How to Use British Airways Miles: Post 1

This is the first installment of my series on maximizing British Airways miles. Since so many of you got in on the super-lucrative 100,000 mile BA Visa sign-up bonus (see details of the new offer below), feel free to check out: General tips, Post 1 – Booking BA Awards, Post 2 – Booking Partner Awards, Post 3 – Oneworld Alliance, Post 4 – Taxes and Fees, Post 5 – Household Accounts, Post 6 – Companion Ticket, Post 7 – Using ExpertFlyer for Partner Award Availability, Post 8 – The Art of the Stopover, Post 9 – Leveraging Miles and Cash Redemptions, and Post 10 - Using Qantas.com to Find Oneworld Award Availability. Also, be sure to check out my post on the credit card deal itself and the lengthy Q&A in the comments section.

Update: Application link for the most current BA Visa credit card offer and promotional details.

Today’s lesson is how to book a flight to London, which is pretty simple, but I figured it was a good place to start. Tomorrow will be booking a business class Lan award to Lima from JFK. If you want me to cover a specific route or topic, feel free to comment in the section below. Upcoming lessons will also cover ways to maximize the BA Visa Companion Ticket, Household Accounts and stopovers. I’m off to JFK for my Global Entry interview now and then onto my last Scandanavian mileage run to Stockholm, so I have to stop here, but I hope you all have a great weekend, wherever your travels take you!

Go to britishairways.com -> Executive Club -> Spending BA Miles

Book Using BA miles

Log-in - You must have a valid BA account - it doesn't matter if you don't have enough miles

Select your route, class of service and passengers. If you have a Household Account, you can ONLY book for Household members. There are two in mine, that's why you see the two boxes

Results will show and a lesser class of service will populate if your originally requested isn't available. You won't get a higher fare class, so start with the highest and work your way down. I'm okay with a mix of Business and First so I continue.

Award is 1/2 of a 100k business award (50,000) and 1/2 of a 150k first (75,000). Fees are high, but I love BA service so it's worth it. Plus these tickets cost over $8,000, so I'll take the minor hit to enjoy my transatlantic flight.