British Airways expands award seats

British Airways has always been one of my favorite airlines. A random upgrade to business class in 2015 literally changed the course of my career and honestly I probably owe my current occupation to that random event.

Anyway, the rewards program for British Airways, known as Avios, just got more valuable for a lot of people because they have expanded availability for rewards.

British Airways will now open up at least 14 Avios seats for long-haul flights and 12 Avios seats for short-haul lights.

The number of business class seats for long-haul flights is being doubled from 2 to 4 and there will now be at least two premium economy seats available.

Long-haul economy seats are being increased from 4 to 8 seats per flight.

In addition, short haul business class will also get two additional seats increased from two and short haul economy will get bumped from 4 to 8.

The expanded availability will be for flights departing July 28 and after. This change is also permanent.

This should make finding award seats much easier for a lot of people, especially those who travel in packs as families.

The drawback with British Airways is that on many routes, such as those through London, you will get hit with a lot of fees on your award tickets.

For that reason, some people view Avios tickets as essentially discounted cash tickets because they may still have to pay hundreds of dollars in fees.

But the good thing about British Airways is that you can transfer from so many different major programs like Chase and American Express. So it’s really easy to rack up a lot of points.

If you are okay with paying potentially hefty fees for your award travel I would definitely look more into British Airways as travel picks up because you might find it much easier to redeem your points with the expanded inventory.

H/T: HFP