Let’s start with a little bit of truth: people LOVE to complain about British Airways. And to be fair, some of it is very warranted. But one extremely common comment, isn’t. Well, at least again now. British Airways has brought back their truly fantastic Reward Flight Finder Tool. Here’s why it’s great, where you can find it – and what it can do for you.
What
If you don’t already have it, we highly suggest you download the British Airways app. Yes, you can book tickets, check points balances and do other stuff, but the main thing, is that Rewards Flight Finder is back. This easy tool allows you to find seats in any cabin, in the easiest way possible. It’s shockingly easy and intuitive to use. It’s very similar to the non British Airways tool called BA Redemption Finder, which essentially does the same thing, but on desktop. We’re not sure when it returned, but it’s back.
How
The beauty of this tool is flexibility. You can search by region, city, date, or “anytime”. You’ll see entire calendar months of dates where there’s availability. You can search something as vague as USA (anywhere), First Class, Anytime. Or as specific as Shanghai, Business Class, September 25th. It’s awesome because you will clearly see what dates and cities are available, with no effort at all. So yeah, if you wanna just go wherever your points can take you on a certain date it’s no problem, or if you want to go somewhere specific any time, that works too.
Why
Every airline wants people using their mobile apps. It’s the future, without a doubt. But for a long time, British Airways Reward Flight Finder was “broken”. It’s great to see it return, and it’s already proven useful to countless travelers, including ourselves. Between setting free alerts for when seats open and this app, it could be argued that British Airways offers one of the most transparent systems for when and where you can use your points.
Tips
Availability comes and goes regularly for flights using Avios points. For certain routes, especially searching for multiple people, availability may not be perfect on first search. Set alerts, check back regularly and consider nearby airports. For example, Shanghai almost always has great availability, and is only a short flight from Tokyo. And if dates are crucial, consider booking into whatever cabin is available, and upgrading if better seats become available at a later date.
Do you use Reward Flight Finder to use your points?
What’s with the “Iii” after you surname? Is your family running out of first names?
Yes, they ran out about 100 years ago.
Confused…. I have been using this forever. It never went away from my app
It’s just Avios, not ‘Avios points’
There is no correct pronunciation of Avios. Some people don’t know what they are, so adding points make things simpler for all.
I have the BA app and that feature “reward flights” is nowhere to be found. It’s not available for everyone? One has to accumulate a certain amount of points for it to be activated? Just like in video games? lol.
Click the menu on the top left hand side of the app and then look for Reward Flights.
Did you sign in to your BA account? It didn’t show up before I signed in, but after I signed in it appeared.
And thanks GSTP, it’s extremely useful for finding BA award flights, or BA upgradeable flights. Like other commenters it would be even more useful if it showed partner availability, unlike them I’m not going to complain that the gift I got wasn’t perfect.
It only show BA direct flights so not useful for partners such as Cathay or JAL which if it’s truly the case makes this option useless!
Very useful if you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of people with BA 2-4-1 companion vouchers…
The same app lets you choose the regular tool which gives partner awards. It’s as clunky as ever though which is why the direct BA flights is so useful if that’s what you’re looking for.
My BA App menu is on the top right (iPhone and US-based)
and nothing shows up there so…
👍
All I get is “Sorry, Flight Finder cannot be accessed at the moment.” When will that “moment” pass??