The most popular Avios destinations in 2025

Which cities were the most desirable in 2025?

British Airways has released the equivalent of Avios Unwrapped, revealing which cities had the most Avios redemptions in 2025. The list isn’t surprising, but the league table could be very useful when you plan your next trip.

Why this data matters

This isn’t just a fun, end-of-year data dump from BA. If you’re building out your long list of dream destinations, then it could help shape what you add to that list.

It’s the age-old problem of not enough seats available to book via Avios, and the most popular destinations being popular for a reason. I’ve talked about this issue before, and the importance of looking for alternative cities. Doha instead of Dubai, or San Diego instead of San Francisco, if you want to use your points at specific times of the year, but there’s zero availability.

The US is especially interesting when it comes to swapping your first choice for your second choice. We’ve had some great trips when we chose a different location. Our last trip took us to Seattle instead of San Francisco, with a road trip added on. Many years ago, we flew into Washington, D.C. instead of New York, and hired a car to get us to New York.

Equally interesting is Asia, where if you turn a one-stop stay into a two-stop stay, it can make redemptions even easier. Last year, we flew into Shanghai, stayed for a few nights, then jumped to Singapore, as we just couldn’t get the flights into that city/country.

The league tables

The most popular long-haul destinations

Here are the long-haul airports and cities that were the most popular in 2025. There’s no surprise that New York was number one; it’s the most lucrative city pair for flights in the World. Despite it being number one for points redemptions, it’s also one of the easiest to book Avios reward flights for, given that there are up to nine BA flights every day to NYC (with some going to Newark rather than JFK).

The Middle Eastern airports feature at two and three, with Doha beating Dubai. Whether these flights are for connections onwards or to actually visit these cities is another question. We’ve been to Doha many times (last time staying at the excellent Mondrian) and are due to go again in 2026, and what I always find fascinating is how almost everyone gets off the plane and walks towards flight connections rather than the exit.

Tokyo comes in fourth, before a pair of US cities: LAX and Miami. Both are served by the A380, with the latter exclusively. That means that at some time in 2026, or perhaps 2027, the new BA First Class will be on those planes.

Finally, the list is complete with two South African cities: Johannesburg, beating Cape Town to seventh place. Chicago is in ninth, and a city that we are yet to visit (but really want to) sits in tenth. Hong Kong.

The most popular short-haul destinations

The short-haul list contains no surprises, although the positions are interesting. Two Scottish cities are among the top ten, with Edinburgh ranked first and Glasgow fifth.

Spain is in the list three times: Madrid is the second most popular choice for Avios redemptions, and Malaga sits in sixth, with Barcelona in seventh.

Nice is the only French city in the list (position three), whilst Rome is the only Italian city. Switzerland (Geneva) is surprisingly high at position four, and Amsterdam and Dublin round out the rest of the spots.