021.43
Barbados90,000 + £237.54,19521.45
Delhi90,000 + £237.54,19121.47
Pittsburgh80,000 + £187.53,71521.53
Nashville90,000 + £237.54,17621.55
St Kitts90,000 + £237.54,14021.74
Washington DC80,000 + £187.53,67521.77
Baltimore80,000 + £187.53,62522.07
Antigua90,000 + £237.54,07522.09
Philadelphia80,000 + £187.53,54522.57
Toronto80,000 + £187.53,54522.57
New York80,000 + £187.53,45023.19
Bermuda80,000 + £187.53,44023.26
Abu Dhabi80,000 + £187.53,43223.31
Dubai80,000 + £187.53,40523.49
Abuja70,000 + £102.52,96023.65
Jeddah70,000 + £102.52,95123.72
Kuwait70,000 + £102.52,90024.14
Boston80,000 + £187.53,26024.54
Doha80,000 + £187.53,24024.69
Montreal80,000 + £187.53,24024.69
Accra80,000 + £187.53,17025.24
Bahrain80,000 + £187.53,15025.40
Lagos80,000 + £187.53,11525.68
Riyadh80,000 + £187.53,06526.10

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (40)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Andrew says:
    24 Jan24 January 05:39

    When the virgin rewards were repriced at upto 350k one way to USA I thought that would be the end of it being useful, but I’m currently in Vegas. Having paid 41k points and £400 to get here in upper class. There is value if you can be flexible on dates.
    As a side note the virgin flight was cancelled and we were put on the BA one!

    • KG says:
      24 Jan24 January 11:51

      Indeed, plus the routes Rob highlighted with savers availability look quite attractive vs BA. Booked Virgin to Bengaluru for 42k pts +300gbp which is the same px even with the amex 2-4-1 voucher on BA! Cancelled the BA-amex and have signed up for VA premium, cant wait for the voucher now! bye bye BA

  • Nick says:
    24 Jan24 January 06:59

    Given BAs odd pricing you can sometimes get more miles per Avios in F.

  • RC says:
    24 Jan24 January 07:34

    Burn baby burn…
    Though many of the US routes see rare availability if you’re not at midnight booker or can force a guest list redemption.
    After the tier point ‘f you’, it’s time to redeem everything possible before BA devalues that (even further) too.
    As a household we’ve already given up earning on flights – it’s literally (almost) pointless. You get more Avios on Amex buying an easyJet ticket than the BA flight alternative.
    More ‘genius’ from Adam Daniels. If there’s an Avios ecosystem it’s looking at a coming extinction event the way these constant devaluations are being mismanaged.
    So burn, burn, burn

  • Numti says:
    24 Jan24 January 08:01

    Just goes to show what fantastic value there is on Qatar redemptions, especially to Oceania. 90,000 Avios + £510.33 for MAN-DOH-AKL 12,397 miles = 7.26 Avios per mile flown. No brainer for the majority of regional HfP readers?

    • Charlie says:
      24 Jan24 January 09:16

      Three other things to bear in mind: First, is that if you are in the regions the domestic to London is complimentary (apart from Amman and the other narrow bodies). Second, all qualify for the Barclays and Amex ‘vouchers’, turning economy into WTP or WTP into biz. Third, the cash element is important too. If you value Avios at 0.9p, then adding that to the table changes the order (and your Qatar valuation) a bit.

    • Charlie says:
      24 Jan24 January 09:34

      Also, Amman (and possibly the other narrow bodies) in the table above are possibly incorrect. Being a narrow body, I have Amman as 24,250 plus £102.50 from LHR and 39,250 plus £115 from the regions. (And very uncomfortable too. Oh for the days of the ex BMI mid-hauls, which were super!)

      • Rob says:
        24 Jan24 January 09:56

        Thanks. Will re-check. Perhaps they were repriced when moved to short haul. May be better to remove them altogether.

  • Matt says:
    24 Jan24 January 08:05

    I’ve no problem with recycling articles but how about updating it by incorporating the same idea but adding Finn air, Qatar and Aer Lingus redemptions.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      24 Jan24 January 08:20

      Perhaps because of the amount of work it takes to find the data for what would likely be little benefit.

      • Toilet Paper Man says:
        24 Jan24 January 08:39

        Of little benefit? QR beats BA on miles per avios on almost all of the Eastbound routes listed here…

        And now that Avios are interchangeable between BA, QR and others, there’s definitely benefit for people to know where to look for savings.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
          24 Jan24 January 08:50

          Well perhaops if you and Matt offered to help do the research …

          Almost every week there are people asking for articles on this and that subject but never an offer to help do the research.

          But if you want to fly east on QR you are going to have to change planes and many people won’t do that if there is non stop option. For AY you need to add in a flight to HEL

          Both of those skews any value calculation.

          • Numti says:
            24 Jan24 January 09:08

            Personally, as someone who lives ‘Up North’ & has to change planes anyway, I would much rather transit via DOH than LHR. Smoother transit experience, better lounges & QR J&F product at least on par & usually way better than BA offer.

          • Paul says:
            24 Jan24 January 09:43

            Same for me. Living up north removes the direct flight. Three hours on public transport or one hell of a drive from Manchester to LHR. Easier to fly to HEL on a seperate ticket and then use 62.5K Avios plus £130 taxes for a 12 hour flight to the far east in Business class.

  • Retron says:
    24 Jan24 January 08:49

    Tokyo is of course much further away now as the plane flies! It’s around 7,500 outbound, 8,200 back, so is a “sweet spot” in terms of Avios value… it’s still priced at the old routing distances.

  • Doug says:
    24 Jan24 January 09:46

    What might be the best value redemptions for destinations within Europe?

    • Rob says:
      24 Jan24 January 10:00

      Doubt there’s much in it – and of course short-haul now extends as far as Tel Aviv.

    • vlcnc says:
      24 Jan24 January 10:23

      From what I remember it used to be Moscow which is obviously gone, but Istanbul is pretty good but obviously on a short-haul plane with BA.

    • Allan says:
      24 Jan24 January 10:23

      Finnair A350 LPA-HEL in business, 6 hours 15m
      25000 + 25.60 – 2538nm – 9.85 avios

      • Charlie says:
        24 Jan24 January 15:38

        Thanks for this. We will be at Helsinki in April after an AY flight from Singapore, and although schedule is sparse, managed to get seats on this instead of Edinburgh, so we will extend our trip by a few more days and get some early summer sun. Incidentally, if you add on Warsaw (or one of the other AY zone 1 groups) you’ll add circa 750+ nm for 10 EUR more, albeit in an A320 or cosier aircraft.

  • Nico says:
    24 Jan24 January 10:00

    Very interesting, feels fairly correlated with popular routes.
    On side note, Iberia redemptions especially off peak are incredible value compared to that if willing to stop in Madrid.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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