Sweet Spot Sunday: The cheapest way to book intra-Australia award tickets with points

Even if you don’t collect points and miles with the best travel credit cards, it’s not difficult to hop around Australia on the cheap. You can find short-haul flights with budget carriers like Jetstar to many destinations for around $40.

However, these rock-bottom prices come tangled in red tape:

• You’ll have to pay extra for checked bags — which may potentially cost more than your airfare.
• You’ll often have to pay extra to choose your seat.
• You won’t be able to change or cancel your flight.

These expenses and inconveniences turn that excellent fare into a mediocre — or even bad — deal.

Fortunately, there’s an airline currency that specializes in short-haul flights, and you won’t be subject to any of the headaches above.

British Airways Avios are a great tool for those who want to fly around Australia. It’s especially good for business-class flights.

For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.

Let’s take a look at how British Airways can help you tour Australia for a paltry number of points.

Why it’s special

British Airways prices its award flights according to the distance you fly. This is ideal for short jaunts such as flights within Australia.

For example, here’s a flight from Broome to Melbourne — a 1,900-mile trip — and one of the longest nonstops in all of Australia. You’ll pay just 11,000 Avios and $36 for a coach flight.

As you can see from the below screenshot, this nonstop flight otherwise costs $408, giving you a value per point of 3.38 cents. That’s more than double TPG’s valuations of British Airways Avios, pegged at 1.5 cents on average.

This deal gets even better if you’re booking business-class seats. For the same flight, you’ll pay 22,000 Avios and $36 for a business-class seat — essentially double the points price.

But the same nonstop flight retails for $1,661 in cash. That means you’ll get a whopping 7.38 cents in value per point — nearly 5 times the average value, per TPG valuations.

Related: Maximizing the British Airways distance-based award chart

How to book this award

When using British Airways Avios for inter-Australia flights, you’ll be flying British Airways partner Qantas. Here’s the award chart that will apply to you:

These prices reflect one segment. For example, if you were to book a nonstop, 600-mile flight, you’d pay just 6,000 Avios. But if you were to book a 600-mile flight that included a stopover, you’d pay 12,000 Avios. For this reason, you’ll always get the best deal for nonstop flights.

Related: The ultimate guide to British Airways Avios

Here’s how to book

Step 1. Search your flight on Great Circle Mapper (optional)

Before you get too in the weeds searching for award seats, you can first estimate the number of points you’ll need for your itinerary with Great Circle Mapper. Simply enter your origin and destination, and it’ll tell you the distance of your flight.

For example, Sydney to Perth is 2,041 miles. After referring to the above award chart, we can predict that this flight will cost 13,000 Avios to fly coach and 38,750 Avios to fly business class.

Step 2. Find “Book a flight with Avios” on the British Airways website

Log into your British Airways account and hover over the “Book” tab at the top of the screen. You’ll see “Book a flight with Avios” — click that.

Step 3. Enter your travel information and choose your flights

You’ll now have the option to choose your destination, travel dates, etc. This will bring you to the results page where you should have multiple flights to choose from. For this example, we’ll choose a one-way, business-class seat, which costs 38,750 Avios (as we expected from Step 1) and $30 in taxes and fees.

Step 4. Compare the cash price before you book

You’ll always want to make sure you’re getting a good deal for your travel rewards. Jump on Google Flights just to price the ticket. If you need help identifying a good deal, check out our Awards vs Cash Calculator.

This particular award is a lie-flat seat and costs $1,836 in cash. That means we’re getting a value of 4.66 cents each — a no-brainer to use points, as it’s more than three times TPG's valuation of Avios.

How to earn points for this award

British Airways has one credit card — the British Airways Visa Signature Card. You’ll receive earn up to 100,000 Avios. Earn 75,000 Avios after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening and earn an additional 25,000 Avios after you spend $20,000 in the the first 12 months of account opening.

You can also transfer Iberia Avios and Aer Lingus Avios to British Airways, as they all technically earn the same type of points. Your accounts just need to be open for at least 90 days to be eligible to transfer between Avios programs.

Additionally, British Airways is a transfer partner of the following transferable currencies:

• Amex Membership Rewards (1:1).
• Capital One Rewards (1:1).
• Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1).
• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1).

And when you transfer Marriott points in increments of 60,000, you’ll receive a 5,000-point bonus. This means 60,000 Marriott points transfer to 25,000 Avios.

If you're looking to increase your Ultimate Rewards balance, consider opening one of these Chase cards:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred Card: Earn 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening
• Chase Sapphire Reserve: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.
• Ink Business Preferred Credit Card: Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.

Related: 18 ways to earn more British Airways Avios

Bottom line

If you’re slowly making your way around Australia, you may never pay more than 6,000 points and some nominal taxes and fees. In turn, you could visit five cities for just 30,000 points. And because British Airways Avios are some of the easiest points to accrue, you’ll have no problem funding a bucket list itinerary Down Under.

Business class is where the real outsized value lives — but no matter which cabin you book, you’re almost guaranteed to get a great deal with British Airways Avios in Australia.