One of the sweet spots of the British Airways Executive Club program is booking short-distance award flights in British Airways’ economy class. This is particularly interesting for flights from Western Europe to London. Bookings can be done directly via britishairways.com.
Booking Award Flights (Zone 1)
Zone 1 in British Airways’ Executive Club is any distance between 1 and 650 miles. Making London your destination opens up opportunities to fly from places such as Amsterdam, Paris, Marseille, Milan, Belfast, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Prague, many German cities and vice versa. There are lots of options within the 650 miles range.
Funny side note: Prague may be the furthest airport from London in zone 1 with 648 miles distance
Redeeming an award flight in zone 1 costs 4,000 Avios + €21 per way in off-peak season and 4,500 Avios + €21 per way in peak season. A great benefit of a European British Airways award redemption is that you only pay a fixed amount of taxes & fees which is €21 per way.
Checked baggage is included too, even in economy class. You would usually have to pay an extra fee of at least €20 per way to check in baggage in the cheapest fare.
You will get the following redemption options in off-peak season. You can choose either between higher Avios points and less taxes or less Avios points and higher taxes.
New: The redemption option with €1 of taxes and higher Avios points is automatically selected. From an economic point of view this redemption doesn’t make sense in most cases.
Let’s compare 4,000 Avios und €21 taxes (example 1) vs. 7,500 Avios and €1 of taxes (example 2). You can do a comparision in at least two ways:
- Value an Avios point at 1 Euro cent. In this case example 1 would “cost” you €61 and example 2 would cost you €76.
- How much value will your additionally used Avios points have? With example 2 we would use 3,500 Avios more and would “save” €20 in taxes. This means our additionally used Avios points would have a value of 0.6 Euro cents per Avios point. If your Avios end up being worth more than 1 Euro cent, I would say it’s worth considering using them.
On the other hand, if you wanted to book this particular flight with cash you would definitely need to pay more. Especially if you were planning on traveling with a checked bag.
Looking at these prices, your Avios would actually be worth 2.1 Euro cents per Avios point (if you redeem them as in example 1).
Changing & Cancellation Advantages
If you buy your flight with cash, the following terms will most probably apply:
- Time/date changes permitted at any time before each flight departure for a change fee of €80 or an upgrade fee of €80 plus any difference in fare
- There are no refunds except for any government & airport taxes. All sectors may be repriced for changes and/or refunds
However if you book with Avios you will definitely have an advantage as the following terms will apply (zone 1 – departing flights in Europe):
- Time/date changes permitted up to 24 hours before your first flight, subject to availability, for a service fee (the service fee in this case is €42.50)
- You can cancel this booking at any time up to 24 hours before outbound departure and receive a full refund, minus a service fee (the service fee in this case is €42.50)
Off-Peak & Peak Seasons
As mentioned earlier, peak season redemptions in zone 1 are a bit more expensive than in off-peak season (4,000 Avios vs. 4,500 Avios). The following dates show you British Airways’ peak seasons:
- January 1 to 6
- February 15 to 18 & 21 to 24
- March –
- April 5 to 23
- May 24 to 31
- June 1 to 2
- July 7 to 31
- August 1 to 31
- September 1 to 6
- October 12 to 14 & 18 to 21 & 25 to 28
- November 1 to 4
- December 14 to 31
Prices between off-peak and peak season differentiate between 10-15%. Please note that Executive Club only differentiates between off-peak and peak season for British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus operated flights. All other partner airlines have their own peak season award chart (which is a bit less attractive). To give you a better overview, we have put together a table showcasing not only the different cabin classes, zones and respective Avios point pricing but also off-peak and peak season redemption rates:
One-way pricing (off-peak & peak season) with British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
| Economy | Premium | Business | First | |
| Zone 1 1 – 650 mi | 4.000 4.500 | 5.750 6.750 | 7.750 9.000 | 15.500 18.000 |
| Zone 2 651 – 1.150 mi | 6.500 7.500 | 9.500 11.250 | 12.750 15.000 | 25.500 30.000 |
| Zone 3 1.151 – 2.000 mi | 8.500 10.000 | 12.750 15.000 | 17.000 20.000 | 34.000 40.000 |
| Zone 4 2.001 – 3.000 mi | 10.000 12.500 | 20.000 25.000 | 31.250 37.500 | 42.500 50.000 |
| Zone 5 3.001 – 4.000 mi | 13.000 20.000 | 26.000 40.000 | 50.000 60.000 | 68.000 80.000 |
| Zone 6 4.001 – 5.500 mi | 16.250 25.000 | 32.500 50.000 | 62.500 75.000 | 85.000 100.000 |
| Zone 7 5.501 – 6.500 mi | 19.500 30.000 | 39.000 60.000 | 75.000 90.000 | 102.000 120.000 |
| Zone 8 6.501 – 7.000 mi | 22.750 35.000 | 45.500 70.000 | 87.500 105.000 | 119.000 140.000 |
| Zone 9 7.001+ mi | 32.500 50.000 | 65.000 100.000 | 125.000 150.000 | 170.000 200.000 |
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