The British Airways Avios Multi-Carrier Award Chart

Anyone who collects British Airways Avios is familiar with the high costs of redeeming points with British Airways. Not only are you stuck with hefty carrier-imposed surcharges, but also the Air Passenger Duty (APD) on departures out of the UK.

More advanced Avios users know that the best-value redemptions often lie in short-haul flights on Oneworld airlines, thanks to the program’s unique distance-based award chart. There are also pockets of value in certain long-haul economy class flights, and even a handful of compelling redemptions for long-haul business class flights, especially on Qatar Airways Qsuites.

But the truly savvy Avios collectors will know that there’s actually an entirely separate award chart within the program, which is used specifically when multiple Oneworld partner airlines are combined on the same itinerary. The chart is titled “Avios costs for multi-carrier Reward Flights”, but is more commonly referred to as the multi-carrier award chart, and represents one of the most powerful uses of Avios.

The Multi-Carrier Award Chart

To begin, here’s the chart itself, as displayed on the British Airways website:

These prices reflect a booking that’s done in economy class, and you multiply the Avios prices by 1.5x for premium economy, 2x for business, and 3x for First Class.

Taking this into account, a more complete chart is presented as below:

The Rules

To begin, let’s go over the ground rules of using the British Airways Avios multi-carrier award chart:

• You must include at least two Oneworld airlines besides British Airways on your ticket

  • Travel can only take place on Oneworld airlines, so British Airways’s non-Oneworld partners, such as Aer Lingus, are not eligible

• You can have at most eight flight segments, and travel must take place within a 12-month window; this means that you’re effectively allowed seven stopovers on the ticket

• In addition, you can also have one open-jaw

• Reasonable backtracking within an IATA zone is allowed

• Your routing must follow a logical sequence; however, the definition of what is logical and what isn’t is up to British Airways

• The total distance of your trip, which is used to determine the Avios cost according to the above multi-carrier chart, is based on the cumulative distance of your flown segments

The last rule is very nuanced but a very important one to understand. When booking…